Poll: PC Gaming Future?

[Snotnarok]

Console gaming actually will probably be blended with PC gaming given that the next Xbox is going to have windows 8 on it. I'm hoping for consoles with modules that you can upgrade as time goes on (Ram, video card, wireless card, HDD etc) so consoles can be made more affordable by adding what the user wants rather than a bunch of junk that never gets used.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Console gaming actually will probably be blended with PC gaming given that the next Xbox is going to have windows 8 on it. I'm hoping for consoles with modules that you can upgrade as time goes on (Ram, video card, wireless card, HDD etc) so consoles can be made more affordable by adding what the user wants rather than a bunch of junk that never gets used.

The only thing is while that would be great in theory I don't think it would ever work in practise as if you look console hdds more specifically the xbox ones and compare their prices to others on PC they are way overpriced.

 

[Joccaren]

1. Tell me why PC gaming dieing is bad. Aside from "it won't exist and I like it" there isn't a good argument. Technology marches on, progress keeps going. Just because the abacus was the shit back int he day doesn't mean we should never ever put away and move to something new. Things change, if you don't like it, cry me a river, build me a bridge, and get over it. I'm tired of people treating the possible changing of the market like the end of humanity. The sun will set, tomorrow will come, and you'll still be here. I like PC gaming but if it goes, it goes and I move on to mobile gaming or console gaming, or sticky-note gaming, whatever is the next thing.

Because then everyone would be forced to play on inferior hardware, and some great styles of games that don't survive on other platforms would die out, and the overall quality of games could quite possible degrade further as gaming is focused more on the 'casual' audience, and more and more is sacrificed to make games casual.
You seem to be implying that the PC is the old tech, whilst consoles and mobiles are the new tech. It is the opposite. My PC is built from technology developed this year, last year, and the year before that that I bought and put together. Consoles are 6 year old tech. Mobiles run on new technology, but it is weaker than PC technology as it has to be made small enough to fit into a handheld device, and not generate a ton of heat.
Though yes, if PC gaming dies I would try to get into other gaming. I probably wouldn't be able to, I tried consoles and hated them and they are the closest to PC at the moment, but there would be alternatives. Hell, I could even get a life if it happened (/sarcasm, I'll never get a life)

2. Consoles have been around since the late 70s, they have yet to displace modern PC gaming. I'm tired of people arguing this point when by their logic PC gaming has been dieing since it began. Stop trying to portray yourself as the underdog. PC gaming isn't going to die any time soon.

Yep, people don't seem to understand that PC gaming is alive and strong, its just not the centre of attention for everyone in the world, nor every developer in the world.

3. Stop talking like an elitist. You like PCs so STFU and go play some PC games rather then bitching about how they're in danger.

Eh, I don't find there is too much wrong with being elitist, so long as you're not a snob about it. Some people would say that me saying PCs are new hardware and consoles are old as being elitist. I doubt that it is, but either way I'm not saying that consoles are shit because of that, I'm just saying PCs have better specs and are able to do more things.
But yes, everyone who makes these threads like these should be playing games instead of whining about how that game they should be playing shouldn't exist because PC gaming is dying. Far more 'productive' use of time. Now, off to my games.

 

[floobie]

I don't think PC gaming is going anywhere. I do think it's changing, though. The days of the average PC gamer owning a (ideally self-built) tower are ending, I think. PC games just aren't as demanding anymore. You can get by pretty well with a half-decent laptop these days.

I sort of see a reversal happening. Consoles have usually been more associated with casual gaming, and PC gaming with the hardcore end of things. I think that will reverse. As PC gaming becomes more accessible (in great part due to hardware being less of a big deal), I think it will increasingly become the default choice for most people. They already have computers, and the chances of their computers being good for gaming is increasing constantly. Compare that to consoles, which are still basically dedicated gaming machines... you have to be more into gaming to buy a console than you have to be to install a game on the computer you already own.

Just a guess, of course

 

[Snotnarok]

Console gaming actually will probably be blended with PC gaming given that the next Xbox is going to have windows 8 on it. I'm hoping for consoles with modules that you can upgrade as time goes on (Ram, video card, wireless card, HDD etc) so consoles can be made more affordable by adding what the user wants rather than a bunch of junk that never gets used.

The only thing is while that would be great in theory I don't think it would ever work in practise as if you look console hdds more specifically the xbox ones and compare their prices to others on PC they are way overpriced.

Yes but people still buy it and others claim that building a PC is too hard and requires upgrades every 2 weeks to play games. I hear this all the time, so even if prices were inflated, I think it'd still sell well considering.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

It will be less popular in the mainstream market, but it will remain.
Some day, consoles will become closer to pcs... with limited functionality and less bang for your buck. When that day comes, pc will rise to the forefront again.

 

[Twilight_guy]

1. Tell me why PC gaming dieing is bad. Aside from "it won't exist and I like it" there isn't a good argument. Technology marches on, progress keeps going. Just because the abacus was the shit back int he day doesn't mean we should never ever put away and move to something new. Things change, if you don't like it, cry me a river, build me a bridge, and get over it. I'm tired of people treating the possible changing of the market like the end of humanity. The sun will set, tomorrow will come, and you'll still be here. I like PC gaming but if it goes, it goes and I move on to mobile gaming or console gaming, or sticky-note gaming, whatever is the next thing.

Because then everyone would be forced to play on inferior hardware, and some great styles of games that don't survive on other platforms would die out, and the overall quality of games could quite possible degrade further as gaming is focused more on the 'casual' audience, and more and more is sacrificed to make games casual.
You seem to be implying that the PC is the old tech, whilst consoles and mobiles are the new tech. It is the opposite. My PC is built from technology developed this year, last year, and the year before that that I bought and put together. Consoles are 6 year old tech. Mobiles run on new technology, but it is weaker than PC technology as it has to be made small enough to fit into a handheld device, and not generate a ton of heat.
Though yes, if PC gaming dies I would try to get into other gaming. I probably wouldn't be able to, I tried consoles and hated them and they are the closest to PC at the moment, but there would be alternatives. Hell, I could even get a life if it happened (/sarcasm, I'll never get a life)

2. Consoles have been around since the late 70s, they have yet to displace modern PC gaming. I'm tired of people arguing this point when by their logic PC gaming has been dieing since it began. Stop trying to portray yourself as the underdog. PC gaming isn't going to die any time soon.

Yep, people don't seem to understand that PC gaming is alive and strong, its just not the centre of attention for everyone in the world, nor every developer in the world.

3. Stop talking like an elitist. You like PCs so STFU and go play some PC games rather then bitching about how they're in danger.

Eh, I don't find there is too much wrong with being elitist, so long as you're not a snob about it. Some people would say that me saying PCs are new hardware and consoles are old as being elitist. I doubt that it is, but either way I'm not saying that consoles are shit because of that, I'm just saying PCs have better specs and are able to do more things.
But yes, everyone who makes these threads like these should be playing games instead of whining about how that game they should be playing shouldn't exist because PC gaming is dying. Far more 'productive' use of time. Now, off to my games.

My knee-jerk (extra emphases on jerk (ha, ha jerk)) response as I read:
You not allow to sell your opinion as fact calling one inferior hardware is not a valid statement to make. You can compare the specs and take facts from that but I'll just retort that you can't predict the future and thus you don't know how PCs and consoles will stack up in 10 years or 5 years or 15 years or however long the OP is looking.

Prove to me that consoles apply to a casual audience. Define casual. Tell me that the 13 year old jerk on X-box live are casuals. I think you're wrong.

I'm not implying anything about the physical age of the technology so much as pointing out that the idea that consoles are killing the PC is wrong because Consoles have been around for just as long as neither has died yet thus one market cannot be slowly killing the other unless its a process so so that it takes decades in which case, judging form the current PC market, you won't have to worry about it in your lifetime.

I have an undying boiling hatred for elitists. It stems from my great displeasure at fanboys. Also, technically saying one is better is saying the other is inferior by default. If one is good then the other must be less good.

Anyways, Be sure not to conflate specs with overall quality or significance since there is more to games and systems then raw numbers.

 

[brainslurper]

PC gaming is IN NO way in danger. You can talk all you want about how processor tech is slowing, but consoles are on the verge of losing out to iPhones. The bottom line is, consoles are the only ones losing here. Tech will get smaller, but a 8 year refresh cycle is going to lose out two a 1 year refresh cycle any day, especially when in some cases faster refresh cycles on apple and some android devices are beating out console refresh cycles on generation to generation advances. It just depends on which way the market goes- with consoles at their current size being beaten by multi-function mobiles, and consoles being inferior to multi-function desktop devices. I expect the most immediate danger for PCs is that in a faltering console market, microsoft (assuming windows phone stays as non-relevant as it is now) tries to move their PC gamers to their console. I could go on about controller scheme superiority and independent development, but there is really no need to.

 

[brainslurper]

1. Tell me why PC gaming dieing is bad. Aside from "it won't exist and I like it" there isn't a good argument. Technology marches on, progress keeps going. Just because the abacus was the shit back int he day doesn't mean we should never ever put away and move to something new. Things change, if you don't like it, cry me a river, build me a bridge, and get over it. I'm tired of people treating the possible changing of the market like the end of humanity. The sun will set, tomorrow will come, and you'll still be here. I like PC gaming but if it goes, it goes and I move on to mobile gaming or console gaming, or sticky-note gaming, whatever is the next thing.

Because then everyone would be forced to play on inferior hardware, and some great styles of games that don't survive on other platforms would die out, and the overall quality of games could quite possible degrade further as gaming is focused more on the 'casual' audience, and more and more is sacrificed to make games casual.
You seem to be implying that the PC is the old tech, whilst consoles and mobiles are the new tech. It is the opposite. My PC is built from technology developed this year, last year, and the year before that that I bought and put together. Consoles are 6 year old tech. Mobiles run on new technology, but it is weaker than PC technology as it has to be made small enough to fit into a handheld device, and not generate a ton of heat.
Though yes, if PC gaming dies I would try to get into other gaming. I probably wouldn't be able to, I tried consoles and hated them and they are the closest to PC at the moment, but there would be alternatives. Hell, I could even get a life if it happened (/sarcasm, I'll never get a life)

2. Consoles have been around since the late 70s, they have yet to displace modern PC gaming. I'm tired of people arguing this point when by their logic PC gaming has been dieing since it began. Stop trying to portray yourself as the underdog. PC gaming isn't going to die any time soon.

Yep, people don't seem to understand that PC gaming is alive and strong, its just not the centre of attention for everyone in the world, nor every developer in the world.

3. Stop talking like an elitist. You like PCs so STFU and go play some PC games rather then bitching about how they're in danger.

Eh, I don't find there is too much wrong with being elitist, so long as you're not a snob about it. Some people would say that me saying PCs are new hardware and consoles are old as being elitist. I doubt that it is, but either way I'm not saying that consoles are shit because of that, I'm just saying PCs have better specs and are able to do more things.
But yes, everyone who makes these threads like these should be playing games instead of whining about how that game they should be playing shouldn't exist because PC gaming is dying. Far more 'productive' use of time. Now, off to my games.

My knee-jerk (extra emphases on jerk (ha, ha jerk)) response as I read:
You not allow to sell your opinion as fact calling one inferior hardware is not a valid statement to make. You can compare the specs and take facts from that but I'll just retort that you can't predict the future and thus you don't know how PCs and consoles will stack up in 10 years or 5 years or 15 years or however long the OP is looking.

Prove to me that consoles apply to a casual audience. Define casual. Tell me that the 13 year old jerk on X-box live are casuals. I think you're wrong.

I'm not implying anything about the physical age of the technology so much as pointing out that the idea that consoles are killing the PC is wrong because Consoles have been around for just as long as neither has died yet thus one market cannot be slowly killing the other unless its a process so so that it takes decades in which case, judging form the current PC market, you won't have to worry about it in your lifetime.

I have an undying boiling hatred for elitists. It stems from my great displeasure at fanboys. Also, technically saying one is better is saying the other is inferior by default. If one is good then the other must be less good.

Anyways, Be sure not to conflate specs with overall quality or significance since there is more to games and systems then raw numbers.

There are lots of ways to prove that PCs are superior gaming devices. Is it people saying that X users are worse then Y users that you have a problem with?

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Console gaming actually will probably be blended with PC gaming given that the next Xbox is going to have windows 8 on it. I'm hoping for consoles with modules that you can upgrade as time goes on (Ram, video card, wireless card, HDD etc) so consoles can be made more affordable by adding what the user wants rather than a bunch of junk that never gets used.

The only thing is while that would be great in theory I don't think it would ever work in practise as if you look console hdds more specifically the xbox ones and compare their prices to others on PC they are way overpriced.

Yes but people still buy it and others claim that building a PC is too hard and requires upgrades every 2 weeks to play games. I hear this all the time, so even if prices were inflated, I think it'd still sell well considering.

The only people claim this are people who haven't built a PC. There are videos of monkeys putting in Video Card and what not it isn't that hard and also no one ever says upgrades require every two weeks. That is a myth. Upgrading would be just as hard either way as you would have to open up the console/PC and change the parts.

The only difficult things are making sure you get the right RAM and putting in the Heatsink but even that isn't too bad. I mean there are whole websites and many people on this site who will help you make it.

 

[sinterklaas]

I believe consoles will merge with portable devices and PC's will continue to be a platform on their own as it is simple logic that more space means more power.

Or the other choice, consoles will merge with PC's.

In any case I believe the power of the PC will be preserved.

The only people claim this are people who haven't built a PC. There are videos of monkeys putting in Video Card and what not it isn't that hard and also no one ever says upgrades require every two weeks. That is a myth. Upgrading would be just as hard either way as you would have to open up the console/PC and change the parts.

The only difficult things are making sure you get the right RAM and putting in the Heatsink but even that isn't too bad. I mean there are whole websites and many people on this site who will help you make it.

Really, I built my computer last month and it was very easy. Had never done it before, had no idea how all the different parts looked and all it took was a video guide, the motherboard manual and six hours of time.

It worked the first time I booted it and has been working since.

 

[DragonChi]

With each new generation of Consoles, They are become less like a machine just for gaming, and more like a multi-media platform. Which is precisely what a PC is. In addition to that, Live streaming and cloud gaming is becoming more and more prominent. Like On-live and Steam.

As it stands, PC's can do all of these things at maximum potential. So what's to worry about?
Consoles have never been able to catch up to PC's so they have to evolve into something similar.
A box that lets you play games, watch movies (either through Netflix, Disc Mediums, or Downloads), TV, internet access, photo/video sharing..etc etc. Guess what...that's a computer.

Consoles, in classic format, are on their way out. It's inevitable. It's Progress.

 

[Fluffythepoo]

With the advent of console gaming to the masses it's always been a worry that PC gaming will slip into decline, not just due to the cost of the machines and the constant need to update your ATI Radeon 3234ACPE-3252 to a 3234APCE-3253 every 3 nano-seconds in order to play any decent game...

But also the requirement of at least 3 brain-cells working in unison in order to keep a PC running, without which it will undoubtably decide to download the nearest virus and burnout all of it's RAM.

With all of that said, I'm an avid PC gamer and although i do own consoles i very much lean towards the PC for all of my gaming needs. Programs such as Steam, GoG, etc... have allowed PC gamers a lot more games at lower prices than Consoles and they make the whole patching/updating and compatability issues somewhat easier.

Despite this i sometimes feel that with each passing Console generation PC gaming is slowly having its life sucked out, with the remaining husk of PC gamers being reduced to so-called 'elitists' and somewhat shunned by the vast community of console gamers as a whole.

Obviously this is a generalisation but its what i see happening, despite the promises in recent years of PC gaming having a 'Revival' or showing 'Growth'. The dire fact of the matter remains, PC's as a concept are getting old and the idea of having a singular large computer that looms in the corner of the room is starting to look as antiquated as owning a VCR.

As annoying as it seems to my Tower-loving self, i honestly think that the future in gaming lies in the evolving nature of the console and 'portable' gaming. With everything being wireless and portable computing technology becoming nearly as powerful as its stationary competitor it seems as if PC gaming has a use-by date...

A use-by date that is fast looming for poor old-fashioned sods like myself.

Console gaming is the one that is dying.

Spoiler: My sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983

Read up on it. Source? look around you. Consoles are fundamentally flawed in the idea. Sony, and the xbox are choking financially (basically they worked themselves into a corner). Look at how the generation of these consoles were lengthened due to high production costs of unleashing a new console. What does this mean? They need to adopt more PC ideas to increase longevity like selling upgrades, and other attachments. The high cost, and longer generation will spell out the death of consoles on the loss leader method of business. The death of consoles isn't by lack of players, its choking on costs. If selling consoles themselves can't make a profit they rely on games. On the developer's side however its absolute hell. Console tax, second hand market, and high development costs on top of that. If you want I can get the statistics to show the drop of the number of console games from the last generation to this one.

Here is the graph of games courtesy of Metacritic's game database.
Sixth Generation (1999-2006):
Ps2: 792 (out of 1609)
Xbox: 471 (out of 856)
Gamecube: 263 (out of 502)
Total Games: 2967.
Total games over 70%: 1526.

Seventh Generation (2005-present):
Ps3: 341 (out of 579)
Xbox 360: 479 (out of 924)
Wii: 242 (out of 649)
Total Games: 2152.
Total games over 70%: 1062.

See this graph? We are in year 6 of the console generation. The time frame for the last generation was 7 years, and yet the current generation is off by 856 games. Now you could say "higher complexity" of games, and that is the problem. You see when the Xbox and PS3 were first released they were sold at a loss, relying on console games to make up the difference. The Nintendo's wii however was the only console making a profit at that time. The reason? The Wii was cheaper to make, and has been known to be less advanced than its cousins. In short, the new tech doesn't fit into a small box like it used to. Standardization does not work anymore. The tech gets more complex, the cost becomes higher, and the profits decrease. You could say "oh but the console makes more money" but it isn't that way in the eyes of Activision, who makes 70% of their money from the PC, and portable PCs. Keep in mind this is the same "PC hating publisher" that was responsible for modern Warfare 2.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/148982/xbox_delivers_a_profit.html
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/12/01/forbes-nintendo-making-6-profit-on-every-wii-sold/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.203926-Kotick-Only-30-of-Activisions-Profits-Come-from-Consoles

Basically, the profits are being drained by many factors including manufacturing, tech level, mounting development costs, etc. Want a "source" on the mounting development costs too?

http://www.next-gen.biz/news/ubisoft-development-costs-to-double-next-gen
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.52799-News-Report-Says-Rising-Development-Costs-A-Nightmare
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9823945-7.html?tag=mncol;title
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/04/more-wii-games-from-ea-thanks-to-low-development-costs/
http://www.nowgamer.com/news/4226/thq-studio-dev-costs-biggest-industry-issue

This isn't some prediction out of hate, it?s a prediction using the data available. It?s not due to the lack of players as there are plenty, but it?s the cost that goes into the consoles that are beginning to take their toll. Consoles are not sustainable in their current business model and if continued it will mean the death of the console entirely, especially now that the PC and the casual market (much like the wii) have shown to be very profitable with less risk. You have to remember businesses don't make games as a fun hobby, they make them to make money. If another method proves more profitable and safe, then businesses will change sides without a second thought. Businesses have no "brand loyalty" to a platform, nor do they stay in one sector for long. The dynamics of the economy doesn't stay still. It?s a cycle, businesses crowd in one newly found market until it? no longer worth it and move on which causes an economic crash. Sure there will be businesses to pick up the slack due to the newfound vacancy of the market but it?s not the same as the clamoring before the economic crash.

There is nothing to fear.

half the references are based on rumors that dont have actual hard data and the damn wikipedia source was flagged for 1. not meeting wikipedia's quality standards 2. not being factually accurate 3. containing raw unverified data

like why bother doing the extra uneeded work if ur gonna half ass it anyway.. damn kids

 

[Vigormortis]

I picked the last option, but really I was looking for one that read as follows:

PC gaming will, like all other forms of media, change over time to become something new.

It's inevitable really. It'll end up being some combination of old and new technology and techniques. It may take a while, but we're already starting to see drastic changes in how we interact with our technology. It won't take long before these changes lead to even more drastic changes and then become the "norm".

 

[surg3n]

I think it depends on whether PC gamers actually support their platform. Too many PC gamers are pirating games, and there is very little incentive for them to stop doing that, at least on the surface. Steam provides exactly the same service as a Torrent downloader, there is practically no benefit in paying £30 for a game, than just downloading the torrent. Steam and it's contemporaries are doing nothing to improve matters. Console piracy is only a fraction as bad as with the PC, with the 360 and PS3 people are less inclined to pirate games. It could be said that piracy is 1/10th as bad on consoles, and PC sales is 1/10th of console sales - generally PC gamers need to step up to the plate if they want to survive... like a reduction in piracy or an increase in sales would make a big difference to developer confidence.

I don't know how many times I've said it, but Steam and similar services need to get a freakin grip. I can pay roughly the same for a console game, with instructions, disc, etc that I can then re-sell, as I do for a PC game which I download. Downloadable PC games should be dirt cheap, like at least half the price they are right now. People have to see piracy as a grubby, miserable option, and the only way to do that is to stop charging the earth for a few hours gameplay. I actually makes me angry to see games sold for £30+ on Steam, no wonder piracy is so rife, and it's Steam versions that people are distributing these days - do publishers think our support should really cost that much!, do they think tha Steam experience can really justify those prices!. Steam is great for picking up little bargains here and there, for picking up new full price games, really it's the worst option.

 

[Kingjackl]

I would argue that the future of the PC as a gaming device is in the indy games market, as opposed to the big-budget triple-A titles. Experimental indy titles play on one of the greatest strengths of PC gaming, namely easy access to digital distribution, plus the vast majority of them tend to be quite low-tech. This means they can thrive on gig's most diverse platform without fear of blocking off players who cannot afford a high-tier PC.

Think about it: look at some of the biggest PC titles: Minecraft, WOW, Plants vs Zombies, Peggle, most Valve games, EDGE, etc. The thing they have in common is that they are best played on PC because, not in spite of, their low system requirements. Many PC gamers who like to spend their lottery winnings upgrading their rig would argue that the PC's capability to be more graphically powerful than consoles is a point in its favour, but it is simply not. The great strengths of the PC:

- Mouse and keyboard interface offers a more diverse gaming experience
- Unrestricted community support (mods more easily available)
- Best online support
- Best access to digital distribution
- More viable to indie developers

The main weakness of the PC:

- Unstable and costly to maintain as a gaming platform.

Therefore, it is my belief that the ideal future for the PC would be a gaming environment which caters to the artistic and creative independant developer sphere, NOT to the vocal minority of golfing enthusiasts and neglectful husbands who want a machine they can tinker with to so they can make their pirated copies of Crysis run at a 5% faster frame-rate.

 

[Doktor Sleepless]

I clicked mobile gaming, and I'll explain why. PCs, consoles, phones, and hard-drives will soon all cease to exist as separate concepts. The next paradigm shift in storage and computing technology will see people accept a unit as small as a phone as standard, akin to the shift to the smaller laptops as standard. This one computing module will be carried around as a phone/ personal assistant while out and about, and when at home will be attached to various peripheral devices to play games or watch media on a larger screen than the one on the device. The console as we imagine it will be obsolete, but I'm fairly sure that these devices will be made by at least Microsoft, if not Sony, so they'll still exist in this updated form. I imagine that people who want more power than their device can give will be able to plug into the usual PC gaming tower. No technology ever "dies", it just becomes something else.

 

[Sigma Van Lockheart]

pc gaming is not as hard as you think also you dont need to keep upgrading that often. Also its cheaper but im not going into that now.

 

[Joccaren]

My knee-jerk (extra emphases on jerk (ha, ha jerk)) response as I read:
You not allow to sell your opinion as fact calling one inferior hardware is not a valid statement to make. You can compare the specs and take facts from that but I'll just retort that you can't predict the future and thus you don't know how PCs and consoles will stack up in 10 years or 5 years or 15 years or however long the OP is looking.

You can call one set of hardware inferior. Compare the things about it. I am not saying that the idea of consoles is inferior, only that the hardware within those consoles are. If they were on equal grounds, or the console hardware was greater than PC hardware, then anything that could be done on PC could be done on consoles. Since the opposite is true, and PCs can handle far more intensive stuff then consoles and display it at a higher quality, it comes out that console hardware is inferior.

Prove to me that consoles apply to a casual audience. Define casual. Tell me that the 13 year old jerk on X-box live are casuals. I think you're wrong.

Note that I said 'casual' not casual. The inverted commas need to be noted, as I do not mean it entirely literally. I have yet to find a good definition differentiating casual from hardcore. One of the arguments often used by console users in PC v Console wars that tends to put them in a more casual light is the 'its easier' argument, which implies they don't care about the quality of the game, only that its easy to set up and play, whilst the 'hardcore' (Note inverted commas) players care more about the quality than ease of use. And by quality I am mainly talking about graphics, but there are other things PCs can do that consoles can't (See BF3 Player limits, vehicle respawn times, map sizes, ect).

I'm not implying anything about the physical age of the technology so much as pointing out that the idea that consoles are killing the PC is wrong because Consoles have been around for just as long as neither has died yet thus one market cannot be slowly killing the other unless its a process so so that it takes decades in which case, judging form the current PC market, you won't have to worry about it in your lifetime.

Exactly. Point 2 was meant to be taken in a different light to point 1.

I have an undying boiling hatred for elitists. It stems from my great displeasure at fanboys. Also, technically saying one is better is saying the other is inferior by default. If one is good then the other must be less good.

As I've said, 'elitist' definition changes from person to person. Some would say that because you buy a new car and look back at that car made 30 years ago and say its not as good as your new car, you are elitist. Well, at least that's what the argument of 'PC hardware is better than console hardware' 'ELITIST' amounts to in all reality.
And yes, I imply that console HARDWARE is inferior by that statement, but I do not imply consoles on the whole are utter crap. There is preference and how easy each will be for you to obtain and all that sort of stuff that factors into whether consoles are crap or not, and that sort of thing changes from person to person. For me, consoles are crap because they have inferior hardware to PCs, are harder for me to obtain than PCs, I hate the controller, I would barely ever use it as someone else is always using my TV, and I'm not too interested in any of the exclusives. To someone else, they might have one PC in the whole house, have a hard time getting new PC parts or a new PC, someone always is using that PC for work, yet they have a spare TV, consoles are easy for them to obtain, and they have an interest in some of the exclusives. Different strokes for different folks really.

Anyways, Be sure not to conflate specs with overall quality or significance since there is more to games and systems then raw numbers.

Yep. It is the reason that I don't actively go around saying consoles are absolute crap and should stop being made, though I would question whether anything about a console is higher quality to a well made PC. As I said above, different strokes for different folks. Dependant on what works best for the individual, both PCs and Consoles have a place. From something that I read in one of the other posts, it sounds like console gaming is dying due to the high production cost of the consoles themselves for low return, but I'm just taking that at the same value as 'PC gaming is dying', until games for either, or platforms for either, stop getting made, I'm not going to believe it.

 

[Bostur]

Looking at the industry in it's current form, it seems like console and PC gaming will merge. Consoles are becoming more and more like PCs, and PCs are becoming more and more like consoles. I would wager 15-20 years from now, the descriptions of "PC" and "Console" will become obsolete. Or, it could be that we will play everything on our iPhone 500s. Either way, the future looks awesome.

That would be my guess as well, or at least what I hope for. The distinction between PC and console doesn't make sense from a technical point of view. The only reasons to separate them is caused by marketing and DRM.

I envision compact modular gadgets that can be plugged into a TV or monitor. With various accessories like keyboards, controllers, storage devices, network devices etc. CPU, memory and graphics chips are encapsulated into cartridges that can be easily exchanged.

Basically a merge of console and PC.

There is no technical reason why this can't happen already.