The Big Picture: PC Gaming Is Dead - Long Live PC Gaming!

Echo136

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Im having a hard time agreeing with you which is hard because I agree with most everything you say. Probably because A) Im a hardcore PC gaming fan, and B) knowing you are a hardcore Nintendo fan, you and I have a ton of bias in the matter. If I was allowed, this would probably be the one time Id be slinging a bunch of expletives at Bob, but Id rather not get a suspension.
 

PacifismFailed

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tbh the show made more of a case for why consoles are going to die. PC gaming will exist as long as we have computers(a laptop is still a computer) whilst consoles only exist as a means to provide gaming to those without powerful PCs. With the proliferation of computing mediums such as tablets and netbooks there really is no need to have a box in you're living room to play games on.
 

owbu

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Feb 14, 2011
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pc gaming is dieing for 20 years now, i guess it will still be dieing when all of us are dead :>

i agree that our children wont have some huge box under their desk, but im pretty sure they wont play starcraft 3 on their ipdad5 either
 

Assassin Xaero

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I hope you're wrong. If you are right about this, looks like my days of gaming will be going down the hole. I don't care what anyone says, console games are dumbed down. There is no modding, not as many options with online play, mostly all shooters have some sort of aim assist (auto aim, enlarged hit boxes, other assist methods, etc.), and many other things. Also, with the point motion controls (Wii), it is easier to aim than it is with analog sticks, but still fails in comparison to a mouse because it is hell of a lot more tiring.

iPods/iPads aren't that great either. Games like Plants vs Zombies where you pretty much just poke the screen are good on them, but games like Final Fantasy are a bit off with controls, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is horrible.

I'd be happy to wait a month or two after the console release of a game for developers to convert it over to proper PC controls. The thought of making us pay the same price for console games on PC when the PC has no licensing fees and we just get these piece of shit console ports is insane. Why should I have to pay more money for a shittier version of the game?

Oh, and I have no problem with consoles, I just mostly play shooters and I cannot aim for shit with analog sticks.
 

Crimson_Dragoon

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Jul 29, 2009
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There is a very big difference between a platform being dead and a platform not being as popular as it used to be. The PC is definitely the later. MMO's, RTS's, facebook games, Steam, all of these things show that PC gaming is very much alive. Yes, it is not as popular as console gaming, and probably never will be again, but that is very, very different from being dead. It would like saying Britain is dead because it's no longer the most powerful country in the world (no offense to any of the Brits out there), which would be wrong.

On a less major note, I wouldn't say point-and-click adventures have had a revival on the Wii. It's been Telltale Games that really brought it back, and they put their games on multiple platforms (though thanks to Steam I would venture a guess that they do the best on...wait for it...the PC).
 

Simalacrum

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Apr 17, 2008
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dunnace said:
Oh yeah, PC gaming is dying, definitely.

*Opens steam, plays Mafia 2, eagerly awaits Portal 2, contemplates getting Shogun 2.*

You're right, there is no need for this device anymore.

*Decides to install the Oddworld games again, laughs heartily at the latest from TellTale*

Quite simply nobody supports the platform anymore.

*Asks brother how he's getting on with Dragon, discuss their excitement for the upcoming Witcher 2*
...I do believe you completely missed the point there.

He directly said that PC games are not dead. What he's saying is that the PC as we know it (the whole home desktop computer) is becoming irrelevant with the onset of powerful mobile devices like smart phones, laptops and tablet computers.

All those games you mentioned will run perfectly fine on a laptop as well as a big chunky desktop computer...
 

Monsterfurby

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PacifismFailed said:
tbh the show made more of a case for why consoles are going to die. PC gaming will exist as long as we have computers(a laptop is still a computer) whilst consoles only exist as a means to provide gaming to those without powerful PCs. With the proliferation of computing mediums such as tablets and netbooks there really is no need to have a box in you're living room to play games on.
That's an interesting way to look at it, and honestly - you have a point there.

Also: LAPTOP PCs are Personal Computers, just like DESKTOP PCs. So if PC gaming "is dying", then your laptop will die with it as a gaming platform.
 

Voltano

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I'm attending a college online right now--on a laptop, using software designed for PCs--and honestly its just a lot faster for me to start up a game of "Titan Quest" via Steam on my machine than reaching over, unplugging my DS and waiting for "Pokemon: Black" to start up. I like both games, but I can still see "PC Gamers" enjoying the comfort of starting up even a basic solitaire game on their computer versus finding the bloody cards somewhere in their house.

Plus, wouldn't those games made for consoles have to be made by software on the PC? Even further, would the developers on those games might test those games on the PC, instead of going through the process of porting every game to the console (when they could save that for the "final" product)?

I think so long as there are good games on any machine is available, people will play that game on that machine. I never owned a Sega Genesis (SNES console owner), but I occasionally find a good game on that console, such as the "Shadowrun" RPG. Plus there are a whole slew of PC games never ported to the consoles that, while abandoned, might be found later by new players and enjoyed like new games. Why else would people spend the time to make DOSbox to work so they could play the ancient Elder Scroll games?
 

Woodsey

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JourneyThroughHell said:
The_root_of_all_evil said:
I'm not going to get angry, because the writing on the wall's been there for some time. You work on PCs, you play on consoles, so because you hate work, you have to differentiate them.
It's unfortunate that a video that clearly had some work put into it got conscended into a two-sentence piece that undermines everything it's going by accusing the author of being a biased person who doesn't even realize he's biased.

Yes, you're right, the title is clear and noticeable flamebait. The video, on the other hand, is not.
Instead, the video is just selective on the information it uses (Zynga game sales are up, totally ignores that PC game sales rose last year, or the continued rise of Steam) and focuses on logic that can, at best, be described as peculiar ("heh, that central PC hub is useless, because now I have 300 other things that hold some - but certainly not all - of the functionality of a PC, so now the PC is losing its worth." Huh?).
 

Who Dares Wins

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I haven't understood clearly what you meant: PC Gaming is dead? What? Why would it be dead, as mentioned in the video, games were a secondary feature on them: and they are still better than the primary features of consoles. And not only that, everything consoles can do, the PC does better and then all the OTHER features that consoles don't have that are exclusive to the PC.

If anything is to be superior to the PC, it will mimic it. Also, because it doesn't have as many exclusive games as consoles do, it's automatically dead? I know that I still enjoy excellent games and in graphics and controls superior to the consoles.

You may flame me, but please, PLEASE provide authentic arguments and facts. I'm not saying console gaming is shit, it's not good, it's AWESOME, but the PC is better (in some ways) and also inferior (in some ways).
 

Kratenser

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Sep 18, 2010
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Oh god someone pass me the anti flame shield..

I think that Bob was bias'd here, so that may have caused this episode. PC games have gone in and out of fashion periodically, look back across the years. Also, he didnt cover the complete spectrum of PC usage, there are hundreds of things which are do-able on a computer which wouldn't handle well on an xbox. E.g. Photoshop.

I can understand where he's coming from but, i still think he's wrong.

Oh and on a side note, isn't it funny how he reckons that consoles are the future, even though all the software for consoles is created on a PC? :)
 

snakeakaossi

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Mar 18, 2010
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@Bob: great movie as always.

@haters: Don't worry, you'll first loose interest in your PC before in order for PC gaming to really die. By that time you won't care.

And then some brain teaser: With this revolution you are predicting, is it possible that the shear number of OSes and different platforms might bring the same kind of video game crash as in the 80's? If so, might Microsoft have a 50% chance of surviving that crash?
 

ZippyDSMlee

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PC gameing is not dead, B to AAA support is dead but from a wider prescriptive there are plenty of indie and web games for it.

As the game industry moves to more casual play even the B-AAA titles will be more like C titles (which is now more or less) since qaulity is replaced unintuitive streamlining or worse yet a film filled with QTE......

Anyway is PC gaming as we knew it dead, yes. Is gaming on the PC dead, no.
 

Swaki

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oh god, i hope/think you're very wrong, i would hate to have to use my thumbs for anything related to work and gaming again, for me that is a thing of the past, back in the primitive days of pencils, cellphones and gameboys the size of my head (that then gave me a seizure), i use my pc and laptop for all of those tasks, and i think that the advantage it has over having to own 50 different appliances, so far i have owned all of the current gen consoles, i gave away my Wii because in 2 years all it had done was playing 20 year old games and collecting dust, i gave away by xbox because i couldn't even be bothered to take it out of the packaging and my playstation is just a pretty bluray player, i do realize that the pc will be replaced in my life time but i hope its by something that can do the same, with a very similar control scheme and just as cheap.

Oh and btw, in a dream world where you can install whatever you want on your 360 why would you choose IE and Office over anything else and indesign?
 

esperandote

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PC's are here and they'll stay for a long time, the only reason i see pc games decreasing is because of piracy and that wasn't even mentioned.
 

SFR

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I'm sorry, but I don't think I can take anyone who says ",and etc." seriously (common dude, you're suppose to be an intelligent voice of opinion and you made that mistake???).

Anyway, PC Gaming isn't dead... that's pretty much been a well known fact around this and many other forums for a while now. Hell, the only games I've gotten so far this year have been on the PC. You can switch over to your tablets and your laptops, Mr. Bob, but I'm sticking with my big hunk-a machinery. Wanna know why? When I need to upgrade, it only costs $150 or less instead of $600-1200.

I love my 360 and even my Wii when I actually buy the games I should be getting for it :p, but I still use my PC a lot more than both. You mention these consoles being a lot like PCs, and they are, but one of the only things they do that PC can is access the internet. This is a big thing, but I can't make music, games, use Photoshop, work on most homework, or anything with a console or tablet.

Oh yeah, and those pointer controllers are fine and a step up for the most part from dual analogue but they still come no where near the twitch aiming a keyboard and mouse allows. Precision has been heightened; speed has not.
 

Woodsey

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ZombieGenesis said:
Woodsey said:
...

That's why PC sales are up then. Why Steam continues to gain more users and money. Why motion controls are being put on the PC anyway (of course, plenty of the "hardcore" console gamers also moan to death about motion controls - and whilst Kinect has sold massively well, I'm pretty sure actual game sales for it are fairly pitiful). Not that motion controls are as accurate as a mouse and keyboard anyway. The whole Facebook thing is a DIFFERENT MARKET.

This video is a little bizarre. You're right, why would you keep all those things at a hub in your house, when you could buy 300 different appliances that all only do a few functions of it? Oh, wait...

And last time I checked, I'm pretty sure laptops were counted as PCs.

Oh, and if you installed IE and Office on a 360, you would have a basic PC. You're not rendering your old one useless, you're just building a slightly more limited one.
You touched on something I think really needs to be stressed in this kind of debate.

PC's are at the highest point they have ever been in history. More people own them now than ever have, they perform more functions now than have ever been done, and thanks to Steam the pc gaming market is actually the largest it's been since... forever as far as I know.
So to say that the computer is dead is pretty flawed. More reasonable to say that other appliances are becoming advanced enough to perform cerain PC functions- like web and email on phones for example.

Consoles though are a pretty bad contender for this. Sure, you can hook up a keyboard to a console, and IF the software (ie. Microsoft Word) ever became available you'd certainly be able to use it.
But... where would you keep the keyboard? On your lap? Awkward and uncomfortable, so a table would be a better idea. What about the screen? If you're sitting on a sofa and your television is across from you, you're not even going to be able to read what you're typing properly. You'd need to be close enough to the screen to practically use a word processing software. Congradulations, you're sitting at a computer.

Lastly, Laptops. When I say "PCs are at their peak" I mostly refer to laptops, because as we all know, masses of people own these. Your mum now likely owns one. Hell even my grandparents have one now, that wouldn't have happened a decade ago.

There are just some things that can't be argued against- and the fact that laptops and PCs have never been stronger is one of them. Now, PC GAMING, that's a different matter as attention has most definately switched over to consoles. But the PC as a machine? Laptops as a feature of every day life? That's not going anywhere.

Just something to think about.
Like I said, PC game sales rose last year, and Steam membership continues too as well. You touched on a good point too - just because other areas are rising in popularity doesn't mean PCs are suddenly disappearing.

If anything, the other devices are supplements, not replacements.
 

Echo136

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Mittens The Kitten said:
Does anyone else think that the term PC should also refer to laptops? They are functionally identical in every way except that a desktop doesn't have an attached monitor or an internal battery.
Except with PCs you can unscrew the case and replace parts, upgrading anything you want. Ive upgraded my computer twice already. You cant replace or upgrade anything on a laptop. The functionality is where the similarities end.