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

DugMachine

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While you make some valid points I think the #1 reason that PC gaming is dying is that it's too damn expensive. Hear me out. Yeah sure you don't need top of the line rigs that cost $10000 to play PC games but if you want the best graphic capabilities and so on you do. While of course you can still get great graphics at half that price you're basically going to console graphics.

Console's don't push the limit of their graphical capabilities and why? Cause that stuff is hella expensive. So they make consoles with appealing graphics and everybody is happy but they don't push it to the max. Even then thats still cheaper than buying $200-300 video cards and other devices for a PC just to get it to run at a nice 60 fps. I don't know, probably doesn't make sense to some of you older PC gamers but thats just my 2 cents.
 

JourneyThroughHell

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Woodsey said:
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?).

I'm not saying its perfect, correct, infallible, other words.

I'm saying the arguments should be judged on their own merits and that your only argument should probably not be a thinly-veiled ad hominem and only that.
 

Weresquirrel

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To me, the big draw for PC gaming over console gaming is the modding communities you get. I bought Fallout 3 for the 360 first, and later for the PC, and apart from the improved controls (Having a mouse is still better than an analogue stick/motion control if'n you ask me), the biggest increase I got was in the mods. I could download new homebrewed quests, weapons, armour sets and bug fixes that the developer couldn't be bothered to rectify. I could download rebalancing mods for Oblivion to make archery a more plausible choice of career. I could download hairstyles for Neverwinter Nights that didn't look like they'd been chiselled out of a lump of wood.

There is DLC on Live, true, but that costs money and doesn't come out frequently enough, and has the issue of being lumped with extraneous stuff. I could download extra costumes for Cammy on Street Fighter if I wanted, but it's nearly £5 for 1 set of costumes for 5 characters, 4 of which I don't use. Also it suffers from the problem of needing to be marketable. The content won't be made unless there is a known demographic for it.

Perhaps in the future I may be able to download tailor made mods free of charge on the Xbox. But until that day, I'll stick with the PC.

I don't resent console gaming like many, but to me, the PC is my console of choice. As you said, PC games are still being made.
 

Creepybard

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Jan 3, 2010
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Anyway, I agree the guy who said that bob just redefined a bunch of words. You can't say 'PC gaming is 'dead' because the PC is 'dead' and then list 6 different things that people are just turning into PCs. Laptops are still PCs, I can't think of anyone who uses or any reason to use a tablet, Handhelds don't even exist anymore because of Iphones, and consoles are just crappy computers that don't even have a way to play a large portion of the genres that are still out there. So yes, if you ignore that laptops are PCs, exaggerate the use of tablets, assume people still use handhelds, collapse iphones into handhelds and assume people use them for more things than texting and youtube, and attach a mouse and keyboard on to a console and then add internet explorer and office to change them from a good console to a crappy computer, then yes, when you skew your view of the world like that, PCs are dying. But if you actually look at whats going on, PCs aren't dying, everything else is just becoming a crappy PC, and consumers are stupid enough to buy them and not just buy a PC.
 

MisterLillie

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I'd like to see Starcraft on a tablet style device. I think the touch interface would work really well.
 

Delusibeta

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Mar 7, 2010
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Eeeh...

In Bob's predicted future, I can see console gaming dying out before PC gaming, largely for the same reason that Linux exists, or something like this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzoENhGRB9E] happens: some people want full control and want to fiddle with their games so that it's just the way they like it.
Also, what would the servers for the cloud service run on? Most likely... Linux.

Just something to think about.
 

ShakyFiend

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Void(null) said:
I not gonna claim to have read that list exhaustively but apart from the MMO's (and it looks like mmo's are becoming multi-platform reasonably soon anyway) arnt most of the PC exclusives on that list very obscure/shit?
 

JochemDude

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Nov 23, 2010
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I have nothing against Console Gaming, like he said they 'could' be a great alternative. but I do dislike their marketing, their consumer support, their profit only view of gaming. Look at minecraft, a game like that would never see the life if PC wasn't around. The only innovative game of the last few years would be Little Big Planet and that bothers me. I don't want gaming to develop like for example CoD they release so much and rarely patch nor support their games, so busy with making a sales record breaking sequel that they run the same engine for years over lots of games. I want to be treated as a part of a community not a consumer.
 

Ralen-Sharr

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While I will agree that consoles are hardware wise - PC's with set hardware and a limited operating systems, I would have to say that calling a laptop that runs a PC OS and uses recognized PC hardware (albeit a compact version) NOT a PC is folly. Buying hardware for the two leaves you to specify Desktop PC or Laptop PC.

PC's have evolved forms many times, and will continue to do so. I honestly believe that's what's at the core of PC's and PC gaming. Consoles have evolved ever closer to becoming PC's, much to their benefit. Even a lot of console peripherals work on PC's.

The question I would ask, is that the day that your XboX console has the same hardware, peripherals, and even the same software as a PC, is it still a console?
 

ironlordthemad

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I'm going to rage at this episode, but for a different reason than most of my rages at Bob.
I'm going to rage at this episode because I've been saying this for years and only now will some people even consider it as an arguement for PC gaming being dead... or at least dying.
 

Delusibeta

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ShakyFiend said:
Void(null) said:
I not gonna claim to have read that list exhaustively but apart from the MMO's (and it looks like mmo's are becoming multi-platform reasonably soon anyway) arnt most of the PC exclusives on that list very obscure/shit?
Disagree. I'd say at the very least a third of that list is at least an A rated game.
 

ZombieGenesis

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Ralen-Sharr said:
While I will agree that consoles are hardware wise - PC's with set hardware and a limited operating systems, I would have to say that calling a laptop that runs a PC OS and uses recognized PC hardware (albeit a compact version) NOT a PC is folly. Buying hardware for the two leaves you to specify Desktop PC or Laptop PC.

PC's have evolved forms many times, and will continue to do so. I honestly believe that's what's at the core of PC's and PC gaming. Consoles have evolved ever closer to becoming PC's, much to their benefit. Even a lot of console peripherals work on PC's.

The question I would ask, is that the day that your XboX console has the same hardware, peripherals, and even the same software as a PC, is it still a console?
You struck a very interesting nail with a very insightful hammer.
I can see such devices reaching a singularity. More than likely that consoles will be the ones to move though, since PCs aren't simply for gaming. Gaming is just one of their functions, and as we've seen consoles have been adopting more and more multi-media functions.
Perhaps someday they WILL just be packaged computers- I can tell you now the only reason the PS3 can't be classed as having identical PC hardware is because of that 'cell' thing they developed.
 

Falseprophet

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It's been coming for a while. I understand in some parts of the Third World, students type their essays on their smartphones because a dedicated PC is just too expensive for them.

Echo136 said:
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.
Exactly. How often can you upgrade the graphics card on a laptop? The card in my laptop just died after 4+ years of loyal service, and since it's motherboard-mounted I think replacing it is an expensive and probably futile proposition.

What I'm hoping is that the PC becomes the springboard for a new "middle-tier" games aimed at PCs, tablets, smartphones, and the AppStore/XBLA/PSN/Steam-style distribution platforms. Not as big as AAA titles that have to cater to the largest possible market just to break even, and not as limited as the one-person indie title, but something in the middle that can appeal to niche audiences and still make a profit for the publisher. Then we might see the revival of once-popular genres like stat-based RPGs, space combat sims, and point-and-click adventure games.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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You mention that you can do all of the tasks a PC can on things like tablets, phones, consoles, ect. But to do all that, you need all those things, to keep track of them all, and it would just be a nightmare. While with a PC, you can do all of that, in one place. So... yeah.
 

Dansrage

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Dissapointed in you Bob.
I'm playing Sins of a Solar Empire on one screen, watching this video on another, and browsing an imageboard on the third.
I love me some Halo, but there is no WAY you can multitask like this on any other machine of any kind on the entire planet. Can you watch a movie while you play a game on a PS3? No. Can you browse the internet while playing EVE Online on an iPad? Of course not.
Then there is the raw power capability of a PC, which no other medium can match.
Do they use a Wii to run the Large Hadron Collider? Of course not.
Sure i'm playing right into your hands with this, but you don't know what you're talking about. I always sense a touch of bias with you, Bob.

I do however, agree that PC gaming is dying, but not for any of the reasons you stated.
The reason it is on it's last legs is because games are now being made for consoles and ported to the PC, rather than being designed to make the most of the PC's hardware, devs get more sales on consoles because they are cheaper, easier to use and have a longer life than a PC, so they market for consoles and the PC gets left in the dust.
That leaves you with games designed for 6-year old tech on your top of the line gaming PC.
This does not make the PC obsolete, this does not make an Xbox more powerfull than a Pc as you seem to imply, it just means the market has shifted in favour of the mass-produced consoles.
 

Void(null)

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ShakyFiend said:
Void(null) said:
I not gonna claim to have read that list exhaustively but apart from the MMO's (and it looks like mmo's are becoming multi-platform reasonably soon anyway) arnt most of the PC exclusives on that list very obscure/shit?
Just taking from the first 20 games in Strategy on that list we have:

Total War: Shogun 2
Defense of the Ancients 2
Might and Magic 6
Age of Empires 2
King Arthur II
Sword of the Stars 2
The Sims Medieval
A Game of Thrones: Genesis
Pirates of the Black Cove
Stronghold 3

Obscure and shit? Perhaps if the only games you have played for the past decade have been Halo and Call of Duty clones.
 
Feb 19, 2010
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wow, i just CANT agree with bob here, i mean, yeah, most consoles are like PCs with shitty OS's
but, a PC can be so much more! a good point here is overclocking. can you overclock a console?
nope, unless you gutted the console killing its warrenty, modifying that part so it'tl work on a pc, overclocking it, de-modifying it, and realising IT DOSNT BLOODY WORK. sorry bob, I need and love my PC for gaming. consoles can go fuck off & suck a dick in my world