The PC is dying the end of an era

{White_Knight} · 09-29-2005, 08:59 PM

My dear friends I firmly believe that we are in the twilight years of gaming on the PC. It is staggering to believe and yet if we look around ourselves the PC as the default platform of choice for gaming is no longer the case. The inevitiable tide of console hardware is slowly opening into a flood of new gaming oppertunity aim directly at the masses. In the UK the popularity of the PSP has massively outstripped supply with many stores unable to provide retail units until early Febuary next year. As the X-Box 360 looms large on the gaming horizon it spells yet another nail in the coffin of PC gaming.

A few years ago the PC was dominant in nearly every area of gaming, with the exception of plaform games. But how times have changed the falling price of consoles and the gains they have made in terms of raw power and performance has revolutionised the gaming industry. Even the mighty titans of the industry such as ID have been stated as announcing that they are looking more to the console platform (due to the ever persistant problems with piracy) than the PC. AAA titles such as Far Cry Instincts, Half Life 2, Halo 2, Call of Duty 2 too name but a few are all being ported with some developed towards console technology. Many of these titles were once under the proud sole ownership of PC enthusiasts but no more.

The lucrative and wide appeal of the console sector with the large customer base of casual players can only speed the demise of the humble gaming PC. Cheap console prices and piracy have been set to task undermining the value of releasing a product soley for the PC alone. There is a great shift in the direction and style of gaming that brings us closer and closer to the end of the biege box.

Am I sad? Heavens no. The inclusion of more gamers whether casual or not can only help to reinforce the value of gaming as a legitimate recreational pursuit. The PC will re-invent itself towards massively multiplayer gaming or return to its primary function for correspondance and email. So for those people looking to but the next £350 graphics card, I would argue not to bother, there may not be any new PC games to use it with...

Gazz · 09-29-2005, 10:20 PM

Here we go again. This subject just keeps coming up again every 4-5 months or so.

Yes, pcgaming as we know it today is probably dying and that is a shame. Piracy is the number one reason for developers to stop developing games for pc and who can blame them. There is no point in developing multimillion dollar games if a huge part of the potential customers just gets them as warez.

Consoles are getting much stronger and they are much easier to handle than my computer that crashes from time to time. Not the mention the upgrades required to run games at an acceptable framerate. Sure consumers are gonna get the easiest and also least expensive way of gaming, who can blame them.

This kinda topic sure does bring back memories, the good ol' days of me and Anthony Brock (aka Requiem99) bashing each others brains in. Ah, the sweet memories

interman · 09-29-2005, 10:27 PM

Write less, play more FEAR

Akherousin · 09-29-2005, 10:34 PM

I'd say PC gaming will always be top-notch and far beyond consoles.
As long as ATi and nVidia compete with each other, there will be games
published, and I think it's safe to say that we will see better looking
games on the pc than on consoles before the PS3 is released.
Sure, the mainstream gaming is on consoles, but pretty much every
one know that the pros play on the PC. As long as there's money to make
of PC Games, there will be games (think E-Sports, never gonna happen on
a console, no matter how "advanced" it is).
Believe it or not, but we're gonna play PC Games in ten years.

{White_Knight} · 09-30-2005, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Akherousin@Sep 29 2005, 09:34 PM
Sure, the mainstream gaming is on consoles, but pretty much every
one know that the pros play on the PC. As long as there's money to make
of PC Games, there will be games (think E-Sports, never gonna happen on
a console, no matter how "advanced" it is).
Believe it or not, but we're gonna play PC Games in ten years.

That is the point of my post. PC gaming is become less and less mainstream. Companies and the big players in the industry no longer view the cost of developing a game purely for the PC as a viable investment. The effect being that either

a) PC games will become less and less frequent

B) PC games will become dumbed down ports of popular console titles

It will be interesting to watch the Industry change with the release of the 360 and the PS3. You argue that as long as there money to be made from PC games they will continue to be made. However its clear that money is mostly lost on PC titles dues to piracy. This has the effect of only the biggest publishers or investors being able to shoulder the inevitable loss on developing a PC game. Consoles are becoming more and more advanced every year and you should not underestimate their potential. It is very likely that in the future the hardware found in a console will be almost identical in terms of perfomance and power to that found in your PC no matter how much money you spend on it. I am sure that the "Hardcore" of the gaming community will still be playing PC Games in 10 years time but I think the titles released will become less and less.

09-30-2005, 12:40 PM

Consoles are for kids guys..plain and simple....the PC platform is for the big boys who can afford powerful rigs and know what good games look like....I may buy an xbox360 but it don't mean I'll stop putting money into my pc, cause they won't stop making games, and it's not a dying platform... :dennis:

Hitman47 · 09-30-2005, 08:47 PM

As long as we have PC games ill save a bunch of money :P . It might die but i dont think so. Its just anoying upgrading and stuff which costs a lot of money.

Xpendable · 09-30-2005, 09:12 PM

@ White Knight-fella

: BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT WRONG !!!!

twistedbran · 10-01-2005, 04:20 PM

The way i am looking at it and i think its a good point... if piracy is an issue.. when pc games die... people will still pirate ... and if they want to pirate the games.. the "mainstream" piraters will do it more on the consoles... thats just my opinion.. i dont like consoles really... but as long as there pc's ill buy and upgrade and buy video games only on pc....

Kacperski · 10-01-2005, 05:38 PM

Quote:

But how times have changed the falling price of consoles and the gains they have made in terms of raw power and performance has revolutionised the gaming industry

Though not taking much space you seem to really think it's one of the major factors of PC's dying in the coming years...WRONG!! Already games from the x360 are being announced for PC. The argue which one of the new next-gens will be more powerfull is not over yet so...even if the ps3 will be the stronger one it will take time for developers to get that out, enough time for PC's to overcome them.

Quote:

The inevitiable tide of console hardware is slowly opening into a flood of new gaming oppertunity aim directly at the masses.

Mainstream=good...WRONG AGAIN!! Look at music industry, is everything mainstream good? I have a similar feeling about console games, apart from few marvels (burnout 3 :thumbup: ), I have a feeling we're being flooded with more and more mindless crap for kiddies with max 1-2 years of gaming.
Did you ever see someone criticizie a console game in a review for "treating the gamer as mentally nadicapped"?
If there is one thing keeping the console from destroying PC gaming it's exactly what is their power, easy and not so demanding fun for the casual gamer.