Is PC Gaming Dying?

PogMoThoin

Well, are they? It’s a topic which has been discussed a lot during the first half of 2009 and depending on who you ask and when you’ll get a series of different answers – and I’ve definitely been guilty of trying to persuade others one way or the other, which is due to more than just my argumentative nature. It’s a complex issue.

It’s probably an over-inflated issue too because, interpreted in the widest possible way, the answer to ‘Are PC Games Dying Out?’ is simple.

No, they aren’t. PC games have never been bigger – there are regular releases, several big exclusives every year, a glut of exciting new developers rising out of the indie scene like zombies from graves and there is, of course, the mammoth MMO genre. Specifically, there is World of WarCraft (and a few more notable cousins too, such as EVE). WoW is the trump card that gets pulled out by anyone who chooses to support the PC as a platform - but this single game isn't enough to keep the platform afloat, and indeed, its success may be one of PC gaming's problems.

A look at the weekly top 10 sales charts for PC games, stocked with the Sims, WoW and CoD4 is enough to tell you that there are issues - for big publishers at least - with the direction PC gaming is going in. We've decided to take a look at the state of PC gaming and see if the complaints are justified, if we'll ever see another game like Crysis, and if the current model of big publishers and multi-million dollar development budgets is sustainable when it comes to PC gaming.

Full article here on bit-tech, worth the read:

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2009/09/01/is-pc-gaming-dying/1

Azza

Oh lord not that chestnut again, most of been a slow day over at bit-tech. This has been done to death over and over and all the articles conclude the same way.

I reckon the slew of articles entitled "Is PC Gaming Drying" is the only reason why that myth still exists.

Overheal

Specbusting games? In decline? During a recession?

Noooooo.....(!)

Honestly though Pog, you worry too much. PC Games are going fricken NOWHERE.

Greenley: "Where you goin'? Nowhere!"


How did games start again? Oh yeah:



And it played



But now we have



and it plays



And PCs can plenty use Joypads. Theyve been doing that almost as long as consoles. Jazz Jackrabbit anyone? Gravis Gamepad? Just me? Hmm.

As for performance yeah well surprise. Like I said, besides a few (like j00) and Terror Firmer, who keep upgrading to stay ahead of the curve (for frankly retarded sums of money) the vast majority of us are still hanging on to our 2GB and lackluster GPUs. There is just not a market for a new benchmarker. Yet.

I mean what was the big benchmarker before that? FEAR? old granny POS. 2 years later we had Crytek 2. Lo and behold though it still looks great. Are we due for a new one? Sure we might be if that whole recession didnt happen and blow us all back to the 90s. Give it a while. We'll have another. But frankly, Crysis sucked. And I never even played FEAR.

But look at the hardware stats. We didnt have this much data a few years ago. Companies are factoring in these figures now. They dont want to spend an AAA budget building a new engine that will be appreciated by 1/4 of the potential market and unplayable by 1/2 of it. By the time that 1/2 of the market upgrades the sell price of the game has been halved anyway - they want launch price for the most potential buyers.

I just dont see the argument. Its not stopping new games from showing up and they look plenty good despite not having the latest scientific algorithm for showing water - whoop dee ****ing do. I even noticed Empire at War has better explosions than Sins and it came out years earlier. How New the game is isnt that much of a measure. Dragons Lair. Hellloooo?

The only thing in decline here is the Single Player Ethos that PCs are chained to. The gaming culture is moving towards games as a social thing. And outside of a LAN party its hard to feel very sociable being Sir Ivanchuck of Azeroth. PCs have been stigmatized by World of Warcrack and other such antisocial gags. Its seen as unhealthy for some reason...

Kiith

I'll say the exact same thing i said the last time this was discussed.

Kiith the last time this was discussed wrote:

No

CutzEr

OP should be permab&.

thebman

The only problem with Pc gaming is dodgy console ports :-/

Overheal

CutzEr wrote: »

OP should be permab&.

why

Stephen

Retail sales charts = bollocks. Digital distribution is where its at.

nVid

Question isn't even relevant, asking "Is VHS Dying" is more apparent, noticeable and relevant.

PogMoThoin

Ok, who even read the fcukin article? :eek:

If You did You would have seen the to the answer to the question is that pc gaming is not dying, but evolving. You've all failed

Intel, AMD, Nvidia, ATI – on the hardware side there are just too many people making too much money from gamers to give up on PC gaming just yet

It’s worth pointing out that this also possibly makes the PC the cheapest platform to develop for too. There are few licensing fees or dev-kits to take into account and there are plenty of companies who’ll be happy to help you out with the more costly parts of the business, like Nvidia does through the The Way It’s Meant To Be Played program.

Read teh fcukin article folks before Ye come on here

CutzEr wrote: »

OP should be permab&.

eh?

Stev_o

You gotta admit though it's been a pretty slow Summer, the next 3 months though should make up for this slow period.

Sabre0001

PC Gaming is not dying. To look at charts alone is a dangerous game - if you were to do so then all music genres bar Pop are screwed! Those games are big sellers because they appeal to a large group of people...and most importantly, appeal to those who will not pirate the game. I fail to see why CoD4 being a big seller is a worry though :S

Many will prefer the PC system for FPS games because K&M is the more natural way to play such a game nowadays. Some games will be better on PC, others better on consoles. If competitive gaming was to take off, the PC is the better equipped platform as it allows for modification, multi-functions (streams, shoutcast, host games, etc) and you can use different controllers on it.

Some great games to come for the PC in the near future so I don't see PC gaming dying out. It's in a transition phase; not supported in shops but bigger online and through digital distribution.

In short; I the PC (just wish mine wasn't so finicky at times!)

Jazzy

it clearly is.
i dont know what im doing

TheHairyFairy

No its not dying, but there are certain companies who seem to be doing their level best to murder it.

One of the beauties of gaming on PC, especially for multiplayer gaming are MODS. They can take tired games out for a while and make them fresh and fun again, something I doubt you will ever see on a console.

Developers are now playing the console tune and forgetting about PCs all the time, PC games are slipping all the time with curent rumour being that MW2 will slip to 2010 as well.

Outkast_IRE

Pc gaming is not dying , its going from strength to strength ,
Its the most adaptive platform, new ideas can easily be tested indie games etc,
Digital distribution is simple on pcs developers love this it is the future .
As long as games arent developed only for high end pcs they stand a great shot at being succesfull .
Example Crysis as far as im concerned its a ok game i cant complete it due to bug they never fixed, company claimed they would of sold more except for piracy!!!! No it wouldnt you aimed it at high end gamers , everyone with an ok pc wouldnt of got a great game from it.
On the other hand sins of a solar empire no piracy protection great game innovative great support will play solid on most pcs sold huge amounts a lot of that online ......

Overheal

Despite Zero DRM, Sins sold (At least, the figure has probably doubled by now) 500 thousand (I said thousand this time!) copies. And tbh I dont play it for the multiplayer at all. I just kinda like having it in a Digital Locker, similar to Steam. Torrents are useful but often finnicky. Depending on whos in a good mood you might have no or few seeders and it could take ages.

Oh yeah - that and Stardock gave me a freebie for half-bakedly ratting on a Turkish website selling knockoff copies. Good ol' Stardy.

EA just has the wrong ethos altogether. They charge high, target it at Highh Budget Builders, and expects to turn a profit. Like I said in the above post - thats a terrible idea. The sweet spot is $40 with fair levels of backward compatibility with older hardware. In the above example, Crysis makes $60 from 25% of the market, Sins makes $40 from 75% of the market (market by Hardware, and people willing to buy). Do the math. And the DRM thing. Oh the DRM thing. EA is basically trying to kill PC gaming - yes, you can make that argument. PC Games are painful enough to get running without the developer purposefully working against you.

mink_man

yes!

Overheal

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Ok, who even read the fcukin article? :eek:

If You did You would have seen the to the answer to the question is that pc gaming is not dying, but evolving. You've all failed



Read teh fcukin article folks before Ye come on here




eh?

Well who broke Standard Forum Common Sense by not properly offering synopsis to a link or article. That kinda **** will get you banned in Politics.

Outkast_IRE

Overheal wrote: »

Despite Zero DRM, Sins sold (At least, the figure has probably doubled by now) 500 thousand (I said thousand this time!) copies. And tbh I dont play it for the multiplayer at all. I just kinda like having it in a Digital Locker, similar to Steam. Torrents are useful but often finnicky. Depending on whos in a good mood you might have no or few seeders and it could take ages.

Oh yeah - that and Stardock gave me a freebie for half-bakedly ratting on a Turkish website selling knockoff copies. Good ol' Stardy.

EA just has the wrong ethos altogether. They charge high, target it at Highh Budget Builders, and expects to turn a profit. Like I said in the above post - thats a terrible idea. The sweet spot is $40 with fair levels of backward compatibility with older hardware. In the above example, Crysis makes $60 from 25% of the market, Sins makes $40 from 75% of the market (market by Hardware, and people willing to buy). Do the math. And the DRM thing. Oh the DRM thing. EA is basically trying to kill PC gaming - yes, you can make that argument.

Couldnt of said it better myself, another great example is STEAM i know some people hate it but what nobody can take from it is this
1. It accurately charts its users hardware , so they can develop future games to reach the maximum amount of people.
2. It provides an good base for indie developers to get their games out there. i would never of got plants vs zombies or peggle otherwise.

Overheal

For the european market though it went a bit **** there.

PogMoThoin

Overheal wrote: »

Well who broke Standard Forum Common Sense by not properly offering synopsis to a link or article. That kinda **** will get you banned in Politics.

C'mon, I linked to an article, quoted a paragraph, said it was worth the read. I didn't comment on it, I expected people read it, then to comment on the content of the article............................Then I get told I'm wrong and even told I should be permabanned, wtf?

Maximilian

OMFG VOTE NO TO LISBON.

Overheal

Maximilian wrote: »

OMFG VOTE NO TO LISBON.

Exactly.

Overheal

Ooh actually. This makes me wanna upgrade. Not that I can afford to. But still.

Red Faction PCs rating is apparently superb and runs magnificently. And is also a steal at $40 (plus $1500 for a new machine to blow the panties off it)

http://kotaku.com/5349813/red-faction-guerrilla-pc-preview-pc-gamers-get-best-version-if-their-rigs-can-handle-it

MooseJam

There's a market there once theres a market it will be filled sure everyone and their dog have pc's now if pc games stopped being made it would be the largest untapped market in the world - untapped markets don't stay that way for long.

dreamers75

Overheal wrote: »

Ooh actually. This makes me wanna upgrade. Not that I can afford to. But still.

Red Faction PCs rating is apparently superb and runs magnificently. And is also a steal at $40 (plus $1500 for a new machine to blow the panties off it)

http://kotaku.com/5349813/red-faction-guerrilla-pc-preview-pc-gamers-get-best-version-if-their-rigs-can-handle-it

Noone bought the far superior Saints Row 2 on pc why would they buy this?


PC gaming is dying "communites" no longer generate income, so devs have moved onto console games as they make money. PC gaming isnt the pinnacle of gaming anymore.

I have a decent PC playing the latest games on PC online, why is noone else? All i see if empty servers atm Arma 2 is my prefered game of choice.

Easily one of the of the best PC games ever made, yet noone is playing it ? is it because they cant run it? or is cos noone gives a **** as its no EA or Valve?

PC gaming is dying, and has been for a long time. Consoles sell more "legal" games regardless of whether they good or bad.

Azza

dreamers75 wrote:

Noone bought the far superior Saints Row 2 on pc why would they buy this?

The game got good but not outstanding reviews, however the PC port was considered very poor from a technical perspective and the reviews reflected that and the game was released months after the console version, so fans of the series (which started on console exclusively) would of already picked it up on console. Being released months late it also did not get the benefit of the advertising campaign that the console versions got. The PC market is of course smaller than console. Add all those factors up and you get your reason why it did not sell well.

dreamers75 wrote:

PC gaming is dying "communites" no longer generate income, so devs have moved onto console games as they make money. PC gaming isnt the pinnacle of gaming anymore

Yeah look at the MMO community its doing so bad right?. Outside the MMO section, casual games are thriving. RTS and the small Sim genre remain largely PC exclusive, due to unnecessary hardware limitations on consoles. The FPS and RPG genre have largely gone multi-platform but still appear in great numbers on the PC. PC developers are by and large are not abandoning PC gaming but moving to multiplatform. This goes both ways with Konami, Square Enix and Capcom primarily console based developers now developing a lot of their major games for the PC as well. This move away from PC exclusive development has not been caused by a decline in PC gamers (which is growing but at no where near the rate of console gaming) but the increase in cost of games development. Its hard even on console to make profit on a title exclusive to one platform. Large scale piracy has als attributed to this change by PC developers, which is vastly greater on PC than the non-hand held consoles. Yes PC exclusives are few and far between outside the MMO and RTS genre, which is sad. Genres have died off before like the traditional point and click adventure, but hey that genre might be making a come back now with Monkey Island doing well.

You could argue PC gaming is being compromised by console limitations but thats a matter of opinion. I believe they are graphical being retarded by consoles, as no developer wants to invest in tech they can't put on consoles in their multiplatform titles but thats about it and its not a major concern for me. Graphics are nice but not that important. There is also some exceptions with PC exclusives like Shattered Horizon and Project Offset coming as PC exclusives with tech that looks like pushing the PC further ahead of the consoles in terms of physics and graphics.

New concepts are coming on stream for PC. We are still in the early days of in game advertisement and micro-transactions. The PC is at the forefront of digital distribution which is more than making up for the decline in PC games retail sales. Onlive game streaming service is coming on stream as well, so that could be a flop or the next big thing.
The PC still remains vastly superior to the current consoles in terms of online gaming regardless of genre.

dreamers75 wrote:

All i see if empty servers atm Arma 2 is my prefered game of choice.

Easily one of the of the best PC games ever made, yet noone is playing it ? is it because they cant run it? or is cos noone gives a **** as its no EA or Valve?

Its a niche genre the tactical shooter and the reviews for the game where rather average due to it being very very buggy. It also has reasonable high system requirements. While Valve have a lot of good well due to the popularity of their games, EA don't, people don't buy games because they are made by EA. Its because they make so many games and own so many big brands that the company does well.

dreamers75 wrote:

PC gaming is dying, and has been for a long time. Consoles sell more "legal" games regardless of whether they good or bad.

Yeah this notation has been going about 15 years now. Its complete hogwash. PC gaming is in a state of change but its not dying.

True console gamers by more trash games than the average PC gamer, but I think thats a good thing. I don't think crap games deserve to do well. If crap games sell well then why would a developer bother going to the effort of making good games?.

ScumLord

They've been saying this for years and years. They said it when the playstation 1 came out and have been saying it ever since. All that's happening is the consoles are becoming more like PCs to the point you wonder why not just buy a PC?

Pc has always been the testing ground for new ideas, everything that's become popular has started on PC and it's because big developer companies don't control it that see's that happen.

TheDoc

Another one of these?

Been gone over time and time again.

Console gaming appeals more to the masses, DS, PSP, Xbox, PS3, Nintendo WII. One game can be ported to a number of different consoles, to different scopes of people.

PC Gaming was always niche, with most people being put off with the price tag to a pc, and the constant upgrading down through the years. But it will never go anywhere.

The scope of todays games is online and co-operative play. Games are no longer developed with the ethos of being on your own, its all about online support.

The PC made that happen, and still stays at the forefront of it. Professional PC gaming was always a pc thing, with consoles slowly but surely coming into the scene. For a long time it was fifa and racing games, games that were better suited to consoles then pc's. But even some FPS games are cropping up now like cod4, halo3 and gow.

As an avid Arma player yourself pog, you can surely realise how a game like that, with that much scope,depth and detiail, and relies heavily on team play, could only really survive on the pc.

If that came xbox, a crop of halo 3 players would come and not have a breeze.


The pc is going no where. The major companies are making their big titles for consoles first yeah sure, but there is nothing exciting and new. I gave my xbox to my boss a couple of months ago and genuinely forget its not in my room. It become a glorified DVD player.

Jazzy

dreamers75 wrote: »

PC gaming is dying, and has been for a long time. Consoles sell more "legal" games regardless of whether they good or bad.

wrong and uninformed

PogMoThoin

TheDoc wrote: »

As an avid Arma player yourself pog, you can surely realise how a game like that, with that much scope,depth and detiail, and relies heavily on team play, could only really survive on the pc.

Sadly even that is being ported to 360, but without the editor, I've no idea why? The game itself is shíte, SP is flawed and the MP missions it shipps with are crap, its the mods and custom missions that make it, without an editor it would be terrible. Bet it sells well on consoles tho, on pc it just about sells but console gamers seem to be less fussy