Will the PC ultimately win the console war?

dRNk SAnTA

The OP's question is will the PC win the console war.

I am a PC gamer but people must have their head in the sand if they don't see the commercial decline of the PC game industry.

Comments in the vein of "consoles are only played by idiots so who cares" are nonsense. Since the average person now no longer buys desktops and chooses consoles for gameplay instead, the market necessary to get commercial support for games mentioned like Armed Assault becomes smaller and smaller.

Armed Assault is a good example: the developers BI have really struggled to make and distribute that game. Don't forget the original Operation Flashpoint distributors Codemasters broke off their working relationship with BI because they wanted OFP to be a more accessable game (for commercial reasons). In a smaller market specialist developers like BI will go bust.

ScumLord

dRNk SAnTA wrote: »

The OP's question is will the PC win the console war.

I am a PC gamer but people must have their head in the sand if they don't see the commercial decline of the PC game industry.

Comments in the vein of "consoles are only played by idiots so who cares" are nonsense. Since the average person now no longer buys desktops and chooses consoles for gameplay instead, the market necessary to get commercial support for games mentioned like Armed Assault becomes smaller and smaller.

Armed Assault is a good example: the developers BI have really struggled to make and distribute that game. Don't forget the original Operation Flashpoint distributors Codemasters broke off their working relationship with BI because they wanted OFP to be a more accessable game (for commercial reasons). In a smaller market specialist developers like BI will go bust.

See I don't see the PC as in commercial decline, the fact is there's more and more of them in peoples homes everyday and these people do play games on them, they may not be chart games but these people are being introduced to gaming by PCs, and these are people that would never go out and buy a console.

As the PC becomes a must have item for every home and can take over the jobs of other appliances the shear fact that there's a pc in every home will mean it's got a seemingly untapped market.

Games like Arma also build up their user base slowly, it's really a game supported by die hard fans, and that fan base can do nothing but grow, it is niche game though.

dRNk SAnTA

ScumLord wrote: »

See I don't see the PC as in commercial decline, the fact is there's more and more of them in peoples homes everyday and these people do play games on them, they may not be chart games but these people are being introduced to gaming by PCs, and these are people that would never go out and buy a console.

As the PC becomes a must have item for every home and can take over the jobs of other appliances the shear fact that there's a pc in every home will mean it's got a seemingly untapped market.

Games like Arma also build up their user base slowly, it's really a game supported by die hard fans, and that fan base can do nothing but grow, it is niche game though.

Your point about Desktop PC demand would've been right in 1995, but not 2010.

From what I can see, the trend is towards laptops not desktops. Desktops are being replaced by laptops - often 1 for each family member and a home wifi network. The modern console now fits into this wireless system too.

The idea of a family desktop computer in a "computer room" is on it's way out. People who've grown up with desktops will continue to use them - such as me and, presumably, you - but many kids today won't even have a desktop in their homes with which they could be introduced to PC gaming.

From where I'm sitting, it is this changing dynamic towards mobile computing which will continue to make consoles more and more popular. The problem won't ever be with hardcore gamers, only casual gamers - but it's casual gamers who make up the majority of the market.

PogMoThoin

I'd say the opposite, its gearing towards a house having a main media server desktop pc along with other mobile devices