Intel: PC gaming is not dying, it's doing better than all the other consoles

[AlanShore]

The problem with this is that it is clearly completely wrong.

Oh, excellent. Glad you cleared that up for us.

Care to elaborate for us lesser beings who don't see what is "obviously" wrong?

 

[Fr]anc[is]

I don't think it's dead, and my huge stack of games next to my computer can attest to that. A lot of the really big games are also put out on PC: Modern Warfare, Halo 1 + 2, both Mass Effects. And some games are made BETTER by being on PC, Dragon Age Origins had a better control on PC, and Fallout 3 has mods and fixes that you just cant do on consoles (did consoles go though that VATS nightmare? I hope not).

The whole ______ Tycoon genre of games wouldn't do good on consoles, and although I don't personally care for them anymore, they can be really good and really addictive. I think RTSs just cant work on consoles as well as PC. Warcraft 3. That just isn't possible on console, I don't care how good you are, you just couldn't do all the craziness required to be really good at that game with a controler.

And this last part is just personal preference, but I like PC for shooters more. To me it seems like on PC, you point where you want to shoot, and its there. On console, you just push the stick in the direction and pray you don't overshoot. And if you want more control, you have to just slightly push the stick and it takes 4 times as long. The mouse just gives you more control more easily. It's a little hard to explain.

 

[shaboinkin]

Wow, I leave this thread for a few hours and it looked like a war just took place

For the most part, they aren't. A few with ties to console developers have done, because the Sony/Nintendo/Msoft makes it worth their while to do so. But the actual number of developers to abandon PC develoment is small.

Rephrase: Why are they not putting as much effort in creating a PC port as they did in porting a 360 game over to ps3 or vise versa? Some of the ports I played could easily be 10x better if they just spent a bit more work on optimizing the game *STARES MENACINGLY at Red Faction Guerrilla*

Why do people bother with this whole debate of whether or not PC or console gaming is dying? There is a huge market for both, and neither is doing badly. Hell, if one of them WAS dying, there wouldn't be a debate about which one it is, it would just be clear that the one is not producing enough games or sales.

Obviously, one is more successful than the other. It would be quite the coincidence if PC and console gaming were generating the exact same amount of profit overall. Which one is actually doing better, though? Who cares?

Judging by the comments, this kind of topic is really a PC vs. console fanboy flame war in a poor disguise. Just play your way and stop trying to force other people to play the same way.

That was NOT what this was about. Seeing how almost every gaming site you go to, you read up on some sort of doomsday prophecy that the PC platform is going to die in a firery death in 3 years. All this shows is that once this bit of info in known not only by a small group of people, developers might actually have to start making some good games for a change and stop being so damn lazy. *once again...STARES MENACINGLY at Red Faction Guerrilla*

 

[RicoADF]

Developers are leaving the PC for two reasons. First, PC gamers hold games to a higher standard. We want complex control schemes, rich gameplay with a lot of variety, excellent storylines, and we want all this in a pretty package (good graphics). No offense to anyone, but the console crowd in general is far more accepting of the same old same old. Just look at Modern Warfare 2's sales for proof of this. It's easier to develop a simplistic game based on previously-used standards than it is to give us something original or unique.

Second, developers perceive the PC gaming market to be hog-tied by MMOs. They want a piece of that pie, so unless they can make billions like WoW has, they'd rather just skip the PC altogether. Simply put: it's greed that drives them away.

These are the REAL reasons some developers have abandoned the PC as a gaming platform. Piracy has always just been an excuse for them to hide behind. And now that piracy rates on consoles and handhelds are starting to catch up, it's a REALLY poor excuse.

And the 3rd reason is that PC has the headachs of developing for thousands of different hardware mixtures with countless issues. You develop for a console its just one hardware setup you need to code for

 

[AlanShore]

Developers are leaving the PC for two reasons. First, PC gamers hold games to a higher standard. We want complex control schemes, rich gameplay with a lot of variety, excellent storylines, and we want all this in a pretty package (good graphics). No offense to anyone, but the console crowd in general is far more accepting of the same old same old. Just look at Modern Warfare 2's sales for proof of this. It's easier to develop a simplistic game based on previously-used standards than it is to give us something original or unique.

Second, developers perceive the PC gaming market to be hog-tied by MMOs. They want a piece of that pie, so unless they can make billions like WoW has, they'd rather just skip the PC altogether. Simply put: it's greed that drives them away.

These are the REAL reasons some developers have abandoned the PC as a gaming platform. Piracy has always just been an excuse for them to hide behind. And now that piracy rates on consoles and handhelds are starting to catch up, it's a REALLY poor excuse.

And the 3rd reason is that PC has the headachs of developing for thousands of different hardware mixtures with countless issues. You develop for a console its just one hardware setup you need to code for

While that might have been the case when PC gaming was first becoming popular, I don't think it's that big of an issue today. Now that we have comprehensive API's and libraries like DirectX and OpenGL as well as proven game engines, most of the technicalities of the hardware are abstracted away from the developer. The problem comes about when programmers don't stick to the conventions and produce poor quality hacks to fix problems which is where you see compatibility issues.

 

[gl1koz3]

(...)

Yeah, you are right! Pirates are nothing! PC gamers have nothing to fear but fear itself. PC gamers are the cream of the crop, they are better than any other gamer! Why bother with released games when you can mod them to be better?!

We all know it's cheaper to buy a better PC than a console, so why is this even comparable?

Let us all point and click our way to driver updates, component upgrades, and settings Gods!

Who cares if console gamers make up the majority of 'hardcore gamers'. That whole term is just fake anyways! We all know more people have a computer than have a console. So fuck those mindless types who .......

Aww snap.... I'm a console gamer by choice. I guess it's time for me to go die somewhere. Never mind. Good luck pointing and clicking your way into obscurity. Cause we all know that using a mouse is easier than using skill. Err I mean, twiddling your thumbs.

Seriously tho... Name 3 games that are PC only..... and do the rest of us care about them?

Answer: NO.

Paragraphs 1, 2, 3: ah, feels good.

4: It's all about ROI.

5: I approve what you need to do. But, seriously. Thumb twiddling skill? That's so Level 1.

6 and 7: Again, the ROI. If you make shit game on PC, you won't get as much $ for that.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Giants: Citizen Kabuto

PC gamer here, so I'm not attacking you, but you might want to scratch this one. I have a copy of it for the PS2 sitting on my shelf at home.

Edit: The original Diablo had a PS1 port, and there was a complete but unreleased port of Baldurs Gate to the same system.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

A few of those games were later ported to various consoles. But even those that were stayed PC exclusive for several years. And very rarely were they worth playing on consoles. Starcraft 64, anyone?

Fair enough, I pointed those out because I figured Sober Thal would tear into it if there was no explanation, the way he had been flaming the PC. I can personally vouch that Giants: Citizen Kabuto sucks on the PS2; as far as I can tell, it's still balanced for mouse and keyboard controls, which makes it nearly impossible to play with a controller.

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

Hah! Piracy has very little impact on the actual market. I've seen statistics showing as much as 1 in every 100 PC game pirated would have been bought otherwise. So, they've lost what? A couple hundred units? In the grand scheme of things, yes, it adds up, but it's negligible.

(DON'T TURN THIS INTO A PIRACY RANT THREAD. JUST DON'T DO IT.)

Yeah, you are right! Pirates are nothing! PC gamers have nothing to fear but fear itself. PC gamers are the cream of the crop, they are better than any other gamer! Why bother with released games when you can mod them to be better?!

We all know it's cheaper to buy a better PC than a console, so why is this even comparable?

Let us all point and click our way to driver updates, component upgrades, and settings Gods!

Who cares if console gamers make up the majority of 'hardcore gamers'. That whole term is just fake anyways! We all know more people have a computer than have a console. So fuck those mindless types who .......

Aww snap.... I'm a console gamer by choice. I guess it's time for me to go die somewhere. Never mind. Good luck pointing and clicking your way into obscurity. Cause we all know that using a mouse is easier than using skill. Err I mean, twiddling your thumbs.

Seriously tho... Name 3 games that are PC only..... and do the rest of us care about them?

Answer: NO.

Why don't I go paragraph by paragraph here:

Piracy is becoming just as rampant on the consoles as it is on PCs. In the end, consoles are just cheap PCs which you can pirate exclusives for. And the longer this console generation lives, the easier it will become for people to mod their 360s/PS3s, and the knowledge required to do so will spread. Mods are never something a game should NEED to be good. The sad truth is that some do. But they don't JUST make a game better in its core aspect. They can also fix bugs that the developer neglects. Bugs that are most likely present on both the console and PC versions of the game. Why WOULDN'T you want this extra support?

No, it's not cheaper to buy a gaming PC over a console. But there are a lot of factors to consider there. Most people NEED a PC, whereas nobody truly NEEDS a console. I ask why not take the extra few steps needed to turn your everyday work PC into a gaming platform?

"Hardcore gamers" is a ridiculous term, like you said. But if one were to be considered truly "hardcore," wouldn't they want to use the most accurate and customizable gaming peripherals available? And wouldn't they want to play every type of genre without hindrance? Those are things only available on the PC.

How exactly does the use of inaccurate control sticks coupled with aim assistance on consoles make you MORE skilled than someone who uses an accurate mouse with no aim assistance? It doesn't. Stop deluding yourself.

Three PC only games that everyone cares about:
Warcraft 3
Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines
Crysis

There's three. Now here's a ton of additional ones just for you being a smug asshole:
Baldur's Gate 1 and 2
Planescape Torment
Deus Ex
Diablo series
Starcraft series
Black and White series
Fallout 1 and 2
Freelancer
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Grim Fandango
STALKER series
Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2
Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2
League of Legends and/or HoN
Heroes of Might and Magic series
Every MMO ever

I truly must resist the urge to shout "Ooooh Its on now!" because that is a very good argument sir.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Really all Intel have shown is that when people actually take the console market as being made of sereral platforms rather than a total the PC as a platform is doing fine and better than each system

Their is no one console system there are three of them locked in a console war and owned by completly different companies and have hardware such that no piece of code will ever run across all three systems without significant optimisations for every platform to avoid poor performance.

PC dominancy is hardly surprising the PC is far older than the current platforms and even a small percentage of the one billion PC's in the world if used for gaming would massively outnumber the 63 million units of the Wii that itself was designed after the massive popularity of casual gaming driven by the rise of casual games like flash stuff on
newgrounds.com or the colourful puzzle games from Popcap that started on the PC since the massive internet adoption around 1999/2000 and continued long after wards to the point that far more people play Farmville than the best selling of the big three consoles

 

[TBR]

If memory serves me correctly, Steam just released their survey saying that Win7 64bit and 32 bit were only just now out in front. That means there's still a ton of Vista and XP users, and you can bet that most of those (considering XP and Vista 64 numbers were low) were using DX9.0

(yes, I'm basing this off the assumption that the majority of DX10-compatible cards were purchased in those last 2 years, along with the Win7 OS)

What does this mean? It means there's still a metric ton of nvidia 7600/8800/9600 cards out there and still playing games, and there will be for a while yet.

Factor those in, and the PC market grows even more.


That said, it's just up to the developers to use their heads, something which seems less and less common. Some games are PC games. Some are console games.

Imagine is MAG was a PC game. 256-player online on the PS3, with the PC benefits of custom mapping, more people with mics, and other goodies...it would sell like hotcakes for 2/3 of full price (so that'd be $40USD or something). It'd last for ever as well, and with regular attention through (say) steam sales, it'd be up there for years, like TF2 or CS:S.

 

[ImprovizoR]

Of course PC gaming will never die. It's absurd to even think about it because there will always be developers who like PC more then any other platform. Facts: Best FPS games are on PC, best RPG's are on PC, best action/adventure games are on PC. Consoles are good, but they are limited in a lot of areas when compared to PC (most notably complexity of gameplay due to lack of mouse and keyboard). Not to mention modding base for some of the biggest titles. Let me ask someone whit both a good gaming PC and a console: do you prefer Oblivion/Fallout 3 on console or PC?