Poll: Is Console Gaming Slowly Dying?

[Icehearted]

Not dying, not remotely. it won't just drop out of existence or from it's current state. It is headed for disaster though, but the publishers have only themselves to blame. Piracy doesn't make MS charge for XBL, nor did it drive all games up to an arbitrary $60 price tag. It's not our fault (the so-called "core") that shovelware moved systems from us to an entirely new demographic, that blame lies with publishers and with the big three. Achievements have changed how many of us think about our games for the worse. I'm making attempts to rectify that myself, but as it stands, when I see literally entire boards loaded with questions about how easy the achievements/trophies are "before I buy" I see it as further evidence that it's a mismanaged mess that took once tight experiences and tacked on something woefully sloppy.

I just recently got a PS3, I've had my Xbox 360 for about 4 or so years, and I spend a lot of time playing games on my PC when i' playing them. These are both wondrous and dark times, the business shows both promise in the months ahead, and peril at the choices they may make beyond.

It remains to be seen where we go, but the money is just too damned good for any iteration of console gaming to simply die away.

I wouldn't bank on things remaining as they are in the future. It wasn't all that long ago when the unthinkable happened and SquareEnix gobbled up Eidos, and once-beloved BioWare has seen it's eye repeatedly blackened by Executive Meddling (trope). Who knows, maybe someday Nintendo will buy up Apple and become some unstoppable hipster casual machine churner, EA and Blizz will merge and collapse under it's own weight, Duke Nukem Forever will be released, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Expect PC to live on in through indies and a handful of games that favour mouse control (by Blizzard, Maxis, etc.) until their next generation of idealists shows up.

Until they start releasing other platforms that aren't RAMtarded, there are always going to be developers who stick with the PC.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

It is headed for disaster though, but the publishers have only themselves to blame.

The publishers? Certainly they're co-authors in any future disaster but you're ignoring the console manufacturers themselves. They're the ones who subsidise their console shelf price by selling development licences, the cost of which is passed on to consumers (it's the source of the price difference between PC and console games). They're the ones who make the entire infrastructure around their consoles closed gardens. They're the ones pushing gimmick peripherals to lengthen the life span of their current products. They're the ones who act as the final gatekeepers for content. Need I go on?

 

[Icehearted]

It is headed for disaster though, but the publishers have only themselves to blame.

The publishers? Certainly they're co-authors in any future disaster but you're ignoring the console manufacturers themselves. They're the ones who subsidise their console shelf price by selling development licences, the cost of which is passed on to consumers (it's the source of the price difference between PC and console games). They're the ones who make the entire infrastructure around their consoles closed gardens. They're the ones pushing gimmick peripherals to lengthen the life span of their current products. They're the ones who act as the final gatekeepers for content. Need I go on?

Splitting hairs, but that's moot as my hope had been to imply as much as well. Actually, I figured it also kind of went without saying. Regardless, you and I are on the same page.

 

[Not Good]

Most people who insist that PC gaming is dying never looks at the whole picture, just at sales figures, which in their eyes consits of:
A: Regular game sales (anyting also released on consoles)
B: MMOs
When really it's those two plus:
C: Free-to-play games, usually based on flash (newgrounds)
D: MMOs (Fucking WoW)
E: Indie games (Minecraft, Indie Bundle etc.)
F: Network Games (Zynga, even though you hate them)

and then they're like 'yeah well those don't count'

bull. That's like saying Xbox sucks and you can't count Xbox Live as a plus.

 

[Not Good]

Most people who insist that PC gaming is dying never looks at the whole picture, just at sales figures, which in their eyes consits of:
A: Regular game sales (anyting also released on consoles)
B: MMOs
When really it's those two plus:
C: Free-to-play games, usually based on flash (newgrounds)
D: MMOs (Fucking WoW)
E: Indie games (Minecraft, Indie Bundle etc.)
F: Network Games (Zynga, even though you hate them)

and then they're like 'yeah well those don't count'

bull. That's like saying Xbox sucks and you can't count Xbox Live as a plus.

ON Topic: If Sony and Microsoft really think they can let their 5 year old P.O.S. keep most developers happy for the next three years, they're stupid. I'm not saying Nintendo are equally as bad but they are RELEASING something.

 

[veloper]

No, but the console makers are falling way behind schedule.

It has always been 5 years between console generations.
We should have had the next xbox last year before christmas already, if consoles were still progressing as smoothly as they always had.

Computer hardware hasn't stopped advancing in the meantime. Buy a cheapo budget desktop for your boring everyday needs today and you're only $100 away from having a gaming rig, vastly superior to the 360. It's only the addition of an aged, or low-end videocard.
Same with any mainsteam desktop that is 4 years old. All such a rig requires is a dedicated GPU that's two generations behind the times, to outperform any console.
You'll be playing at a higher resolution and with smoother framerates and you can even hook it up to a HD TV and include a USB game controller.

So it's not $1000, but more like a $100 PC entry fee and the games are cheaper too. M$ and Sony will have to bring out new consoles.
The gfx whores on the PS3 are already converting to PC. PC gaming setups are also becoming easier to do all the time for all the dumbfucks out there and PC gaming has already been cheaper for many years.

So new consoles soon or only Nintendo and M$ windows will survive as gaming platforms.

 

[Woodsey]

None of the platforms are dying. They're not even evolving. They have things evolving off of them, but the PS3 and 360 are not dying because of Kinect and Move, and the PC is not dying because of Facebook games.

Facebook games?....our saviour?.....I rather PC gamign be dead in that case(which NO it is NOT)

I meant that Facebook games are not PC gaming's future, they're a separate entity.

 

[Roxor]

Dying? No, I think the consoles are evolving in a direction which will eventually make them indistinguishable from a current PC.

No matter what you call them, they are fundamentally computers and computers are general-purpose tools.

 

[Aphex Demon]

I chuckled when I saw the thread title.

You might as well ask 'Is gaming dying?'

 

[Razhem]

Frankly, I agree, consoles are in their way of going the way of the dodo. The technological leaps of old when changing consoles are less and less apparent and people have nerdgasms with multi function hardware, which pretty much forces consoles to be crappy computers to compete. The Iphone demographic of gamings has blown and is incredibly lucrative at the moment. But the most important reason I believe consoles will be irrelevant in less than a decade is Onlive. If onlive actually works like advertised and they play their cards right, there will be no more consoles, only streaming devices that let you play games.

Basically, videogaming is here to stay, but the videogame console as we know it is in the process of being substituted by something a lot more interesting.

 

[Nikolaz72]

Also, I think only "fanboys" of PC gaming voted yes.

Oi, I'm a PC gamer and hardware enthusiast and I voted 'no'.

Did not say "all fans of PC gaming." I speak of elitist fanboys, not regular PC gamers or even avid PC gamers, just the trash-talking console-haters.

And the Trashtalking PC-haters voted no. . . And thinking people did aswell, but point is!.... That was the point.

 

[jackpipsam]

psn may be dead for a while now but as for consoles themselfs, no there going better than PC

 

[JET1971]

popularity and quality are seperate beasts. right now the current console generation is well and truly holding games back. graphics have advanced so far ahead, and game design has so many options available but current consoles cannot use or show those advancements.

PC hardware today can do a full CGI movie like FF spirits within in game format with the same ql graphics. consoles would spit and sputter trying to pull off those graphics in a game. as for options consoles are now doing things PC has had since the 90's. and they are adding them now to make money instead of puting out a next gen console.

another thing is old consoles had about a 5 year lifespan. buy on day 1 and 5 years later you buy the next gen. PC is build a gaming rig and 5 years later upgrade again. same lifespan to play games, but now current gen consoles are long in the tooth and games that could be will not be because MS and Sony are milking what they have. and console gamers are the cow thats getting milked.

Thats a shame. It is a shame for everyone that plays video games. both PC and console players.

 

[Bigsmith]

Gaming PC: 1000 $
Xbox 360/PS3: 250-350 $

THIS is the main reason why consoles are taking over the gaming industries.

Where on earth are you getting your figures from, Really please tell me. I was only looking through this whilst taking a break from course work... but this has made me log in and post.

My current computer, it isn't the best out there, far from it in fact. Has cost me a total of £360. Thats buying the base unit, a few extra sticks of ram and a new graphics card. Put that into google currency converter and it comes out as $593. This is a good $250 dollars more expensive then a console yes, but, think about how much more you can do this a computer. I'd say it's worth the extra.



Ot: Nothing is dying, please stop making these boards, it's really starting to get annoying. Good games are still coming out for all gaming mediums. For those saying the hand held gaming industry is dying, it's not, it's just changing. It's becoming more accessible to the masses via things like the Iphone.

The same thing is happening to the console industry, it's just changing.

Ok? I've said what I wanted to... now back to my college work.

Note: My computer can run pretty much any game on a decent level of grahics... I play crysis and far cry on it for gods sake.

 

[Bobbovski]

I think that consoles are "dying" in the sense that they're slowly becoming specialized, more user friendly gaming PCs (in a way they already are). PCs and consoles will probably merge within a console generation or two.