The Big Picture: PC Gaming Is Dead - Long Live PC Gaming!

[Keltzar]

One thing I don't understand is why he's talking about consoles getting keyboard and mouse as them overtaking PCs. PCs have been able to have controllers for a lot longer than consoles have had keyboards and mice. There's also the fact that there is no powerful console that is able to be mobile like laptops.

 

[mptothedc]

Cybernetic eyeballs? No no the direction were going in is more like virtual reality except with full immersion gaming and the use of motion sensors in a 'home theater' esque fashion about the room. (Think of that crappy movie Jason X... or even the X-Men training room).

I think you're getting so many comments on this because of the title and because this is a topic that is directly related to the website. So, nice video and pictures! I can tell you put forth a good deal of effort on this one(rightly so since the issue is hot here). Goro made me lol.

Oh and I've wondered why Devo wore those funny hats.. Now I sorta know.. lol

 

[Taxman1]

I seriously flipped a sh*t when you said "the nice guys at alienware"
Maybe its just me being an obnoxious fan boy but it pays to do a little more research on what you're talking about. I don't want to come off as a troll just bashing your video but when you are a PC gamer for a majority of your life and still happily choose it over consoles its hard not to get angry at the little things.
That being said there's a few things PC that in my opinion, puts it close to the three big consoles
The mods and general customization of your pc can make games suit to your tastes. It probably won't drastically change the way you play but it will make some impact.
Support from big name developers. Bethesda and Valve comes to my mind with their ridiculously awesome SDKs and of course Steam from Valve.
A lot of genres are just better for PC in my opinion, I think everyone can agree FPS and Strategy games will remain dominant at PC for some time (If you pay attention to TGO, Bob doesn't like theses genres a whole lot so its understandable). Having quick macros at your finger tips make RPGs more effective as well.
PC will become obsolete eventually but I just don't see it as dead or dying really quickly now.

Spoiler: A bit old but still good.

 

[mechanixis]

The basic flaw in the argument is ignoring history. Video didn't kill radio. It may have changed it (as part of your thesis), but it didn't even diminish it let alone kill it.

When was the last time your family sat down together around the radio to listen to a radio play or a news broadcast? Radio has absolutely changed, but saying radio hasn't diminished to the point of near obsolescence is patently false. It's now a device for filling the silence in our cars, and even there it's barely supported by public funding and requests for donations.

 

[ItsAPaul]

Csb, I still buy every game for pc and don't even own a console any more since it was useless. Every game looks and plays better on pc; the only people who don't think so haven't played games on a pc.

Also, you've got it backwards: pcs will make consoles obsolete since there's no reason to won 4 devices that can do the same thing. PC plays basically every game released on consoles? Don't need a console. Still has internet and word processing? I don't need a tablet (and neither does anyone else, good lord) or any of that crap. I also have no idea why you think a laptop isn't a pc, since its in fact a computer you use personally, it can just go more places and fry faster than a desktop.

 

[CleverCover]

Here's the Little Picture: [HEADING=3] Consoles are becoming PCs.[/HEADING]

Wow. That's...that's just....'looks at 360'

truer words never spoken.

 

[siddif]

One word, Steam, may have already been said (theres 20 pages as I write?) I will always need a PC as long as I attempt to enter the media industry (I'm a media student).

I like the Steve Jobs description of desktops being like trucks and mobile devices being more like cars, Cars are used more often by more people but Trucks will always be needed for heavy loads.

Just because PC games can be played on a console doesn't mean its dead I play Left 4 Dead 2 on my Mac while my brother plays it on his Xbox 360, both work well and both have features the other does not - I can mod mine, he has Xbox community links, etc?

Even if "hardcore" (I hate that term) gaming was console only, I'd imagine some company would make a licensed emulator to play the same games on a PC.

 

[TainInfernus]

First off, great seeing you at PAX East (LRR Panel). You were very polite and not the same person I would expect when hearing such vitriolic opinions.
I think the nostalgia thing can be valid for some people, but not for all. The people who played on the Amiga or C64 often hearken back to those days with fine melancholy.
I, however, grew up with Genesis, Nintendo, and SNES, as well as Windows 95 and 98 on shitty hardware. The only games I could play on the PC were the id FPSs up until Quake 3. And I played the hell out of them. They were easier, more fun, and more visceral than Mario: I've never been a fan of platformers. To this day, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is one of the best RPG's I've ever played. The animated cartoon cels hold up even under today's graphical scrutiny, and the game mechanics are a clear progenitor to the oft-used Light-World/Dark-World mechanic used in practically every Nintendo franchise.
I took a break from PC when the N64 and PS2 came out, and enjoyed a lot of really frustrating console games on that.
Then I became interested in audio technology and modding, I came back to PC and upgraded all of my parts to be able to use the software. In doing so, I was able to play a lot of the better games. Unreal Tournament, Doom 3, Deus Ex, Quake 3, Half-Life. These games defined my experience (yes, I know, all FPS). To this day, the mouse and keyboard offers superior precision in FPS. Third-person games are best played with console hardware. I bought an XBOX 360 controller for my PC so I could play Assassin's Creed and Prototype. These games were built around that hardware and so were much better for using it.

I have enjoyed games across all platforms and here's the scoop: FPS's are better on PC's. Third-person games are better on console (or PC with console controller).
PC's offer more freedom; end of story. PC's allow the user to customize every aspect of their experience because their OS is more open, by default. I'm sure the PS3 crackers are loving their Ubuntu setup but it shouldn't have to be that complicated (thanks, Sony).
I've tried playing with XBox Live with my friends and the hamstringing is staggering. We tried playing COD: Black Ops on the same console, online. Now, with Halo 3, one can create a Guest account and play on that, but with Black Ops both controllers have to be logged in to separate XBL GOLD accounts to play online together. This is ridiculous and voids any validity of the XBL experience. Do you really think that they're going to go back from this? History has shown that these systems always become more restrictive. The GFWL system for Windows is the same way: totally ruled by last decades rules on internet access and user freedom. Eff that noise.
I prefer freedom and greater compatibility, even if it comes at greater cost.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Actually consoles are suffering from that as well. Consoles cannot sustain themselves with this business model. Why do you think the ten year replacement was upped another 5 years? Sony is still losing money of the PS3, and the Xbox is going to have the same problem next generation. Why? Higher complexity tech cannot fit into a small box like it used to. In order for them to make money and stay in the tech arena, they would have to start selling upgrades, which both consoles are already doing. The idea of a console is fundamentally flawed now, for them to have the same longevity they need to adopt more and more of the PC to survive. However, they are getting stiff competition from phones, and portable PCs. In short, consoles are in a tough place.

Console manufacturers are hitting a serious wall with the Loss Leader sales model - they need longer to achieve profitability but that increased length of time works against them in the market place because once peak sales have passed you need something to reignite consumer interest which boils down to either a must-have peripheral as a stop-gap measure or rolling out the successor generation of product.

 

[Grabbin Keelz]

I actually went from consoles to PC, I even do both. I have a Wii, X-box 360, and a laptop. I don't know why PC's and laptops are referred to as different things when referred to gaming, I don't go around calling myself a "Laptop Gamer".

As for Computer/Laptop games dying, I don't know how many times I have to say this.
TEAM
FORTRESS
TWO
I have played Halo, CoD, and most of the top line best selling console games around, and NO game outdoes them better than Team Fortress 2. Sure the servers might die out by the time I'm 30, but for now it is still the most fun I have ever had online for anything ever.

 

[zBeeble]

Hrm quoting not working for me. But in reply to mechanixis reply to my post... I suppose I forget about the americans. Even Americans have good radio, but they have less of it. Here in Canada, I would rank several of CBC's radio plays among my top must listens of the week and I think that several of the top Radio broadcasters around the world have forged ahead in the medium producing quality relevant drama. That said, I haven't sat around the TV with the family to watch something in a few years. I find it largely irrelevant and the commercials insulting.

But that's all off topic. Radio hasn't diminished, you just don't listen to quality radio. It's just like the whole topic here --- the issue isn't the medium, it's the message (heh... I think I just got a whole heaping measure of CanCon in here).

 

[Daniel Davies]

my thoughts exactly



also VALVE will live and so will steam

 

[zBeeble]

... hrm and my classification as a "doublethinker" by this system is just a very juicy irony to that position.

 

[plainlake]

And I used to appreciate your thoughts...

Give me the freedom of a pc on anything else and I will switch. I think pc-gamers are going to be the home-mechanics of the future. We know that people are getting screwed over by buying inferior hardware because they lack the knowhow.. We can build in nitro injection and customize the car until it fits us perfectly. But most people just buy a car that costs alot more than its building costs, they need to pay a mechanic to fix it and is completely similar to over nine thousand other cars.

So just keep on driving your expensive toyota prius while I tinker on my fusion powered hovercraft.

Modders unite!

 

[Atary77]

Here's how I kinda see things

Sure PC's have held dominance over consoles because they've always been more powerful and ahead of the curb. But there's a problem... the resources required to get the most out of today's PC games? Are ludacris!
In some cases games are more powerful than any hard ware readily available on the market. When Crysis originally came out ,friggen NASA didn't even have computers that could run it properly to it's full extent.
To me if PC gaming is dying it's because of how excessive the requirements have become and how often new hardware is needed to stay on top of an ever growing mountain.
For decades PC gamers have wanted one thing. Photo realistic 3D graphics. Were still quite a way off from that but we're reaching a happy medium in graphics where things look good enough now to the point where we can stop worrying about graphics and worry amore about what really matters. Game play.

That's my two cents

 

[Plazmatic]

The basic flaw in the argument is ignoring history. Video didn't kill radio. It may have changed it (as part of your thesis), but it didn't even diminish it let alone kill it.

When was the last time your family sat down together around the radio to listen to a radio play or a news broadcast? Radio has absolutely changed, but saying radio hasn't diminished to the point of near obsolescence is patently false. It's now a device for filling the silence in our cars, and even there it's barely supported by public funding and requests for donations.

You both are wrong, thought mechanixis is more correct, it isn't like the Pc is being taken over by a different kind of technology, all these devices are computers, from your cellphone to the console. however the argument is between two types of gaming "sets"

1: PC GAMING: those that allow more freedom and are better and are more developed and are more fun, less repetitive, more in tune with the community, more innovative, more creative on both developers and players part, better graphics,

2: CONSOLE GAMING: Those that are piles of dog shit over priced, and other wise not worth the money.

In the future, just like today, pc gaming as we will know it will still win every time against console gaming.

Like bob pointed out, pc gaming isn't dying and it isn't about the pc, its about the games themselves, eventually Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft on the console front will find out that making customers take it up the poop chute and making them believe that their gaming is better and worth more for their money wont work in the future, and hopefully my ignorant brethren will finally see the freedom of mods, user created content, and better quality games in general that the NEW PC gaming will entail.

 

[MolotoK]

PC gaming will die eventually, but it's not quite dead yet.
It's more like... close to retiring from being a mainstream platform. The kind of enthusiasts who buy $300 graphics cards and overclock their CPUs to 5Ghz are not just going to give up.

Give it another 2 console generations.