Why is PC gaming "dead"?

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Ramin 123

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Exterminas said:
It is dead in the same sense that the bicycle industry is dead since the invention of the car.
Sure cars (consoles) make more money, have the bigger companies, than bikes (PC), but that doesn't mean that it's dead.
That's a good comparison, I would be more into PC gaming only for the amount of troubleshooting that is required. But once you get past it I'm sure its well worth it, I thoroughly enjoyed my COD2 days.
 

imperialreign

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Sorry for the double-post, but:

Chibz said:
Console gaming IS infinitely cheaper, has more releases and many of them are superior quality. Here's an example. My wii & Wii Shop Channel & game collection costs about as much as a mid range gaming PC. That is goddamn expensive for the PC, given how vast my library is. Or, alternately, it's the same price as my 360 & PS3 & PSP & DSi XL & Wii. I could either buy a system & library or every console of this gen or a single system that generally lacks games. I wonder which is a better investment /sarcasm.
BS. Out-and-out BS.

You can purchase a decent gaming rig for the same cost that most consoles are when brand new to the market. As well PC titles routinely drop in price within a month of release. Unless you have to purchase a title when it's first released, there's no need to spend $60+ for a game. Hell, I can't even remember the last time I spent more than $30 for a game.

And if you go with DD, like Steam, prices are routinely cheaper.

The money you put aside, you can invest into hardware upgrades . . . or, conversely, the amount you'd spend on the next console release could be put towards a major hardware upgrade (i.e. a video card), and you'd still have money left over.

No, PC gaming is not more expensive than consoles . . . quite the contrary.

Console gamers have more "shops" to buy at, and more games per location.
Only due to how large the console market has become. Some game stores still carry as large, if not a larger selection of PC games, but the majority don't. PC shops still carry a larger PC selection than they do for consoles. Thanks to this lack of brick and mortar shops for PCs, it's aided in the growth of digital distribution. It has nothing to do with consoles being better or worse than PCs - it has more to do with the distributors wanting to cater to the better selling market, and kicking themselves in the nuts at the same time.

Console gamers have the legal protections of actual ownership of their copy of the game, instead of everything being leased to them.

Nope, again, wrong. Read the EULA. It's been *relatively* the same for every software release for any platform for 30 years now.

You DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO YOUR COPY. You are "purchasing usage rights" of the software. Big difference. What your are buying is the legal right to use and play the software, and that's it. You do not have the right to tamper, mod or reverse engineer any portion of the software that you're purchasing. At the same time, the developer (and publisher) hold the right to rebuke that at any given time.

Same holds true for PC games . . . thing is, most PC developers are much more friendly with their communities. As long as you're not trying to sell or hack their games, they're fine with the community modding and creating patches and such.

Consoles are harder to pirate on (Certainly can't pirate a console game without modding the console), so there's more incentive to develop for them.
Piracy has nothing to do with market trends. TBH, the more console become like a PC, the more you'll see piracy becoming an issue. There are ways around DRM, and pirates will find those means. Right now, it's hard to pirate for a console, but it is possible . . . it'll only become easier as time goes on, and the practice will climb in the console market - especially if console game prices stay where they're at for as long as they do. Mark my words on that one.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Chibz said:
Worgen said:
Chibz said:
Worgen said:
console gaming is much more dead then pc gaming is
and I can prove it
look at backwards compatability
you can still play an old dos game on a windows 7 machine (either tho something like dos box or zdoom with a game set on the doom engine)
go ahead and try playing a ps2 game on a ps3, chances are you cant, pc gamine just keeps going , console gaming dies and resurrects
Which is why console gaming has overall more sales. Yeah.
console gaming has a lower knowledge barrier, they are simple and easy to use, pcs are multi purpose and unless you know something about them you will always have to wonder if yours can play so and so. I myself like the knowledge aspect, I like knowing how it works and how to fix it if it breaks down. But allot of people dont have it and so they buy the easiest "cheapest" option
Console gaming IS infinitely cheaper, has more releases and many of them are superior quality. Here's an example. My wii & Wii Shop Channel & game collection costs about as much as a mid range gaming PC. That is goddamn expensive for the PC, given how vast my library is. Or, alternately, it's the same price as my 360 & PS3 & PSP & DSi XL & Wii. I could either buy a system & library or every console of this gen or a single system that generally lacks games. I wonder which is a better investment /sarcasm.

Console gamers have more "shops" to buy at, and more games per location.

Console gamers have the legal protections of actual ownership of their copy of the game, instead of everything being leased to them.

Consoles are harder to pirate on (Certainly can't pirate a console game without modding the console), so there's more incentive to develop for them.
the ps3 only got cheaper then a decent pc when the price dropped and your forgetting associated costs. The only console that is cheaper then a pc is a wii, I suppose portable ones also. cost of a tv with a console is more then a little, cost of a monitor with a desktop, not much, less with a lappy, my friend got a very nice gaming lappy for bout 600 bones.

Consoles have no superior quality, they have the same problems pcs do in that reguard, altho they do have the benefit of only needing to test each piece of software for a single configuration, that doesnt mean they are flawless and its much easier to fix a pc game after release then a console one (Im not sure ninendo ever was able to fix the game killing bug in metroid the other M)

costs of titles also tend to be less on pc, much more so now there there are steam sales, I got all of the fear games for 10 bucks, I could have gotten almost every thq game for 50 total. Not to mention that with a system like the 360 you not only have to pay isp costs for internet access but extra costs if you want to play multi.

a pc is a much better investment since it can do more then just play games and there is a gigantic library of games to obtain for very cheap prices, stores might not stock as many pc games as console ones but the pc dwarfs the console in the number of games it has, and you can play older console games on it with emulators

BOOOOOM
 

Vorocano

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imperialreign said:
As it stands, though, I firmly believe the biggest issue with incompatiblity problems and issues like mostly in the hands of the user. Now, I'm not going to say PC titles don't have problems - that's been an ongoing issue since Pong. Granted, today's bugs and glitches are nowhere near as catastrophic as they were, say . . . 10 years ago. But, the fact remains that the majority of titles (the one's not "rushed out the door" at least) are relatively bug free, with the occasional quirk. On the user end, though, is a whole different story. There's still a massive percentage of the market using "antique" hardware, and a larger portion that don't keep up with software/OS/driver updates. Spending time on numerous tech and game forums, I can no longer count the number of users who were able to fix the issues simply by updating their video, audio or chipset drivers . . .

But, I think the problem there lies in user ignorance - too many users don't know if and or when they need to update their drivers or software, most don't even know how to go about checking . . . ganted, auto-updating utilities make it easier, especially for those who have no idea what hardware they're actually running, but it's not fool-proof, either. The industry as a whole really needs to find some way to address this problem, IMHO, as it continues to give every-day usage of the PC a bad reputation. It's what has lead to users believing that programs don't work, or they're going to have issues, etc. At the same time, there needs to be an easier way for the user to determine what hardware they have, if they need to manually look it up. This is where a lot of pre-built systems fail. The big manufacturers only stout basic numbers instead of providing some kind of "spec sheet" with their systems. Users only see on the box: 4GB memory, 320GB hard drive, 2.4GHz Intel CPU, ATI HD4000 series, etc. There's no way anyone could figure out what kind of updates a user would need from such spec "lists."


Whatever, though - I find it funny. The gaming market has been stating for 20 years now that PC gaming is dying . . . at the same time, consoles are becoming more and more PC like with each generation. I'm simply waiting now for confirmation: the first console that provides a keyboard and mouse out-of-the-box so that you can use a word processor that's bundled with the console :D
Oh I agree you can't blame the market or the devs for issues in hardware. I just view it as one reason why PC gaming is struggling against the console market. If your console game needs to be updated, or your console's OS needs an update the system takes care of it almost automatically, while most driver update systems are nowhere near automatic, or if they are they're resource hogs. For many gamers, however, it's a matter of simplicity. Put disc in tray = game ready to go on a console, whereas on a PC it's a more complicated process, especially given how few people think to keep their drivers updated. Update systems like Steam's auto-updater help, that's for sure.

I don't think that PC gaming is dying. I think it is becoming more focused on the genres it does better than consoles. The issues I raised with PC games was more to say that if they could come up with intuitive ways to fix said issues, ways that didn't effectively punish the consumer for choosing the platform, that PC gaming would experience a resurgence.

What really amuses me is the PC gamers here who deride consoles as "crap" and expect them to die off soon. I for one have a gaming PC and an Xbox. I love both of them. Certain games are better on consoles than desktops. Certain games are better on desktops than consoles. One platform is not inherently better than the other; they're just different. Maintaining otherwise makes you eerily similar to the Xbox and PS3 fanboys who rant endlessly over which minuscule difference between their consoles makes the one infinitely better than the other.
 

kouriichi

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It isnt dead. Its just for people who can afford a higher standerd of gaming.

Dont get me wrong. I love my 360. ((and at times, my psp)) But everything looks better on the computer.

And best of all. HOTKEYS. BOOYASHAKA!!
 

Fenring

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PC gaming is 100% dead. Last year everyone I know got a Wii and threw out their PCs because PC gaming was dead. I really wish my Wii could use the Internet better, but I head it's over (Thanks for telling me Prince, I never would have known without you!), so oh well. I can't wait to play the next Petz game, it's gonna be totally awesome. PC gaming never had anything nearly that good. Anyone want to exchange friend codes?

It isn't
 

Jaranja

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Chibz said:
Jaranja said:
Onyx Oblivion said:
Someone get the picture!
Yessir!

Let's look over the GAMES on that, shall we?

Crysis: Showcased everything wrong with PC gaming.
WoW: Is gaming in the same way killing your children, then eating them for christmas dinner is parenting.
Sims: See above point.
Spore: Pretty much universally loathed.
Fallout: Was PC exclusive. But is now mostly played on console.

And many of the games had (superior) console ports.

PC gaming isn't quite "dead". It's just marginalized. It's not even a side show. Way to kill it, MIcrosoft.
Not really the point that the image is making. It's saying that PC gaming isn't dead because people still make plenty of games for it. I mean, there should be Dragon Age on that list as well. That game was 10x better on PC.
 

Orekoya

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imperialreign said:
Sorry for the double-post, but:

Chibz said:
Console gaming IS infinitely cheaper, has more releases and many of them are superior quality. Here's an example. My wii & Wii Shop Channel & game collection costs about as much as a mid range gaming PC. That is goddamn expensive for the PC, given how vast my library is. Or, alternately, it's the same price as my 360 & PS3 & PSP & DSi XL & Wii. I could either buy a system & library or every console of this gen or a single system that generally lacks games. I wonder which is a better investment /sarcasm.
BS. Out-and-out BS.

You can purchase a decent gaming rig for the same cost that most consoles are when brand new to the market. As well PC titles routinely drop in price within a month of release. Unless you have to purchase a title when it's first released, there's no need to spend $60+ for a game. Hell, I can't even remember the last time I spent more than $30 for a game.

And if you go with DD, like Steam, prices are routinely cheaper.

The money you put aside, you can invest into hardware upgrades . . . or, conversely, the amount you'd spend on the next console release could be put towards a major hardware upgrade (i.e. a video card), and you'd still have money left over.

No, PC gaming is not more expensive than consoles . . . quite the contrary.
I would like to point out that I bought about 10 games from steam during this past holiday sale week, that were released this year, for 60 bucks. 25 of that was for Fallout New Vegas, the most expensive one.
 

Navarone9942

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Pc gaming is not dead, its just that more people want to buy a console, go home, plug it in, play. Not buy a motherboard, buy a gfx card, buy RAM, buy an HDD... etc

Jaranja said:
Onyx Oblivion said:
Someone get the picture!
Yessir!

You've made my day with this, its got UPLINK on it, one of the best games ever made!!!
 

Ace of Spades

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bam13302 said:
Ace of Spades said:
PC gaming is dead to me because it involves more troubleshooting than playing.
but troubleshooting is the fun part
(sorry, im one of those people that regularly opens up my computer, takes it apart, and puts it back together, even if it is acting fine, seriously, im about ready to start building a new computer so i have something to do cuz i have upgraded my current one to near perfection, that, and i need a server)
It's people like you that PC gaming was designed for. Since I am not very well versed in how a computer works, troubleshooting either means clumsily tweaking things until something happens or asking my brother for help, neither of which I enjoy.
 

RaikuFA

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its mainly pc gamings attitude towards new people. asking which OS the best? youre the devil incarnate in a pc gamers eyes. it turns off a lot of newer pc gamers. thus making them stay to console
 

imperialreign

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Vorocano said:
Oh I agree you can't blame the market or the devs for issues in hardware. I just view it as one reason why PC gaming is struggling against the console market. If your console game needs to be updated, or your console's OS needs an update the system takes care of it almost automatically, while most driver update systems are nowhere near automatic, or if they are they're resource hogs. For many gamers, however, it's a matter of simplicity. Put disc in tray = game ready to go on a console, whereas on a PC it's a more complicated process, especially given how few people think to keep their drivers updated. Update systems like Steam's auto-updater help, that's for sure.

I don't think that PC gaming is dying. I think it is becoming more focused on the genres it does better than consoles. The issues I raised with PC games was more to say that if they could come up with intuitive ways to fix said issues, ways that didn't effectively punish the consumer for choosing the platform, that PC gaming would experience a resurgence.

What really amuses me is the PC gamers here who deride consoles as "crap" and expect them to die off soon. I for one have a gaming PC and an Xbox. I love both of them. Certain games are better on consoles than desktops. Certain games are better on desktops than consoles. One platform is not inherently better than the other; they're just different. Maintaining otherwise makes you eerily similar to the Xbox and PS3 fanboys who rant endlessly over which minuscule difference between their consoles makes the one infinitely better than the other.

I agree with all that as well. I'm not one to deride consoles as being better or worse than PCs. They defi have their place in the market. The PC industry does need to address the update issue, though. MS has taken a step further with WIN Update checking out for hardware driver updates - but, again, it's not fool-proof. Most hardware driver updates are listed as "optional," so the user still needs to go in, select them, and hit 'install.' Occasionally, the driver update that WIN flags doesn't work properly with your system, either, and rolling back can become a hassle . . . but, I think the market is very slowly crawling in the right direction. It just needs guidance, lol.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of them. They're alright for most games, but I'm a heavy FPS player, and I simply can't get over the bridge from mouse+keyboard to a gamepad . . . it just doesn't feel natural. I guess 25 years of FPS on PC has done that to me :p

What irks me, though, are a lot of the un-informed arguements that are typically thrown around by console fanbois. Such as some points I've already addressed in my last couple of posts.
 

Ace of Spades

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lacktheknack said:
Ace of Spades said:
PC gaming is dead to me because it involves more troubleshooting than playing.
So clearly, you stopped playing PC games back in 1996.
Nope, I stopped playing in 2006, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I got a game breaking error with every game I bought, whether it be from Steam or otherwise. I never get windows detailing how the setup failed to initialize or how the process encountered an unspecified error and needs to close on anything except the PC.
 

lacktheknack

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Ace of Spades said:
lacktheknack said:
Ace of Spades said:
PC gaming is dead to me because it involves more troubleshooting than playing.
So clearly, you stopped playing PC games back in 1996.
Nope, I stopped playing in 2006, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I got a game breaking error with every game I bought, whether it be from Steam or otherwise. I never get windows detailing how the setup failed to initialize or how the process encountered an unspecified error and needs to close on anything except the PC.
And I never get that with a PC. The only logical conclusion is that your computer was badly built/configured. Sorry about that.
 

Ace of Spades

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lacktheknack said:
Ace of Spades said:
lacktheknack said:
Ace of Spades said:
PC gaming is dead to me because it involves more troubleshooting than playing.
So clearly, you stopped playing PC games back in 1996.
Nope, I stopped playing in 2006, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I got a game breaking error with every game I bought, whether it be from Steam or otherwise. I never get windows detailing how the setup failed to initialize or how the process encountered an unspecified error and needs to close on anything except the PC.
And I never get that with a PC. The only logical conclusion is that your computer was badly built/configured. Sorry about that.
That's fine. If things work for you, then good for you, you'll have a lot more fun with the PC than I ever did.
 

lacktheknack

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Chibz said:
And many of the games had (superior) console ports.
I'm sorry, but two =/= many.

(And personally, I'd maintain that none of the ports are superior.)