3 Reasons PC Gaming is Destined to Fail

[caamsa]

Now lets see I have been playing video games since.................hmmmmmmmmm since there were video games.....

My first gaming console was colecovision that had pong.....then commodore Vic-20, commodore 64, Ti 994A a Atari 2600, super nintendo, sega genisis, game boy, then I started to get into pc gaming. Do you remember when some of the games were just words and no graphics???? Like Adventure, Pirates cove, and Zork.

Ok do you want the hard true facts.......PC gaming will never die as long as there is a market for it and as long as they continue to make good quality games. They go hand in hand. I think some times the developers go for nice graphics etc. and do not put enough into the actual game/storyline. Like I said I have played the Zork series before and they were cool. No graphics just words and your imagination. There is too much crap and middling games out there. Most of the games that score high continue to use the same formula over and over again. Just like the movie industry. When was the last time you saw a good movie that was truly original. Now they just keep remaking old movies or turn TV series into movies. No one really has to think anymore. We need a real revolution in PC gaming to come along.

 

[Grimble Crumble]

What people seem to forget is that console games cost $10 USD more, and it is much easier to get deals on computer parts than it is to get a console below retail price. Also, most people would own a $200-$300 (at least) computer for normal purposes anyway. So let's assume I build a gaming rig for $1000, and buy 15 games for $50 each. Taking off $200 I would normally spend on a computer to do normal computing tasks, I'm looking at $1,550. Now, if I buy an Xbox 360 for $350 and 15 games at $60 each, and Xbox Live for 5 years, it comes to $1,500. That's assuming you buy 15 games, don't have to do any major upgrades, and that doesn't iclude the value of PC mods. Also, you can upgrade your computer, so for $1,000 I could spend $200 on a decent motherboard and 4 gigs of ram, buy a $450 graphics card and a $350 processor and I'd be set, although my $350 upgrade this summer can run Bioshock on max, 1440x900, at 20-25 fps. Even the settings I play it on look as good or better than on a 360.

 

[Falken699]

I don't agree. PC gaming is here to stay. PC is the "showcase" platform. Sure, an announced console would always spec better than mainstream PCs, but it seems that by the time all the hype is over and the system finally hits the shelves and you FINALLY get your hands on one, PC computing leaves the power of the console in the dust. That is why it is hyped so far in advance, to make them look like a good value.

Also, that BS argument that "the cost of PCs is too high for gaming" is silly, because PCs are actually useful for many other things other than games.

Also, a console may be cheaper, but you pay for it in outrageously overpriced games. Example: Oblivion on PC now, 30$. On PS3? 70$!!!! I'd much rather have a souped up PC than a toy and save my money on the games rather than the hardware.

Also, you learn useful job skills playing around on a PC. Installing software, hardware troubleshooting, and maintenance. Consoles? If they break, you can't fix anything.

Consoles are a good compliment to a PC, but console only? That is for babies. And these game systems aren't cheap anymore, especially when you factor in the marked-up games.

 

[Heyyou27]

Ignore the fact that World of Warcraft has more paying subscribers than all of Xbox Live, I'd say PC gaming still has plenty of life. Heck, I own an Xbox360 and a Wii, but I prefer to play on my PC. It's a completely different experience you could never have with a game console.

 

[shadowmaster625]

Well, the Wii is the future, for better or worse. Anyone who thinks we'll still be playing games on a keyboard 10 years from now is living in denial! (The analog stick is just over 10 years old, at least that's when it found a mass market.) Mice are nice but WASD is just bleeping bleeping retarded. No way does that compare to an analog stick no way in hell. The biggest problem with pc games, and all games in general is that you cant really even do the simplest thing. Like for example jumping and shooting while your character is moving forward and diagonal at a 30 degree angle. And oh yeah, you want to shoot up over the top of something, so you need to hold your gun way up high while jumping. Just try doing that on a keyboard! It will be possible eventually, and it could happen on a pc, it is just more likely to evolve on a console.

 

[thrasher32]

Allow me to inject some sanity into this discussion....

It is my firm belief that gaming consoles, as we know them, are already obsolete and in 10 years there will be no such thing as console gaming.

Take a look at the PS3 and XBox 360 sales figures. Disappointing to say the least, and the technologically inferior Nintendo Wii is trouncing them both quite roundly. Lets face it, compared to even a midrange PC gaming rig (Tom's Hardware spec'd out a gaming rig for $500), all the consoles are woefully inadequate and obsolete right off the shelf.

Sure, there was a time when you could buy a good console off the shelf for $150-$200, while the cheapest PC with EGA graphics PC would set you back $1000, but those days are long gone.

Consoles are one shot deals. You get what you got, you can't (without breaking the warranty) upgrade the graphics subsystem, add more memory, slap in a new processor, or even change a bad power supply. To add insult to injury, the consoles cost an arm and a leg, I mean $600 ?? COME ONNNN!!!

Then there are the console games. Sure PC gaming has it's share of crap games, but MAN, with consoles you get about 95% crap and 5% decent games. BUT they all will cost you $60 each, crap or not. Like I said, the PC has it's share of crap games - a lot of them are console ports - but it has a much higher percentage of quality games than the cookie-cutter console tripe.

So you have your nice XBox 360 or PS3 or Wii, or what have you, then MS, Nintendo, or Sony come out with the "new" latest and greatest console and you drop another $600 on it? When does it end?

PC's, on the other hand can be upgraded component by component to the level you need them to be, and guess what? THEY DO OTHER STUFF BESIDES PLAY GAMES!! Let's see you do some C++ coding on your xBox 360 or PS3. Let's see you run a spreadsheet, edit photos, store your media, do your homework, or create a presentation on your console. The whole "cost per game" argument flies right out the window when you take into account that the PC, which probably cost you very little more than that console, can do so much more.

So my base argument is this: Why would any reasonable person drop $400, $500, or $600 on a gaming console that can only play games (well, and maybe play some overpriced and soon-to-be obsolete Blu-Ray discs as well) when you can get a PC for the same price that is capable of 1000x more?? Because little Timmy or Tammy saw that Xbox/PS3 ad on TV and they "gotta have it"? For God's sake, buy them a PC and maybe they will actually learn something when they're not gaming!

The gaming console cannot last. The only reason gaming consoles are even alive now is because of the massive marketing behind them. Someone mentioned that PC game sales "only" account for 10% of overall games sales, but that's with virtually ZERO marketing outside of a few gaming magazines. If the game developers spent some money promoting PC games, I'm sure that PC gaming would dominate.

But alas, we live in a world where Britney Spears and 50 Cent sell millions of albums and we teach our 10 year old daughters to dress like Gwen Stefani and wear pants that say "juicy" on the butt, so how can I expect people to think rationally.

BUT, money talks, and mark my words, consoles are going to flop (again) and the PC will be the winner in the end.

 

[Bluefinger]

I'm gonna be very, very concise... why PC gaming won't die:
WoW (though I don't play it, a lot of other people do)
Crysis
Mods
Cost of Entry
etc...

People who argue about how controllers are better than keyboards + mice or vice versa are just missing the point completely. I have a 360 controller for my PC which I use to play certain games, but for other games I use a keyboard and mouse... why? Because some things just work better on either a controller (racing games or arcade games), or a keyboard and mouse (FPS, RPG, RTS, etc...) I think what will happen in the future is NOT the fall of consoles or PCs, more likely the development of a unified gaming platform which eclipses both PCs and other machines, as long as they conform to the unified platform specifications. A unified gaming platform will be the future, as it should circumvent a lot of DRM issues, as well as allowing developers to make more profit from being able to sell games to wider audiences without having to spend tonnes of money on developing for multiple platforms. It'll also allow consumers to benefit from not being locked into certain platforms, and so forth and so on.

For the mean time, PC gaming is very much alive and kicking, and will be so for quite some time.

 

[lordgarion]

I know this thread has been inactive for quite some time but I just "stumbled" onto this site for the first time. It's interesting.

You left out another reason PC games are in trouble. The power needed to run most good games. Probably 90+ percent of the computers sold are the average computers sold at big box stores. Yet almost all the good games need a computer with overall 2-3 times the power(counting cpu,gpu and ram needed) This is retarded. You don't build a product for less than 10% of ANY market and then wonder why you have trouble making money.
Consoles are old and slow technology yet they are making a fortune with games that run on them. Why can't PC game makers? Almost everything they write needs the latest and greatest hardware to make it enjoyable. Graphics quality is the biggest reason.

I DON'T need a a person in a game to look like a person on a blu-ray dvd movie, and neither does 90+ percent of the people who own computers. WoW is a perfect example. It played very well on my old computer. A 3 year old HP pavilion with 2.8ghz processor, 1 gig ram and of course on board graphics. But even with graphics requirements that low, people, and lots of them, are playing that PC game. If the rest of the PC gaming industry would take a hint and build decent games that would play on the average computer they would do very well. And it would be easy to "upgrade" the game with increased graphics for the hard core gamer and make them more money.

After all, isn't the "average" computer much better than the newest console systems hardware?

 

[Mousemonkey]