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Console Games Sales Beat Out PC
ttol writes "In the Star Tribune, they write that "PC games fell 6.2 percent through the first 10 months of this year, making the first such decline ever." They go on to say that consoles will break record sales this year, and that there is a shift towards console gaming from PC. Is this due to the fact that there are now three major contenders (XBox, Playstation 2, Game Cube) and all the advanced features they offer (DVD ability on the first two etc)? I, for one, will continue with my Battlefield 1942 on my PC."
I did just that. I dot tired of fighting with Windows and video card drivers. After having serious problems with GTA2 and Unreal (I had to downgrade GFX drivers to be able to play GTA2 and then updgade the drivers to be able to run Unreal) I decided to start searching an alternative to my crappy PC hardware. I ended up buying PS2 and installing Linux to my PC. I've been very happy computer user ever since.
It's not very strange that sales are shifting more and more towards console games, many games are released several months earlier for consoles, and PC gamers have to wait. No wonder people who want to play the latest games buy the console version instead.
sj 3
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The videogame industry is on the cusp of widespread acceptance. In a hardware generation or two consoles might be seen as being just as indispensable as a TV. On the other hand, PCs and PC games are only growing in complexity, and it seems that they will be relegated to the hardcore segment only. This is not necessarily a bad thing; developers can make the big bucks off a multi-console release, but can realize their pet projects for the "advanced" PC audience. Face it, you're not going to see Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" at the local multiplex because the mass appeal just isn't there. Likewise, most people won't find the PC game Arx Fatalis under their trees this Christmas for the same reason. That's not to say that their won't be megahits on PC anymore, just look at any Blizzard game. It's the same with movies; arthouse can cross over to mainstream: think "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."
The videogame industry is going through some serious growing pains with the fracturing console market and the lower PC game sales, but it'll come out stronger and more focused at the end of it, and it will have mass appeal equivalent to the movie industry. IMHO ;-)
In 1996, I bough the Nintendo 64 console and a PC (133 MHz or so).
In 2002, I still play Nintendo 64. Guess where's my 133 MHz PC?
many more people run BSD/Linux/OS X and can no longer play Windows games on their computers.
Yes, many more people now run non-Windows OSes on their PCs - but I very much doubt that that increase would account for even a small fraction of the drop in sales of PC games.
Most of the people who have switched to Linux/whatever are the sort of people who weren't playing PC games in the first place. If they were, they wouldn't have switched! Why would they switch to an OS that they can't do everything they want to with?
Personally, I'd imagine that falling levels of quality is one of the main reasons for the drop in sales. When was the last time you bought even a new PC game that didn't already have a patch out, or almost ready? Not only that, but I read an issue of PC Gamer recently (first PC mag I've read in ages), and of the dozen or so games they reviewed, only one or two scored above about 60%. When you're shelling out £35 (UK) on a game, you want a good one.
I think a lot of games companies need to sit down and think about letting the development teams finish their games, rather than getting them to market ASAP...
It's official. Most of you are morons.
My first game was U5. On a PC. Soon after I started learning programming. For me it did *go* hand in hand. be creative and play.
If people by only console to their kids it will remain just that : A toy. PC have the enorm advantage that you can use them for some, anything, else.
My bet ? My generation had a lot of kido starting learning programming on PC. The next won't, Console will be widespread, and thus less and less kids will go for the IT industry.
And console don't make a kid/teen/young adult get acquinted to technology per see, as using a MW oven don't make you acquinted with Electromagnetic physic. Our Kids will be as "technology analphabete" as our aprents...
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...Mars bars are more popular than Ginseng, and Microsoft have decided to start charging for software.
I'm confused - the article and many comments here seem to give the impression that the PC was king of the block, but this report shows that it's now starting to lose.
The PC has been losing to consoles for a long time. I'm talking years and years. Console game sales have beaten the hell out of PC games for a long time. Some of the most successful console games sell millions of copies - Games like Donkey Kong Country etc sold in excess of 5 million units world wide. A million selling console game is doing pretty well - a million selling PC game is extremely rare. Super Mario Bros 3 sold over 7 million copies in the US alone. Nintendo sole about 9 million copies of Mario 64, 7 million copies of GoldenEye, and about 6 million copies of Zelda 64. I can't think of many/any PC games that approach those sales levels. And remember those are N64 games, and the N64 did not do nearly as well as the Playstation. I remember reading that a million copies of Starcraft (for PC) had been sold in Korea alone, and that was a stunning figure for anyone involved in PC game development/distribution.
As for advertising, I've always thought that adverts for console games have always been much more dominant than those for PC, especially on TV/at the cinema - but maybe this is specific to the UK?
In short, what's the fuss? Console games have always been more profitable/better selling, and it's not like it's news. PC game sales have been declining significantly for at least two years - that's certainly the message developers get from publishers, who are increasingly looking for PS2 games above anything else.
2p.
Tim
i think of the xbox versions as 'stripped down'.
the optimizations should carry over pretty well.
but pc will be 'more bloated', higher resolution texturemaps, models more detailed & etc, because (almost) nobody excepts the gameplay to be smooth with 128mb(giving fullblown windows up to 64mb), also you'll figure out faster if the texturemaps are lores(higher resolution, looking 40cm from screen..), so the game dev's can make more detailed models and texturemaps because that's what gamers seem to want..
there is (apparently) some codetricks they could use with xbox and not with pc, since (i heard from a guy in the docks wearing blue pyjamas) they can interface directly with the gpu for trickery, which is not possible on windows drivers(and has little point since it would work with only 1 card).
afaik they don't use any trickery like this yet on published games and i doubt they ever will because ms could just decide to change the gpu and then all games relying on it to be the same would be fscked.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.