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PC Gaming Declared Not Dead Again

Posted by Zonk on from the still-doesn't-want-to-go-on-the-cart dept.

We've reported once or twice on stories declaring the end of or salvation for PC Gaming. Today, Next Generation weights in on the latter, declaring PC Gaming is Not Dead Yet. From the article: "Relying on NPD's number blinds one to the ongoing evolution of PC game distribution. The key insight, as summarized in a new report from IM Consulting (the market-intelligence unit at Ignited Minds), is that 'the PC game software market is much more robust than a cursory glance at the data suggests...(our analysis) becomes a call to publishers to recognize that the PC market can be a very lucrative and profitable place to publish, if the games are done properly in the right genres.'" Ie: Make the right casual game or a hit MMOG and you can print money.

70 comments

  1. I don't get it. by joemawlma · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm really not understanding why anyone has ever thought PC gaming will die. The simple fact remains that with PC gaming you don't usually have to buy a new $500 system to play that new game you so desperately want to play. You can simply turn down your graphic settings and enjoy it like everyone else with lower realism and performance. And only sometimes will you need to buy a new video card or some extra RAM (usually for much cheaper than a whole new gaming system)

    Just because PC gaming isn't quite as mainstream popular as buying that new XBOX360 or PS3, doesn't mean there isn't still a HUGE market for people who enjoy using a keyboard and mouse to steer their car and blow away the enemy.

    And with more and more in-game advertisements on billboards and street corner shops, the industry should continue to have plenty on funding to give us the excellent gameplay and storylines we all enjoy.

    PC gaming isn't going anywhere.

    1. Re:I don't get it. by LehiNephi · · Score: 1

      I see at least a couple editorials (I wouldn't call them articles) per week declaring PC Gaming dead, or not dead.

      Does this remind anybody of a certain cat in a box with a vial of poison?

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    2. Re:I don't get it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The simple fact remains that with PC gaming you don't usually have to buy a new $500 system to play that new game you so desperately want to play. You can simply turn down your graphic settings and enjoy it like everyone else with lower realism and performance

      This is true to an extent BUT there are limits and it is still cheaper to buy a console. Compare what you would have been able to buy (for a lot of money) when the XBox was released to what the minimum system requirements were for PC games that were released last year; you could have bought a ~1-2GHz Pentium 4 and a Geforce 3 or 4 at the time the XBox was released, you couldn't play World of Warcraft or Half-Life 2 with this system.

      When people talk about PC-gaming dying it that PC gamers are becoming less likely to upgrade their systems evey 12-18 months to continue to play the latest and greatest games; games that are 'pushing the envelope' are not selling as well as they used to (because there are less people who can play these games on their computers). PC gaming is 'dying' because the mainstream titles are abandoning the 'casual' audience in favor of the more 'hardcore' audience, thus alienating many of their customers.

      At the same time PC gaming is thriving! Alternative distribution and revinue resources allow developers to gain more profit per customer dollar spent; the steam model for Half-life 2 demonstrates this, if the Publisher took the same cut for a store bought and electronic purchace of Half-life 2 (about $10) then Valve would have gained around $30 more per copy sold online compared to the store purchace (this means that at ~1/4 the sales they would have similar revinues). Simpler (Pop-Cap) games are becomming more dominant as the ultra-casual gamers once again move away from consoles towards the PC.

      Essentially, when people mention that PC gaming is dying what they're mostly talking about is how the "Hard-Core" PC gamers are more likely to be purchasing a console as their primary gaming platform.

    3. Re:I don't get it. by damsa · · Score: 1

      PC gaming will die when MS decides to kill it. The PC/Windows only became a viable gaming platform when Windows came with DirectX as default. All others prior were either Dos based, Mac or Amiga based. Back then console gaming was far superior to Dos gaming, besides the Adventure type games like Kings Quest. With the entrance of FPSes, and DirectX, it was easier for companies to make 3d on Windows. Thereby, more powerful games came out on Windows rather than the Mac. Remember Bungie was a Mac Gaming company. With more powerful hardware, by 2000 PC gaming became far superior to any console out there. In fact my lowly iMac had the ability to emulate a Playstation 1. Consoles could not access broadband, consoles couldn't do high resolution, etc.... By the time PS2, GameCube and Xbox came out. Console hardware became more PC like, with network adapters, hard drives and the like. By this next generation, consoles have the ability to meet the power of a PC gaming system. Do high rez, all three will have built in network ability.

      At a certain point, MS is going to decide to stop working on gaming abilities of DirectX on Windows. Why?, that's just the way they are. When was the last time Outlook Express got a good work over. If 360 gets enough of a foot hold in Households, and Xbox games outsell their PC counterparts. MS isn't going to care people stop buying PCs. For each PC Hewlett Packard sells. MS may get like 30 bucks in licensing for it's Windows XP Home. Xbox Live Gold nets MS 50 bucks a year. That's my prediction, MS begat Windows gaming, MS can kill Windows gaming.

    4. Re:I don't get it. by stoph+ct · · Score: 0

      ever heard of OpenGL?

    5. Re:I don't get it. by oGMo · · Score: 1

      Hmm, I would say that perhaps the main life of PC gaming isn't solely focused on the latest FPS which uses that big expensive upgrade. I'm talking all the little games that casual gamers play. Web games, solitaire, etc. Stuff that very likely the majority of the non-gamer population plays, simply because the PC is widespread. Stuff that "the little guy" can still make without a big budget---thus will not cease to die anytime soon.

      --

      Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage

    6. Re:I don't get it. by blincoln · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The simple fact remains that with PC gaming you don't usually have to buy a new $500 system to play that new game you so desperately want to play.

      I've always had to.

      Case in point - right now I have an Athlon 1700+-based system I build a few years ago (my PS2 would have been a year old at the time). I really want to play Oblivion when it comes out, but my GeForce4 burned itself up last year and I've been running an old Voodoo 5000.

      I have to buy a new video card, because the Voodoo is ancient and doesn't support DX9. So that's $150-$200. However, the Athlon 1700+ is pretty long in the tooth and won't play the game properly, so I have to replace that too ($150). Which means replacing the motherboard ($100) (which would be necessary anyway since my current one doesn't have a PCI-E slot), which means replacing the RAM ($100). While I can keep my case, PSU, keyboard, mouse, monitors, hard drive, CD/DVD drives, and sound card, I'm still looking at at least $500.

      I'm sure there will always be a profitable niche market for certain genres on the PC - FPS (particularly online), MMOG, and RTS. But what I think the article means is that less popular genres like adventure are effectively dead there. The console market has many more customers, so if your title sells to 1% of console gamers it's much more profitable than 1% of PC gamers.

      Of course, casual PC games (like Popcap) are going to be a good way to make cash too. But less mainstream games (e.g. Legacy of Kain) don't sell enough copies on the PC to break even, let alone make money. On consoles, they do very well, partly because there are so many more potential buyers.

      Also, I think publishers tend to favour consoles because it means they can eliminate their tech support department. If anything goes wrong with a console game, it's either a defective console or a defective disk. No patches, no troubleshooting drivers, etc.

      --
      "...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
    7. Re:I don't get it. by Guspaz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The problem with your entire argument is that Microsoft is taking the opposite stance. Bill Gates has said that he has neglected PC gaming and intends to change that. Microsoft's XNA (Microsoft's game development platform used first in the XBOX360) is designed to make it easier to promote cross-platform games that are easy to port to PC or vice versa.

      PC sales aren't slumping either. They're growing. Laptops are starting to take over more and more of the market, and gaming capabilities in laptops are becomming increasingly important.

      In short, I don't think you've thought this through.

    8. Re:I don't get it. by damsa · · Score: 1

      Bill Gates has said a lot of things. Said a lot of things under oath too doesn't mean I necessarily believe him. It doesn't matter either way. My point wasn't that gaming on Windows is going to die anytime soon. But if it does die, it will be at the hands of MS.

    9. Re:I don't get it. by geminidomino · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The simple fact remains that with PC gaming you don't usually have to buy a new $500 system to play that new game you so desperately want to play.

      No, just a $400 video card that doesn't have the lifespan of the average console.

      That's why I don't understand why it HASN'T died. People balk at paying $3-400 for a new console, then readily upgrade their video card every 2-4 years for similar price. Then you've got the matters of hardware/driver compatibility issues, planned obsolesence(sp?) making games unplayable on later OSes (Good luck getting, say, Xwing Vs Tie Fighter or FF8 PC to play on WinXP for example).

      That's pretty much why I stopped bothering keeping a windows partition around for gaming. It just stopped being worth it to me.

      So it comes from both sides, I guess.

    10. Re:I don't get it. by damsa · · Score: 1

      OpenGL is not DirectX. OpenGL is more like Direct3D. DirectX is more than 3d, it also encompasses sound, joystick inputs, among other things. Even if a game uses OpenGL, chances are that it also uses DirectX. Doom 3 is a famous example of a game that uses OpenGL but still uses DirectX.

    11. Re:I don't get it. by Guspaz · · Score: 1

      Killing off Windows gaming would be quite a blow, but it would hardly kill off PC gaming. It would just change it.

      One possible outcome is that it would drive a good number of gamers over to Linux, which works with their existing hardware. Yes, the Linux gaming landscape isn't as good as Windows, but it IS a viable game platform. Somebody might even produce a gaming-specific Linux distro that comes bundled with Cedega, a huge number of gaming-related drivers, a specialized X interface designed to simply launch and install games, and a boot CD that seamlessly turned any Windows PC into a dual-boot box.

      A more likely outcome would simply be that the PC gaming industry would be driven indy save for a very small number of larger developers that continue to maintain Linux ports of console games.

      Either way it would drive forward the adoption of Linux. And the gaming-oriented Linux distro isn't such a bad idea even for today. Replace dual-booting with Windows with dual-booting with Linux and you could have a very easy way to set up any Linux box for gaming.

    12. Re:I don't get it. by Decessus · · Score: 1

      I'm by no means an expert when it comes to video cards, but who says you have to buy the latest cards to play the latest video games. Suppose when Doom 3 came out, you had a video card that won't really run it very well. Why not buy the $200.00 video card that has been out for maybe a year or so, but will still run Doom 3. Not at the highest settings of course, but still good enough to play the game reliably.

    13. Re:I don't get it. by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      Then repeat next year for Halo 2 PC or whatever...

      Thing is, you just can't spend $300 every four to six years and expect to play whatever comes out.

      With a console, you can.

    14. Re:I don't get it. by gr18563 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This is true. I own a PS2, NSDS, and a high end computer. I prefer the fighting, adventure, sports genres on console but you cannot beat pc for FPS. Im just too used to using the mouse/keyboard combo for killn.

      I have to disagree about the patching though. THey still have tech support for console games. Who would you call if your disc was bad? But on the flip side if there was a fundemantal flaw in the code somewhere that made the game crash if you did this, this and this all together then they could release a patch on the pc but they would have to recall and send out all new discs to the console game owners. This is the main reason I prefer PC gaming to console gaming, atleast when it comes to fps, mmos, and rts.

    15. Re:I don't get it. by stanmann · · Score: 1

      What games will not run with "acceptable" perfomance using a GForce 6800gt(US $120)?

      What games will fail to run on an fx 5700(US $20)?

      --
      Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
    16. Re:I don't get it. by stanmann · · Score: 1

      oops, my brain dumped there That should be 6600 and 5200.

      --
      Food not Bombs is a nice platitude but it breaks down when you notice that the Bombees are usually well fed
    17. Re:I don't get it. by CronoCloud · · Score: 1

      But on the flip side if there was a fundemantal flaw in the code somewhere that made the game crash if you did this, this and this all together then they could release a patch on the pc but they would have to recall and send out all new discs to the console game owners. This is the main reason I prefer PC gaming to console gaming, atleast when it comes to fps, mmos, and rts.

      But on the consoles, they don't ship now and patch later, they can't. So they do serious Quality Control. it has to ship as bug free as possible. So they won't need to patch.

      Online games are different, for example in the two PS2 MMORPG's they're patched/updated via internet.

    18. Re:I don't get it. by Decessus · · Score: 1

      I don't really think this is true. I currently have a Radeon 9800 Pro installed in my computer. Just to give you an idea of about how old it is, I have Rambus RAM installed in my computer. I'm not even sure they make that anymore. It's a 256 card and I don't have much problem playing any of the games I play. I don't remember exactly when I bought the card, but I'm pretty sure it's been at least two or three years.

    19. Re:I don't get it. by gr18563 · · Score: 1

      Yes but I refrain from playing console MMO's. I pretty much refrain from playing them period. There has been some games, all beit very few, that have had flaws large enough to recall. I prefer the PC games because you can also get new content with some updates. Console do not offer that luxury to many of their games.

    20. Re:I don't get it. by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      How much did you spend for it when you bought it? Three years ago, a 256 card like that must have run a nice chunk of change.

    21. Re:I don't get it. by Decessus · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it was pretty expensive at the time. I don't remember the exact figure though. I'm thinking $300.00 perhaps.

    22. Re:I don't get it. by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      So if it doesn't last three MORE years, it's lifespan/price ratio is below that of the PS2 (disregarding other advancements in PC gaming hardware, HDD upgrades for the increase in size of the average game, etc.)

      Personally, I prefer RPGs, though I dislike^Whate^Wabhor and detest D&D system type games (The orignial EotB and PS:T are exceptions. NWN is not.) and the only non-port CRPG style game I've seen on the PC since Ultima is an older one called "Septerra Core." Morrowind may have been PC first, but I really can't think of it as an RPG as much as an FPS (though the original King's Field did the FP-view RPG pretty well) with a really bad combat system.

      To the credit of PC gaming, though, if you're an FPS gamer, especially online, then it can't be beat. Ditto if you enjoy the treadmills that are MMOs, or small simple, 'casual games' like popping baloons, bejeweled, etc. that are so prevalent because of the ease of programming and lack of crappy lockouts on PCs (Though <Mode=Tinfoil_Hat> this largest advantage of the PC architecture over the consoles isn't guaranteed, since gaming is largely the baliwick of the Windows OS, and 'trusted computing' or whatever it's called now could concievably push PC games entirely into the hands of EA and friends.)

      I suppose the point is that I'm not going to start insulting PC gamers or claming they waste their money (coming from a guy who paid $120 for "Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure" on PSX, that would be a mite hypocritical. ;)). I just don't understand the draw to twitch games and mostly obnoxious online gaming communities, so the cost to keep the system capable (by usually dictating my choice of OS as well as hardware prices) far outweighs any benefit to me.

    23. Re:I don't get it. by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      Honestly, I've got no idea. I dropped out of the scene with the Geforce2 Ti, since I switched to Linux on the desktop box.

  2. this article, unfortunately, is. by Pxtl · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along."

    Note: if casual gaming and MMOs are the real breadwinners, than why is the mainstay of PC gaming the multi-million-dollar story-driven FPS game? Why is the industry trapped in an endless cycle of repeating Half-Life?

    1. Re:this article, unfortunately, is. by Ayaress · · Score: 1

      as for MMORPGs, people know why the industry is stuck in another cycle. It's extremely expensive to make an MMORPG. There was a story here on Slashdot in early November, and according to that, Blizzard took a $32 million loss last year from the launch, and has only made $7 million profit on the game this year. Not to mention that WoW's been in development for years. It's hard to make one work (WoW had a strongly established name to pull in users right away. Everquest and Ultima Online had to start from scratch and took longer to grow), and it's hard to keep players. Plus, once you launch, development is a nearly constant process for the life of the game. Everquest had expansions comming every few months at one point, and added content to the core game and all of the expansions after going live. WoW has an expansion comming, and has had probably eight big content patches released. A non MMO game, development is mostly over after launch. A few patches, a couple new maps, sometimes an expansion pack a year later.

      Sure, MMOs are big money, but they're prohibitively expensive to launch one that'll compete against the current big names, and it's possible (probably likely) to lose a lot of money.

    2. Re:this article, unfortunately, is. by Knara · · Score: 1

      Ultima's "name" had been established since the dawn of PC gaming, and was amongst the most popular names in computer RPGs when it first launched. I don't think it gets any more "established" than that.

    3. Re:this article, unfortunately, is. by bla · · Score: 1
      WoW had a strongly established name to pull in users right away. Everquest and Ultima Online had to start from scratch and took longer to grow

      uh...ultima online maybe had the name of eight other games before it? and it used the same world. not to mention a ninth one announced. it had a userbase all ready for it. UO didn't grow more slowly than WoW because of a lack of name recognition, it grew more slowly because it came out in 1997 and there weren't millions of people with broadband then.

      lest we forget.

      (and now someone's going to mention the underworlds, and maybe how we should count serpent isle seperately as well)

    4. Re:this article, unfortunately, is. by MarkPNeyer · · Score: 1

      By what metric are FPS's the "main-stay" of PC Gaming? Do you mean those are the games that 'gamers' like to play? The best selling PC games are not FPS's.

      --

      My blog
    5. Re:this article, unfortunately, is. by Pxtl · · Score: 1

      They're the ones that seem to generate the most hype and flood the shelves of computer stores is all.

  3. Who ARE these people? by WidescreenFreak · · Score: 2, Insightful

    My question is: who the hell keeps predicting that PC gaming is going to die anyway? PC gaming rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars (if not billions) per year. Titles like the Splinter Cell and Half-Life series continue to sell bazillions of copies when they come out. Of course, can anyone say World of Warcraft?

    You know, at least OS/2 did finally die, but that's only because of the arrogance and stupidity of IBM. In this case, I have to say that those who continually talk about PC gaming dying (A) are only implementing wishful thinking or (B) totally clueless on the current state of PC gaming.

    Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to look at my Battlefield 2 stats -- another PC game that has just sold ridiculously low amounts of copies. {/sarcasm}

    --
    The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
    1. Re:Who ARE these people? by vga_init · · Score: 1

      OS/2 is now eComStation. You can't kill an OS.

  4. I want to declare something too! by RootsLINUX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Okay then, I officially declare: mankind not dead yet . Can I be hired as a magazine journalist now?

    --
    Hero of Allacrost, a FOSS RPG for *NIX/*BSD/OS X/Win
    1. Re:I want to declare something too! by RaNdOm+OuTpUt · · Score: 0

      No

      --
      13. Any legal action is absolutly excluded. (Pi World Ranking List rules)
    2. Re:I want to declare something too! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. That headline would be just as useful. The people coming up with these articles are just some hack game journalist trying to make a name for his/herself or provide filler in slow time. The absurdity of the article frustrates me. PC game journalism will get better but only we don't put up with poor articles like this.

  5. Oh thank GOD! by Beatbyte · · Score: 1

    Now I can move on with my life (again) not caring about useless, baseless predictions.

    --
    Get paid to code OSS
  6. I think I know why. by hal2814 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think I know why people are claiming that PC Gaming is dying. The old stongholds of PC game sales are constantly reducing shelf space for PC games in order to accomodate console games. Anyone remember back when Software Etc was a computer store with a small console game section (that usually only included fringe software line Lynx and SMS carts)? Now it's a console store with a shelf devoted to PC gaming. PC games are getting less shelf space in environments they used to own. That doesn't mean PC gaming is dying. It just means lots of advertising and massive amounts of shelf space aren't necessary to entice PC gamers. That one shelf of PC games that's left now at EB has about as many games as EB has ever had for the PC, only in a smaller footprint.

    1. Re:I think I know why. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have a point, EB and other retailers need more space for the amount of shitty console games that are pouring out. It might be heading to another game crash soon.....

    2. Re:I think I know why. by Evangelion · · Score: 4, Insightful


      The main reason this happens it that

      a) EB & Co. make so much more on preowned sales than new sales, that they do everything they can to give the preowned games shelf space.

      b) You can't sell preowned PC Games with any kind of success.

      c) Every console game they sell is a potential preowned game in the future.

      Therefore, EB & Co. aren't going to be pushing PC games nearly as much as console games (and even those, they give the better shelf space to the preowned section when compared to the new section).

    3. Re:I think I know why. by Rancidlunchmeat · · Score: 1

      That doesn't explain the same situation happening at Best Buy,though. They don't sell preowned console games. Last time I ventured to Best Buy, their three isles of PC games had turned into a single isle.

    4. Re:I think I know why. by ShibaInu · · Score: 1

      At the Best Buy near me there is a huge section dedicated to consoles - complete with a tent area where you can sit and play. The PC game section, on the other hand, is a row of shelves mixed in with the regular PC software. I'd say 80% of the titles are Quake 4, The Sims or WoW. I tend to buy games on a whim, and that is virtually impossible on the PC.

      I think there will always be a market for PC games. For many of us, spending $400 on a console just doesn't make sense given that we have a perfectly good computer at home.

      However, PC gaming suffers from a need to be on the bleeding edge. Civ IV seemed to need a gig of RAM and a kick ass video card just to play - which is crazy.

    5. Re:I think I know why. by jonwil · · Score: 1

      If the PC publishers would stop shipping games in bug huge boxes and move to shipping in, say, DVD or PS2 or XBOX sized plastic cases (which can still hold a couple of CDs and a reasonable manual and would be great for storage too), then they would be able to fit more PC games in the same space (or the same amount of PC games in less space)

    6. Re:I think I know why. by rrdm2k · · Score: 1

      That's already the case (sorry for the unintentional pun) in the UK where all PC games come in DVD style cases and have done for several years now. Unfortunately the shelf space dedicated to PC games and my beloved gamecube still seem to be dwindling in size compared to the PS2/Xbox/DS/360/PSP shelves.

      --
      "Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane." - H.P. Lovecraft
    7. Re:I think I know why. by Rancidlunchmeat · · Score: 1

      I have a 6800NU (128mb), and 512k of ram on a P2.4c and I can play the game on huge settings, with tons of AI. But.. it does get slow. Especially late in the game when there's a bunch of units all moving around (really bad on ocean maps with lots of AI boats roaming around). It'll take up to a minute between turns while the computer 'waits' for the AI to finish all their moves.

      So, it's playable, but definately needs more RAM. I've heard that in most cases, even 1 Gig isn't enough to get the game to run smoothly.

  7. I see dumb people. by imstanny · · Score: 1
    PC Gaming isn't dead. If it was, companies wouldn't spend millions of dollars on developing PC games. People say shit for the sake of saying shit. They don't bother to understand what they're talking about. Take me, for instance.

    The last part was, of course, a joke. I hope.

  8. PC Gaming is on it's way out... by EasyThereSport · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...so is food, religion, and pornography.

  9. Troll? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the parent give examples of games that continue to keep PC gaming thriving (while admittedly not listing a ton of others that also keep PC gaming thriving) and someone mods him as troll? wow. must be a pro-console/anti-pc mod. hopefully the metamod system will rectify that situation.

  10. Don't like the genre comment by HunterZ · · Score: 1

    Just read the summary so far, but I don't like the comment about having to make a causal or MMORPG game in order to make money. First, I think this is thinking inside the box; second, you have to realize that flooding the market with more and more MMORPGs is going to result in one or two big ones with lots of players, plus a hojillion small ones with not enough players to be fun.

    --
    Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
    1. Re:Don't like the genre comment by beakerMeep · · Score: 1

      How many jillions are in a hojillion again?

      --
      meep
    2. Re:Don't like the genre comment by HunterZ · · Score: 1

      A ho lot of them ;)

      --
      Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
    3. Re:Don't like the genre comment by Blurredplacebo · · Score: 1

      i think your missing a boom tish

      should i try the fish?

  11. Console gaming is dying. by MaWeiTao · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is ridiculous. These so-called experts are full of it. If anything, it's console gaming that's starting on it's path to extinction. First of all, those systems are slowly turning into PCs. Secondly, they have this desire to appeal to non-gamers, which is a market for more accessable via PCs. A non-gamer is far more likely to spend $40-$50 on a PC game than they ever would be to spend $200+ and another $50-$60 for the game. Third, computers are far more pervasive than consoles and I don't see that every changing.

    In fact, the main reason consoles have been sustainable thus far is because of all the effort the Japanese gaming industry has put into them. The glory days of consoles are fading. The PC has demonstrated itself a viable platform for gaming long ago. Consoles no longer have any hope of matching a PC's performance, at least not getting dramatically more expensive.

    I predict what we will see at some point is a real computing appliance, something with a simplified interface, but powerful enough that the average user can do everything he or she needs, and without needing to deal with the nuisance of installations and whatnot. They can pretty much drop in whatever media the computer uses and game just as easily as they would browse the internet.

    The only form of console gaming I expect to persist is portable gaming, and we'll see what form that takes as phones, PDAs and laptops slowly evolve. I don't even see how this is something that can be argued; what doubt is there that PC gaming is thriving? Didn't WoW just hit 5 million subscribers worldwide?

    1. Re:Console gaming is dying. by tulak_horde · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Consoles no longer have any hope of matching a PC's performance, at least not getting dramatically more expensive. Couple of problems here. I have 19" monitor and 25" tv. I should get a 25" monitor? Not likely. There's also the matter of affording a top end video card which is necessary for some PC games and certainly if you want those impressive graphics. Almost puts you over the top by itself over the price of the new consoles. That doesn't include that new processor you're going to want to make that machine really hum. A lot of people spend $1000 or more on a gaming rig these days. If you go cheap, you'll not only get less impressive effects, but you're also more likely to have hardware difficulties which brings about the final problem. If you're going to be a serious PC gamer, you better know about hardware. Nothing can be worse than a $650 or so computer not running a $20 game because this card or that chipset is not compatible. Then you patch, then you patch on top of that patch. PC gaming can be sheer madness and really only for real geeks.

    2. Re:Console gaming is dying. by Alcilbiades · · Score: 1

      Hogwash. Total and complete trash. To be able to play video games at full render you don't need the latest generation of video cards simply because of the cycle of video game design makes it impossible for them to develop a game based off of future hardware set ups except in the case of consoles, which have garunteed specs.

      However, the OP is correct the console gaming market is drawing to a close I would guess either the next generation or the generation after will just simply be a computer created by microsoft that is optimized for gaming the way mac's have always been optimized for movie editing etc. On your comment about your TV....you could buy a TV out card for your PC and play games on your TV, but you didn't think about that. Also, unless you have forked out a considerable amount of cash your TV's resolution will be significantly less than a 19" monitor can handle. Also, you will have to sit far enough away as the screen size becomes insignificant.

      The true glory days for he console were the original 8 bit NES the 16bit sega and Snes then the n64 and original PS. The PS2 and Xbox tried to be just striped down computers with only massive graphical ability. What do you think the xbox3 is going to be or the PS4?

    3. Re:Console gaming is dying. by tulak_horde · · Score: 1

      Yeah and most of what you just said comes from somebody who knows about computers. My point was and is that consoles are better for non-technical people. You buy the game, you put it in and it plays. It not always so simple with a PC, and if you don't know what to do, you'd best be reaching for the Tylenol even while you get on the gamer bulletin boards looking for answers because oftentimes the game companies themselves don't even know why a game is having problems on a particular set of hardware. I suspect like most Slashdotters you expect that all gamers are as tech smart as you are. You have to put aside everything you know for a minute and pretend you have just bought your first computer knowing squat.

    4. Re:Console gaming is dying. by BenjyD · · Score: 1

      Console gaming is perfect for attracting casual gamers. It's simple, there's no worrying about whether their computer has enough "gigahertz of RAM", no patching and no crashes. For a large part of their lifetime, a new console is around $99-$150: about as much as a new DVD player. They are well designed for social games: squeezing four players around a 15" PC monitor in a home office is no fun compared to sitting around the TV - the success of games like Singstar and Buzz shows that.

      Consoles are becoming much more a part of the mainstream now. Personally, I have a gaming laptop which will play most modern games fine, but I hardly use it any more because the good games are all on consoles. It's just a much a nicer experience on a console: 32" TV and a well designed, comfortable controller compared to fiddling around with the PC and using the carpal-tunnel inducing mouse.

    5. Re:Console gaming is dying. by MaWeiTao · · Score: 1

      That's true, and it's why consoles have thrived in Japan. On the other hand, who doesn't have a computer in this country? And how hard is it to install a game nowadays? It certainly isn't the ordeal it used to be in the early days of PC gaming.

      Put in a CD, wait for the autoplay to bring up the initial interface and click on "install". When it's done, double click on the icon the game puts on your desktop. That's the most work most users have to do.

      Consoles are certainly easier to deal with, but that isn't going to last long. Hard drives on consoles are slowly becoming the standard. They're turning into PCs, it's as simple as that.

      And you don't need the latest hardware to play any of the current games. Even at lower detail settings you still get better graphics than you'll find on consoles.

    6. Re:Console gaming is dying. by Alcilbiades · · Score: 1

      Can you honestly say that it is any easier to hook up a console than a PC. Now-a-days the only thing it takes to build your own computer and to install the software is the ability to read. Hell I could get my dad to build his own computer it would just take me convincing him that it wasn't scary then again he isn't going to be playing consol video games either. Face it the people who buy and play console games are between the ages of 14-30 for the largest portion of the market. The age limit will steadily increase as the NES user gets older but all of those people know how to opperate a computer.

      The BS about granny not being able to install computer games to play doesn't fly and as consoles are simply becoming dumbed down computers that are totally focused on graphical display they are ever so closely venturing into the computer realm. The new 360 has usb and all that jazz it has a mouse and keyboard you can use. Someone will probably even figure out how to put any OS you want on it. Lets face it even if we don't call the current generation of consoles PC's they already have all the hardware to be classified as such and soon they will have all the software to. Then it will just be a proprietary PC built by MS for gaming and will probably be integrated with other MS software suites via the internet.

    7. Re:Console gaming is dying. by tulak_horde · · Score: 1
      I never said anything about INSTALLING computer games. I was talking about the upgrading and patching you will have to do when you get some of the games. Let's face it, most computers you buy have integrated graphics which are not nearly good enough for most of the games out there. That's means buying a video card, and unless you speak technobabble, the only facts about the various cards that are going to be understandable is the price. Again, you guys are unable to look at it from the non-techie viewpoint. Even of those who THINK they know how to build a computer often find themselves lost. The internet message boards are full of complaints about their mobo melting down and other problems. You'll say those people didn't know what the hell they were doing, and that's the whole point. They don't get it so how could a noob? Screw it up and it could easily be hundreds of dollars down the drain, especially if you want that AMD64 processor or GeForce 7800GT card or such. Afterall, if you're building your own rig, you want the latest and greatest, right?

      No, consoles will not disappear because they just work with no patching, upgrading, etc.

    8. Re:Console gaming is dying. by Alcilbiades · · Score: 1

      Maybe you don't realize this but consoles are already computers. They just haven't been fully pushed into the PC category. the Xbox had hardware that was virtually identical to a computer I had built. The new xbox has the latest ATI card in it that isn't out on PC yet but will mostlikely be out shortly. The point is you are just wrong.

      People have problems buying crappy computers not because they don't understand technobabble. No one understands what a computer salesman is actually saying. The difference between someone that gets screwed on their computer purchase be it from purchasing a crap fully system or crappy parts is the lack of reading. It is not hard to go to google and look up the hardware you are getting in either case. It is not tech intensive. Don't make excuses for computer illiterate people when it isn't their computer literacy that is causing their problems.

    9. Re:Console gaming is dying. by tulak_horde · · Score: 1

      Looking up the hardware without knowing what all the specs mean is useless. Going to Tom's Hardware only clarifies things somewhat. You guys must really think the planet is inhabited soley by geeks. No doubt it's easy for you to put together a computer, but could you also rebuild a transmission, whip up a souffle, or grow award winning roses? If you can do all these things, than good for you. If you can't, then you maybe you really do understand the plight of the computer noob. I know emough about computers to keep them running and no more. Where I work, that makes me the "computer expert". I get questions about how to cut and paste, why is a website loading so slow, how to do I configure my email, etc. These are not questions from dumb people, these are questions from your average everyday computer users who really don't know enough to keep a computer running and need somebody around to make sure it all keeps running. God forbid they should get a virus. Now what you're suggesting is that people like this can build their own computers with just a little bit of research. You are dead wrong. They wouldn't even know where to begin, and more importantly, they would know better than to try rather than end up like those idiots in the hardware forums.

    10. Re:Console gaming is dying. by Alcilbiades · · Score: 1

      I would not pick you as a suitable person to be describing as able to keep a computer running if you don't know the difference between hardware and software. However, I could grow a rose garden, not award winning, but I could grow one. I could do minor repairs on my car and would know where to go to fix it if it was something I couldn't handle. The key being I can find places to get help. The difference between a car and a computer a quite large especially in the number of pieces of hardware that are envolved. I could also bake a cake or cook when needed, it just wouldn't be that tasty.

      The point is people need to know the basics if they don't they are keeping their heads in the sand. Also, for people that aren't getting to the twilight of their lives we have had computers in our life for longer than they weren't there. The people who actually buy these consoles are the same people that typically know their assholes from their elbows when it comes to computers. So, yes the console is slowly merging into just another home PC.

  12. New Declaration by tulak_horde · · Score: 1

    It's been reported that there's room for both PC and Console gamers on this planet...

  13. Hm by MrShaggy · · Score: 1

    "Im not dead yet.... I feel 'appyy.. oh so 'appy!'

    --
    I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
  14. Hype != Sales by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 1

    GP: "The best selling PC games are not FPS's."

    You: "They're the ones that seem to generate the most hype and flood the shelves of computer stores is all."

    1. Hype != Sales
    2. The boxes that have sold are not on the shelf, leaving the remaining boxes to be spread out and fill up the empty space. When you see a title taking up a lot of shelf space that may not be a good omen for the publisher.

    1. Re:Hype != Sales by Pxtl · · Score: 1

      "The best selling PC games are not FPS's" - that's misleading. FPS games might get the bulk of hte market share (dunno, haven't checked) but are not the best sellers simply because there is too many of them for any one to get market share. If Civ IV outsells FEAR, that does not mean that the 4X market is bigger than the FPS market.

  15. A. Sony, Nintendo. by AHumbleOpinion · · Score: 1

    who the hell keeps predicting that PC gaming is going to die anyway?

    Sony. Nintendo, and their entourage.

  16. It might not be dead... by petrus4 · · Score: 1

    but it can safely be considered in cryogenic suspension.

    Games like the recent Path of Neo debacle could be considered allegorical for the PC gaming industry having accidentally attempted suicide due to a heroine overdose. ;)

  17. Put a fork in it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    cuz its done!

  18. Done by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    hopefully the metamod system will rectify...

    I metamoderated it as "Unfair" a few moments ago.