Why DirectX 11 will save the video card industry and why you don't care

[shevanel]

This article is a few months old but as I sort of agree with alot of the opinions he makes. I don't know.. it's not the most exciting read.. but it really makes you think about how the gaming industry is really evolving into a "one size fits all" kind of mentality and it sucks.

Nintendo has realized that "good enough" is where the money is
Nintendo actually got it right. Wii all laughed at first but they're the ones who've staged the biggest comeback in gaming history because they figured the market out. They knew that yes HDTVs are awesome and cool, but most households in this generation (2006-2011) will only have one. The kids' rooms will all get the hand me down CRTs, and those are still standard def. So target them, and win the brothers and sisters and parents with interesting game designs that break the mold, following the successful experiment called the DS.

What happens to the industry when 3D game performance is as "good enough" as word processors have been?
But enough about the consoles, which continue to grow in dominance pushing PC gaming into single-digit percentages while publishers insult their customers with DRM and mandatory network connections for single player games. The PC market has long had this secret dark side that nobody wants to talk about, called gaming.

The audience is expanding to include more people who care less about graphics
One serious problem for the industry is that gaming itself is starting to have to reach towards the "casual" market to keep growing (see Nintendo DS or Wii if you're oblivious), and for those people Quake3 and Sims2 graphics are often "good enough" territory, much like upsampled DVDs. Last I checked Quake 3 ran about 60 FPS on two generations outdated low-end hardware (HD2400/GF8400) at any reasonable resolution (up to 2560x1600).

[Exeodus]

While I agree on some points, I can't believe ATI & Nvidia would continue to push performance if they did not believe that developers were interested in more than just "good enough".

[kurosagi01]

well i agree some of those points, but you need to remember if ATI&Nvidia followed the "Good enough" thing, then how would they continue to compete with each other and improve their market share?

If they stick with the "good enough" thing then they will stop all production of new GPUs and they will eventually close down because they would be making a loss because nobody would need to purchase any new gfx card.

Thats my opinion about it,also hardware market will completely change since they won't need to make any new hardware since they won't be required.

If i'm reading this wrong i apologise im abit sleepy

[erocker]

Originally Posted by shevanel

gaming industry is really evolving into a "one size fits all" kind of mentality and it sucks.

This is the result of a global economy and in all of it's aspects, things like variety get thrown out the window. This isn't a product of the gaming industry but rather a product of society itself.

[Exeodus]

The "one size fits all" is also because develops and publishers are trying to maximize sales potential by offering the game on as many platforms as possible. It is just not very cost effective to produce a game that only supports one platform. And because the consoles dont have the hardware that the PC does, developers have to reduce the graphic quality so lesser hardware can play the game.

[shevanel]

I cannot be certain of course but I think the NEXT gen of consoles to come out after the Ps3's and 360's will def cause more grief to the gaming world.. especially that of the PC.

[KieranD]

Originally Posted by erocker

This is the result of a global economy and in all of it's aspects, things like variety get thrown out the window. This isn't a product of the gaming industry but rather a product of society itself.

Variety! talking about variety i wish graphics card manufactures would stop making useless amounts of models of cards.

Its not about choice its about profit margins i bet the margins that used to be gained in the late 90s where much different than today's, i think its went up dramatically. The pc world was a niche market and in today's world they think about opening it up to others by lowering standards and making different types of games. The old pc enthusiast suffers because the publishers are no longer content with profit margins.

Infact its not so much opening a market for others, showing them the benefits and the choices its more like the publishers and developers changed the market to fit a new audience.

Greed and a changing world so yeah in some aspects it is society if you think about it, just a portion of society.

Everyone and their gran owns a wii or a ps3/360.

It used to be that console games where dumbed down ports of pc titles now its the opposite its games made for consoles ported to pc with nothing new to the table.

[AltecV1]

Originally Posted by shevanel

I cannot be certain of course but I think the NEXT gen of consoles to come out after the Ps3's and 360's will def cause more grief to the gaming world.. especially that of the PC.

pc gaming has been here for 25 years,it aint going anywhere

[KieranD]

Originally Posted by AltecV1

pc gaming has been here for 25 years,it aint going anywhere

Its definitely not but its going to be more streamlined in line with other hardware.

[kurosagi01]

this is why you will always see microsoft,sony and nintendo continue to make console to keep competing with the PC gaming.

[shevanel]

I don't believe theyre competing with PC's theyre competing against other consoles.

It's true that consoles make more money. More money = more interest in that platform.

there are usually 3-4 isles dedicated to console games at any store while Pc games sit on a shelf the size of the shelf the Wayne Newton Discography sits on.

[kurosagi01]

Originally Posted by shevanel

I don't believe theyre competing with PC's theyre competing against other consoles.

It's true that consoles make more money. More money = more interest in that platform.

there are usually 3-4 isles dedicated to console games at any store while Pc games sit on a shelf the size of the shelf the Wayne Newton Discography sits on.

yeah i agree about the shelfing for PC games is tiny in stores,every time i go to my game store i practically see a huge row of 360 game and other side is half of PS3 games and then in middle is Wii games and DS games.
Then PC has a tiny shelve that doesn't even have a lot of games in stock.

Then again if you think about PC in general, PC has bigger sale margin since everyone uses a computer and i'm pretty sure some of them uses it to play some flash games or something.

[KieranD]

They arnt competing with pc's because they think pc is just another platform to port too. Really its all about exclusives. The PS3 and 360 are undeniably similar to the point its all about exclusive games. Near every title is available on all systems and they look and play most of the time the exact same.

It used to be that pcs had a huge library of games titles, exclusives and superior ports (or the original version of a game that was then ported to other systems).

PC shelves are really small, they used to be the biggest. Plus tho is that pc games are cheapo these days compared to consoles.

SOON the only difference between consoles will be the brand and in house first party games.

[Benetanegia]

Originally Posted by shevanel

there are usually 3-4 isles dedicated to console games at any store while Pc games sit on a shelf the size of the shelf the Wayne Newton Discography sits on.

If that is true there, then I can believe one report that said that PC gaming was much stronger in Europe. At least in most stores that I have been, they have as many (if not more) shelves dedicated to PC as to any of the consoles (not combined, of course).

Except on the newly introduced (new here) Gamestop and Game stores, which are clearly console centric.

^^IMO that's the problem most other places suffered in previous years. Those stores are undoubtely bigger and most successful than the rest, because they belong to a bigger chain, because they have far more propaganda, etc. And since the very first day, they are console centric, when at least here, there was no reason to be so centric, because as I said, there were as many PC shelves as for any other platform (10-20 shelves) and they weren't full, people actually buy the games. And that's the problem, no one does anything for the PC. If a newly introduced store only promotes consoles and it happens to be Gamestop, obviously the market will move towards consoles, wanting or not. Because Gamestop WILL displace the other stores out of the market (already doing) and since they only (almost) sell consoles... Parents looking for a game will buy something from that tiny shelf or from the biggest one...

Another problem is that EA, Activision, etc have deals with Sony and MS and on TV commercials it's always ONE console version that is mentioned, ALWAYS. How does EA, Activision, etc. expect to sell anything on the PC if THEY choose which version is going to be sold from the start? And yes, they did an study here, and it was the version mentioned the one that sold better between XB360 and PS3. When the version mentioned is the PS3 one that version sells more and if it is the 360 which is mentioned that sells more.

HL2 was never announced on TV commercials, but the console version WAS, many years later. It's pathetic...

[phanbuey]

LOL the guy has completely lost perspective haha... he is talking about a totally different type of customer. Most people will never be PC gamers... But that market will grow just as the console market grows... without a doubt.

Just because HE doesn't care shows that he isnt a member of the target market... if a new game came out for the PC with quake 3 graphics ppl would laugh their &&* off and the company would fail. I dont know if you remember quake 3 graphics, but they were pretty sh**ty.

Plus in order to be "saved" you have to be in some sort of peril no? I really didnt think that the video card industry was losing money...