The unknown future of PC gaming....

[wahdangun]

I think that consoles will dissapear after the next generation or this one if they don't release a new one soon. Wireless display technologies as a mainstream solution are just around the corner so we are going to be able t see our PC in any screen on the house. The integrated graphics are going to get better and better to the point were they will be able to produce graphics that are good enough for most people except enthusiasts and on the CPU side of things they are already powerful enough to drive advanced games, 6 cores will be mainstream soon and anything more than that overkill for what we now know as gaming. Even smartphones will be powerful enough for most people (and remember that you would be able to wirelessly output to the TV and have any wireless device as an input for the phone too).

Then there's Windows 8 for ARM that will open up the door to Windows gaming on portable devices, etc.

Enthusiasts will always want more and that can only come from advanced PCs and that will stay, but consoles which are something in the middle will just dissapear IMO. If anything Sony's and M$'s consoles division will morph into PC OEM companies dedicated to creating PCs (taking into account the new definition for PC, which includes tblets, phones and who knows what comes next).

So, there will be the mainstream market, which will play from Facebook and the like in their basic computers (for the time), maybe even tablets or smartphones, except those games are going to be far more advanced than current consoles anyway.

And there will be the enthusiast PC market driving innovation. I don't see a place for consoles in the middle of those markets. Everyone needs a PC and if the basic PCs have all the functionality of a console and are just good enough for gaming, I don't see any market for consoles.

So where does that leave PC gaming? Well here is more hoping than based on facts, but I think that once the enthusiast and mainstream gaming markets belong to the same platform, developers will find a way to make games better scale between mainstream solutions and enthusiast PCs, considering that the OS, APIs and underlying hardware are the same.

Game companies like Zynga and Popcap are already making more money than "standard" companies. PC gaming is here to stay, while consoles fade away, the only question is if enthusiast PC gaming stays, and I do think it will stay at least for another 10 or 20 years, or until games are completely realistic (holodeck), whatever comes first.

yeah good point, especially after seeing sony move on playstation phone certificate maybe some day there will be a Playsation PC certificate lol

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I mostly plays mod, such as MWLL, Neotokyo, Dystopia and stuff like Red Orchestra. Doubt I will see any of them on console.

you played Neotokyo too? so did i for a short while

 

[GSquadron]

The worst thing here is that i like much more this prince of persia:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz6yYVLXqnI
than this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxzZ4JBoGok&feature=fvst
Or this Tomb Raider here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyW3-cCdc0Y
than this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoB7Wa48oDs
Because now the video games are made even for STUPID people.
Even they can play them and buy them that is the important point
I really miss the old games and they will never come back for sure
Also if dragon age origins is an epic game nowadays than you surely have not played
the great old vagrant story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU_GbSQxMDc
They killed vagrant story in order to achieve its money from final fantasy
The second one is just a dream:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuxSGvFTHeE

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Yay it's that time of the month again and another "What wil happen tp PC gmaing" thread

Seriously these are coming up on a monthly basis and have been doing since I have been member here and a long time before. If anything PC gaming is on the up not on the decline. But I suppose we have to have something to fill the forums up with stuff for people to debate even if it is the same old crap

Yes PC games are not the same as they where, nor are bloody console games for crying out loud if you want old games go download dosbox or a few emulators and reminisce until your hearts content, heck I still play emu's and have great fun doing so, though still love a lot of modern PC games that a) look a shit load better on the pc than any console games and b) have dedicated servers/mod support etc. There are still good pc titles out there, just cause all of them are not good and there are console ports and shitty games about doesn't mean the end of pc gaming

/topic

BTW never mind the end of the pc gaming industry its 2012 next year, you should be more worried about the world imploding and taking you with it

 

[KainXS]

Yeah, there is still cash to be made from PC gaming. But console gaming is bigger right now. BTW, I'm not trying to defend console gaming or anything. I used to love PC gaming!
auto


LOL

traitor

Gotta Agree Aleks a good example is what happened to FF on the consoles all you have to do is hit autobattle to win for half the game and then watch a scene,

if the world blows up, at least consoles will be gone too . . . . . lol

 

[erocker]

I never believed this theory that PC gaming is dead. It's something that is always brought up without looking at the history of video games. Check this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_consoles

Game consoles have been around just as long as PC's have been around. Console games have been made as console games just as long.

 

[exodusprime1337]

more money is the name of the game for game developers.. consoles bring in more money thus they get dibs on games, we still get the games often with equal or better quality than our console counterparts. We also get things like a huge mod community(natural mod for crysis) that make some games we get absolutely incredible. MMO's are another big pc venture, it's nice having those for the pc and they'll probably stay with the pc for some time. I have no problem with consoles getting first dibs on development time, i'd rather have the game later or with slightly less quality than not at all.

 

[Benetanegia]

more money is the name of the game for game developers.. consoles bring in more money

That is not true. It's not inherently true, they made it be that way, and for the fact that stupid console gamers were always willing to pay $10-15 more for the same game and pay full price for what is essentially an expansion. The average PC gamer is more mature and wise than the average console gamer and I guess that's what they hate. Pure marketing and no talent works perfectly on consoles where they can sell garbage just because it was announced on TV, but for the PC they have to create a good game or it will not sell as well and it will only sell for as much as it's worth. That is what publishers hate, not how many copies they can sell. Ptentially they can sell much more on the PC and in fact PC games used to outsell most of third party console games in the past. It's the same in the movie and music industry, they don't want to base their sales on actual talent, because finding and retaining talented people is difficult and they can go away as soon as they realize the publisher is simply stealing from them. They want people and products they can just market on the TV and replace them when they start asking for too much, etc. In fact forget about the people, they're not people they are products too.

Make a game be worthwhile for the PC and it will sell just as well as on consoles. But the fact is that there's litterally only 10(?) games worthwhile for PCs in the last 5 years? How can anyone conclude that games sell more on consoles than on PC if you have never created a PC game to begin with? A console game will obviously sell more on consoles. No one wants to emulate console games on our PCs and that's what we get... (i.e. Left and right weapon slots on Bulletstorm WTF?)

Also when will they include digital sales? Last year 50% of PC sales were digital.

 

[Fourstaff]

I think there is no way strategy games will be better in consoles unless they actually use keyboard and mouse, and there is always the casual crowd (read: Farmville) which will not allow PC gaming to die (in an ironic sense, probably).

Personally, I think there is still plenty of life in PC games, while its days as THE gaming platform is gone, it does not mean that its on its way out anytime soon. I think its appropriate to quote Arnie: "Ill be back"

 

[Deleted member 67555]

I still remember thinking Pc gaming was over when EA bought Origin.....in 1992
Worst mistake in the History of PC gaming....If Chris Roberts wouldn't have sold EA would be nothing more than small foot note...

Wing Commander was the PC cash cow from 1990-1998

 

[Jack Doph]

It may be pertinent to point out here, that the original question by the OP wasn't about the death of gaming on PCs, but if there was anything revolutionary going to happen regarding games on the PC - games that truly stand out and make a real difference to the junk we've been exposed to lately..

 

[Deleted member 67555]

Of course that will happen but it wont be anything your expecting or maybe it will...Such as 3D gaming on a PC with the Kinect....

 

[Jack Doph]

I doubt 3D will add anything other than eye-candy though..

 

[Deleted member 67555]

See I think part of the problem is people aren't seeing the advances anymore because thet are jaded...

Take Black Ops...The mechanics of that game are 3x more advanced than that of MW1 but MW1 gave us such a better Multiplayer experience....Both imo opinion make the game but nobody seems to notice those kind of advances....We may not being seeing the next evolution in just ONE game but we are seeing it in every new title

 

[HalfAHertz]

Something else that should be mentioned is that designing games for consoles is easier. It's easier from the perspective that you have a fixed hardware, there are no variations unlike on the PC side. You know exactly how much memory you'll have to work with, how much cpu and GPU horsepower you have. There is a limited number of things that can go wrong and your testing phases will be much shorter. On the PC side you have to test for two graphics vendors, you have to test with different hardware combinations, then with different software combinations then with a mix of both and ton top of that you'll need to invest more time into developing "redundant" things like advanced graphic settings, higher quality textures, variable LOD, etc. :]
So if you're game studio looking for the shortest way to cash in, you'll develop for consoles first and maaybe for pc afterwards.

 

[erocker]

Smartphones and tablets are going to ruin console gaming. Just sayin'.

 

[garyinhere]

Smartphones and tablets are going to ruin console gaming. Just sayin'.

I disagree... i see those as extensions for PC games like farmville and similar. A lot of people will bitch about me saying this but Farmville brought a lot of people to the PC gaming market and got them spending money. Smart phones is jst how you play when your not at home kinda like the gameboy. People still bought Nintendo's they jst wanted portable too.

 

[erocker]

I disagree... i see those as extensions for PC games like farmville and similar. A lot of people will bitch about me saying this but Farmville brought a lot of people to the PC gaming market and got them spending money. Smart phones is jst how you play when your not at home kinda like the gameboy. People still bought Nintendo's they jst wanted portable too.

It was more of a joke against a lame argument to begin with.

 

[cheesy999]

it will take years for that to happen i mean unless your in a place like korea where fast internet is cheap and is basically the same "quality" throughout many isp's its not really good, like If I use onlive at my house where i have decent internet here in the us i get a decent experience, a little lag, go to my brothers house in texas and his broadband is horrible,and its like that for alot of the isp's he can get.

i don't know how it is in the uk but I expect its better right

broadband in the uk has 2 options

ADSL: speed depends mainly on how close you are to the exchange, people in countrysides usually get less then 2mbs, towns and cities get 2-8mbs (real speeds not advertised)

about 45% in uk can get cable and then it varies between 20-100mbs

government paid for bt infinity which means number who can get cable is slowly growing

 

[GSquadron]

Smartphones and tablets are going to ruin console gaming. Just sayin'.

PC's are going to run console games. Consoles will never run PC games....
I don't mean games which are for both

 

[TAViX]

The future of PC gaming should focus more on the story. I don't care if it's a port or not, as long as it have a beautiful story line and gameplay. Mass Effect 1+2 is an example. Other games with awesome stories I don't know recently. Maybe Crysis... I used to love older games with crappy graphics (by today standards) but awesome story like Descent Freespace, DeusEx, Max Payne, Longest Journey, etc, etc, etc.....I want to see more of that now or in the future please.

 

[Jaffakeik]

The game future is one big R.I.P.
Because nothing lasts forever.

 

[HalfAHertz]

The game future is one big R.I.P.
Because nothing lasts forever.

Except Chuck Norris. He doesn't wear a watch - HE DECIDED what time it is.

 

[HookeyStreet]

The game future is one big R.I.P.
Because nothing lasts forever.

Ermmmmm, aren't you a massive console gamer also?

 

[ShiBDiB]

FPS on pc is dying..

Strategy, Sims, Sports management ETC.. just dont work as well on a console platform

Which is fine with me