Why is PC gaming not as big as it once was?

[Horrux]

It's simple. The greedy, un-imaginative shitheads who killed the music and movie industries are now major shareholders in the gaming business too.

They don't understand that gaming is about fun, and innovation.
All they want to do is make maximum profit, and that usually means cloning what is already making money.

You are right, they are a huge factor, and they are dumbing everything down. :shadedshu

 

[kalstrand]

I think part of the problem is that we are "stuck" at 1080 resolution. If we could get monitor manufacturers to push beyond the cheap 1080 solutions and get higher resolution displays at more affordable prices I think we would see a resurgence in PC gaming. Currently they can get the same graphics on their TV as their PC and the TV has a bigger screen. With higher resolutions there would be a clear improvement over console games and those people who want the best will migrate to PC.

 

[El_Mayo]

Okay I've written just over 500 words so far, and I've only covered the facts that PC gaming isn't as expensive as people think, the games are cheaper and the online services are cheaper and better
If anyone wants to help me edit/proof read it so far PM me, it'd be appreciated

I think it has to do with laziness. Sitting on the couch in the living room equals relaxing, whereas sitting in front of the computer equals working, in the minds of many people. Keyboards are "complicated" whereas a console controller is "simple".

Many times I have asked console gamers why they didn't game on their PCs and often got the response that "when I want to relax, I sit on my couch, not in an office chair"...

You could easily plug in an Xbox 360 controller for Windows though

It's simple. The greedy, un-imaginative shitheads who killed the music and movie industries are now major shareholders in the gaming business too.

They don't understand that gaming is about fun, and innovation.
All they want to do is make maximum profit, and that usually means cloning what is already making money.

blatantly talking about Call of Duty

 

[Horrux]

You could easily plug in an Xbox 360 controller for Windows though

Yeah but, not sit on a couch... Monitor is too small, FOV is made to be close to the display, etc.

 

[pantherx12]

Yeah but, not sit on a couch... Monitor is too small, FOV is made to be close to the display, etc.

You can get 120hz tvs with 5ms response times these days.

Now I'm not saying it's as good as a monitor but consoles gamers play at 30fps @less than 720p upscaled anyway so it will still look epic eh?

 

[MRCL]

I own eight consoles. I own several PCs. I enjoy a few genres more on a console (racing, beat 'em up), and some more on a PC (strategy, shooters, simulations).

The thing is that in the old days, consoles had their games like Mario and Turtles and such, fun games that the PC didn't have. In turn, "we" had Half Life etc. Nowadays, both platforms have more or less the same games; save for a few console exclusives, every console game exists on PC, too. So people often take the easy route of pop the disc in and play. That console games, at least where I'm form, are much more expensive doesn't seem to bother anyone. Speaking of easy route; simply popping the game in and play is gone, too. Installing on the console, mandatory updates, shovelling stuff off the HDD because its clogged... very PC like.

I like to state an example. I bought Dirt 2 for PS3 and enjoyed it. Then I got a 5850 with a free Dirt 2 code for PC. Faster loading times, much better graphics, all advantages. Same with Portal 2 which I own for PS3 and PC. PC is just superior in every way.

What you don't have to forget is that what you are told doesn't necessarily mean its correct. Most of the news agencies here say PC is dead, and in the same sentence they say its all about Angry Birds nowadays, who needs something else.

In my opinion it needs both consoles and PC, with the PC always being on top. Just see modding. Games like Minecraft. Goddamn mouse and keyboard to direct your Sim around, not a fiddly thumbstick.

Multiplayer offline (I like splitscreen, bring it more often damnit) is far more fun on consoles. Beating each otehr up on the bed (or pillowfight with the girl which ends up almost always with sexytime) over Mariokart64... I have gotten laid because of that game once for above reasons. Coop-shoot your way through levels in Army of Two with your buddy besides you sharing some beers... not possible on the PC.

They HAVE to coexist. But they share too much in common these days which hurts both.

 

[RoutedScripter]

One of the great false points of the "PC decline" is the misinterpretation of statistical data.

Everyone of those publishers rely on statistical percentual data ....


The point is .... PC got bigger all the time , it's just the console overshadow got a lot bigger because many many people came into markets , pleople who totally casual.



Why the consoles appear to be more "popular"

-casual-targeting marketing
-consolization of PC franchizes


THe industry created this trend by them selfs , many smaller companies followed suit or folded the aquisition offers - it's their fautl and they blame piracy which has in the reality promoted smaller games with no marketing getting attention and a fanbase.

 

[MilkyWay]

I think there are more computers these days so probably more people playing pc games but its just due to the fact there are less pc exclusives for various reasons.
Back in the day it was a relatively niche hobby being a pc gamer and enthusiast.

EDIT: Consoles used to have arcade type games and was the choice for local co op now with the availability of internet connections and consoles having online systems yeah its impacted a lot on local co op. The pc used to have the RTS games and FPS games that took a while to complete youd have to sit down at a desk and take a while on it, consoles only really had long RPGs that compared to that. You dont get those adventure games really these days either its all 3rd person action or some RPGs.

PC gaming was always pushing the limits of hardware so developers stuck to either consoles or pc now they just port everything to anything they can to maximise profit.

 

[qubit]

I've got to write an article for Media coursework and this is the topic I've chosen to write about
I aim to cover "the glory days"(?) of PC gaming, and myths surrounding PC gaming that other people/console players have about the system that puts them off it etc. etc.

I just want other people's opinions on the subject, so I have some opinions to write about etc.

p.s. I really hope people don't start arguing on this thread

I'd say it's an unfair comparison. You're comparing three console platforms to just one PC platform. It's not surprsiing that it's "bigger". Any one of those consoles has a smaller market than the PC.

There's other factors too, of course: console versions of a game sell for significantly more money than the equivalent PC version. A decent gaming PC costs way more than a console, which has a significant effect.

Also, a PC requires much more tuning and maintenance. With a console, you just insert the disc, wait a few seconds and away you go. With a PC, you can often hit driver issues, Windows issues, patches issues etc. Man it can be a pain. However, you also have the flexibility to significantly alter/tune your video settings, which will be way beyond the capabilities of the clueless console gamer.

The big payoff of course, is superior performance and special effects - where a game isn't a straight console port. Crysis 2 with the latest patch and awesome DX11 effects comes to mind here.

 

[seronx]

These are 2010 pictures but they show one obvious flaw

The PC Market doesn't shrink but grows constantly

Growth can shrink but that doesn't mean it is dying that just means the market is stagnate but the PC market is never truly stagnant there is always better computers

Where consoles are stagnant and keep everything to the level introduced they harm the gaming market but make it easily acceptable

The PC Market evolves the games

While the Console Market simplifies the games

 

[Hotobu]

http://gamerdood.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Units-Transparent.png

http://gamerdood.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Revenue-Transparent.png

These are 2010 pictures but they show one obvious flaw

The PC Market doesn't shrink but grows constantly

Growth can shrink but that doesn't mean it is dying that just means the market is stagnate but the PC market is never truly stagnant there is always better computers

Where consoles are stagnant and keep everything to the level introduced they harm the gaming market but make it easily acceptable

The PC Market evolves the games

While the Console Market simplifies the games

LOL @ out of context graphs. First of all it's impossible to measure PC "units" because there's no way to count them. How do they distinguish between library and school computers, and those at government institutions, and even then how do you distinguish a home "unit" at someone's grandma's house vs. one for actual gaming?

As for revenue this is also a bit nebulous. WOW and other subscription based games make a huge amount of revenue, but that doesn't speak to the feasibility of being a company in the market.

 

[seronx]

LOL @ out of context graphs. First of all it's impossible to measure PC "units" because there's no way to count them. How do they distinguish between library and school computers, and those at government institutions, and even then how do you distinguish a home "unit" at someone's grandma's house vs. one for actual gaming?

I only counted those PC’s that have a dedicated, DirectX 10+ graphics card. This should narrow the field to only PC’s used for gaming or industrial graphics. Units are in millions.

As you can see, the computer with advanced graphics is far more plentiful than any console. Computers here have 65% of the market, with 340 million units. Nintendo’s Wii comes in a far second, with 84 million units. The Xbox 360 has 50 million units, and Sony’s Playstation 3 accounts for only 48 million units. These numbers are current as of January 6, 2011.

PC sold 350 Million Units with DX10+ Graphics

As for revenue this is also a bit nebulous. WOW and other subscription based games make a huge amount of revenue, but that doesn't speak to the feasibility of being a company in the market.

Let’s next look at gaming revenue for 2010. If we plot how much revenue each platform generated, we should see a more correlative spread. This will let us know, generally speaking, the popularity of each platform in terms of games purchased. Units are in billions.

PC Earns more and making an MMO usually yields greater returns than releasing a new game every year that is basically the old game with better programming

 

[entropy13]

A bit OT I guess, but still relevant. Western companies, in this case gaming companies, have now been stuck in the McKinsey way of doing business. If you ask them, "what are you going to do with this market?" they'll answer, "see maximum profit as much as possible." and not "see as much profit as possible for as much utility as possible for as many consumers as possible."

 

[Hotobu]

PC sold 350 Million Units with DX10+ Graphics

So what? Unless I'm mistaken DX10+ Just means that the machine has Vista or Windows 7.

PC Earns more and making an MMO usually yields greater returns than releasing a new game every year that is basically the old game with better programming

Which is exactly my point. A few games making a large revenue doesn't hint at a larger market. For instance if 3 billionares were to live in a medium sized town where everyone else are middle and lower middle class that town would qualify as "one of the richest towns in America" in terms of total worth of its citizens, but that hardly speaks to what the worth of the typical citizen is.

 

[entropy13]

Which is exactly my point. A few games making a large revenue doesn't hint at a larger market. For instance if 3 billionares were to live in a medium sized town where everyone else are middle and lower middle class that town would qualify as "one of the richest towns in America" in terms of total worth of its citizens, but that hardly speaks to what the worth of the typical citizen is.

MMO-wise though, Western MMOs are a minority. Those "few games" making a large revenue are made by companies (usually Korean, sometimes Chinese) that don't make other games except those MMOs.

And are there really "a few games" (MMOs)? By my count there are at least 20 already. Well unless you're in Asia I guess then there won't be a lot of MMOs.

 

[RoutedScripter]

In order to play PC games you have to:

-have time
-be an expert
-past knowledge


And all that makes the market smaller - why - because nobody above 30 is on the PC like a big geek - or they just don't have time and see games as "childish" to not be embarrased.

But the most point i'll ever say ... is this, grown up people never brag what and when they play they do it privately and that means no interaction with the internet people either - kind of invisibile customers.


You don't expect some non-techy people from down the street to be playing PC games - as those people are mostly very controllable by the media which obviously directs them to the consoles and all those money wasting stuff.

 

[RoutedScripter]

Oh of course the other factor is that PC community grow up ... but yes, another big factor ...

... whihc is a psychological one, the oversaturation with all these games is definitely a downside and one of the most important things is the wow factor ... nobody expects a game that can replay the success of those in the golden age - nobody expects any big game that all the world would see like !WOW what's poosible! .... there's no more that - there's too much games so much ideas already so much of it is known that people are used to and it's not any GROUNDbreaking thing it's nothing this generation would see as not coming - we have much more imagination ourselfs that the industry can produce because it's just how wrong they operate.


Ofcourse ... hail to the master - there is one game left that can potentially do this, and that game is Doom 4.

 

[Horrux]

In order to play PC games you have to:

-have time
-be an expert
-past knowledge


And all that makes the market smaller - why - because nobody above 30 is on the PC like a big geek - or they just don't have time and see games as "childish" to not be embarrased.

But the most point i'll ever say ... is this, grown up people never brag what and when they play they do it privately and that means no interaction with the internet people either - kind of invisibile customers.


You don't expect some non-techy people from down the street to be playing PC games - as those people are mostly very controllable by the media which obviously directs them to the consoles and all those money wasting stuff.

I think you are extremely, totally, and completely wrong about this. As a matter of fact, I am a gamer above 40 years old, and my clan has a number of 40+ players. My WIFE plays BFBC2, STALKER and just about every game out there and she's 40+. How many women in their 20s play? And yes, on PC.

We see consoles as children's toys and PCs are for grown-ups. My previous clan was for 40+ only and there are a number of such out there. The PC gaming community is much more mature than that of the consoles, I would wager on that. That 40+ gamers do or don't talk about gaming in the office at work is debatable, but online they are very active. My clan didn't advertise being for "old 40+ people", it's just "a clan". Yet, half the members are 35 and above... How?

 

[Widjaja]

More of the people I know personally are Console gamers but also own PCs because their PCs regardless of being newer than their consoles, are a pre-built POS which is only good for low gaming on low graphics and the consoles are simpler to use for them.

 

[Hotobu]

MMO-wise though, Western MMOs are a minority. Those "few games" making a large revenue are made by companies (usually Korean, sometimes Chinese) that don't make other games except those MMOs.

And are there really "a few games" (MMOs)? By my count there are at least 20 already. Well unless you're in Asia I guess then there won't be a lot of MMOs.

You're still not understanding. First of all 20, compared to the hundreds of games per console is a few. Furthermore MMOs are fantastic for generating revenue because of obvious reasons. This skews the revenue towards the PC side as 1 mediocre performing MMO can generate the revenue of several A+ titles. Part of the reason for the confusion is that the op doesn't explicitly define what he means by "big."

Total players is one thing.
Total revenue is another.
Developers in the market that are able to sustain profit is another.

Right now I'm speaking moreso about the latter. Looking at total revenue isn't a good indicator for how easy it is to take a dive, or make a splash in a market. You have to look at how all of the players are doing.

 

[RoutedScripter]

I think you are extremely, totally, and completely wrong about this. As a matter of fact, I am a gamer above 40 years old, and my clan has a number of 40+ players. My WIFE plays BFBC2, STALKER and just about every game out there and she's 40+. How many women in their 20s play? And yes, on PC.

We see consoles as children's toys and PCs are for grown-ups. My previous clan was for 40+ only and there are a number of such out there. The PC gaming community is much more mature than that of the consoles, I would wager on that. That 40+ gamers do or don't talk about gaming in the office at work is debatable, but online they are very active. My clan didn't advertise being for "old 40+ people", it's just "a clan". Yet, half the members are 35 and above... How?

That "30" was meant to be 50 .... typo

What i mean to say is that it's not that old .... it's getting but it's not like right now.

 

[Hotobu]

That "30" was meant to be 50 .... typo

What i mean to say is that it's not that old .... it's getting but it's not like right now.

Still seems a bit flimsy. I doubt there are many 50+ gamers at all. Actually if anything it seems to me like these would be the people most likely to be on a PC. While the younger generation is more prone to be tech savvy there's also the chance that they grew up being inundated with a console culture. The people who are around 50+ would be the people who were playing Amigas in college and have been gaming ever since. The post late 70s early 80s videogame crash gave way to a bunch of younger players.

 

[Horrux]

Still seems a bit flimsy. I doubt there are many 50+ gamers at all.

I know a few, but yeah, there are less 50+ gamers. This has to do with one thing, the age they were when computers and video games were first introduced. Someone who is 51 today was 21 when the first personal computers became available, so they grew up without any digital entertainment at all, whereas anyone in their early 40s or younger likely had computers around them, or at least had some kind of experience of them before they became adult. And of course as you go down in current age to 35, 30, 25, and so on, the widespread-ness of computer and electronics use at an early age increases.

But that doesn't mean that as people turn 50 they stop gaming. That would be just total nonsense. I am 43 and I will game until I am too old to do so, which means a LONG ass time. I'll probably still game in my 80s and beyond. There is just no reason not to. I'm sure my generation will keep gaming forever, and every generation after that. So in 10 years you will have good numbers of gamers in their 50s, and in 20 years in their 60s, and in 30 years in their 70s, and so on.

Oh, and believe me, older gamers don't use children's toys, aka consoles.

 

[Sir B. Fannybottom]

I don't see whats wrong with that though, people who are into fashion will say ''You're stupid, you can get better clothes then that if you pay more''. But that's just it, i don't want to pay more for clothes because i don't care about hot new clothes.

You can't blame people for not being interested in something that you are, it doesn't make them stupid, they just don't care.

I'm not saying they are, I'm saying that most of my friends (14-16 year old boys) play xbox, I ask them why and they simply say "it's easier and cheaper" While that is true, for $500 you could make a decent rig and get a screen. Where if you want a xbox you spend $300 on that, and you're probably going to get a extra controller, ($70) A headset($20) and XBL time cards ($60 per year) That's $450 for one year, where that computer for $500 you would be fine with it for 4-5 years, depends on how much games change. And for it being easier, that I have to give them, because learning all these sockets, and companies and what thermal paste is better by how much is kinda hard.

 

[JrRacinFan]

I'm not saying they are, I'm saying that most of my friends (14-16 year old boys) play xbox, I ask them why and they simply say "it's easier and cheaper" While that is true, for $500 you could make a decent rig and get a screen. Where if you want a xbox you spend $300 on that, and you're probably going to get a extra controller, ($70) A headset($20) and XBL time cards ($60 per year) That's $450 for one year, where that computer for $500 you would be fine with it for 4-5 years, depends on how much games change. And for it being easier, that I have to give them, because learning all these sockets, and companies and what thermal paste is better by how much is kinda hard.

Ever think of functionality and possibly getting a career in PC hardware/software? I guess that thought never occurred to them? From a strict gaming point, PC still has got it over console. Ease of use, maybe but far superior hardware yes definitely but will we ever stray away from ports again, who knows "Why is PC gaming not as big as it once was?" ports & poor coding to rush a title.