Is current gen console hardware pushing PC gaming sales?

[EastCoasthandle]

What's going on? PC Gaming Trends 2011

Just as the title asks do you think that current gen hardware is creating a need for more PC gaming? PC gaming today has expanded to web gaming, social online network gaming as well as including Macs. Mobile gaming looks to also be a serious contender in this market even though it's not pc specific. All of which seems to be taking a good size chunk out of the console market. The article above shows how consoles dominated up until 2009 but started to shrink there after.

 

[cheesy999]

What's going on? PC Gaming Trends 2011

Just as the title asks do you think that current gen hardware is creating a need for more PC gaming? PC gaming today has expanded to web gaming, social online network gaming as well as including Macs. Mobile gaming looks to also be a serious contender in this market even though it's not pc specific. All of which seems to be taking a good size chunk out of the console market. The article above shows how consoles dominated up until 2009 but started to shrink there after.

that and the fact that console games are overpriced, no one i know is getting MW3 because they don't want to pay £45 for something which is realistically just a over marketed expansion pack, the same is going to happen to a lot of series now a lot of new games coming out are all numbered 3 and 4

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Now this is interesting. I get the impression that you believe people don't think that consoles games are still worth the $60 price tag they once commanded when the consoles first came out. One has to wonder if current gen consoles have reached obsolescence? If so that would effect the premium price for games.

 

[cheesy999]

Now this is interesting. I get the impression that you believe people don't think that consoles games are still worth the $60 price tag they once commanded when the consoles first came out. One has to wonder if current gen consoles have reached obsolescence? If so that would effect the premium price for games.

No, the people i know just think the games haven't improved enough to be worth the $60 price tag, taking the COD series as an example, out of the 25 people i know own consoles, 2 of them own BO, about 14 of them own MW2, and they don't think there's been any change in the newer COD's. and as such, have no want to buy the new ones

They don't think the games are not commanding their price tag, they think the games are the same as the ones they already own, the newest game i own is GT5, and i waited for it to be £20 before i bought it, my freinds are only just upgrading to halo reach now it's down to £15

Short(er) Story: they don't think the games are improved/Have enough content, to be worth £40, some of my friends are getting gaming PC's after years on consoles, simply because the PC games are normally released around £25-30 instead of £40-£50, and that's a price they are prepared to play

EDIT:Steam is also a major reason most of the people i know are now buying game PC's, a lot of them now have steam accounts now for various reasons, and have seen the sort of prices steam charge, i don't have to say this, but they want those prices for consoles

 

[EastCoasthandle]

No, the people i know just think the games haven't improved enough to be worth the $60 price tag, taking the COD series as an example, out of the 25 people i know own consoles, 2 of them own BO, about 14 of them own MW2, and they don't think there's been any change in the newer COD's. and as such, have no want to buy the new ones

They don't think the games are not commanding their price tag, they think the games are the same as the ones they already own, the newest game i own is GT5, and i waited for it to be £20 before i bought it, my freinds are only just upgrading to halo reach now it's down to £15

Short(er) Story: they don't think the games are improved/Have enough content, to be worth £40, some of my friends are getting gaming PC's after years on consoles, simply because the PC games are normally released around £25-30 instead of £40-£50, and that's a price they are prepared to play

That's all part of obsolescence. Games haven't improved because the hardware isn't there to allow the games to look better or play better (higher frame rates, etc).

EDIT:Steam is also a major reason most of the people i know are now buying game PC's, a lot of them now have steam accounts now for various reasons, and have seen the sort of prices steam charge, i don't have to say this, but they want those prices for consoles

I wouldn't say steam alone. There is also social network games (Farmville) and web based games that people are taking an interest in that have nothing to do with steam. Take a look at the chart again. In the UK there are more retail purchases then online purchases. From my experience I had to ask the clerk at the local store to get a recent game out of the storage area at the back of the store just to get a specific PC game. How many times do people go through that effort just to make a purchase when it's not on the shelf? From what I've seen it' the lack of availability from retailers which is driving online gaming sales.

 

[kurosagi01]

Games are only worth their price tag if they meet your expectation of the game you was looking forward to.
Thats how i see it when i want buy games for their full price. I bought Dead Space 2 day 2 after its launch date for £45 on PS3 and i have to say i haven't had much fun in my life and make me want play it for hours on.
Games are worth that much to me are mainly games that would be rare and hard to find in country.
(All UK based from my own experience)
For example White knight chronicles 2 on PS3,when it 1st came out and in like 1 or 2 weeks no stores in UK has them in stock,not even used. I went to my local town centre Game,Gamestation in Northampton, CEX in Northampton,another Game station in my local shopping centre too. None in stock and i went Bullring last week for regular shopping and i couldn't find any copies of WKC2 either.
I can only find them on ebay or on the net like amazon,shopto and zavvi etc.
Also older gen PS2 games like Wild Arms 4 i saw in CEX for £15,also Ico for £18 in CEX. Zone of the enders 2 is also priced at 15 in CEX too i believe.
Its mainly japanese release games have a lot of rarity if you exclude shopping on the net.
The only problem i have is the whole "DLC" if their reasonable price sure but for like £10 for as little as 2-3 new map packs like on Black ops i don't want pay £10 for just 2-3 new maps.

 

[cheesy999]

That's all part of obsolescence. Games haven't improved because the hardware isn't there to allow the games to look better or play better (higher frame rates, etc).

another thing they want is more social games, me, and everyone i know (in real life, i'm not sure about TPU) couldn't care less whether you can fit 128 people into an online game, we just want things like 4 player split-screen, we also want games to go back to being actually hard, and not just hard because some stupid game designer put in bad controls or something, we found a shop selling old games on Sunday, and we now plan on buying some stuff, simply because we played an old copy of tekken on their PS1, and realised the stuff we stopped playing years ago was actually more fun then the new stuff we own

Summary of all my posts
To be worth £40 games need to be

1. On a slower release schedule
2. challenging so we don't race through them in hours, but challenging like the older 90's games were, not challenging like wii games because the controller doesn't work
3. have good controls
4. has to be sufficiently different from the last one in the series
5. And most importantly, need to be fun! (For some reason GT1 + 2 and the first few tekkens, are just nicer to play then the newer equivalents, think it because there are much less loading screens)

EDIT: 6:less loading and cut scenes, every moment i'm not playing the game is both a moment wasted, and a moment when i feel bored

 

[Delta6326]

I agree with that Console games just aren't worth $60 its way overpriced they need to be at $50. Games like CoD are getting boring and repetitive the only difference is maps.

I have been buying more PC games because they are Cheaper and Steam. Consoles need a huge update and i truly hope they get Radeon HD 5000series/newer or Nvidia 400series/newer.

Most of all the price for games is just to much.

 

[Syuzeren]

when my parents asked why i bought a gaming PC instead of a Xbox, i answered: it isn't the same experience and they are old.

Pc games give you more expirience with mods, better graphics, freedom to use both mouse/keyboard or a controler, they can be upgraded and the games are cheaper 350 DKK for a PC game and 550 DKK for a PS3 game.

 

[BondExtreme]

when my parents asked why i bought a gaming PC instead of a Xbox, i answered: it isn't the same experience and they are old.

Pc games give you more expirience with mods, better graphics, freedom to use both mouse/keyboard or a controler, they can be upgraded and the games are cheaper 350 DKK for a PC game and 550 DKK for a PS3 game.

Ditto... Even though a lot more PC games now are coming out at the $60 price tag, PC games tend to drop in price a lot faster than the console versions. FEAR 3 and Rift dropped dramatically after their first month of release. Even the FEAR 3's console versions were still at $60 then. lmao fail...

I understand that games should stay at $60 for quite sometime after they come out but unfortunately we don't see too many games like that anymore. I am sure though that the PC Star Wars title, The Old Republic will stay at $60 for quite some time which I don't have a problem with since the game is going to be HUGE and worth playing =D Not trying to sound biased but that's just my go at it.