PC gaming is "dead"

kenjura

Apart from the ravenous success of certain MMO's, a lot of people are convinced PC gaming is dead. Never mind statistics, graphs, or charts. Who needs proof?

But a good point was raised. How can PC gaming be dead if XBox gaming is alive and well? Seriously, wtf. Every game for the XBox should automatically be available for PC...they're all guaranteed to work on Wintel boxes with Nvidia chips. Maybe Microsoft is at fault more than anyone; I mean, if Nintendo or Sony wants to steal PC gaming market share, fair play to them, that's just competition. But Microsoft kind of invented modern PC gaming with DirectX on Windows 95+. Why sabotage it now?


Oh, and, by the way: do any of you play console FPS games? Do you actually think they're good? Do you play fighting games with a joystick? Flight sims with a touchpad? MMO's with a remote control? I speak not of 3rd-person action games, like Devil May Cry, but of pure FPS ports, Goldeneye-style.

Rym

I played Goldeneye Goldeneye-style back in the day, and I tried Halo out a couple times at various cons and parties. I submit that playing an fps with any current-generation console controller is a wholly different game from one that uses a keyboard and mouse.

As for Microsoft, I'm inclined to believe the following: timely releases of Xbox games on the PC would kill the Xbox. There are games on the xbox I would probably play, but it's never been worth the cost of an Xbox to do so. Xbox Live is a good thing, but it pales before even the primitive systems that have existed for years on the PC.

I'd wager the Xbox would have faltered if there had been an alternate means to play its games. People would have bought a PS2 to play console games, possibly a GCN to play Nintendo games, and a PC to play Xbox and PC games.

Apreche

I think what it comes down to is that the XBox kills PC gaming. It is easier and more cost effective to play games on the XBox. So when all the games that would have been PC games started becoming XBox games PC game sales dropped big time. Why pay more for just a video card than for an entire game console to play the same games years after they come out? Why deal with patches, drivers, hackers and incompatabilities? I don't know if MS realized it but the XBox's slaying of PC gaming is what let me move to Linux.

I agree that different genres of game are more conducive to KVM as opposed to TV and gamepad. But some people play the gamepad type and our people play the KVM. It's seems to work for them at least.

It's true there are genres of games more conducive to PC play. But those genres are floundering. Name a space shooting simulation since Freespace. Name a PC joystick for sale now that doesn't suck.

Also, PC gamers are all playing MMOs now. I submit they are playing MMOs for so many hours that it is eating away the time they normally would have spent playing other PC games. When I played PC games I would sit at the PC play a few rounds of CS, a few NS and maybe some Civ. People who play MMOs sit down for hours and play one game.

PC gaming is not doing well. But there is still plenty of room to play existing PC games that are still good after years on the shelf.

thaneofcawdor

While I agree that PC gaming is not doing too well, I'd be very hesitant to declare it near death. I think it takes more than a passing glance at the subject to check its pulse. Being someone for whom PC games is my meat and drink, sure, it looks sickly when you see countless cruddy games like Postal 15: Big Machine Gun, or the Halo port. Saying that's a good indicator of the state of play is like saying films like Deuce Bigalow signal the end of the movie industry.

The truth is, perhaps the days of the megahuge titles are gone. So what? It wasn't enormous franchises that made PG gaming great. It was small innovations. Who had heard of Wolf3D until it came out? Was it a well-known IP with millions of customers waiting to snap it up? Nope. It got famous because it was innovative. And that's where PC gaming is heading again.

The past few game purchases I've made, including Starscape, Escape Velocity: Nova, and Flatspace, are all independent titles, selling for $10-20, each with a loyal, dedicated fan community. Compare that, to the last "big name" purchase I made X3: Reunion. What a bunch of crapwarez! For starters, it has Starforce copy protection, which I think caused my last DVD drive to die. Second, the game was buggy as all hell, CTDing constantly. And the game itself was shitful, but only because it was almost exactly like its predecessor, only prettier. If you go all accountant on it, cost-benefit analysis and such, I know which type of games I'd rather invest in - the ones that don't kill my hardware.

So, don't look at the surface of PC gaming, look a little deeper. That's the future.

Apreche

I'm totally with you on the cheap independent PC games. The one advantage the PC has is that anyone can make games for it. You need to have mad moneys and connections to make console games. I even recently bought Weird Worlds for $20 which is a great independent PC game. I still play it after many weeks, so it was definitely worth it. I hope more independent PC games keep coming.

The problem here is that while I think small independent PC games are going to do really well it's not enough to revive the PC as a big gaming platform. People are going to stop upgrading their PCs and stop getting fancy new video cards. Everyone is just going to keep using their normal old computers to play lots of tiny games. Don't think of it as complete death of all game playing on PC. But do think of it as death of PC gaming as it has been for the last decade.

thaneofcawdor

I think the point I wanted to make before I had to rush off was that the big guys, EA, Ubisoft, etc, may one day completely turn their backs on PC gaming. It probably won't happen, but it could. What would be left would be the indie guys, with a whole field open to them. That's when I expect the new EAs and Ubisofts will be born. The bloated, incestuous 600 pound gorillas of the market will make for pastures new, or die. The same thing happened with console gaming in the late early 80's, and it was probably for the best.

Or Vista comes out and destroys the PC market as we know it. Then Linux (or Mac) takes over, games and all. Either scenario is fine with me.