The Sky is Falling -The Death of PC Gaming @ bit-tech.net

Squeek said:

I'd call that a good argument for the sky falling, so to speak. So we're not serious gamers -- console players are serious gamers. That's the view of the folks making these games?

Myself, I'm ready to concede that consoles are cutting edge. But I would ask which edge. There must be another edge around here somewhere. Because some of the folks here and at other places like this are pretty serious gamers.

Let's hope the market for PC games is viewed differently in the near future.

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Actually, by the standard I'm using, you guys aren't serious -- you're hardcore.

A serious gamer is swayed by the game getting a primetime commercial, by new advances in graphics, and by the game winning awards like Game of the Year.

A hardcore gamer is actually hitting the forums and finding the games in his or her genre that nobody else knew about. A hardcore gamer is reading about the rules system before the game is even out. A hardcore gamer is complaining about things that the non-hardcore gamers never even notice.

Serious gamers are large in number, but fickle. If your company released a hot title last year, they may or may not connect it to the hot title you're releasing this year.

Hardcore gamers are fewer in number, but they will remember your prior triumphs and missteps. And based on past sales evidence, they are almost always willing to give a trusted developer another chance -- if they have the ability to play a game, they'll get it, even if they have issues with something.

Mass Effect was marketed as serious-to-hardcore. We wanted the people who play games of the year, and we wanted to get console-RPG fans as well.

Dragon Age will also be serious-to-hardcore -- remind the RPG fans that it's not all action-RPG third-person-shooter stuff at BioWare, but also make a flashy-enough game to pull in the people who only buy a few big games per year.

Sonic will be casual-to-serious -- a friendly and easy-opt-in game for younger gamers, although hopefully with enough depth that older gamers who don't mind playing a game written for tweens will enjoy the system.

I'm not in marketing, so I'm probably explaining this poorly.

Yawn! PC gaming is alive and well, just different than it was 15 years ago. There are fewer titles, but the ones we have are better. There are more console ports that nobody buys, so what's new? I think the big news is the burgeoning indie and European markets.

I don't know that the the ones we have are better. Graphically maybe, but It's been since BGII that I've found an RPG that really grabbed me dragged me in content wise. NWN2 OC was close, but the third chapter was a letdown.

I never would've thought that someone would call me a "hardcore gamer".

That's a new experience to me.

They probably DO want the PC industry to fail, as they charge more for, and undoubtedly make more on console games which do not usually drop in price as quickly as PC games either.

e.g. look at all the shovelware crap that comes out for the DS and sells for $30 a pop, when realistically it's worth $0 - 15. (Although I'm sure that the DS costs are higher as they still use cartridges, which Nintendo has to manufacture, undoubtedly costing significantly more than a UMD or DVD pressing.)

Consoles? Cutting edge? Hardly. On paper they're cutting esdge while in development, but with the last several generations by the time they hit the shelves they're at best on par with commodity PCs if not behind already, and since they're relatively static entities nothing will change that until the next generation console is released, from a hardware standpoint. Also the more "cutting edge" consoles are getting to be ridiculously expensive for what they are, namely a toy. While the XBOX360 has come close to reasonable pricing now, the PS3 is still enough that I could build a decent PC for the same price or do an INCREDIBLE upgrade based around an existing PC, whereas with the console I currently expect that I'd have to dish out another $600(maybe more) for their next generation and all it can do is play games, many of which end up being better on the PC anyways, or at least those with SDK.

*snip*

cutterjohn said:

and undoubtedly make more on console games which do not usually drop in price as quickly as PC games either.

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I agree in so far, as the prices of second-hand console games are still relatively high - so high that shops selling second-hand games *almost only* sell console games here in Germany - with very little PC games.
(And most of all Playstation 1 games).

Meaning: The value of console games remains relatively high during a long period of time.

There's always the impression too that PC games are far more open to piracy than consoles. There's a reason that Nintendo made the N64 a cartridge system. They willingly shot themselves in the foot with the limited memory and higher costs of cartridges. Certainly games are copied and downloaded, and the new consoles can be modded and chipped but I would guess that's a fraction of systems out there - after all they risk losing a $300 and up system when they do the latter.

In the case of PC's, you can copy, download and play on the system. For the console, you'll need a separate PC to do all that.

Yes, right.

Everybody has a computer nowadays and dvd-burners are very cheap. I know lots of people who have always copied all of their xbox/ps2 games. Installing the mod chip isnt that hard btw. There are good instructions and its quite simple.

As for newer consoles atleast for ps3 you dont even need to mod it.

Similar-themed article on the web site of the German magazine "PC Games":
http://www.pcgames.de/aid,632085/Spezial/Die_unendliche_Geschichte_PC-Spiele_haben_ausgedient/
It has 4 pages. It mainly consists on statements from companies in the "gaming business".

And another similar-themed article on the web site of the GErman magazine "Gamestar" :
http://www.gamestar.de/magazin/report/das_ende_des_pcs_/1476123/das_ende_des_pcs_.html

I found both an interesting read.