These days there something that worries me a great deal. The articles I read on various websites about how PC gaming is slowly dying. Or how when I walk into a Best Buy, or EB Games, or any other electronic outlet there is a huge decrease in available options for purchase when it comes to software and PC accessories.
So I will get right into it then. Have any of you realized the lack of support for PC products as I have? It seems everywhere I go now the PC sections are getting smaller and smaller. When I walk into EB games or other similar shops they tell me now that they are phasing out PC games and that their entire PC inventory is on sale for discounted prices. I go to Wal-Mart and what used to be a two section isle has been converted into a 5 ft long shelf with 15-20 titles to choose from( unfortunately all priced wrong, and with the wrong stickers attached to the shelving units as is Wal-Mart’s standard operating procedure). I go to Target and find what used to be a sizeable selection of recent PC software and gaming titles reduced to almost nothing but again a 5 foot long shelf.
I used to have one good standby, COMPUSA which always had an excellent selection of PC Software, now out-of -business. Circuit city used to be pretty good, they to are now removing their PC Software inventory and everything is currently being marked down, and the best part, they are on their way out the door too, trying to sell out.
So with all the vendors and retailers removing PC stock(including performance parts and hardware) from their shelves where does this leave all of us?? Sure you can say the internet!! But that doesn’t help you when even most of our larger sites our trimming down their offerings as well. And what about the excitement you get when you get to pick up the box look at the graphics and read the titles description. There is a tangible sense of value when you are holding the box in your hands. All of this leaves me with a huge sense of worry. I know this must be disheartening for software programmers and game design firms out there trying to make a living.
I honestly have been a PC gamer almost my entire life, I used to play the first Wolfenstein and Doom games when they were on little floppy disk's. I have been playing Blizzards' games since the first Warcraft, and Unreal since it's first version. Command and Conquer when it looked like little green squares driving around in the snow
( those were tanks) and Wing Commander too. The first Mech Warrior games. I have played them all. I also collect the boxes and keep all of my games in their original boxes. I currently have 80 mint condition game boxes. I never pirated any of the games I have played, and I think pirating sucks. I believe pirated software is the number one reason why PC gaming is going the way of the dinosaurs.
My biggest concern comes however from the hardware side of the matter, as Nvidia and ATi are at war with each other trying to build the greatest graphics cards known to man, and many of us are willingly buying them, and stacking our computers with 4+ GB of ram, and quad processors and extreme cooling systems all to be able to play the newest games at the most maxed out graphics options. Many of know that our PC's are often times 5-10 times faster than even the PS3. It's actual graphics solution is based off of the Nvidia 7800 series GPU. Take (2) GTX280's and you could easily be 10 X faster on any current game on the market compared to the PS3.
But what happens to all of us if PC gaming DIES?? All of our hard earned money and time spent configuring and building the best machines our money can buy will be wasted. Where will our hobby go? Where will the desire to make an awesome gaming system come from, ...it wont. That’s just it, if PC gaming dies, there are many other markets soon to follow. The graphcis card market would crash for anything really above mid-level or entry level net surfing purpose GPU's and would revert back to integrated chips. High performance motherboard manufacturers would suffer, as would high end audio card makers. Many of the LCD manufacturers would see huge drops in revenue on anything larger than 1280X1024 screen sizes. Literally if PC gaming goes, the entire performance market would soon crash down as there would no longer be the demand from consumers for such high end components.
Recent articles involving the makers of Crysis, Titan's Quest, and now even John Carmack and ID software express they are switching their focus to consoles primarily because PC games just aren’t selling anymore. THE makers of Grand Theft Auto 4 and Mass Effect were within a hairs thickness of not releasing their games for PC this time around until the PC Enthusiasts spoke up. Console sales and gaming is wiping the floor with PC's and all the evidence supports this. But what about those of us who really dont like consoles, are we just a niche market now? I have a PS3 and honestly the only games I play are Need for Speed Carbon and Fight Night Round 3, I play PS2 games on my PS3 right now more than anything else in the PS3 library. Don't get me wrong I have 10 PS3 games, but problem is once you play through em thats it. They dont have the replay value that PC games have and dont require as much skill.
The point of my writing is to express grave concern for the PC gaming market, and to bring to light the fact that if you are "Pirating" software, you need to wake up and realize that you are killing your own favorite hobby. Many of us love our machines that we have worked for and built, and many of us use them everyday for gaming, internet, movies, and various other uses. But people if we cant bring the focus back to where it all began, (with PC's) then the Console vs. PC wars are lost, and so is our beloved past time that separates so many of us from the casual console gamer. Don't let it happen.
PAY for your games, respect the designers and programmers, who have devoted their lives to making you awesome entertainment, and start showing these development firms that the PC is still alive and kicking.
PC gaming is not so much a victim of piracy as it is a victim of the console phenomenon.
Consoles now are like SUVs in the late 80's early 90's - high volume, incredible profit margins. Everybody seems to have one and those who don't wan't one.
A huge issue that haunts PC gaming: It's become socially acceptable for adults to game on consoles. I visited my parents a few weeks ago for the first time in a few months and went to some gatherings of old friends who still live in my old hometown.
Guess what - Every single one had a console out for people to game on. We used to play Tiger Woods golf and EA spots NHL on the PS2 before we went out to bars, but only amongst ourselves. It was nothing like this.
To compete with console today PC makers would have to release fully loaded PCs with top of the line hardware for $400. AND find a way to compete with this new social acceptance of console gaming for adults. I don't see that happening.
This is basically just a rehashing of some 10 billion other post on the same topics. PC gaming isn't going anywhere. Theres always room for improvement but I can't imagine that any time in which there will be PCs but no PC games.
1) There probably are too many threads on this topic.
2) I love PC gaming. It's been my #1 hobby for a LONG time.
3) Anyone who loves PC gaming and thinks that there's no cause for concern is fooling themselves. That type of thought is on par with "the US has always been dominant and will continue to be by default" (not in importance but in level of denial).
4) The "release AAA title on console/ release it 9-12 months (or more) later on PC" cycle makes my blood boil. But - we have no choice but to get used to it.
5) Pircay IS a problem. But it pales in comparison to the amount of money that can be made on consoles nowadays.
You will just have to get used to the fact that more and more PC games are going to be distributed digitally. I am like you and used to love looking at the Sunday ads and going to BB and CC, but now I have migrated to looking at Newegg specials. Its just change and change is a part of life.
What you and many others are getting confused about is simply that the PC game retail presence is no longer what it used to be. The tech savvy gaming crowd are often PC gamers. Tech savvy individuals are also more likely to do their purchasing online and possibly over steam or Impulse. Steam and Impulse do not publish their sales numbers.
Valve has actually stated in no uncertain terms that PC gaming is not doing badly, in fact they are seeing sales that beat any individual console handily. It is just that a lot of executives are paying more attention to third party numbers like NPD and such and not to the sales numbers they get internally.
PC gaming is doing great. Just some game companies are run by idiots. That is no real surprise.
PC games are losing their retail presence but their online presence is a true force to be reckoned with.
am like you and used to love looking at the Sunday ads and going to BB and CC
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Tech savvy individuals are also more likely to do their purchasing online and possibly over steam or Impulse.
I don't even bother checking the weekly ads for games any more. Every day when I boot up my PC steam opens up and I get to see their new releases. If not there I'll check other digital distribution sites to see what I can get. And the half hour or so download time is a lot better than driving half an hour to Best Buy or Wal Mart and having to waste gas.
Just going to copy paste from the identical thread in the other section..
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sh**** games kill the industry.
That being said there's about a half dozen PC games i'll be purchasing in the next 3 months alone (can't remember what's coming end of nov-dec). And alot more coming from Valve (tf2 updates, hl2 ep3, p2 etc) and Blizzard in the next year or two.
There are some great games on the horizon and some phenomenal games not far behind us. Anyone who seriously complains about the quality of games coming out right now is an idiot. 2007 was possibly the best year for gamers ever, 2008 is shaping up to not be a slouch either.
2008 started a little slow, but that just gave me time to grab all the games from 2007 that I hadn't had time for (Orange Box). Right now I'm trying to prioritize which of the upcoming titles I'll grab first and which to wait for. In no particular order heres some games I'm looking forward to in the next few months:
Crysis Warhead
Spore
Starcraft 2
Civilization: Colonization
GTA4
COD5
Left 4 Dead
WoW WotLK
At first I thought that blue seal was some sort of lame award- "E3 - Best Reality Show Based Game" - WOW even better than Deadliest Catch The Game!!! But looking closer I think it says there's a recipe included with the game. I'm not sure which would be worse.
Message edited by purplerat on 08-08-2008 at 11:05:42 PM
I actually made a list for myself yesterday of the games I might be interested in coming out till the end of the year. I'll post them here to give you an idea:
Space Siege STALKER Clear Sky Mercenaries 2: World in Flames Spore Legendary The Witcher Enhanced Edition Crysis Warhead Pure Rise of the Argonauts Brother in Arms Hell's Highway Project Origin Sacred 2 Fallen Angel Fallout 3 Saints Row 2 Far Cry 2 Dead Space James Bond Quantom of Solace Left 4 Dead Lord of the Rings Conquest Mirror's Edge Grand Theft Auto 4 Tomb Raider Underworld Damnation
Games coming sometime next year or the year after:
Dragon Age Prince of Persia Red Alert 3 Stacraft 2 Diablo 3 Rage Doom 4 Street Fighter 4 Bionic Commando Bionic Commando Rearmed Dark Void Bioshock 2 Prototype The Last Remnant Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Half-Life 3 (?) Call of Duty World at War Call of Duty 5 (?) Project Offset
Games not yet announced for PC, but most likely will be eventually:
Fable 2 Gears of War 2 Resident Evil 5
Bolded game = exclusive.
Bottom line: PC gaming the way I see it is far, far, far from going away anytime soon. Not only are there at least TWENTY TWO titles coming out on the PC platform this last quarter, but FIVE of them are exclusives (or at least temporary exclusives, because let's face it: exclusivity is not good business on any platform these days for any developer/publisher).
well one game i would i am looking forward to is Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X, ive been looking for a Combat flight game with awesome graphics for ages, and this looks up for the job
"And the shame is, if the low end of the PC market, the mass market PCs that everybody buys did not come with these crappy graphics chips on them and was not burdened with a fat OS, that the PC would be a larger contiguous gaming platform than all the next-generation consoles combined, probably would be clearly superior; the PC is the home of the most profitable game in history generating more revenue than the top 10 console games combined--that's World of Warcraft generating a 1.2 billion dollars a year in revenue, that's a pure PC game. "
damn im glad that they are releasing it on PC....it would be stupid not to...oh and dont forget the NEW CoD game in 2009(not talking about World at War).
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/02/ [...] -for-2009/ of course it will be on PC definitely(not confirmed)but with the 10+ millions copies sold(CoD4) already i think its safe to say that it will be a PC game as well as console.
Message edited by spook24 on 08-10-2008 at 10:58:35 PM
