State of PC gaming 2011?

[feartrich]

In terms of market share, how is PC gaming going nowadays? I remember back in 2008 when people were crying about the death of PC gaming and the shift towards consoles (and later smartphones). Publishers and developers were making fewer and fewer games for the PC. But "the death of PC gaming" doesn't seem to have materialized. Now, in 2011, there doesn't seem to be much excitement amongst console gamers right now (does anyone outside the hardcore community care or know about the next Xbox?) and the mobile platform is seen as something for causal games.

Meanwhile, there seems to be a LOT more excitement and hype now in PC gaming, probably the most since 2004/2005. Starcraft 2 and The Witcher 2, both new games, are massively successful. Free-to-play games like League of Legends are growing incredibly fast. And we shouldn't forget the hype surrounding Diablo 3 and Skyrim, both of which are probably going to sell well.

tl;dr My intuition is that PC gaming is no longer is no longer stagnating and that most people would say it is a better platform than consoles, at least right now. Is this correct, or am I mistaken?

 

[stillerfan15]

In terms of market share, how is PC gaming going nowadays? I remember back in 2008 when people were crying about the death of PC gaming and the shift towards consoles (and later smartphones). Publishers and developers were making fewer and fewer games for the PC. But "the death of PC gaming" doesn't seem to have materialized. Now, in 2011, there doesn't seem to be much excitement amongst console gamers right now (does anyone outside the hardcore community care or know about the next Xbox?) and the mobile platform is seen as something for causal games.

Meanwhile, there seems to be a LOT more excitement and hype now in PC gaming, probably the most since 2004/2005. Starcraft 2 and The Witcher 2, both new games, are massively successful. Free-to-play games like League of Legends are growing incredibly fast. And we shouldn't forget the hype surrounding Diablo 3 and Skyrim, both of which are probably going to sell well.

tl;dr My intuition is that PC gaming is no longer is no longer stagnating and that most people would say it is a better platform than consoles, at least right now. Is this correct, or am I mistaken?

I still miss EA sports Madden NFL and Tiger Woods Golf.
Dave

 

[zanegray]

IMO PC gaming still has life and fire to it for now, however in the not too far future I would think that cloud computing may take over the need for the need for the traditional desktop. Let me explain....

Right now in order to play a game like Starcraft, you need fairly strong PC specs and it isn't really feasible to play Starcraft on a netbook. But what happens when the applications and computing for them are done in the cloud? Then the only limitation becomes internet speed. Then a smartphone or a console may threaten the PC market dangerously.

But for now I would agree that PC gaming is doing well.

 

[feartrich]

IMO PC gaming still has life and fire to it for now, however in the not too far future I would think that cloud computing may take over the need for the need for the traditional desktop. Let me explain....

Right now in order to play a game like Starcraft, you need fairly strong PC specs and it isn't really feasible to play Starcraft on a netbook. But what happens when the applications and computing for them are done in the cloud? Then the only limitation becomes internet speed. Then a smartphone or a console may threaten the PC market dangerously.

But for now I would agree that PC gaming is doing well.

I don't think people will want to play "hardcore" games on an iPad simply because of the screen size...granted there are those games out there, but they are being beaten roundly by Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds (FPS games never did well on the DS or PSP anyways). Also, the things with systems like OnLive is that it's basically a console and people would just prefer to play a console if they wanted that kind of experience.

I do think that PC gaming will move on to the cloud once we get 1 Gbps connections, though, but I also think a lot of people will prefer the keyboard/mouse combination. Also there will be the people who want to show off their uber-powerful processors and GPUs and there will be a market for them (for example, you can stream Starcraft 5, OR you can get the "real experience" and have your PC render the game like they do today).

I just don't think the experience of PC gaming will ever really "die".

 

[nocturnal7x]

Cloud computing is retarded for this application. Thats my story and im sticking to it.

All we can do is buy the games that dev's work hard on to give us PC specific features, or dev's who utilizes PC hardware to its fullest.

Most recent example being BF3, with full DX11 support.

And we should not buy games that are crappy console ports, most recent crysis 2

I think things will pick up again. Lots of people are getting into PC gaming, from what I have witnessed anyway.

 

[admir00]

PC gaming FTW!
Counter Stike: GO coming in 2012

 

[deicidechaos]

Im pretty alround when it comes to PC and console. I always buy PC titles when it comes to playing their full potential, But ill still buy a console game cause most of my mates (not as a hardcore gamer as I) only own consoles or if its an exclusive like Gears of War 3 (ZOMG EPIC). To be honest I havnt really though about the next gen-consoles But Hopfully it will have a positive impact on how PC titles are developed. I thing the next gen consoles will be more marketed about there features rather than hardware.