Sad state of computer gaming

sillywabbit

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Most of us are aware of articles that cover the downfall of computer gaming. While i am a believer that computer gaming will always persist but the reality hit me yesterday as i walked into my local Gamestop retailer. Out of 100 feet of wall space, only 1 5-foot section was sectioned for computer games. Uggh!! There was also a small 'kiosk' devoted to computer games that was no taller than 4 feet and about 4 feet wide as well. What a shame!

I'm not predicting the demise of computer gaming I am just amazed at the difference in sales based upon retail shelving.
 

soloman02

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I walked into a gamestop a few months ago in Somersworth, NH and there was a half rack with 3 shelves sitting in the middle of the room with PC games, there were no new games on it either. I think I saw Half-Life 2 EP1, but that was probably one of the newer games on it. As much as I hate Best Buy, they do have an entire row about 25ft long with 3 shelves devoted to PC games.
 

Belinda

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I'd agree there are far fewer PC games about now. While some games are not that good or less than hyped it's nowhere as bad as it used to be. At least there are very few totally worthless PC games on them shelves.
I wouldn't like to be a start up dev or distributer though now, must be real hard to get product onto them PC shelves now.
 

guruofchem

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I've been playing PC games for 25+ years, and if I had a nickel for every time someone dusted off the "Death of PC Gaming" argument I could probably buy a healthy stake in Microsoft. While it is irritating that game-specific stores rarely carry much in the way of PC games, plenty of other retail outlets continue to support them (Fry's leaps to mind in my part of the country), online sales are fine, and digital distribution is an option for PC gamers that console types can't really experience. PC games take several years to create, are often overhyped, often delayed, and there are few opportunities for a big splashy release; PCs don't get reintroduced like consoles do, so there are fewer opportunities to tie your game product to a new launch. PCs aren't going away anytime soon, and as long as there are PCs, there will be PC games.
 

Ananan

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Consoels have really caught up. No one can deny that any more. 10 years ago your choice was between Half Life or a console game; the choice was pretty simple for a serious gamer..
 

stemnin

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I had to look at the date on the thread, could've sworn this was talked about maybe 3 months ago?

Anyways, I dare you to play ALL those console titles and report to me how many are actually GOOD atleast and not some TOTAL crap.

The 3 EB Games (2 dif cities) I go mostly have the best PC games, even games from like 10 years ago (nobody buys but me :) )

PS Were you looking at the "GAMES FOR WINDOWS" shelf? There's only like 5 titles so far lol.
 

josh90

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Hello, I'm new to these forums, I've been a PC gamer for many years, and I've heard people say, "PC gaming is dieing." more times than I can count. I like consoles as much as the next guy, but I just enjoy playing on the PC more, however, for the life of me I will never understand why people clam PC gaming is dieing. As guruofchem said, it is irritating that game-specific store don't seem to care about PC gaming, but that hardly means it's dieing. I believe that if we were able to get the sale numbers for digitally distributed PC games, and monthly pay-for games such as World of Warcraft, most people would be surprised. I think that as long as we have PCs there will be PC games.
 

cafuddled

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PC's are here to stay, what a lot of people don’t think about is that we will always need PC’s in this world. The only natural progression for a console is to evolve in to a PC like device that does everything a PC does. So if anything will ever happen it will be that consoles will die and not the PC’s. As long as there are PC’s in the world there will be people designing games for them. If it was not for the PC market being like it is, consoles would not be nearly as good as they are today.
 

stemnin

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Sure, Half Life 2 sold like half of Half Life, C&C franchise - 25 mil copies (ALOT of games though, and some were remakes on consoles..)?

The Red Alert sub-series is certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the best selling real-time strategy game in the world, with over 12 million units sold.[citation needed] This makes up over half of the 21 million copies of C&C sold prior to the launch of Command & Conquer: Generals in 2003

Prior to Generals, and Tiberium Wars.

The Sims? You know why they're not on any list? Because it would make any such PC Game list OBSOLETE as it would be cluttered with THE SIMS! WoW is nothing compared... seriously. Both games SUCK imho, I just can't stand either (i've played them both..)

Here's a fairly accurate list.
http://www.gunslot.com/blog/top-twenty-five-25-selling-pc-games-all-time

I blame the "pc gaming is dying" on SONY!

Cafuddled is right, console are going the way of the VCR, they need PCs to survive, consoles are PCs with a different OS LOL.
 

caamsa

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You all may not agree with me but I think that the PC gaming industry is missing out on a lot of money by not creating games that can be easily played on Linux based systems. Come on people get with it, there is a huge market out there. Damn windows has a monoploly and it aint fair...................................computer games will not go away as long as there is a market for them. A lot of people own both computers and consoles. Some games are better on consoles others on PC's. I don't think that will ever change.
 

Chazwuzzer

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Yeah, I gave up on the "game stores" a long time ago and now shop those stores that still decently stock PC titles.

Anyhow, as far as the PC/console supremacy debate goes, its really the 'next gen' concept that gets me. As one other poster pointed out, the 'next gen' consoles are getting increasingly PC-like. There's a reason for this - both Sony and MS would love to become the producers of the 'next gen' of entirely proprietary PCs. Seriously, the "next" next gen consoles will probably have keyboards and mice, and just be gaming-geared PCs. If the price trends go as they have been, they will also be just about as expensive as a standard PC as well (maybe not, as MS and Sony really throw themselves on their swords on the console pricing).

Whoever "wins" the "war" will have a large base of users of their proprietary system over which they will have absolute control (over the systems, not the users, although the "Halo" hype might indicate otherwise). They will also have control over all of the software available for their system and get a slice of every piece of it. Pretty sweet deal for the winner. Unfortunately, the end-user in a post-standard formats world is the real loser.

Not that the PC universe is without its issues in this area - you basically need Windows to use most of the useful software and definitely need it if you want to play games. The upside is that as long as you can get your product to work on DX9 or 10, you can market it directly, without having to go through MS or pay them a slice, which allows for developers to come up with some diverse and interesting stuff.

 

guruofchem

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Consider yourself lucky you still HAVE EB Games stores - all the ones in my neck of the woods are now Gamestop stores, and they crap on PC games worse than EB ever did. I used to buy plenty of good used PC titles from EB, but once they got bought out those went bye bye... :cry:
 

elcold

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Kind of off topic, but I've always wondered why console fanboys argue so much over which console is best. It doesn't make much sense to me because in essence you are just backing a huge corporation, but perhaps they just like arguing.
 

Badarthur

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I dont know Ive bought consol's for my kid';s but im a extreme pc gamer if I cant build it and then game on it, it aint no fun. I think most of the problem is game pc cost a small fourtune anymore if your just buying them. I get as much fun out of building my owne as plalying the game sometime's. But that' just me. BA
 

Morton

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One of the challenges that PC gaming industry is probably facing now is that it is becoming more difficult and costly to produce great games. People have become used to anticipating more detailed and visually stunning gaming worlds after each new game. Nowadays companies working on games with stunning graphics and level of detail need to do more serious research than before into various things. For example, the company working on Assassin's Creed had to hire several historians as consultants on clothing, armor, weapons and towns of the medieval era. Crytek had to gather video and photo material from some tropical region for Crysis. Ten years ago game companies didn't really need to go into visual matters so deeply when creating 3D graphics for games because graphics weren't so sophisticated. Nowadays if they don't research, the game might end up with great but somehow unnatural or unrealistic graphics, physics, objects and overall environment.
 

justinmcg67

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PC Gaming is hitting a point where it's kind of killing itself. Games are coming out that a lot of regular Joe's can not purchase and play out of the box at decent settings. Which was the case, say, ten years back. I used to be able to go to the store and buy a game and play it on any one of the PCs i had in the house and it looked fairly good on any of them, but now, they tax the system so much for high graphics that it takes a lot of investment into your PC to actually play game son really nice settings, and sadly for the average Joe, they don't want to invest that, so they buy the console, a mere one time investment. :(
 

lakedude

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Our Kmart does not even have a PC games section so I kinda agree that consoles have taken over. OTOH lots of cool looking games are about to come out or have just come out so it is an exciting time for PC gamers.

Crysis!!!
FarCry2
COD-4
Gears for PC
BioShock
World in Conflict
Stranglehold
Halo3....more?

 

1080

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we are a minority
i know that the gaming industry has picked up enormously over the last couple of years but we are still in the minority.
the pickup in the gaming industry is driven by console accessibility and ease of use.
this is the way it will stay so while consoles will pick large quantities of casual and nontechie gamers the pc and its gaming base will stay the smaller faction.

the emergence of network play console games and high speed networks will make the predominantly pc online experience diminish
games like wow are being replaced by console versions
as silly as playing a fps with a controller may seem to me
people will do it because switching on the console and playing a couple of rounds is soo damn easy.

i love the fact that ive got my own name for my pc
for everything inside is from my decisions and my build and my media
that is one thing the console will never hold

i dont have the statistics to back up my views
its just my view
 

sirkillalot

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As far as the talk on the downfall of computer gaming i think its full of shi t. :non:
OK first of all some people dont have a clue! just because your shop doesnt have them, many others do or you can get them **on line**. Look below @ the new games coming out this month its more than ** 50 ** so dont worry about it :) Ive travelled the world and ive seen wall to wall pc games, ITS ALL GOOD. mostly.
Ive also worked in a pc shop with about 70 meters of pc games on the wall. o yeaaa o yeaaa
ps: If it wasnt for you pirates out there the game industry would be a lot better, thanks for nothing you guys.

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BigMac

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Apologies for dropping in late to this discussion but there is a fundamental flaw in using the used shelf space in retail shops as a measure for how well a particular segment is doing.

You are ignoring games sales online, and even worse, you are ignoring online delivery systems like Steam or DirectPlay (or whatever it's called specifically, we don't have it in Europe) or others. I think retail shops are directly losing a lot of sales to either of these two outlets, and the online delivery systems are PC only, console retail sales are not affected by that. In combination with a market segment that is definitely smaller than the console market, that introduces the effect you see in retail space. It is not a measure of how well the PC gaming market is doing (far from it, even).
 

hcforde

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Follow the money?

1. It takes a lot more to invest to make a good game especially on the PC

2. PC makers do not get a piece of the games that are made so the business model of that segment is quite different from consoles makers that get royalties for each console game made, sooo... the console maker can lose on the console sale and make it up in the games. Game developers mostly stand alone.

3.Coding for PC's is more difficult because of the many different possibilities. You do not want to out code the market too much or you will not have sales for your long, hard investment.

4. You have to balance what the CPU & Video card possibilities may be capable of years in advance. With consoles it is set .

All in all the variables and unkown make it more difficult to do a geat job on the PC.

I love my keyboard and mouse - can't stand console controllers. Only console I have ever enjoyed is the Wii I may get a PS3 for Blu-Ray and RockBand this Christmas. I Hope PC gaming stays alive, but it is a different business model than consoles and that means challenges. Bungie cut the umbilical cord from M$ and that is a good sign that it can be done butthey also work in both console and PC camps. That may be the future of gaming-companies that can crossover and give a good game on all platforms whether PC or console as one can support the other as far as advertising budget, reduced development cost overall, etc. Kudos to Crytek - Valve- the C&C franchise, Petroglyph . These guys have delivered quality every time out on the PC in my HUMBLE opinion. Others are available for honorable mention. I like RTS's but never got into the Blizzard stuff but they are anothe that has survived and led the way as far as PC Games go and I am sure there are others so don't flsame me for not mentioning them. These are just my personal favorites. My first game machines were Commodore Pets and TRS-80's, and I was an adult when those came out

LONG-LIVE PC GAMING
 

Sengoku

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According to my industry contacts, Gamestop gets the most profitability from buying and selling used games, because used games have much higher profit margins.

Because of install codes, DRM, and piracy, that won't work for the PC market.
 

systemlord

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Dang you beat me to it Sengoku. Sames go's for buy & selling used cars, the dealer makes its money in the service department. I bought my first PC 2 years ago and I have played games that have knocked my socks off (Oblivion) and haven't owned a console since then. PC games are much more deverse and complex like Silent Hunter 3, GRAW with its huge maps.

PC games have touched me in a way that a console game could not and I've owned consoles all my life. I have no intrest in consoles at all.
 

airblazer

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Why do pirates always get the blame for poor sales?, be it music/,movies or games.
Sure there are some people that will pirate every game but the majority buy the games they want. Any games that they play that are pirated they are more than likely not buy in the first place anyway as they wouldn't be interested in playing them if they had to pay for them.