I am a PC gamer and my son has an XBOX 360. Both are good at what they do although I prefer my PC purely because of the type of games I play such as Flight Simulator X. However there is an interesting article discussing the possibility of the PC dying as a gaming platform.
 
Let me know your thoughts!
 
(See Link)
 
http://pc.boomtown.net/en_uk/artic [...] p?id=15517

Last year was a fantastic year for PC games and gaming so I'd like to say no, although with more and more PC games being console ports, you can understand people's fears!

 In two words. No Way.
 
 All gaming platform WILL die eventually, but not the PC. There is no sign that people would stop using Personal Computers(PC) even with the new all-in-one type of cellphones (iPhone..etc). You still going to need a Laptop or a Desktop, and when you do have that then you're a candidate market for PC Game. Which means, a company will find a good marketing power in the world because of everyone having a PC around then they'd find it profitable to develope a game for those PC owners. Simple Economy, as long as there are PC owners, you will find PC games.
 
 Actually, the quantity of PCs in the world is MUCH higher than XBOX or PS3 or whatever. So, the PC market is always bigger no matter what. The gaming industry comes by default and will keep going. Even if big companies find it more profitable to switch to console(and easier) small companies will still produce PC games. Worst case scenario is that we go back to the Single-Person-Developer which brings again the GREAT games that are really fun. Or simple project games that we still love, the classic.
 
 But honestly, with all this HUGE market share I find it hard to believe that big companies dont want to invest in it and they are. As long as you're getting profit, the industry remains.
 
 The truth is, PC is developing globally. Not by 1 company(like PS, Ninetendo.etc) but by the whole world. Intel and AMD? nVidia and ATI? and so forth. PC Is being developed to run faster and better. It is here to stay and it is NEEDED unlike console machines.
 
 So, the market is strong and the market is only getting bigger and better. Investing in a PC game will always be a good thing if done right.
 
 PC platform gaming dying? No way.
 PC platform gaming flourishing? hell yeah, like it always did. Steady improvements since the day PC became available for consumers.
 

I agree with you to a large extent, obviously there are millions of PC's in the world but how many are actually capable of playing games? I have a standard laptop (as well as my game rig) with 1gb ram and core 2 duo T7200 processor 256Mb Intel video. Fine for business but I can't even install most games as the on board video doesn't meet minimum requirements such as Shader model 2.0 or above. So to me that meens that probably 3/4 of PC's won't be able to play games which does cut the market down significantly.

Long of the short gaming consoles always tend to be much more stalwart and stable.. omitting Xbox360's that I've seen prone to lockups. Aswell .. gaming consoles will always always be the best 'bang for the buck' as with gaming experiences and titles I love the PC as it is not restricted to games liscensed for only one console. Aswell as previously mentioned but not clarified all consoles become obsolete simply because the hardware in them gets outdated in time; even the Xbox360 hardware specs is becoming near mid-entry level gaming computer as for power and speed of most typical gaming systems today. Aswell as the obvious the internet adds alot of replayability; eventually I find console games to lose their appeal because your just playing vs the computer or on some ultimatley akward hard to see split screen multiplayer mode in a game; provided he can con someone else into playing with him.. XboxLive and other console subscription services I find a far cry from what the inet is to modern gaming on PC's.  
 
My thoughts;
Not yours
 
-Dylan Orr-

as much as quoted by companies I have yet to see a 'gaming laptop' that can handle high graphic settings above 15fps. even the high end ones. As with PC gaming which he asked about Modern day gaming rigs require a decient cpu; minimum 1gig ram, 2gigs ideal, and atleast one 8700 geforce card running on them. Most laptops I see simply don't have the GPU for the video cards or the memory; largley due to cost; heat and energy consumption of said cards. You can get a low end 8800 (GTS) low end 8800 is somewhat of an oxy moron I'm aware but if you want a 'gaming system' that can play games.. not just open them; you'll be dumping 300+$ into a video card; pretty much how it goes; I run a single 8800GTX myself and have little to no problems running any game reasonably, But as previously mentioned; you'll end up having to drop a few bills on a video card for any self respecting gaming rig
 

 
Absolutely,
 
However the argument that Consoles are outdated is true but it is also true for the PC. My current gaming rig is a P4 3.0Ghz oc @3.4Ghz, 7800GS+ 512Mb AGP, 2gig RAM, Raptor, XFi etc. This will play latest games at medium settings on a playable framerate. I can just about live with this at the moment. However in order for me to upgrade, i've now got to go the full hog and buy a new Motherboard, which will then require new RAM, Video Card and Processor. I might get away with my current 550W PSU but don't know. My system is 4 years old and is now out of date and I can't upgrade it any more. If there is a more powerful AGP graphics card my CPU would be a bottleneck for it etc. I'm not sure If I can afford to upgrade again, I might have to make do with a PS3, although I would love a new PC. So I reckon the life span of PC's and Consoles aren't that different.

The PC platform isn't dying as there will always be a way to make money out of the PC gaming industry. On the other hand, consoles provide a better profit margin and therefore attracks more publishers to distribute on this platform.
 
The consequences of consoles being more attractive for publishers are simple. PC gamers should expect more console ports to the PC and you will see less PC exclusive titles such as Crysis. If they don't increase security on PC titles, we will find more title exclusif to the consoles (which won't be available to the PC). MMORPGs will soon hit the consoles when they figure out the networking issues and when this happens, the PC will have very little more to offer.
 
However, PC gaming industry remains a good market to make reasonable profits which shouldn't change as long as they can figure out the piracy contraints.
 

 
Ive been into pc gaming since about 1996, at the time it didnt strike me that it was that popular  but had some games i was really impressed with and fiddling around with the machine and software really appealed to me at the time.  Fast forward to now and i still feel the same way about it.  Its never been a massive platform in my opinion but it will always retain more than enough fans to keep going in a more than healthy state.  Plus things like online shooters and rpgs, both on and offline are enormous draws for people.  Deviaiting from topic a bit my only gripe with pc's is that racing games are a bit thin on the ground compared to consoles, and Pro evolution soccer just seems much more fun (and bitter and enfuriating and ecstacy inducing lol) on a cheapo console with a mate than on the pc, even with a gamepad.  If you think the pc is under pressure as a viable gaming platform, its nothing compared to when the ps1 was released, and a 1300 quid p133 with all the fancy trimmings was easily beaten by a small grey box with 5 chips in it and a loud cd-drive.    

I think that there is a temporary downsturn in the pc game market.  Prime evidence of this is the fact that The Force Unleashed is not going to be initially released for PC, which is really the platform that pushed LucasArts to its position today.  
 
I think part of the problem is game engine technology has far outpaced what user's systems are capable of running.  When developers fully realize the potentially MASSIVE market for pc games (most everyone owns a computer by now) they will begin to make games more scalable for varying hardware configurations.  Also, the unfinished game business has to stop.  Part of the reason the pc game market has dwindled so far is because of the sheer number of problems people encounter trying to play pc games, problems that exceed the skill level of the majority of users.  
 
So this is hopefully a temporary downturn and developers will begin to see the potential in the pc game market again.

console games don´t have the same graphics quality than pc games because they use low range procesors and gpu and they expande the pixels so the can meet the screen resolution. besides how many console generations came every year? a console life time is up to 3 or 4 years, and games dvelopment slow down because of hardware limitation. meanwhile pc manufacturers are improving hardware every day and in just one year you can see 3 generations of graphic cards. besides you can adjust and scale your pc for new and improved graphics in games. console will always be the choice of people who just want to play, but dont know about hardware

People who own Consoles hype their machines as much as a man with a old Skoda with a 3.5 turbo litre engine in it.
 
At the end of the day its still a Skoda.
 
Yes when consoles come out sometimes, there features raise some eyebrows and say pcs are over.
 
But a console is still a console and its done at a budget
 
Yes they are getting better all the time but the pc gets even better with so many more options that a console will ever have..
 
When was the last time you typed a letter in xbox or playstation 3 land to the tax office, or downloaded a porno clip sent to you by email.... Or printed a photo on one from mates in Australia for example.....
 
PC's are tried and tested games platform with the greatest input devices called keyboard and mouse, and the biggest back catalogue from ebay etc...
 
most can be bought for peanuts on ebay and there is some great games out there...
 
Games are cheaper on the pc too not costing up to £50 for one.
 
PC versions end up being better than consoles
 
You can down load extra content made by the publisher and fans of the game - look what happend to battlefield 1942 with desert combat....
 
 
The only thing that knackers pc games is people copying them....
 
Bit torrent and such is the reason why not so many games are out on our beloved platform..
 
Pirates crack them, hack them and put them on the net for free...
 
I always buy games im gonna play due to the fact i get all the patches...
 
And patches are also available easier on pc - sometimes adding extra content - bf series for example
 
Graphics are always better on pc too.....
 
All the best
 
 
 

I don't think the PC will die as a gaming platform, buth with so many people just downloading the games, it's hard as a developer to stay true to it as a platform for release. Why develop something that will just be copied as many times as it is bought, if not more.... see what i'm saying? to do so with a console takes a little more work, but it can still be done... but it's just much easier on a pc. I'm not saying "bring on the crappy drm" but what i am saying is that if you really want a game... support the people that made it... go buy it. even if you wait till it's in the bargain bin. or off a friend. or used somwhere else... it'd help the industry out, and we WOULD start seeing more high quality games for pc.

I've been gaming on PCs since my Apple II+ was new (man, that RAM upgrade from 48K to 64K made that sucker SING!), and I've heard the same thing over and over again. Reports of the death of the PC as a gaming platform have been greatly exagerated...

They're yet another errant doomsayer. They, too, fail to realize that should PC gaming fold, there'd be little to zero incentive for console makers to actually put anything more into their consoles; you'd just get a re-hashed machine with pretty much no new features, and not really much more powerful, that would still run you $300US... It's not a pretty picture.
 

Well, given that Steam's hardware survey reports that 9.37% of their users have GeForce 8800 series cards, and if that is anywhere NEAR representative of their some 13 million users, that's some 1.2 million people ALONE that have graphics that will rival what 8th-generation consoles will sport. And that doesn't count all the other series of cards out there, of course.
 
I'd say that while obviously, most computers aren't suited for gaming, I'd counter to note that there are hundreds of millions of PC; were they all gaming-capable rigs, we wouldn't be hearing about consoles at all. Rather, only a tiny fraction of those machines are gaming-ready, but that still very much works out to a number in the millions and millions.
 

That would depend heavily on the game. Certainly, for something like Crysis, but other games which are still quite modern, (Crysis is something I'd call before its time) like STALKER or Supreme Commander.

 
I would just like to make a note that this is probably because people who have powerful PCs like to take these surveys more. I have been a PC gamer pretty much all my life, I haven't owned a console since the time the coolest games you could play were Contra and the like (until recently I acquired a PS3). And I can remember being much more interested in filling surveys like this when my PC was brand new and top of the range. It's a bit of an Internet ego and it makes you feel good to be able to tell other people just how great your PC is. So takes those %s with a grain of salt.
 

 
I agree, a lot of people in the world own a PC and few enough of those are Gaming PCs. Still, a little from a huge amount is still a lot.
 
Another point is that PCs are the ones that keep pushing the hardware forward. Sure, the companies probably don't give a damn of how advanced their games are as long as the money comes in, but the people who make the games do. They are the type of people who are more enthusiastic about games then the gamers and they do care about pushing boundaries. Consoles don't let them do that, except for when they have just been released I suppose.
 

 
I agree fully and I absolutely hate the companies for coming up with these ridiculous prices. The only reason I bought a PS3 was so that I could have a next gen console for the few games that will end up being PS3 exclusive and to at the same time be able to go back and play all the PS2 games that never came out on PC and I missed out on.
 
 
And finally - there are games that just aren't great on anything other then PC. Now, I haven't ever played a strategy game on a console, but I bet I'd be happier with my mouse and keyboard then a gaming pad. Shooters too. [Of course, I realise this point is only valid until large number of people start using keyboard/mouse with their console. After all, there's a reason you have a USB slot on your console...]

Doesn't everyone want to play a console game with those lameass controllers?  PC's are the only way to go as far as gaming goes.  There are so many cool gaming mice and input devices like steering wheel setups and HOTAS flight controls and the Track IR systems.  The trouble with PC game developers is that they have gotten into a rut with the types of games they make.  I would like to see more flight and driving games.  And I would love to see a decent hunting game come out.  With the level of graphic engine technology nowadays, you would think they could make one that looked really good.