Who is most to blame for the decline in PC gaming?

[AstroManLuca]

People often talk about the decline in PC gaming. A lot of theories are put forward as to why it's happening. I think it's a combination of several of these factors, but I'd like to hear what people think is the most contributing factor.

BTW, I voted console makers. The way I see it, the piracy/DRM thing is a chicken-and-egg problem that is a result of a general decline in the quality of games. Overall, though, the recent rise of consoles has really put a hurting on PC gaming. Consoles are (perhaps indirectly) responsible for the low quality of PC games, and I think their popularity has simply made PC gaming a lot less attractive from an economic standpoint (on the developer's/publisher's end, that is).

 

[Inspector Jihad]

I have written to my congressman to enact a law that would insta-ban anyone posting any topics on the death of PC gaming. It's a stupid topic and people type the same shit over and over again.

 

[shortylickens]

The answer I like isnt yet on your poll.
Its the gamers, but not pirates. Its Console gamers who purchase overpriced crap in massive quantities. I dont blame developers and publishers for pushing expensive garbage. I blame the dumb console people for buying it. They turned the industry to crap. One of the many side effects was less quantity and less quality on the PC gaming side of the fence. Fewer and fewer groups want to make computer games and the ones that do get bought out by companies who are successful because of console sales.
Those companies in turn squash the computer market because its not a super high profit margin like the console market. PC gamers dont put up with overpriced crap, and certainly not in large volumes. Ergo they are not the best customers for greedy corporations who want maximum profit with minimum effort.
Case in point: How many sports games does EA make for Windows & Mac?

As for MMO's, I dont play them myself but I am grateful because they have kept PC gaming alive. As soon as we see some RPG MMO's for the consoles, we are in trouble. And I mean better ones than Final Fantasy 11.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
The answer I like isnt yet on your poll.
Its the gamers, but not pirates. Its Console gamers who purchase overpriced crap in massive quantities. I dont blame developers and publishers for pushing expensive garbage. I blame the dumb console people for buying it. They turned the industry to crap. One of the many side effects was less quantity and less quality on the PC gaming side of the fence. Fewer and fewer groups want to make computer games and the ones that do get bought out by companies who are successful because of console sales.
Those companies in turn squash the computer market because its not a super high profit margin like the console market. PC gamers dont put up with overpriced crap, and certainly not in large volumes. Ergo they are not the best customers for greedy corporations.

Makes sense. Console gamers regularly pay $60 + tax for a 4-6 hour single player game with very limited multiplayer. PC gamers have higher standards and don't open their wallets so easily, so catering to them is often "not economically viable" (P.S. I just saw Falling Down again last night).

 

[Modelworks]

I think it is console gamers first and the cost of hardware/complexity of it all second.
I is much easier to pay $300 for a console, pay $60 for a game, come home and start playing, than it is to pay $500 + for pc , $50 for a game, and then come home and spend two hours trying to figure out why the game isn't working, what serials you have to enter, and that your hardware isn't even good enough for the $50 game you just bought.



Then there is the comfort factor. I can't get my brother to see that sitting at a desk in front of a 22" monitor with mouse+keyboard is better for fps than his 52" LCD and him sitting in his recliner with wireless controller.

 

[Dumac]

Since when is PC gaming dying? I think the growth of console gaming is just making PC gaming seem small in comparison, which it is.

 

[Skott]

I been PC gaming since '93 and every year since then its been said PC gaming is in decline and will soon be dead. Personally, I think its all hogwash. Here's another person, with a poll, saying the same thing and trying to justify it. Give it a rest, sheesh!

 

[acheron]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I think it is console gamers first and the cost of hardware/complexity of it all second.
I is much easier to pay $300 for a console, pay $60 for a game, come home and start playing, than it is to pay $500 + for pc , $50 for a game, and then come home and spend two hours trying to figure out why the game isn't working, what serials you have to enter, and that your hardware isn't even good enough for the $50 game you just bought.



Then there is the comfort factor. I can't get my brother to see that sitting at a desk in front of a 22" monitor with mouse+keyboard is better for fps than his 52" LCD and him sitting in his recliner with wireless controller.

So you mean "$300 for a console, $60 for a game, and $2000 for a 52" LCD"?



In any case, PC gaming isn't actually dying, so this poll and topic is stupid.

 

[videogames101]

About 100 million consoles have been sold this generation(1).

About 50% of the world's population has a computer in their home(2).



Clearly, the problem isn't selling the platform, but that too many PCs today don't include the computing power to play modern games. So I blame consumers for allowing such crap PCs to be sold in such mass quantity. Console makers having nothing to do with it.






1. http://nexgenwars.com/

2. http://earthtrends.wri.org/sea...eme=4&variable_ID=1494

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: acheron

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I think it is console gamers first and the cost of hardware/complexity of it all second.
I is much easier to pay $300 for a console, pay $60 for a game, come home and start playing, than it is to pay $500 + for pc , $50 for a game, and then come home and spend two hours trying to figure out why the game isn't working, what serials you have to enter, and that your hardware isn't even good enough for the $50 game you just bought.



Then there is the comfort factor. I can't get my brother to see that sitting at a desk in front of a 22" monitor with mouse+keyboard is better for fps than his 52" LCD and him sitting in his recliner with wireless controller.

So you mean "$300 for a console, $60 for a game, and $2000 for a 52" LCD"?

Except that $2k isn't required to play the game, you can still use any tv in the home.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: videogames101
About 100 million consoles have been sold this generation(1).

About 50% of the world's population has a computer in their home(2).



Clearly, the problem isn't selling the platform, but that too many PCs today don't include the computing power to play modern games. So I blame consumers for allowing such crap PCs to be sold in such mass quantity. Console makers having nothing to do with it.

Gamers on tech forums look at things totally different from the average person. Most people still see the pc as something to view the web, do email, and watch youtube. If it can do office on top of that, that is all the majority of pc users care about.

Pick people off the street at random and ask them the first word they think of when you say video games. It will not be PC, Dell, Nvidia or ATI.

So all retailers like Dell are doing is making what the consumer is willing to buy. Most people are perfectly happy using only consoles for gaming.

The pc is so much more capable than consoles, but it does have a initial cost that is pretty high and a learning curve that consoles don't have. It also has an image problem where most people still do not see it as a gaming platform.

 

[Via]

PC gaming would be doing great if companies Falcon Northwest would agree to take huge losses on their PCs and sell them to us for $300-$400.

But seriously - investors go where the money is, and that's clearly the console market right now. But PC gaming isn't dying.

Are Wow's profits included in PC gaming sales? They extract a hell of a lot of money out of the PC gaming market.

I guarantee the brains at Sony and Microsoft have elite teams working on bringing their next big MMORPG to the next gen consoles. That should be their #1 priority.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: acheron

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I think it is console gamers first and the cost of hardware/complexity of it all second.
I is much easier to pay $300 for a console, pay $60 for a game, come home and start playing, than it is to pay $500 + for pc , $50 for a game, and then come home and spend two hours trying to figure out why the game isn't working, what serials you have to enter, and that your hardware isn't even good enough for the $50 game you just bought.



Then there is the comfort factor. I can't get my brother to see that sitting at a desk in front of a 22" monitor with mouse+keyboard is better for fps than his 52" LCD and him sitting in his recliner with wireless controller.

So you mean "$300 for a console, $60 for a game, and $2000 for a 52" LCD"?

Except that $2k isn't required to play the game, you can still use any tv in the home.

You could also set all your settings to low and drop you resolution to 640x480 but who wants to do that?

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: Skott
I been PC gaming since '93 and every year since then its been said PC gaming is in decline and will soon be dead. Personally, I think its all hogwash. Here's another person, with a poll, saying the same thing and trying to justify it. Give it a rest, sheesh!

There's a reason I included the last option in the poll. I see it's winning by a comfortable margin. I'm not trying to push an agenda, I just wanted to see what people thought.

P.S. I use the same 32" 1080p TV (which I bought for $400) for PC and console gaming, so the cost difference between a monitor and a TV doesn't apply to me. For many people it does, though. If you're on a couch, I'd say 32" is the minimum comfortable size for a TV, and even then only if it's a very small room and you're close to the TV. One of those runs at least $250 for even a low-end 720p set. Meanwhile, PC gaming is perfectly fine on 19-22" LCD monitors costing $100-$150.

 

[evident]

i think good gaming in general is dying. there hasn't been a compelling game out in a long time. i got a PS3 due to the hype of its games and was generally unimpressed and am down $500. seems like every ps3 game out there appeals to lowest common denominator or has an unnecessarily too complex gameplay.

as for pc gaming, i voted intel crappy graphics. alot of people not in the know (including pretty much all my friends ) will get a game for their "brand new zomg " pc, realize it can't run then go out and buy the same thing for their xbox or ps3.

 

[Martimus]

I am not sure there is a decline. I never remember there being a so called "glory days" of PC gaming. My entire life, the PC gaming was a small section of actual games sold (even the TI section of gaming was bigger than the PC gaming section in the early 80's, and most people don't even know what that game system is anymore.) PC gaming was never that big to begin with, because there are specialized systems made specifically for games.

I actually like the last couple of years in PC gaming. I enjoyed Crysis, Oblivion, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., The Witcher, Galactic Civilizations II, Max Payne and Eve immensely. Other games I played were enjoyable as well, such as Bioshock and Prey. Yeah, it is strange that entire Genre's seem to have vanished from the PC, but looking into the reasons for that it is less strange. Space/Flight fighter sims require a joystick to truly play and enjoy, and there aren't many people who have those (killing off a large portion of your potential buyers.) Adventure games are fun, but it is way too easy to look up the solutions on the internet now, which makes a game that would normally last 20-40 hours last 20 minutes. There is no real reason I can think of that 4X games aren't made more, but they have actually made a mini comeback lately too (Civ 4, GC2, Elemental and others being released recently or soon).

 

[Via]

Originally posted by: Martimus
I am not sure there is a decline. I never remember there being a so called "glory days" of PC gaming.

I don't know.

Walking into a Babbage's in the late 90's when I was in college and seeing 2/3 of the store covered with huge PC games boxes, seeing Voodoo 3d cards and other PC peripherals stacked up in the middle of the store, seeing PS1 and N64 games relegated to a rather small section....

That sure seemed like a PC golden age marketing-wise, at least.

 

[s44]

Well, it's a decline if you don't like MMOs, flash games, or console shooter ports...

 

[Kalmah]

When I worked at circuit city and asked a customer, "Are you getting a computer for gaming or for everything else?"... they would reply (with an annoyed expression) "I have an xbox for that, why would I need a computer for gaming?".

It made me die a little inside every time I heard that.

To top that off though, most people don't understand the concept of updating drivers and such. Heck, most people don't even know what a driver is. And then, if these people have performance issues, they aren't going to have a clue about changing graphics settings. (If you asked random people what antialising is or what hdr does or how things like different types of shadowing affect performance they aren't going to have a clue)
Most people don't find tweaking graphics settings for 2 hours before playing a game as fun.

If these people see jagged edges they just think the graphics suck.. they don't go and enable antialiasing.. if they see page tearing, they just think the graphics suck, they don't enable vsinc or triple buffering.

It's probably just too complicated for most people. And most people don't really understand the benefits of pc games. (usually, the are way more emersive, way less linear, are modded left and right for imrpoved gameplay..) Overall, they are usually way better games. Worth more than 4 hours before you finish it.

But now that newer generations of kids are getting older who have grown up with computers, I feel that this won't be as big of a problem in the future. The only thing though is that consoles are most likely going to evolve.. evolve into a computer practically. It will be a full-fledged DRM machine, only capable of doing what it's designed for though.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Idiot Gamers, for being willing to pay for buggy, unfinished crap and for placing graphics above all else.

 

[StinkyPinky]

PC Gaming isn't dead. Games like Starcraft 3, Diablo 3, Sims 4, Fallout 4, Civ 5, Half Life 3 etc would sell a LOT. I bet there's more sales now than a decade ago. It's just that it isn't growing as fast as consoles, that's all.

 

[Alienwho]

To me the golden age of PC gaming was the late 90's early 2000's. Rune, starcraft, diablo, UT99, Thief: TDP, motocross madness. The fact that I was a teenager at the time and PC gaming was so new and fresh and revolutionary at the time with all the fancy graphics had a lot to do with it as well.

 

[WildW]

If anything I'm mourning the death of console gaming. Certain companies whom I need not name have stopped making good games because they realised people will buy any rubbish so long as it can be played by flailing your arms.

 

[Dumac]

Originally posted by: WildW
If anything I'm mourning the death of console gaming. Certain companies whom I need not name have stopped making good games because they realised people will buy any rubbish so long as it can be played by flailing your arms.

You must be talking about Sony.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

There are so many different options for gaming. PC, a few different consoles, the wii, etc etc. I have a friend who is computer lazy and doesn't understand what parts to buy to game on his pc. I tell him one thing and he does another then complains about the money he spent and it not making his game run good/smooth.

What wrecks a game title is when a fast paced arena shooter like UT is ported to console and plays like the ****** game in the world. I remember when UT99 was ported to Play Station and it totally sucked the crap through a garden hose. I didn't buy it but tried it for my own experience and.. to me, it was just like I said..... what was the question again!??!??