I truely belevie this is the beinging of the end. Dumbing it down for console users cause they cant think handle anything more complicated than hit the start button.
Also went in to game to have a look around and the PC section is now smaller than Pre-owned section. It all console jockey stuff (I can say that as I own one)
I am actauly quite surprised at how angry I am at the lack of support and games now for the PC.
And with moves like this it very dishearting!!!!
I might as well :getmecoat:
Funny Bro, on the way to the lan the Big guys did their usual and stopped of at Game to buy some decent games for the Lan. The section for PC in Game is now laughably small compared with consoles, christ even the DS had as much if not bigger than the pc. So we go over and theres hardly any new games, the one we wanted OFP2 we pick up the box take it to the counter and the guy tells us that they haven't actually got it in stock its just there to show whats available?
O...k...
We had to go around 2 more shops to find OFP2 and those had very few pc games - it really does seem to me for the first time like the PC gaming market is getting noticeablly smaller and retailers/developers are concentrating on consoles to the detriment of PC titles. I wouldn't mind using a console as long as they weren't dumbed down - problem is thats exactly what many titles seem to be - and the thought of not using a mouse in a fps and having some retarded 'lock assist' sends shudders down my spine.
Long shot, could it be because PC gamers can use the internet and generally order cheaper online, whilst console gamers and their mummies need quick fixes and it's probably quicker to go into town and buy it...at the same price?
Personally I get console games from LoveFilm and whilst I have a Wii, Xbox and PS3 the only game that looks remotely interesting at the moment is Unchartered 2. Everything else is disappointing.
I wouldn't say it's the beginning of the end... like anything else it's about supply and demand. If large publishers decide they no longer want to spend the money to produce games that appeal to the PC market, it leaves demand which is not met by supply and means that other (possibly smaller) companies, who recognise that there is a demand and don't need to make $100 million off every release to make it worthwhile, can compete for this share of the market.
For the games themselves, there is no reason to expect that quality would suffer (plenty of amazing games have come from small developers over the years), and if anything we would likely regain the balance of good gameplay vs technical accomplishment from a developer/publisher more in touch with the PC market.
Quote from: Benny;295372Long shot, could it be because PC gamers can use the internet and generally order cheaper online, whilst console gamers and their mummies need quick fixes and it's probably quicker to go into town and buy it...at the same price?
Personally I get console games from LoveFilm and whilst I have a Wii, Xbox and PS3 the only game that looks remotely interesting at the moment is Unchartered 2. Everything else is disappointing.
You are suggesting that PC gaming is dying because the profits are squeezed harder on the retailers? I don't think so. I think it's more the total turnover that is increasing in the console segment, rather than the profit per unit sold that is squeezed too hard in the PC-segment (although it is a known fact that profits are higher there). Also, that segment has greater potential in growth, as old people use Wii to exercise etc.
Maybe that segment is larger, because consoles are easy to get into and more social in nature (you drink and game in the living room with mates, like with the wii being awesome drink-gaming - compared to the PC where you typically socialise via the net). Thus, their sales have increased through attracting segments that would otherwise not have gamed.
My 2c.
Good point Benny, but its the increasing number of ported games that is the other part of the equation ie increasing dominance and importance of console games vs pc games. The problem with ported games is something usually gets dumbed down.
Take Borderlands - great game but obviously a pc port (though a good one to be fair) - some parts the developers clearly couldn't be arsed when porting over ie
- The 'Press Enter' button when the intro movie loads - erm why?
- The 'auto assist lock on' for aiming - noooooo! Thank fully you can remove this
- The clumsy inventory handling
- This is doosie - each gun in Borderlands (thousands...:) has 4 stats for things like damage, rof etc, and when they are on the floor waiting to be picked up you should be able to view these stat but on the pc version you only see 3 stats, not 4 like you do on the console - due to difference in font/font sizes (ie developers probably forgot) - there is a fix for this but its just a wee bit lazy
- You can't go prone in this game - I know thats not a deal breaker but any pc fps worth its salt allows you to go prone
Obivously it varies depending on the game and how arsed the developer was in removing these console artefacts but they are annoying - OFP2 is another example. It just feels console to me - you know ok but dumbed down.
I guess the positives to this are these new crop of ported games have no problem running on a pc a couple of years old running older hardware.
Don't know if anyone read this months PC Gamer - but theres a huge article on MW2 and the magazine is sickeningly praising the game, but didn't mention the dedicated server or console issues highlighted on this thread - poor/lazy journalism in my book. Or if your cynical you would say they obviously know but are just glossing over it - will be interesting to see if the issue is raised in their letter page or online forum...
I think a key point for developers moving from pcs to consoles is they don't have to create different code to work on a multitude of different configurations ie different hardware and OSs and then support them like they have to do with a pc. Therefore the time it takes to develop a new game and therefore their overheads are lower.
Quote from: delanvital;295377You are suggesting that PC gaming is dying because the profits are squeezed harder on the retailers? I don't think so. I think it's more the total turnover that is increasing in the console segment, rather than the profit per unit sold that is squeezed too hard in the PC-segment (although it is a known fact that profits are higher there). Also, that segment has greater potential in growth, as old people use Wii to exercise etc.
Maybe that segment is larger, because consoles are easy to get into and more social in nature (you drink and game in the living room with mates, like with the wii being awesome drink-gaming - compared to the PC where you typically socialise via the net). Thus, their sales have increased through attracting segments that would otherwise not have gamed.
My 2c.
You only need to take one look at the sales figures for games sold on Steam, and not just Valve games, to see that PC gaming is very much alive and kicking.
We don't need Call Of Duty 27: I'm Too Damn Old For This, while developers are still releasing amazing & original games like Borderlands, Dragon Age, Left 4 Dead, Arma II... the list goes on...
Edit: I totally forgot to mention the PC hardware market, which is huge. While companies like Intel, AMD, Nvidia etc are all still making performance gaming hardware PC gaming will never die.
PC Gamer has been getting steadily lower in quality, ever since long before the rejig. I used to enjoy the extra life and back sections but it's become more glossy and less informative.
Back to my last post I think I was implying that it's easier to download bought titles online and play them straight away. With Steam discounts etc there's no reason for me to go to a shop.
The PC game market is a lot thinner IMHO, you only have to look at the review section. There are more low end games possibly, but less big releases.
Agree Benny.
Tutonic - unfortunatley if you compare those stats with the number of console sales (http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/19746/30M-Xbox-360s-Sold-Worldwide-Over-20M-Users-on-LIVE/) you'll see its a no brainer for developers plus the other things mentioned, extra development, support needed for pcs.
Quote from: Tutonic;295380Edit: I totally forgot to mention the PC hardware market, which is huge. While companies like Intel, AMD, Nvidia etc are all still making performance gaming hardware PC gaming will never die.
..but aren't those components also used in consoles, like Xbox and Wii? :g:
Is the wealth of variety of hardware not contributory to the potential woe in the market?
Why develop for something so bloody complex when you can do it on a standardised platform? In every other business normalizing the base and minimising changes of that foundation are key to growth. In the PC industry it appears that the only true foundation is......Windows.
Which when you think about it is backward. All the intricacies are underneath that layer!
Remember that CD based console thing, was it the CDi or the Commodore console thing, that should have been the start of a standardisation that wasn't dictated by a software manufacturer, but a group of hardware manufacturers making sure their hardware all interacted in a standard way. Like RFC's for hardware. Or does that already exist?
Hi all:D
longtime since i have posted, so go easy on me guys, anyway, i dont belive for a moment that the PC gaming sector is on the way down,more of a steady line , its always been a bit of a rollercoaster, first you get the must have Pc that blows away any console for graphics ect, then the consoles will catch up, then the PC over takes, anyway you get the picture, we are 4 years away from xbox720 or ps4, so in 2 years time pc tech will be way in front of consoles, then thats the period when far superior titles that can only be done on the PC get released, what happens then = console dudes will realise the PC is a better platform and jump ship in large numbers.:yahoo:
The PC market is being squeezed at the moment by consoles. The internet means the shops can't be competitive with PC games, where as they can with console games because they can be traded.
Developers are trying to make a game that works on a console and shipping it on the PC with minimal changes leading to incredibly shoddy results and rapid sequels. Which with the mod market for games prolonging their life means sequels sell poorly.
PC graphics and performance is vastly superior to consoles. In fact the consoles even when released weren't that competitive with top end pcs and it's been dropping ever since. This means that you can make a stunning game that performs well on 5% of systems and looks less appealing on other systems or you can aim for a console gen graphics game, being sure it will run on any computer bought in the past 4-5 years. This is cheaper, faster and easier than making good graphics so a lot of developers are taking this route.
One last thing. A PC gamer will beat a console player in any game you care to chose because of the control interface. A keyboard and mouse works better in almost any game and the few that don't (racing and fighters) can have a Xbox 360 controller, wheel, joystick etc giving them far more freedom than a consoler. There will always be a market for PC games just wait for a few of these ports to flop and all the money go to a developer that deserves it.
i was talking with a m8 over at gamestop today, just after i read this thread the first time.. so i thought it hear what he thought about it.
He reponded, that he wasnt affraid that PC games was going to die, yes gamestop didnt stock as many pc games as they used too, but there were several reasons for this:
1. People prefer digital delivery systems like steam (no disk require, game is always up to date, and a lost disk doesnt mean your game is lost)
2. They get more competition these days from larger TV/hifi retailers, as they got a far superior customer base, stronger economy so they buy in larger bulks at lower cost.
3. and the fact that PC users are more aware of what games are coming then most console users by his impression, so no reason to have as many games shown, cause if the pc users wants a game, he will just ask for it. Many Consoler players often buy a random game by impulse (compared to pc atleast)
and a secret (certain distributers pay for prime placement in the shops, and console distributors often pay more as there is a larger floor market for them due to above reasons.
So im not affraid, and as previous stated, certain games arent fun on consoles, RTS for example.. what a horrible experience on a console.