IS PC gaming dying? OR Thriving?

[theburan]

Someday... just someday... I'd like to see mechwarrior 5 to come out.

I expect it'll be in stores the week after duke nukem forever, and the week before Canada and American Samoa launch a tandem nuclear strike on America, russia, and the middle east, and subsequently take over the whole world.

[azianai]

don't hate on Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis

[unknown555525]

I don't see what everyone is going on about. PC gaming isn't even CLOSE to dying. How can ANYONE think that?

Back before about 2003, games companies would be stoked that thier game had reached even 200,000 copies sold. Now high budget games are reaching multiple millions of sales in just a few months. Even free ad supported games are thriving which is why DICE/EA is making Battlefield Heroes for the PC for free.

In 2004, I bought practically no games. Just Doom 3, HL2, and Unreal tournament 2004 for PC. In 2005 I bought Quake 4. In 2006, I purchased a ton of games for the pc such as Xpand rally, Oblivion, Prey, R6 vegas, to name a few. In 2007 I spent probebly over $600 purely on PC games because there were just so many that appealed to me, and were great.

In my own personal opinion, DiRT, Crysis, COD4, World in conflict, UT3, and bioshock were each on their own just so insanely fun that I could NEVER even begin to think that PC gaming is dying. and those were just a small few that I bought in 2007.

Mabe I see this because I was enjoying the game rather than complaining about irrelevant things in it. Crysis was just so fun overall, and the main reason why people bashed UT3 and it spread everywhere that the game sucked, is simply because you can't leap+double jump, upon my first time playing the game I just thought, "Oh, I see I can't do this, oh well" then just moved on, it was never that big a part of the game.

So yes, to me PC gaming is going stronger than ever, and the only reason why console gaming exists is because of PC piracy. Game devs have no where else to turn because consoles offer hardware based DRM that will never be offered on PC's because of their open nature. Shure, huge corps like Microsoft, nintendo, and Sony demand %30 of all games sales profits as royalty, but that almost gaurentees that the game will NOT be pirated.


END torrents, P2P software, and all other open file hosts, and console gaming will die within the year.

[Quakindude]

I don't think PC gaming is dying. For many of the reasons listed above, but also, I think PC gaming is just going through a bad growing pain. The hardware is outstripping the software by a large margin and it seems as though we either get games that are based on older tech, or newer games, like Crysis, that won't perform well until new tech comes out so the code can take advantage of it.

[NoctisReitop]

Originally Posted by theburan

Someday... just someday... I'd like to see mechwarrior 5 to come out.

I expect it'll be in stores the week after duke nukem forever, and the week before Canada and American Samoa launch a tandem nuclear strike on America, russia, and the middle east, and subsequently take over the whole world.

Rumor has it (note: rumor. No confirmation from me) that Microsoft purchased the Mechwarrior team for one or two programmers, allowed them to finish their pending projects, then fired the entire team -- save those two programmers they wanted. The Mechwarrior team wrote a message saying that no other Mechwarrior games will be produced because of the lack of uniqueness amongst the successive games. I don't know whether to believe it, but it sounds like M$ to fire them. On the other hand, M$ has sold the license of Mechwarrior, Shadowrun, and Crimson Skies, which opens the possibility of a new Mechwarrior. Quote:

Originally Posted by gamespot.com/news

Jordan Weisman, formerly creative director at Microsoft and contributor to a number of FASA games, has now launched a new studio called Smith & Tinker, and has bought the rights to FASA's IP. An announcement on Smith & Tinker's official Web site proclaims that the company has bought the electronic entertainment rights from Microsoft for MechWarrior, Shadowrun, Crimson Skies, and other FASA games. However, it remains coy about what it plans to do with these IPs. "We're not quite ready to announce our plans for each property, but please be assured our goal is to surprise and delight old fans, while welcoming new fans into these fantastic worlds."

On the third hand... Microsh!t was the worst thing to happen to Mechwarrior. If you're an old fan, play three and the renditions of four side by side (per se): you'd swear the same people didn't make the two games. Long live Mechwarrior! One of the best in my somehow picky tastes.

[azianai]

Video gaming in general seems to have slowly died. All the console/PC seems to be churning out are sequels, and pretty half-assed too.

[MontanaFX]

I have just joined the PC gaming world. I dont think i will be going back to the rigid console gaming. I have been taken by the versatility of the PC gaming sector. Both PC software and hardware can be altered to your specific taste.

I have heard alot of people saying that PC gaming is going through a bad patch. Well I am not to sure why, coz I have been impressed by the great, if a little complicated medium for gaming.

[Gig-O-Ram]

When I first got a computer back in '99, they asked me "Do you want to play games?" I said "I don't know." It turned out that I decided after the fact that I did want to play games afterall, but the system we bought could barely handle anything. So, later on, I built a system with gaming in mind, and I've been fairly satisfied since.

I don't know, but I've never been interested in spending the money to get a game system, which is going to be replaced the following year with the next newest thing, plus all the money on all the games on said systems. Plus, I guess I'm just not into sitting in front of a TV console like I used to with the Atari and Intellivision things all those moons ago. But my PC is at least going to last, from a gaming standpoint, until the software outdoes my hardware. I think I may be borderline on that point now, but I haven't actually bought any new games in a while since I bought Battlefield 2142. And there haven't been a lot of games that have interested me of late, so I've played stuff I already have. I just finished another run-through of FarCry, though I'm curious to see FC2, which I heard was coming at some point.

I think part of the problem, as some have stated, is that games are suffering the Sequel thing because people may be running out of ideas for games. Originality is lacking, and so you get Sim games that mirror almost any mundane aspect of life you can think of - like the Farmer Sim game I saw once, or the Restaurant Owner Sim, or the Prison Sim, or the Bank Sim. You also have shooter games that are all basically the same games, except with different scenery. FEAR was a nice one, though, with its ghost child back story and all that.

I got into Adventure games for a little while, but they all behave the same too...solve this weird puzzle to get to the next part and talk to the right people in the right order and whatever. I got bored after a few of those. Not to mention the puzzles were so hard sometimes it made the game so it wasn't even fun.

I think originality along with advancing the tech side will help the PC gaming field quite a bit.

[screwballl]

Gig, if you like Adventure and strategy games, look at a new one called Sins of a Solar Empire (or SOSE).. thats one that I have been hooked on lately

[StevieRay]

I was a consoler for the longest time. Still have Pong and all the old systems. Had a party and we all played the oldies...it was so fun. Never saw so many ladies get into it...they love the oldies. And I use the new consoles. But, I remember the first time I started with flight sims and such (I love military FPS and sims) on the PC. The PC experience for me seemed richer, with more available. Then I found Battlefield 2, which quickly went downhill until I found tacticalgamer and the mod community project reality. My gaming life changed. I started upgrading, and working at making my gaming experience better. The Mod community and the Multiplayer experience is the key I think to the future of gaming on the PC. A great game like Crysis or COD4, if taken over by a talented, mature, modding community can do wonders for a game. If not for this I wouldnt even be thinking of a new build. And playing against other humans is really gratifying, at times.

So, I believe that PC gaming has been caught by the newer consoles that have more power and online capability. But as we all know, the PC will usually rule in overall power and capability and should push back out front again easily. Someone has to start building games for the quad cores and for the stuff that intel is thinking of. When that comes to fruition, PC gaming should leap over the console. Unless people are going to pay $1000 for a new console?