This is Sarow’s second blog post ever, and the second time he’s been on the front page, so gratz to Sarow. Sarow provides his view on PC gaming’s status and whether its reaching the end of it’s long life span.
Remember, If you want to get on the front page, then just swing by the forums and get writing. As always, we’ll be keeping a vigilant eye on the blogs for the cream of the crop, which will end up here. And now, over to Sarow…
PC gaming is like watching Mean Girls for the third time: you know its wrong, you know its going to cost you and yet you just keep coming back for more. Ever since Pong was released in 1972 gaming has grown from a weird past time to a popular medium. All the hardware used in consoles comes from technology developed for PC’s and yet, strangely, PC gaming is dying.
Or is it?
Game’s released on the Xbox 360 will sell much faster than those which are released on the PC, more developers have decided to switch over due to the increased support and easier optimization offered by those seductive consoles serves to further sweeten the deal, but why is developing for the PC so much harder than developing for a console?
PC hardware develops so quickly that by the time you’ve bought a new graphics card it will be rendered useless by rapid technological progress. Keeping up with the latest hardware will burn through cash quicker than Yamster can write an article. With many of the latest games requiring this hardware, it’s not surprising many PC users, who would otherwise have bought the game, are left out.
Secondly very few computers are alike. Optimization must be a nightmare for developers as each chipset, card and processor will behave slightly differently under pressure. These are just some of the reasons developers favour consoles (which have a stable install base, limited optimization required and more support from the manufacturers). Maintaining a cutting edge PC is like running off a cliff: you only realise what a mistake it was half way down. Having built my own PC its depressing to see how quickly it becomes a paperweight unless you pour money into it .
So does this mean the end of PC gaming? Are we soon to be reliant on consoles for a gaming fix? Does this list have to continue on forever? Happily -for my sanity- the answer to all three of those questions is no. PC gaming will never die, for as long as people own PC’s, games will be made for them. While the medium is weak at times it still can be very profitable: WoW, Warcraft and Diablo are classic examples of how Blizzard dominated the PC market. However, consoles are becoming increasing similar to PC’s in many ways as hard drives and internet access have all jumped ship in an attempt to find greener pastures.
Still PC gaming has its bonuses; free online, modifications and cheap game prices all contributed to my decision to build a gaming PC before getting an Xbox 360. With the release of Spore in 24 day’s time I’m sure a lot of people will be finding excuses to fire up the old rigs, dust off those mice and realise that viruses melted their hard drive years ago.
So there it is, my insane ramblings about PC gaming. Feel free to comment about my not-so-expert opinion in the boxes below.
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10 responses so far ↓
1 Sarow // Aug 13, 2008 at 11:53 am
“And now, over to Lucifers Jello…”
…Say what?
2 Eoco // Aug 13, 2008 at 11:57 am
I don’t see that, you must be crazy…
3 Sarow // Aug 13, 2008 at 11:58 am
Nice speedy editing there
4 DeusExMathias // Aug 13, 2008 at 12:54 pm
I used to be a PC gamer back in the days of Wolfenstein, Doom, Descent, Mech Warrior, etc… and I used to sneer at console users.
Nowadays, I don’t even own my own working PC - I use a laptop from work. I got so tired of building my PCs, upgrading firmware, software, virus scans, defragging my drives, etc… I’m done. I freaking hate maintaining PCs now and I hate the fact that one day soon, I’m going to have to buy a new one for my daughter to learn on.
I am a console gamer exclusively now, and I rarely miss the PC (except for the ‘ol mouse/keyboard combo sometimes *sigh*)
~Deus
5 Vargos // Aug 13, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I entered the realm of strictly PC gamer in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind era and have stayed there ever since.
I’ve been at college for 4 years now, soon to go to grad school, and find less and less time (and, of course, less and less money to keep up with the gaming Jones’. It seems everytime I save up enough money, something else necessary comes along.
I’ve essentially sat on the sidelines since after the release of Oblivion and am, more and more, realizing that I’ve missed out on title after amazing title due to computer costs. The release of Spore, soon after Fallout, (and for my fiance) Sims 3 have pushed the issue and I’m about to finally make the proverbial cliff leap once again.
The simple fact of the matter is that, as much as I love games in general, I love PC games more. Even if I have to sit out a year, every 3-4 years, I’m always going to come back. I love FPS games…but I’ll never play one with a controller over Old Faithful: Mouse and Keyboard. I love RPG games…and I can’t stand the dumbed down version they put onto consoles. I love RTS games…and it’ll be a looong time before they do it right on a console.
I don’t think PC gaming will ever die in the sense that most people think. Eventually, consoles and “PC Gaming” is going to merge. The way I see it…there’s 2 dividing lines:
–Mouse and Keyboard as primary input
–Free net access
The vast majority of us absolutely love to have that brand new video card that makes you question reality but when it comes down to it…we care about the games not the hardware.
Here’s when I’ll be in the console lines 3 days before release:
–When they make a console and game that provide full-blown mouse/keyboard support.
–When they stop dumbing down games like RTSs and RPGs…or at least allow me to toggle “advanced gameplay mode”
6 jcblough // Aug 14, 2008 at 8:14 am
PC Gaming will never “die” according to your definition of death, but believe me - it is dead. Look at shelf space in Best buy. In the heyday of pc gaming - you had 3 aisles of pc games - now you have one. Also take electronics boutique aka gamestop - 8 years ago, it was 90% pc games, 10% console now it is backwards. People lined up to pre order diablo II and the bioware DnD games now that is all but dead. As long as there are PC’s there will surely be pc games, but at this point a person who chooses the pc as their sole platform will be quite bored. Eventually the dollars win out and top shelf content will continue to wane away from the pc platform.
7 Diortem // Aug 14, 2008 at 9:47 am
PC gaming is never dying. You know what? Im making a list as to why.
8 DM // Aug 15, 2008 at 11:56 am
The only thing that puzzles me is the seeming enthusiasm of console-centric gamers to gloat over the percieved death of PC gaming.
They don’t seem to be aware that the driving force behind the level of hardware upgrade in each console generation has always been the PC.
Remove that factor, and there is no marker for “This is the next step in gaming technology” and the pressure on the part of console makers to ensure a certain level of cutting edge hardware becomes much reduced.
9 Hamad // Aug 16, 2008 at 7:34 am
It provides a better gaming experience than consoles, so it can’t ever die because of that. Plus, more games are being made for PC than any other system, so how can anybody say PC gaming is dying? It, as always, has been thriving. The thing is, it isn’t getting as much marketing as other systems because it doesn’t really have a sponsor, and that’s the strength of the sytem, it is open and everybody can develop and make profit from PC games. You won’t see a first time developer making a console game, they first make the game on PC then if they succeed the port it to consoles. Eventually, every console gamer makes the jumb to PC unless they quit gaming altogether.
10 Brent // Aug 17, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Arguing about the issue is futile. Both platforms have pros and cons. We can all just agree we all love gaming and I don’t want to see any part of gaming die. Consoles and PC’s will eventually merge. We see this as the trend in all of our technologies nowadays. You can buy consoles with web browser and keyboard support now. They even have tv’s coming out now with web browsers. Consoles can access downloadable content such as movies and games just as there PC brothers. As soon as we see all these companies such as Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and PC based companies get out of the business of competing with each other with there exclusive hardware and just develop games that everybody can access gaming will be a lot better and even more profitable. As a consumers we don’t want to buy multiple pieces of hardware to access and enjoy all of media and games. We want to buy one central piece of hardware that both offers upgradable features that will keep up with technology but is also easy and simple to do so. Third party hardware companies will eventually business of creating that hardware, and game companies will stick creating games that anybody can access for even bigger profits. If your a game company doesn’t it make sense to make one version of the game everybody can use. I don’t have a degree in business but if I was selling a product I wouldn’t exclude anybody from purchasing it.
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