Is PC Gaming dead?

[Sky]

You can pause and issue orders in Freedom Force vs 3rd Reich, which counts as TBS in my book. Great game.

I'm not even sure it infected my pc with Starforce compared to the way Space Rangers 2 slaps it in your face every time you boot the game...

[geldonyetich]

Damn shame about Starforce and Space Rangers 2, but I'm actually willing to bear abuse from Russian security software to run it.  So hard to find good PC games these days.

[Riggswolfe]

I liked Gladius too. But I guess that's more of a tactical combat game than it is a strategy game. Still turn based though, and definitely worth the 10 dollars you can find it for these days.

If they don't make Gladius backwards compatible on the 360 soon I'm going to be forced to go out and rebuy an XBOX.

[Righ]

I'm sold!  Thanks, carry on.

Sweet. Can you get that on a games platform?

Also, consoles will never replace PCs. Not that they couldn't, they just never will, because there are too many industries involved and they have no real incentive to converge.

[stray]

Definitely won't replace PC's per se. Just that the status of the PC as a serious gaming platform could disappear one day.

[hal]

I don't know it I'm re railing or re derailing but heres a glimpse of the future. I'll say 5 to 7 years your cell phone like device will browse the web, do email...Do the dumb stuff that 99 percent of internet users do. It wont do massive exell spreadsheats but it might let you view them. Same with word. Yes I know some of that is today but theres battery technology on the way and power is the only thing really holding that back. So... What am I trying to say. Well it all depends on the interface. There are speech recognition programs out right now that can do a pretty good job. Keyboard and mouse you say, well think interface, if you could interface by speaking what would a PC look like? If your PC like device can run 10 hours, clip on your belt and interface with the Borg like over the ear mike and earplug and interact with your PC (capable machine) at your desk are you more productive? If you are you just sold bookoo of them. Connectivity is really the story of the last 5 years and we will never go back from here. This depends on the nano battery tech (as does a revolution in automobiles). But there is a lot of money to be made here. How many batteries have you been buying? Thats really a function of the last 5 to 10 years. Of course this is all in my opinion, just a casual observation. But as the poet of my generation said "You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows"

[Sairon]

I don't know it I'm re railing or re derailing but heres a glimpse of the future. I'll say 5 to 7 years your cell phone like device will browse the web, do email...Do the dumb stuff that 99 percent of internet users do. It wont do massive exell spreadsheats but it might let you view them. Same with word. Yes I know some of that is today but theres battery technology on the way and power is the only thing really holding that back. So... What am I trying to say. Well it all depends on the interface. There are speech recognition programs out right now that can do a pretty good job. Keyboard and mouse you say, well think interface, if you could interface by speaking what would a PC look like? If your PC like device can run 10 hours, clip on your belt and interface with the Borg like over the ear mike and earplug and interact with your PC (capable machine) at your desk are you more productive? If you are you just sold bookoo of them. Connectivity is really the story of the last 5 years and we will never go back from here. This depends on the nano battery tech (as does a revolution in automobiles). But there is a lot of money to be made here. How many batteries have you been buying? Thats really a function of the last 5 to 10 years. Of course this is all in my opinion, just a casual observation. But as the poet of my generation said "You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows"

Well cell phones can already browse the web to some extent. Will some cell phone like device be more popular to browse the web than a computer + monitor setup? I think not, to small of a display.

Just as some others I think that consoles and PC will become one at some point, however I think that's more like 20 years or something like that in the future. I don't think a wiimote kind of device will replace the mouse either, in fact I think you will a fairly sore arm after waving the thing around for extended periods of time.

[Big Gulp]

Damn shame about Starforce and Space Rangers 2, but I'm actually willing to bear abuse from Russian security software to run it.  So hard to find good PC games these days.

Direct2Drive.  Starforce free.

[Koyasha]

As for Obsidian, all I can say is they better be working on KOTORIII

I'd hope they'd stay the hell away from KOTOR3 and BioWare gets it again.  Cause, y'know, I'd like an entire good game, instead of maybe half a good game.  With an ending.  But that's probably a pipedream.

Me, I love PC gaming although I have to agree that it's in distinct decline at the moment.  Whether it'll ever pick up again I don't know, but at the moment, if a game is available on a console and PC, my preference of PC vs. Console seems to depend on what the current state of my PC hardware is, but whenever I have the option, I prefer the PC.  When KOTOR came out, I preferred the console version.  Why?  My PC wasn't that great and would hardly run it.  Now, I've just put together a PC that runs on a Core 2 Duo and a GeForce 7950GX2.  For the forseeable future, I'll be preferring PC games, since I can run them at much higher resolution than a console is capable of.  And the modding is a big thing to me.

However, the PS2's $600 pricetag seems high, but considering I just bought a $600 graphics card, it stops looking so expensive.  Even adding another $400 for a 360, and what, $250 or $300 for a Nintendo, it all costs less than my new computer.  So really, I do have to wonder, except for MMOG's, would I really have been better off spending $1300 on a triad of new consoles this year instead of $1900 on a new computer?  Probably.  And for Joe Sixpack, my $1900 would be at least $3000 since he's not putting his computer together himself.

[Daeven]

Medieval: Total War, Rome: Total War, Shogun: Total War.

Rome: Total War with the Total Realism mod is unparalleled. Get it. Play it. On PC. Ha.

[Nija]

There's been a starforce-free .exe replacement for Space Rangers 2 for a long time now. It's on gamecopyworld or if you don't TRUST THEM, I can email it to you.

I wouldn't trust me though.

edit: more on this, if you're really wary of starforce (SCHLID)

1) Install SR2, but don't start up the game.

2) Replace the exe with the one you get from gamecopyworld.

3) start game.

4) wish someone would give these guys tons of money to further develop their ideas

[Sky]

Thanks for the info Nija.

[geldonyetich]

Come see my crackpot theory about another reason why PC gaming may be dying.

I enjoyed Half-Life 2: Episode One, but now that that's done I've been fishing out old console games and having 50x more fun than most PC games.  The PC used to be my favorite platform, but they've just fallen into such a rut.  Whether pirates, lack of creativity, or the lack of defined endings in many PC games is to blame is probably impossible for one person to determine.

[Riggswolfe]

Now that you mention it, I replay console games many more times than I reply most PC games...

[Koyasha]

I, on the other hand, tend to replay the PC games I enjoy the most more often than console games.  Referring primarily to the best series such as Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, Planescape: Torment.  Every time I come back to these, I use different sets of mods which gives me numerous differences in my play experience.

There's a good chance I'll be buying Jade Empire for the PC although I already own it for XBox.  Ironically, my main complaint with KOTOR, and I suspect will be with JE's pc version, is that I can't use my PC gamepad to play it with.  Having gotten used to a controller on the XBox version, I find that control system more comfortable.  Whatever I get used to playing a game with first tends to become my preferred control method.

[Rasix]

Come see my crackpot theory about another reason why PC gaming may be dying.

Yikes.  That's almost as bad as your "WoW will fail" article.  I completely disagree with the premise and the conclusions, but it's Friday night.. so that's all you're getting out me.

"A" for effort though!

[schild]

Come see my crackpot theory about another reason why PC gaming may be dying.

Weak.

Now, don't do that again.

[Righ]

Geldon, MMORPGs are like entrees in restaurants. They serve enough such that you can enjoy the parts you like until you are content. You are not supposed to clean the plate at every sitting. To claim that they undermine the snack food of the industry is silly. You owe me a beer.

[Megrim]

Would someone be so kind as to provide a more detailed description of Space Rangers 2? It sounds really quite interesting.

[geldonyetich]

I get the feeling my article would have been better received if I just wrote, "If your playform is littered with nothing but shitty treadmills you're bound to figure it sucks", but retrospect is a bitch that way.

Would someone be so kind as to provide a more detailed description of Space Rangers 2? It sounds really quite interesting.

It's a tough one to describe.  An oddly well done-fusion between a turn-based 4E Space Strategy game and an open-ended Space Trading/Exploration/Fighting game with real time strategy, top-down 2D action, and text adventure minigames.

[Jain Zar]

I consider PC gaming dead enough that I switched to a Mac just before the Intel changeover.

I really do not regret my decision.  Outside of not being able to easily play Dawn of War or Galactic Civilizations 2, I haven't missed much of anything.
I now avoid the upgrade grind, and all I lose out on is MMORPGS, RTS, and FPS games I wouldn't want to play anyhow.
(Almost) No virii, no spyware, no adware, no malware, no Steam or Starforce.

And I have such a backlog of console games to either buy or play I am packed with games to play.
(Even if Dead Rising is currently fucking me right in my ear for daring to not waste money on an HDTV.)

My Windows laptop will handle any 2004 and earlier games without a hitch, outside of those lovely Win 98 and earlier titles that don't do XP.

Some of the best XP games end up on the Mac anyhow, and in 2007 when 10.5 comes out ill grab the newest 20" iMac, run Boot Camp, and
the few I want that don't get ported (or Cidered if that upcoming system does what it claims) can be run on a partition if I am willing to go into Windows.

The old days where computers had THE games unless you were a total arcade or Japanophile is long gone.  Everyone has moved on.

[Strazos]

Besides the Wii, I still have not seen anything, in person, worth moving on to. Sure, some of the 360 stuff sounds cool, like Chromehounds. And I'm going to miss out on Mass Effect...

I'm still not convinced there's much to move on to. Sure, Chromehounds might be cool....but I thought the Mechwarrior games were cool too. I just didn't end up playing them that much. Same with Halo2. I played extensively on all 3 consoles of the last generation. I own an Xbox with a handful of games that I think are worth the bother, and I owned a PS2 that I traded in because I disliked the vast majority of the library back then.

My PC still gets all of my play time.

[eldaec]

PC gaming isn't dead.

But it is fair to say that a wave of console Madden-esque shit is driving interesting stuff on both consoles and PCs into smaller corners of retail space. That's the cost of a mass market I guess /shrug.

It's also fair to say that a lot of what could have been great PC games have been hamstrung by developer's desire to resuse the same assets on both console and PC platforms. But even that doesn't stop things being available on PC. It's not as if there is a whole bunch of console innovation going on that isn't also being delivered on a PC (with the possible exception of Nintendo stuff designed for younger players and groups of drunk people).

At this point, I think the only "ease of use" and "functionality" missing is a mouse and keyboard.

People continue to dismiss screen resolution, but it really is a big deal - since it drives the amount of information a gamer can manage. Enormous text and a need to add extra controls to scroll interfaces around really do reduce the scope of a player to keep track of a game world.

HDTV is nice and all, though PCs continue to move onward and upward as well.

Also, tiny HDs and limited RAM amounts used to keep costs down in a console continue to restrict console gamespace and production values.

[Tale]

MMORPGs, especially WoW, have hurt the rest of the PC gaming industry. Millions of former singleplayer PC gamers now almost exclusively play WoW. They buy far fewer PC games than they did before WoW and their future spending patterns will also be massively multiplayer. That's by no means everyone, but it's a significant slice of the market that has almost stopped moving.

[Rithrin]

People continue to dismiss screen resolution, but it really is a big deal

A lot of people don't notice this. I own an HDTV and I play my Xbox on it, but its still not nearly the quality I get from my PC. And it really makes the difference for a lot of games. Battlefront 2 multiplayer on the Xbox compared to Battlefront 2 multiplayer on computers... on the Xbox I couldn't even tell who was on my team/what weapon a bot was using to save my life, all because of resolution. Part of it is because of the split screen, but even linking two Xboxs its nearly impossible to tell what something is at far range.

MMORPGs, especially WoW, have hurt the rest of the PC gaming industry. Millions of former singleplayer PC gamers now almost exclusively play WoW. They buy far fewer PC games than they did before WoW and their future spending patterns will also be massively multiplayer. That's by no means everyone, but it's a significant slice of the market that has almost stopped moving.

I wouldn't say that MMORPGs in general are, just the ones that are trying to give a single player game/experience but want to do it online. And even then, I don't care that there are games like that as long as everyone has their fun. Though MMOs in the future are likely to try to do what games like WoW has and make single player geared MMOs, so its affecting the industry as a whole.

[Simond]

My theory: PC gaming will recover once the Second Videogaming Bubble goes pop.

[geldonyetich]

With the introduction of multiple platforms, the video game indsutry is not just one bubble anymore.

To say that PC gaming will entirely "die", as in, there are no more players playing games on the PC, is an impossibility on niche factor alone.  No matter how crappy you think a game is, there's probably somebody who plays it.  So, basically, the whole question is one big overgeneralization.  Need to establish some better criteria.

In support of the idea that PC gaming is in decline, we've no shortage of criteria to look at:

• Does the console game market generally exhibit more creativity than mainstream PC game market?

More often than not.

• Has the PC game shelf space in retailers been reducing in comparison to that devoted to console games? 

Yep.

• Is piracy hitting the PC game industry much harder than the consoles? 

That's what I've been hearing.

• Do console games sell better? 

Taking the last two factors into consideration, definately.

• Do players who devote all of their gaming time to World of Warcraft buy other games? 

Unlikely, so there's up to 6 million players who aren't getting much use out of Half Life 2 right now.

But then, I can come up with some reasons why PC gaming isn't going anywhere, too:

• Can consoles be upgraded like PCs? 

Not unless you count accessories.  Thus, the PC will always be the most computationally powerful platform, provided the users are willing to sink the moolah into upgrading it.

• Can people develop games for their consoles on their consoles?

There's some game making titles for consoles, but not full programming development suites.  The PC is used to develop games for consoles.  As the origin of all modern games, the PC needs to be able to play them.

• When some hot new hardware comes out, which is most likely to get it first?

The PC, although it won't instantly catch on with all of the platform users.

• Is there popular online sources that distrbute PC games through routes other than the local retailer stores?

Yes, Direct2Drive and Steam being two of them.

Etc.  So, while we're definately more tempted to get a console than we ever have been before, games will continue to be made and played on the PC.

That established, lets see some good ones, eh?

[Fabricated]

This is part of the reason I really hate speculation on the game market.

I recall seeing a lot of doomsday "SECOND GAMING CRASH!?!?!?" articles over the last few years, and now all the sudden "CONSOELS ARE TEH FUTUR!!!" and PC Gaming is dead?

Strange, because I've played a lot of good PC AND Console exclusive titles this year. The only thing I've noticed with the shrinking shelf space for PC titles in most retail outlets is that the remaining shelves are dominated by what I would consider good titles. The never ending barrage of shitty Myst clones is now a tiny, dusty section of shelving at all my local retailers, while the rest is filled (well, provided it isn't sold out. There were 3 copies of Titan Quest left at my local Best Buy today, surrounded by empty space where large numbers of them used to be) with stuff like WoW, Oblivion, Prey, Battlefield 2, and older titles that keep getting reprinted over and over due to sales, like Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, Age of Empires 2, Sim City 4, Half Life 1, etc.

That's better than the mess that used to comprise the PC Game shelves ~5+ years ago.

If the market is shrinking it seems to be separating the wheat from the chaff, which is just fine by me.

[stray]

That's better than the mess that used to comprise the PC Game shelves ~5+ years ago.

Five years ago saw the release of PC titles like CS, Deus Ex, Thief II, Shogun:TW, Baldur's Gate II, and the Sims. Instead of "crappy Myst clones", Lucas Arts was still pumping out great adventure games like Monkey Island (and Grim Fandango a little before that). The Mech Warrior series was still around. EQ had not yet made the entire MMO genre in it's own image. And the only title worth cringing at was Daikatana.

Not sure how today is better.

[Tebonas]

The premise was that PC gaming was dead. That premise is wrong. There always were better times and worse times. For every year with exceptional titles you can look at another year with mainly trashy games and clones in a particular genre or subgenre. There were always ups and downs. The role playing genre has already been deemed dead and buried before Baldurs Gate revitalized it. I only play PC games, and the amount of games I buy and enjoy are about the same over the years. For every oldtimer that quits and/or moves to consoles there is a new developer unheard of who brings something enjoyable.

"Hey, Oblivion is cool"
"I had a blast playing Titan Quest"
"Prey is really innovative, I enjoyed it"
"Heroes of Might and Magic 5, yummy"
"Looking forward to Hellgate:London"
"When is NWN2 due?"
"PC gaming is dead"

One of those is not like the others.

[schild]

When is NWN2 due?

I mean, no one REALLY wants to play that shit.

Edit: As for the other comments, and instead of just being snarky, I'm pretty sure Oblivion and Prey on the 360 will outsell the PC versions 10:1. At least Oblivion did. I don't think Prey is doing well on any system.

[Tebonas]

Why should it be a problem for a PC gamer on how many other system the game is sold as well as long as it is sold on the PC? If the game isn't blantantly worse than it could be just to make porting easier (*cough* Deus Ex 2 *cough*) a console version doesn't take away from the PC gaming experience and vice versa. With the new consoles this danger doesn't present itself in the immediate future, so crossplatform development is a bonus for the PC market. A bonus not easily going away because those crossplatform titels just have to exceed the porting cost, if they routinely do its fine for the developers.

Yes, buying that Xbox-360 controller for my PC helped to improve my view on this tremendously.

[stray]

Ok, I'll agree that PC gaming isn't dead (I've said as much before anyways). Certainly on the decline though. In danger of being niche, as Geldon pointed out. Every year in the past may have had it's "ups and downs", but certainly not in the way it is now. PC gaming companies have spent the last five years making bets on all the "sure things" like never before (and at the expense of destroying some of the genres, ideas, and dev houses that made the platform unique).

Secondly, the barbarians (i.e. consoles) are finally in the position to be at the gates. Before they just kind of screamed and grumbled from a long distance. You can say things have happened before in the PC gaming world, but the challenge it faces now with console advancement hasn't. It's a new problem.

Ignoring those issues by drooling over NWN2 isn't going to help much (then again, I'm not sure what would help really...So have it, I guess). That's not exactly rose colored sunglasses territory or anything, but I can't help but think that some of you diehard PC fans could very well easily end up there. That you'll be exactly what Amiga fans are like now in 10 years. Grateful for your niche, grateful for your sloppy seconds ports of Wolfenstein 3D, grateful for having such an awesome platform to play with (despite the games).

[Fabricated]

That's better than the mess that used to comprise the PC Game shelves ~5+ years ago.

Five years ago saw the release of PC titles like CS, Deus Ex, Thief II, Shogun:TW, Baldur's Gate II, and the Sims. Instead of "crappy Myst clones", Lucas Arts was still pumping out great adventure games like Monkey Island (and Grim Fandango a little before that). The Mech Warrior series was still around. EQ had not yet made the entire MMO genre in it's own image. And the only title worth cringing at was Daikatana.

Not sure how today is better.

I remember the majority of shelf space in my local EB/GameStops being dedicated to awful Myst clones and buggy shooters from no-name devs, with the first two shelves towards the front having multiple copies of the A Titles. This was back the PC Game shelves went from the front of the store to the back. Daikatana was the only awful game people remember from around then, since the other awful titles lacked hordes of frogs.

[Daeven]

There is less shovelware for the PC now. Guess where it all went? That's my theory on increased console shelf space, and I'm sticking with it.

Also, isn't Vista supposed to be compatable with 360 titles out of the box? I thought i read that somewhere....