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 living the dream since March 16, 2006 |
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Installing a video card hard?
Yep. Just as hard as putting a tape into a VCR.
Yeah I listened to this yesterday.
Simple truth is, PC Gaming has always spearheaded the charge when it comes to change in the industry. Not just in graphics, but in its connectivity to the internet. Consoles are seeming to catch up, and I would guess that the PC is simply morphing into a platform focused on an online distribution model. This model will no doubt be used by consoles within the decade.
To those who lament the sales of PC games, bear in mind that online purchases are not counted in sales figures. For example, how many people do you think bought Half Life 2, or its expansions, over Steam?
The PC will be the first machine to see a massive change in hardware towards the end of this decade - namely integrated CPU/GPU architecture, which is currently being kept under wraps by Intel, Nvidia and AMD/ATI.
There will always be room for both on the market, we're just in a state of extreme flucuation right now. The PS3, which has yet to really wow, will shine more brightly with each passing year, while the 360 will slowly die away, and the Wii will eventualy stagnate.
When these consoles come to be replaced by their respective companies, where will they look for inspiration?
Playstation 4 will be an online only distribution model (this has been said by staff at Sony numerous times) and I'm confident the 360 will follow suit.
This drive in online distribution will force sales to be properly catalogued, and thus the PC will re-emerge in increased relevance.
It's true, because I said so.
what are you some kind of oracle?
Don't worry, they only say that because PC gameing is in a transitional stage and they want to be the first person to say it is dead so they are right if it does happen (which it won't).
Very true madninja :D
I wouldn't agree with you Wrath, firstly no matter how much of an idiot you are, its really not that hard to replace a videocard - nerve wracking the first time maybe, but its about as difficult as a kids toy in which you match shaped blocks to corresponding holes.
The division has been made less visible due to directx10 (or 'The 360 api') but going forward, once the ps3 gains a significant lead you will see major differences in exclusive titles. Developers will not want to develop for the 360 as its popularity wanes, and thus they will not bother converting the Sony architecture coding into a DirectX format for use with the 360 and by extension the PC.
I'm sure this won't be the case forever though, the market ebbs and flows but neither will ever die out. The PC is in for more changes than the console market in the next few years, but nothing it won't be able to easily survive.
PC gaming will never die, MMO's and other casual titles will keep it afloat, it simply won't reach the lofty peaks it did before, not until devs take a page from Valve and realize that its not about pushing graphics to the limit and making games that have such steep requirements that not even Nasa can run them, but rather a title that everyone can run and is still fun.
There's a reason why The Witcher trounced Unreal III and Crysis in sales, it didn't have ridiculous requirements and was overall entertaining and it showed that if PC gamers want to they will support someone.
That's another issue PC gaming has, rampant piracy, sure the console world has it as well but its much easier for me to pirate a PC game than a console one and the ridiculous security measures turns off a lot of people.
So PC gaming won't die but it has some issues to work out.
If it went away, at least the fanboy cries of "PC GAMING IS TEH BEST" would finally be silenced.
@Wrath - sorry, just read that back and it sounded like I was calling you an idiot in the first sentence. Not intended... I was thinking of your average Sims player :)
the "transitional" stage that they're talking about (pc's turning into web browser games) is illuminating. of course it isn't "turning into that", because it already has. it is a platform for web browser games.
sales figures are not that alarming when you think about it:
1. piracy
2. the line between console games and pc games are blurring out, therefor more people are getting the chance to play games on their console. and more people were playing games on consoles than on pc's 7 years ago too, it's just that certain genres have starting to emerge on different platforms thanks to microsoft and xbox.
3. piracy
and the upgrading thing, don't do it if you don't want to. you don't "have" to buy a new gpu every generation to play the latest games. it's just that the pc gives you the option. if you wanna stick with a rig for 5-6 years (average console cycle, mind you) you can. the pc has so many possibilities and therefor it is clearly made for the gaming/tech enthusiast who want to mod their system to be just for themselves, not what some company tells them they should have (ironic statement, since we live in a capitalist society).
what pcga needs to do, is work out an agreement between software developers and hardware developers to optimize the platform to its fullest. because that's the biggest problem; optimization of the platform.
you need to have tremendous scalability at both ends and really push for the modding abilities to make the pc a lucrative option for not just average joe, but for average g33k too. give him the possibility to make it the platform [i]he[i/] mods himself, and make joe's headache because of the new video card installation go away at the same time.