I've said it before that one of the biggest problems with PC gaming
is the enthusiast press. And listening to
the latest 1UpYours made me want to bitchslap everyone sitting in that room, telling me people do not want desktop pc's, do not want to change their video cards because it's too hard, "have you ever tried putting one in?! it's awful!", do not want big budget games on their machine because they'd rather play browser based games.
The biggest problem here, is the actual defenders of the platform. In this particular case, you've got Shane and John being console people slamming the difficulties of owning a PC, while Shawn and Garnett are the two who use the platform frequently to play games on. Hearing Garnett complaining about the "PC-gaming is dead" mantra, calling it bullshit, only to make a retort saying PC gaming is changing into browser based Quake's and Desktop Tower Defense', made me really concerned about the state of mind of the gaming press.
I could imagine Shawn sitting there trying not to argue but to impose a discussion about it, as his brain's starting to hurt from the stupidity he was witnessing from his own colleagues. He was Goeff Keighly on Fox News trying to bring some sense to the subject matter. Keighly did a better job, because he actually made a solid defense.
When we change the attitude, when we change the tech developers and software developers to help making the PC a more stable platform, that's when we stop having this discussion. That's when we start talking about art instead of products. That's when I stop taking a gaming podcast too seriously.
/end rant
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Yep. Just as hard as putting a tape into a VCR.
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.
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.
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.
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.