Expect regular shop PC gaming to shrink more.

PC users have big hard drives, fast internet connections, and generally expect to get what they want immediately.

Considering you can get 500 gig drives for $50 for pc, and the highest a console offers is 100 gig, your limited in what you can download.

Even if you mod your console, their gonna cater to the norm.

You can't mod console games.

Why is it that every single year since I played Kings Quest I and MS Flight Sim, on every board I talk on, has someone always started a "Is PC Gaming Dead" thread?

I chuckle every single time I see one. I have responded countless times to these kids of threads and had many many really good conversations about this topic. Especially Console versus PC every single time a new console comes out.

The answer is no.

In fact, as a PC gamer I find I can no longer keep up with the total collection that has been comming out lately.

There has never been so many quality products as there were the last few years and it has been as good as ever. In fact, the PC Gaming industry has grown.

Dev's do jump ship. We do get softened console ports and we de see sub par products oon the market.

The console tech and PC Gaming tech are growing closer to gether and one day there will be 1 platform or segment as it gets easier to dump PC horse power into a console.

But PC gaming is as good as it has ever been. Driving and Flight sims are better than ever in the PC gaming history. Sins of a Solar Empire and Gal Civ II and such bring us back to the days of Master of Orion and with great success IMO.

In the end. There will ALWAYS be those that ask... Is PC gaming dead? And in my experince as a PC Gamer from way back is that those people are just burnt out at the moment and need a new hobby for a while. Try console gaming or dump gaming all together until the itch returns. It does. And you will be back at varying levels.

Me and many of my friends have walked away from it several times in the last 12 years only to return at some point. It's a great hobby.

C.

I have little interest in a console. For me, the TV is for watching television and the computer is where games are played. I have little desire to multiplex a console into my PC monitor either. I know some people do that, but it seems redundant to me.

I tend to drop in and out of the gaming scene depending on how much free time I have. There's always been more interesting PC titles than I have time to play. I limit myself to a few favorite genres.

Limiting yourself to traditional retail distribution may render the appearance that PC gaming is dying because many PC games are moving toward digital distribution. So far, my experience indicates that's a good thing. Why waste time and money going to a brick and mortar store. It's so much more convenient to get games online.

Consoles focus on a traditional dstribution point because that's the demographic they cater to. There's probably a bigger market there, but I don't think the demographic is similar to that of PC gamers. As long as there are people buying enough PC games to make it worth the while, we'll keep seeing them. I know I'll be buying them for quite some time to come.

I read that every month WOW brings in more $ than the top 5 console games combined.

Hmmm...

I know what you are trying to say. It has always felt this way from the beginning. At least to me. It's a niche market. There are gems like Gal Civ II or HL2 or Crysis or Bioshock that come at whatever rate they come at. Spurts. Since I can remember. Spurts.

For insstance... Space flight sims gone? I don't think they are gone. They always came out in dribbles. Ever since X-wing, Tie-Fighter and Wing Commander, They dribble in. At least in my experience. Freelancer in 2003 was great. X3 Reunion released around XMAS 2005 was pretty hardcore from what I understand. Darkstar One in August of 2006 was a semi decent product for those into that sort of thing. I am sure one will pop out again. When the time is right. you can even revisit one of the best Space sims of all time that keeps getting community love and upgrades... Freespace 2! It's been redone by the community and looks fantastic! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeSpace_2_Source_Code_Project

Flight sims... FSX and all the related mods is awesome. Battle of Britain II: Wings of Glory continues getting upgrades and is really great and the guys that brought us IL2 Sturmovik and 1943 are comming with a Battle of Britain title very soon as well. Can't wait!

Race 07, the continued LFS and of course GT Legends and GTR2 recently as well mark the best driving sims collection EVER to hit the PC. Richard Burns Rally is the best and only true Rally sim and could keep a person busy as a lone hobby forever. It has no equal. Dirt is a little more arcade but it's pretty cool too.

Want Baulder's Gate? NWN2 and the expansion Mask of Eternity or whatever it's called are pretty damn good from what people tell me. While not quite as open ended as Baulders gate, great games with countless hours of play time.

Countless FPS's and RTS's in the last 24 months. Overload!

This goes on and on like this so I stop here.

I know lots of people that fill endless hours in just their favorite MMO or in Live for Speed competative racing on line or in Battle of Brittain II without any other games in sight! Those kinds of games are that way. A full hobby on their own.

Bottom line. Tons to do on the PC. But if your looking for a different game every week because you play large ammounts and need new title after new title, you need to look elsewhere. I have XBOX 360 and I would not buy 90% of the crap there is for it.

This is the way of PC Games and it's market.

C.

It's totally understandable why devs jump ship from PC to console. Games are easier to develop and can make more money faster. If nothing else, the compatability headaches they avoid make it very attractive. Plus, games don't have to have to be as innovative to sell well.

I believe PC gamers are the connoisseurs. Like cvearl said, most poeple aren't going to put money into a decent gaming rig. We have pretty high expectations and PC devs know that.

I think it's sort of like comparing sports cars to family cars. Most people have a family car, but only enthusiasts buy sports cars. Family cars have a much bigger market and make more money, but it's the sports cars that get all the attention and reflect the state of the art. Makers almost always offer some sort of sports car model even though there isn't always a justifiable market there.

That may be an arguable analogy because consoles are fairly powerful when first released. However, they quickly fall behind. A particular model only gets updated every few years at best and PC's cover a lot of ground in that time.