Is PC games getting less popular or dying

Yes, obviously.

Pc gaming is moving toward digital distribution.

Steam has 15 million subscribers, Stardock 3, and over the past year 200 million have used Popcap games (Look it up).

Digital Distribution users are more then 5 times the size of console gamers.

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.

but you can download new contents with Xbox live or similar services for Playstation 3. That is just not fair.

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.

but the games for console is so much different than for PCs. I mean, pc games are so much more sophisticated than consoles. FOr console games. there are less thinking involved, basically, pointless waste of time game playing on a couch.

You can't mod console games.

We're talking modding consoles.

As in, adding a bigger hdd.

Read plz.

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 agree with cvearl,


PC games are still popular and will continue for years to come. Right
now PC hardware is getting better every 6 months. Right now you can get
CPUs with 4 cores and get video cards that can be configured for SLi or
Crossfire. The chipsets are getting better too. The only thing that is
slowly moving is hard drive tech. The size is "OK" , but their should
be drives that should be running at 10,000 or 15,0000 rpm with a transfer
rate 6 mbps or 12 ...

Back on topic ... I still prefer buying PC in CD format. I buy them
on line from EB or Bestbuy ...

On the hardware front, I looking forward to 6 core CPUs and Quad GPU's
on single a single graphics card.

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 have to agree with Craig...

I know that people (especially those not in PC gaming very long) walk into an EB store or whatever and right away they see 4 walls and 12 shelves full of Console games and accessories. In the corner is a small collection of PC Game new releases and some previously played titles. They immediatetly start to think... "Well. There goes PC Gaming. Consoles won!"

Reality is that as more consoles are released, that market expands. PC games from days of yor dissapear of the shelves never to be seen again. Yet you can get PS and Nintendo games still. That is the way that market rolls.

Consoles are more accessible to the general masses. It has a larger audience. It is far less expensive compared to PC gaming. Anyone can plug in an XBOX and play. Not everyone wants to build a PC or mod a prebuilt rig with a new video card and better sound card. That's also part of the PC Gamer hobby. Upgrading every 6 to 18 months to play the latest on the new 22" Widescreen or whatever. PC gaming is a niche of sorts. It's not for everyone. My sister and her 2 kids can play the Wii like champs. They certainly would not know what to do with my Wheel and Peddals in Race 07 or Live for Speed. Nor would they know what to do with my flightstick in Battle of Brittain II or FSX. It is not for those users. They definately would not get the point og Gal Civ II or others like it.

Point is. It has always been that way. And it will remain that way for the forseable future.

It's one or the other dependant on your needs as well. Sitting and playing hockey or football on a 52" screen with an XBOX over a few beers with a friend sitting beside you is what consoles are exceedingly good at.

But for example I have COD4 on XBOX and PC. The PC experience blow the XBOX experience out of the water for me (my opinion) but my son would say that Gears of War plays better on XBOX and it's controller type.

Enjoy what you like and don't fret. It's not a religion in the end.

C.

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

there are certain genere are almost plain dead. Space flight sims are totally gone from the PC. RTS and FPS are almost the only things that keeps on rolling off the shelves non stop. I read in the recent issue of PC gamer, that developers are not probably making shorter and shorter RPGs, the new fallout 3 will not be as long as Oblivion or the Baulder's Gate series. with TBS games, thanks to success of Galciv and Civ 4, there are still markets for them.

the rest that still are coming out for PC, well..you see are not of sequels. How many of the Sims X series do we need, developers are just milking on the popularities of sequels. I remember 10 to 13 years ago, there are so many different type of games being experimented with, it was hard to really choose what to buy, nowadays, it is like, i automatically know what is bad and what is good by just picking up the box and seeing the description. Or if not, i at least know what i will be getting into. I don't mean to sound pessimestic or depressing, but it certainly feels like one of the major pc game retailers are paying more attention to consoles than PC games.

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.

Here where I live Wal-mart PC selection is bigger than any one console alone including wii. Also Bestbuy has a huge PC selection. Thus if you looking for a PC game then go to a store that sells PCs. EB and GameStop has always been more about consoles and not so much about PC. Since EB sells consoles (hardware) and not PC then of course they will focus more on consoles.

Another thing I've noticed that Walmart and Bestbuy has most of their console games lock up while PC selection is more out in the open.

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.

Developers are having trouble developing games on consoles as well as the fact console games are getting very expensive to make especially on PS3/360. First unlike PC games a developer has to spend more time and money working out the bugs before the game is release. Developing for PS3 has been costly to developers lately ( caused for example GTA4 to be delayed) so consoles themselves are a mixed blessing. Too many have turn to developing shovelware for the wii and boy does wii have a lot of shovelware. If you like mini-games then you love the wii.