Tom

"Morgan" <nospam@nospam.co.uk> wrote in message
news:eZN3n.8295$jE1.6623@newsfe27.ams2...
> Tom wrote:
>
>>> That's one example, Bioshock on the other hand ran fine maxed out on a
>>> mid range PC of the day.
>>>
>>
>> I have to mostly agree with Almighty on his comments really. I mean, I am
>> an avid PC gamer but only for a niche set of games, and I just built a
>> really expensive rig ($4K) and most people are not going to go that route
>> because most (typical) gamers feel just fine with the console games, they
>> are happy with what they offer
>
> At the minute yes, but I'm talking about now, I'm talking hypothetically,
> if a new console doesn't come out for over two more years

Well, I have yet to read where those on the 360 have gotten tired of it and
bought a new PC for gaming (except for me), and the 360 is into its fifth
year. They are still happy and it is still selling consoles and game sales
are still decent. Even game sales have been bland the past year or so for
consoles, but they are still smoking PC game sales. Look at it this way, and
360 game usually sells 5 times more game than on a PC, yet we all know there
are far more PCs in the world than consoles. It's just that the majority of
those PCs are not used for gaming as you and I would use them.

>
>> (look at Wii sales!!).
>
> You can't really count the Wii, it's not a gamers console.

It is a gaming console no matter how you look at it and it remains a gaming
console whether you think those games it offers are not gaming to your
standards. I don't own one and I probably never will as it doesn't appeal to
me, but I recognize that it is a gaming/entertainment console still. It's
sheer sales numbers states that the majority of people are not PC gamers and
that spending preference is going to keep propping up that section of the
market. It is just as easy to say by the console and game sales (game sales
of which have been lackluster the past few years) of the Wii, 360 and PS3,
that the majority of people who like to games are just fine with those
consoles. This fact made more so by how much PC gaming is becoming more and
more niche form of gaming for a/to a certain group of people, like me.

It would be interesting to see how many former avid PC gamers have just quit
it and made the switch to consoles and not looked back. I was there for a
few years.

>
>> I am, for the most part, one of them, except I am an RPG freak, they are
>> better on PC, but I somehow think that won't last much longer going into
>> the next gen.
>
>>The PC market is certainly not dead, but it is a nearly complete shell of
>>its former self and game sales and especially hardware sales even reflect
>>that.
>
> That's my point and the point that a couple of people seem to ignore. I'm
> not saying that the PC will make some massive comeback I'm simply saying
> that it will probably have a slight but noticeable improvement if the next
> generation of consoles doesn't come out PDQ, and that it's not dead, as
> die-hard console fanatics seem to think. They seem to read this as "the
> PC will come to conquer us all."

I didn't really notice anyone ignoring your words, but you do seem to be
very dismissive of the sales points and the well known gaming preferences
today, consoles have been and still are the gaming grade of choice for
"most" gamers, not PCs. I actually do not see it making an improvement in
sales or even growing as a base. I couldn't even say that PC sales will make
even a small improvement since the decline has been very long, since the mid
to late 90s this has been happening. Did you see PC rigs sales ramping up
while the PS1 and PS2 were selling over 100m each, as an example? Another
fact about PC gaming is that some games require really high end systems to
be able to run them. Most don't buy PC gaming rigs to be run on low or even
medium setting, they know why they bought the rigs and consoles have gotten
much better graphically and even on performance to negate a reason to spend
that kind of money for the majority. Crysis, when released sold well under
100K its first month after release as an example because the cost
requirements to run it were off the charts. Even by today's standard, it
still takes a rather pricey rig to run it smoothly on any setting more than
medium.

I have been a PC gamer going back two decades, but with the arrival of the
og Xbox, what it did online and what it offered graphically, my gaming
preference swung totally 180º. Only because of my liking for a certain
genre, have I just bought into PC gaming again. But the 360 is still my
choice for gaming and consoles will be for the times to come. For example, I
cannot see playing Bayonetta on a PC with a mouse and keyboard, it doesn't
work as console game controllers have evolved hugely compared to PC, making
them very functional (thanks Halo for giving us this better console
controller system). I bought my previous gaming rig in early 2004 ($2500),
and it was a powerhouse, but I was still playing mainly on my Xbox, I felt
stupid sometimes when I bought the Xbox version of games that were also on
PC. I even bought Oblivion for the 360, though I knew my rig could more than
handle it, but I had a nice couch, nice HDTV and a wireless controller, see
what I mean? It has been only recently that I am back to PC gaming because
the 360 isn't giving enough offerings in the quality and performance of
today's RPGs. Dragon Age simply rips the heart of the 360 version on the PC.
I got Oblivion GOTY edition for $15, while XBL still wants (even now, go
look) 2400 MS points ($30) for the Shivering isles DLC that I wouldn't
consider paying for. Mass Effect, though I loved it on the 360, just because
of its storyline, was sorely lacking graphically and by way of using
commands and changing items/weapons, that I made the swing to a new rig
knowing ME2 is about to arrive. I will definitely getting B:BC2 on the 360,
though I bet the PC version smokes it. But I am into B:BC for it MP mode and
all of my MP gaming is solely on XBL.

If FXIII were on PC, that's where I would go, but as you can tell, I am a
very niche PC gamer and more than 95% of the market is not going to operate
in favor of PC gaming by my standards, but they will surely hit the
consoles..

>
>> Hell, even over the past year or so, the console gaming industry has
>> suffered a bit from sales, so I don't think that PC sales for gamers are
>> going to somehow leap consoles,
>
> I've been very clear and said that I don't think this will happen either.

And it has been like this since the late 80 with NES setting the stage for
large scale console gaming sales. I know the Arari 2600, Coleco Vision all
had consoles, but nothing on the scale of sales of NES and all other brands
that came after.. PC gaming started its decline about then