IGN Article - The Death of PC Gaming Again ?!

http://pc.ign.com/articles/100/1005720p1.html

Not sure if this is a repost, but posting it just in case anyone missed it.

The way I see it, the PC falls into two parts. The first is the average PC gamer, someone who has a decent computer and does like PC gaming. The second is the person who spend an ungodly amount on their computer, being able to playing anything maxed out at 60 FPS while running Skynet in the background, and being absolutely floored by it.

However, in terms of sales and price, I think they go hand in hand. A lot of people think PC gaming is more expensive then console gaming, and I see it as truth. But at the same time, I don't think it's as expensive as people think it is, you don't need a thousand dollar computer to run Crysis nowadays. Because people think that the PC is more expensive, that also leads to smaller sales to the people who already have PCs.

We also know that services like Steam and Direct2Drive (which is IGN's own digital distribution offering) have gone from strength to strength over the last few years. Neither service is prepared to release concrete numbers, but we know that Steam has 20 million users (as of February 2009), over 750 games with over 100 developers/publishers with titles available, and that the service has seen consistent year on year growth of 100% since 2004. As for IGN's own Direct2Drive (D2D), our VP of Digital Distribution, Jeff Steele, told us that: "Since January 2007, D2D's sales - as % of NPD - have increased rapidly. When month-over-month sale of PC games have shown a decline on NPD, D2D sales have continued to grow. When NPD PC games sales have increased, we have shown a larger increase."

Here's the interesting parts.

Its not dying, not at all but its changing in a major (and better, imho) way.

I haven't touched my PS2 in about 3-4 years. LOL It's not even hooked up anymore. I've just gotten more and more into computers and computer gaming over the years. The one negative about that is that no more consoles = no more Final Fantasy games for me. :(TheUberKnight

Well I'm the opposite, I have been playing my PS3 lately, just got intoPersona 4 which is a LOVE/hate thing. :)

But then again I'm waiting for my Super Computer to arrive soon...

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=26978114

[QUOTE="TheUberKnight"]I haven't touched my PS2 in about 3-4 years. LOL It's not even hooked up anymore. I've just gotten more and more into computers and computer gaming over the years. The one negative about that is that no more consoles = no more Final Fantasy games for me. :(GPAddict

Well I'm the opposite, I have been playing my PS3 lately, just got intoPersona 4 which is a LOVE/hate thing. :)

But then again I'm waiting for my Super Computer to arrive soon...

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=26978114

Same here... I'm a non-prejudiced gamer. I own a PS2, Wii and an X360 because there are some games that I would prefer to play on my comfy couch in front of the 60" HDTV. Plus party games on the Wiiare great for the family.

As long as more and more households are getting PCs, PC gaming will never die. Especially since it continues to cost less and less to build a good gaming PC while consoles continue to be 30% more expensive on every generation release while coming with less stuff. Remember when consoles came with 2 controllers standard and at least one game?

My pc get's all my gaming attention apart from Demon's Souls on my ps3. I refuse to believe it's dying.

As much as I dislike them, it's games like World of Warcraft and the Sims that will keep PC gaming alive for years to come.

Also, PC technology will always be ahead of the consoles. This is great for the developers who want to try out new ideas on the PC, before they are even possible on a console.

You can not deny that most of the PC gamers play nothing but The Sims, Counter-Strike (+other multiplayer shooters), Starcraft, Warcraft 3, WoW and dozens of other MMOs. Then there's the guys who play Xbox-style games on PC (multiplats) sometimes even using... *shivers*.. controllers instead of KB&M. Plus there aren't a lot of games released that I like these days.

All in all, it's certainly not dying, but it could be in much better condition.

I feel the one thing that will seperate PC gaming from Console gaming is complexity. You can guy buy a 360, buy Halo 3, plug it in and play, no hassel. You can buy a computer, buy a game, and have it not work due to some unforseen circumstance (a network not working right, firewall, etc.). To a tech savy person, this is no problem, just troubleshoot, fix the problem and go about buisness. To a casual gamer, this process would be impossible. While PC Gaming has more potential, its much more complicated then console gaming, but its better because of it.

PC gaming will never die as A: we kick ass B: as long as there are PC's people will play games on them C: PC's are always more advanced than consoles and keyboards and mice offer control a controller cant do.