Epic President : *PC Gaming Industry Is Dying* (so I guess it's official now)

Gamespot: What do you wish you could change about games or the industry?

Mike Capps (president of epic games):

The thing that is killing me the most is; the PC industry for games is just dying.

We were just talking about it the other day that the folks who can actually play unreal tournament 3 on PC when it comes out, is such a small market of the folks who actually buy graphics cards. Which is now you're down to 5%.

And unfortunately those are the same guys who have bit torrent. You know, they are the ones who are not paying for games in the first place.

Ofcouse not all of them, we've got some great customers, some fans who, you know, stick by us. But it's that PC market is shrinking and shrinking.

And it's why there is no PC section in the gamestop anymore. It breaks my heart

(GS Video Interview)

So is it official now that PC gaming is dying?

Watch the denial flood in.

Edit: Nevermind 

warcraft
starcraft
diablos
crytek
half-life


just blizzard alone will make the pc live

warcraft
starcraft
diablos
crytek
half-life


just blizzard alone will make the pc live

Radeon_X1950XTX

I'm hoping that you didnt just say blizzard makes half life? 

I geuss this means WoW means nothing to anyone?l_The_DetoX_l

 It means a lot to those who download it illegally too =]

[QUOTE="l_The_DetoX_l"]I geuss this means WoW means nothing to anyone?Liquid_47

 It means a lot to those who download it illegally too =]

Oh noez Epic President confirms PC gaming is dying, the world is over, everybody go home! :roll:

The Owner said it before, and I'll say it again.

PC gaming is a dieing breed.

/word

untile PC's stop getting the most AAA games, then Im ok.

If being a "Dying Breed" means getting most AAA games, then Im fine with that. 

[QUOTE="Liquid_47"]

[QUOTE="l_The_DetoX_l"]I geuss this means WoW means nothing to anyone?Hewkii

It means a lot to those who download it illegally too =]

 No I don't. I don't do that kind of stuff, because quite frankly, I'm heading into an industry that hates piracy.

But yeah, a lot my geeky friends with no money are somehow able to play WoW without that monthly fee...

-sighs- 

Let me show you something TC:

So we might see a Blizzard MMO on consoles, but not WOW?

Firstly, we're not just doing MMOs. We're the leading online game company and people often forget that the old Battlenet used to have 13 million users. They forget that we've been making online games since the mid-nineties.

So when we come to develop a new game we will look at the kind of opportunities that exist out there and what we want to develop, and if it could be interesting on console. We should remember that a 360 is just a sophisticated PC, and there are a few things which are happening in the market.

The PC is becoming an entertainment hub - you use it to watch videos and TV, play games, listen to music... With wireless, you can send your content from your PC to anywhere in the house, to your TV, something I already do. You can play PC on your TV because it's an LCD screen. Consoles are becoming sophisticated PCs which sit in the living room.

We'll have to see how all this develops. Maybe in five years you won't need a console because you'll have one PC which delivers content all over your house.

The main thing to remember is that Blizzard is an online games company, and wherever there are online games that's where we'll be.VP of Blizzard

Link.

Wow, clearly that means that consoles are dead in the future.

I think this is blown out of proportion a little.Marka1700

No, it's not. Piracy is a huge problem in PC gaming.

Let me show you something TC:

[quote="VP of Flagship Studios"]Maybe in five years you won't need a console because you'll have one PC which delivers content all over your house.XaosII

Link.

Wow, clearly that means that consoles are dead in the future.

Maybe ! = Clearly 

Maybe ! = Clearly 

Mystery_Writer

just because no-one likes unreal tournament. stupid epic games.apolloluke

Unreal Tournament is one of my favorite games:evil:

[QUOTE="XaosII"]

Maybe in five years you won't need a console because you'll have one PC which delivers content all over your house.

The main thing to remember is that Blizzard is an online games company, and wherever there are online games that's where we'll be.

Link.

Wow, clearly that means that consoles are dead in the future.

Mystery_Writer

Maybe ! = Clearly

Sarcasm much?

Sensationalist sayings dont apply no matter who they come from.

[QUOTE="Marka1700"]I think this is blown out of proportion a little.Gamer556

No, it's not. Piracy is a huge problem in PC gaming.

It was a big problem with the Playstation 2 and that didn't stop it from being king last generation.  

I have 4 points to make about this post -

1. As long as there are PCs, people will play games on them. And 5% of people who own PCs is a lot of people. MUCH more than the install base of any next gen console (so far).

2. No one pirates Epic's games - UT is online only (pretty much - single player really isn't worth much) and requires CD key authentication.

3. There are no PC games at Gamestop because you cant really sell PC games used. Gamestop only cares about pushing used merchandise (it is how they make their money). They actually limit the amount of space they give publishers for new merchandise.

4. If Epic was THAT worried about pirating, they would release their products over Steam (I would actually love it if they did, Steam is awesome).

[QUOTE="Gamer556"]

[QUOTE="Marka1700"]I think this is blown out of proportion a little.TekkenMaster606

No, it's not. Piracy is a huge problem in PC gaming.

It was a big problem with the Playstation 2 and that didn't stop it from being king last generation.  

Piracy on the PS2 isn't even comparable to piracy on the PC.

Gamespot: What do you wish you could change about games or the industry?

Mike Capps (president of epic games):

The thing that is killing me the most is; the PC industry for games is just dying.

We were just talking about it the other day that the folks who can actually play unreal tournament 3 on PC when it comes out, is such a small market of the folks who actually buy graphics cards. Which is now you're down to 5%.

And unfortunately those are the same guys who have bit torrent. You know, they are the ones who are not paying for games in the first place.

Ofcouse not all of them, we've got some great customers, some fans who, you know, stick by us. But it's that PC market is shrinking and shrinking.

And it's why there is no PC section in the gamestop anymore. It breaks my heart

(GS Video Interview)

So is it official now that PC gaming is dying?

Mystery_Writer

This is a little more recent... ;)

PC Games Bouncing Back: 

http://www.gametrailers.com/viewnews.php?id=4487

pc piracy loses sales due to a small percentage of people with highspeed and BT

but look at places like gamestop selling used games legally.. this is hurting the sales of console games just as badly as piracy since its more available to the casual market

[QUOTE="Marka1700"]I think this is blown out of proportion a little.Gamer556

No, it's not. Piracy is a huge problem in PC gaming.

I am not going to try to lay this on the consumers as the ones who are breaking the law or anything but here is a bit of logic that most people miss.

Piracy was non existant 10-12 years ago when we were still on dial up internet. As time went by, the internet became faster and new hardware emerged onto the market for the general consumer, things like CD burners. Back then, downloading files wasnt as complicated without a really high speed connection because they werent that big, however eventually people started creating software to copy games from a CD onto the hard drive, which they would then distribute on the internet. Ever since then, with HDD's getting larger, connections faster and easy access to whatever you need, piracy has become a problem all thats to CD and DVD burning technology. Any computer user with the right tools can make a key gen program as well, thus allowing them to bypass the security and use the program. So who's fault is this really? It cant be the consumer if companies were supplying the hardware and software for people to pirate games.

[QUOTE="Gamer556"]

[QUOTE="Marka1700"]I think this is blown out of proportion a little.TekkenMaster606

No, it's not. Piracy is a huge problem in PC gaming.

It was a big problem with the Playstation 2 and that didn't stop it from being king last generation.

It's easier to pirate on PC though. With PS you have to purchase all this extra stuff like a modchip. PC is just simply getting the serial.

its just one persons opinion. Donmt get so worked up on one persons word. Without PC there wouldnt be no Half Life or WoW.Solid-CELL

There wouldn't be any piracy either,

cheers PC,

Hip Hip horray!

I deny this because...

World of Warcraft, the biggest MMORPG ever, is still going strong with millions of players playing across the world.

Until World of Warcraft somehow dies down, PC gaming is NEVER over.  Oh, and Guild Wars is still going strong too. :D 

[QUOTE="Gamer556"]

[QUOTE="Marka1700"]I think this is blown out of proportion a little.TekkenMaster606

No, it's not. Piracy is a huge problem in PC gaming.

It was a big problem with the Playstation 2 and that didn't stop it from being king last generation.  

Thats because probably less then 10% of PS2 owners actually had modified their systems.

I don't deny that the industry might be taking a hit but they can't be putting all the blame on others. A nice bit of blame belongs to developers that constantly put out buggy software. Get that so many times and you stop bothering. Look at how many games require patches as soon as they are released. Look at all the games that are just bad or plain not fun. Then there is the issue of people having to upgrade their computers if a new set of games come out. Yes its an investment but having to do that every year or so in some cases isn't appealing.

Yes there is pirating but I think it's being played up to something bigger than it really is. First is developers should stop putting
out buggy software and stop using patches as a crutch. Put serious effort into protection for the games. It's going to be
cracked but kept at and make it harder. Advertise once in a while too. I never see advertising for PC games or any information
on them unless I comb through the PC section on a game site. Even then PC games aren't given much play unless it's the next
Unreal or other FPS.

Gamestop and EB have been horrible with their PC section for years so that isn't a recent thing. The sectiosn never seem to be
well kept or organized and this is going back a long time. Those stores themselves turn off PC game buyers by their own
treatment of those buyers and games or the very lack of treatment.

NeoStar9

Microsoft signed Vista 64bit drivers are the only way forward against pircay (Against the part that uses DVD Virtual Drives to emulates security locks). But consumers are complaining about that, cause it means more control to DRM enabled media (HDDVD / BR).

Also, this protection only applies to Vista 64bit edition.

i dont get using gamestop as an example either considering their major means of profit is stealing sales from developers by pushing used games

and i agree with the guy who said most online pc games are hard to crack

I deny this because...

World of Warcraft, the biggest MMORPG ever, is still going strong with millions of players playing across the world.

Until World of Warcraft somehow dies down, PC gaming is NEVER over.  Oh, and Guild Wars is still going strong too. :D 

Killer_Wuggles

MMOs can only benefit their respective developers and publishers, not the entire industry. It's great that Blizzard is cashing in on WoW's success, but where does leave the non-MMO developers?

You want to know why PC gaming is dying? Vista. Nobody wants it, nor do they need it. Dell is now offering new PCs with XP instead of Vista because they stopped selling PCs when they went to Vista. Games for Windows and Live anywhere sounds good......if you're already an Xbox owner. If you're strictly a PC gamer, then it sucks because you're now going to have to pay to use voice chat and play online in addition to spending a lot of money on a beefed up rig and time invested into installing the game and making it work well. I'm sure inteped gamers will find a way around it, but that doesn't help PC gaming as a whole it just makes it harder.

To be fair, "console" gaming is changing as well, incorporating PC like features and becoming more of a media hub then strictly a gaming platform. In the future I think you will see a convergence of the two platforms into one. And that's the Holy Grail for Sony and MS.  

4. If Epic was THAT worried about pirating, they would release their products over Steam (I would actually love it if they did, Steam is awesome).

bloodychimp

PC games don't sell cuz PC gamers have everything they need already. They got CS, starcraft or warcraft, they got WoW or FFXI, and they can torrent any ps1/n64/dreamcast/ps2/snes/sega game they please. The real problem is, no one makes any more good games for PC..Koalakommander

Uhm, miss out on STALKER and Supreme Commander huh? And of course, the superior version of Command and Conquer 3, and the upcoming Crysis, Half Life 2 : Episode 2, Left 4 Dead, Spore, Hellgate : London, Empire Earth 3... 

PC games don't sell cuz PC gamers have everything they need already. They got CS, starcraft or warcraft, they got WoW or FFXI, and they can torrent any ps1/n64/dreamcast/ps2/snes/sega game they please. The real problem is, no one makes any more good games for PC..Koalakommander

which is certainly why the PC gets the most AAA games..... 

[QUOTE="Koalakommander"]PC games don't sell cuz PC gamers have everything they need already. They got CS, starcraft or warcraft, they got WoW or FFXI, and they can torrent any ps1/n64/dreamcast/ps2/snes/sega game they please. The real problem is, no one makes any more good games for PC..cobrax75

which is certainly why the PC gets the most AAA games..... 

i really dont think PC gamers are as score obsessed as you are.