Consoles have definitely been more important for gaming then PC's. Consoles are what brought gaming into the mainstream, the reason gaming is as big as it is nowadays is because of the influence of consoles.
Fact is in the early days of gaming PC's were very expensive and difficult to use, they would not have made good gifts for children and would not have hooked the generations of kids into gaming the way consoles did. You needed consoles as inexpensive, user friendly, kid friendly, machines to hook the masses.
As an adult I do 90% of my gaming on PC, but I would definitely not be the gamer I am today if not for consoles.
Both have obviously played a big part in getting gaming to where it is today... but I don't think the industry would be as diverse and have as large of an audience as it does, without consoles.
If it wasn't for consoles modern gaming wouldn't be what it is today. Nintendo saved gaming back in the 80s, and Sony made gaming mainstream with the Playstation in the 90s. MS made online gaming more mainstream for the casuals in 2000s. PC gaming has been awesome all this time but I don't believe it has been as influential in shaping modern gaming as these three companies primarily because it doesn't have a major company backing it. Though in terms of innovation I still believe PC is way ahead of consoles, the problem is PC gaming is too hardcore for some folks so their real taste of new tech usually has to come from consoles.
Both have obviously played a big part in getting gaming to where it is today... but I don't think the industry would be as diverse and have as large of an audience as it does, without consoles.
If it wasn't for consoles modern gaming wouldn't be what it is today. Nintendo saved gaming back in the 80s, and Sony made gaming mainstream with the Playstation in the 90s. MS made online gaming more mainstream for the casuals in 2000s. PC gaming has been awesome all this time but I don't believe it has been as influential in shaping modern gaming as these three companies primarily because it doesn't have a major company backing it. Though in terms of innovation I still believe PC is way ahead of consoles, the problem is PC gaming is too hardcore for some folks so their real taste of new tech usually has to come from consoles.
Nintendo saved console gaming from it's own collapse after the downturn from Atari flooding the market with low quality stuff.
No way did sony make it mainstream they added to the pile. It was already mainstream with the nintendo, SNES, gameboy, Lynx, Sega etc. etc.
If it wasn't for consoles modern gaming wouldn't be what it is today. Nintendo saved gaming back in the 80s, and Sony made gaming mainstream with the Playstation in the 90s. MS made online gaming more mainstream for the casuals in 2000s. PC gaming has been awesome all this time but I don't believe it has been as influential in shaping modern gaming as these three companies primarily because it doesn't have a major company backing it. Though in terms of innovation I still believe PC is way ahead of consoles, the problem is PC gaming is too hardcore for some folks so their real taste of new tech usually has to come from consoles.
Nintendo saved console gaming from it's own collapse after the downturn from Atari flooding the market with low quality stuff.
True, which is why I said modern gaming. A lot of the things we've come to expect in modern gaming is due to the rise of consoles in the 80s and 90s, and Nintendo is instrumental for that happening.
If it wasn't for consoles modern gaming wouldn't be what it is today. Nintendo saved gaming back in the 80s, and Sony made gaming mainstream with the Playstation in the 90s. MS made online gaming more mainstream for the casuals in 2000s. PC gaming has been awesome all this time but I don't believe it has been as influential in shaping modern gaming as these three companies primarily because it doesn't have a major company backing it. Though in terms of innovation I still believe PC is way ahead of consoles, the problem is PC gaming is too hardcore for some folks so their real taste of new tech usually has to come from consoles.
Nintendo saved console gaming from it's own collapse after the downturn from Atari flooding the market with low quality stuff.
True, which is why I said modern gaming. A lot of the things we've come to expect in modern gaming is due to the rise of consoles in the 80s and 90s, and Nintendo is instrumental for that happening.
Fair enough.
Not sure what you mean with the bolded bit though.
I want to say consoles for making it an accessible medium to the mainstream.
I can't think of many other things that consoles did that PC didn't either create or innovate first though.
Maybe the orignal handheld controllers?
Didn't controllers/game pads evolve from the original arcade controls? The handheld part obviously is the innovation for consoles. It wouldn't make sense to have the controls on the console itself.
The PC we know of today wasn't always the most capable back then. In fact, it was a latecomer. But, there were other computer platforms at that time which were more game-friendly.
I want to say consoles for making it an accessible medium to the mainstream.
I can't think of many other things that consoles did that PC didn't either create or innovate first though.
Maybe the orignal handheld controllers?
Didn't controllers/game pads evolve from the original arcade controls? The handheld part obviously is the innovation for consoles. It wouldn't make sense to have the controls on the console itself.
The PC we know of today wasn't always the most capable back then. In fact, it was a latecomer. But, there were other computer platforms at that time which were more game-friendly.
Yeah I'm not sure, probably right about arcade controls. Earliest consolesque controller I can think of was that 9 key pad thing from atari. But PC basically had that already, plus keyboard and joysticks as far as I am aware.
I didn't think PC was a latecomer to the scene as it was essentially the original machine. Saw quite an uptick during the console crash in the early 80's also.
Yeah I'm not sure, probably right about arcade controls. Earliest consolesque controller I can think of was that 9 key pad thing from atari. But PC basically had that already, plus keyboard and joysticks as far as I am aware.
I didn't think PC was a latecomer to the scene as it was essentially the original machine. Saw quite an uptick during the console crash in the early 80's also.
During the early days of PC (IBM-compatibles) gaming, many players didn't even have good color because most graphic adapters were either monochrome or CGA. No sound either unless you like bleeps and bloops from the tiny built-in speaker. ;) If you wanted to game on a computer, you bought an Apple II or a Commodore C64 and Amiga.
It's also why most PC gamers refer to the origins of PC gaming as around the Doom part. By then, VGA and sound cards were widespread. But, PC gaming goes back way, way, before that.
Yeah I'm not sure, probably right about arcade controls. Earliest consolesque controller I can think of was that 9 key pad thing from atari. But PC basically had that already, plus keyboard and joysticks as far as I am aware.
I didn't think PC was a latecomer to the scene as it was essentially the original machine. Saw quite an uptick during the console crash in the early 80's also.
During the early days of PC (IBM-compatibles) gaming, many players didn't even have good color because most graphic adapters were either monochrome or CGA. No sound either unless you like bleeps and bloops from the tiny built-in speaker. ;) If you wanted to game on a computer, you bought an Apple II or a Commodore C64 and Amiga.
It's also why most PC gamers refer to the origins of PC gaming as around the Doom part. By then, VGA and sound cards were widespread. But, PC gaming goes back way, way, before that.
CGA (yuk) vs Amiga:
Yeah I actually used to play battle chess when I was younger. But no, Doom was not the start of PC gaming, Mechwarrior beat doom out by 4 years, . Beaps and boops were not a big deal as that is essentially all that console was capable of also. Don't forget that Zork was released in 1980, Rogue was released in 1980, Castle Wolfenstein in 1981 and Ultima came in 1981. A lot of the foundational series and genres took shape in the late 70's early 80's on PC.
PC hardware was where the real development happened. Its thanks to PCs that consoles got 3D graphics. Its thanks to PC hardware dev that consoles got powerful CPUs. Its thanks to PCs that consoles adopted hard drives for storage.
So, PC hardware showed the way for console development. Without PCs, we would still be playing console games on weak SNES consoles...
Consoles, they were and still are simpler than pc, that made gaming became more popular and thus become what it is today with all the boons and banes that carries.
Yeah I'm not sure, probably right about arcade controls. Earliest consolesque controller I can think of was that 9 key pad thing from atari. But PC basically had that already, plus keyboard and joysticks as far as I am aware.
I didn't think PC was a latecomer to the scene as it was essentially the original machine. Saw quite an uptick during the console crash in the early 80's also.
During the early days of PC (IBM-compatibles) gaming, many players didn't even have good color because most graphic adapters were either monochrome or CGA. No sound either unless you like bleeps and bloops from the tiny built-in speaker. ;) If you wanted to game on a computer, you bought an Apple II or a Commodore C64 and Amiga.
It's also why most PC gamers refer to the origins of PC gaming as around the Doom part. By then, VGA and sound cards were widespread. But, PC gaming goes back way, way, before that.
CGA (yuk) vs Amiga:
reminds me how mum and dad would always go on about how cool gaming was on the amiga and commodore. they got so into the commodore they learnt how to make games on it. they could never make the transition to free look though
reminds me how mum and dad would always go on about how cool gaming was on the amiga and commodore. they got so into the commodore they learnt how to make games on it. they could never make the transition to free look though
I didn't do much (ARexx) programming on the Amiga. But, it's where I got started with video-editing. I was already editing videos while most on the PC were still getting used to having good graphics and sound. Back then, the proper term was desktop video.
For practically every console innovation, look for something on PC and odds are PC did it first but it wasn’t as known.
Yeah for example Resident Evil is credited with the creation of the survival horror genre when in reality a PC game called Alone In The Dark did it first.
Its for a reason consoles becoming more of traditional PCs more and more so the answer is pretty clear. Consoles had their time in the past, introducing gaming into masses and made gaming popular no doubt. Was a big deal all around the world with ATARI then NES etc but PCs with online and multiplayer games brought millions of millions of gamers together first which ended up being one of the biggest deals in gaming like ever.
Consoles, because when one thinks of a console they think video games, you can's say the same for PC.
Consoles are for people who just want to game, PC's are for people who want to tinker with everything and are mostly micro managers in real life where they have to have input into everything.
Throughout the years both platforms have been responsible for bringing things to the table, PC from a technology point of view and for being the platform that pushed the envelope.
Then as console grew in power and popularity they took over and bought gaming to the whole world, something that PC would not be able to do due to it's image of being a 'PC' and price.
But most console games are coded on PC's, assets are made on PC programs.......so without PC what would console games be developed on :P
If it wasn't for consoles modern gaming wouldn't be what it is today. Nintendo saved gaming back in the 80s, and Sony made gaming mainstream with the Playstation in the 90s. MS made online gaming more mainstream for the casuals in 2000s. PC gaming has been awesome all this time but I don't believe it has been as influential in shaping modern gaming as these three companies primarily because it doesn't have a major company backing it. Though in terms of innovation I still believe PC is way ahead of consoles, the problem is PC gaming is too hardcore for some folks so their real taste of new tech usually has to come from consoles.
Nintendo saved console gaming from it's own collapse after the downturn from Atari flooding the market with low quality stuff.
No way did sony make it mainstream they added to the pile. It was already mainstream with the nintendo, SNES, gameboy, Lynx, Sega etc. etc.
It wasn't Atari, every company has had a few bad games, it was the other hundred companies that made bad games. Coleco had great games but didn't advertise. Nintendo and Sega advertised on TV, that's what got people interested.
Both are so fundamentally crucial that I find it really hard to choose. The NES and Playstation are really important to the sustainability and growth in popularity of the medium while PC gaming gave us vital experiences and features that have become a standard adopted by consoles later as well as the extremely important independent scene.
Throughout the years both platforms have been responsible for bringing things to the table, PC from a technology point of view and for being the platform that pushed the envelope.
Then as console grew in power and popularity they took over and bought gaming to the whole world, something that PC would not be able to do due to it's image of being a 'PC' and price.
But most console games are coded on PC's, assets are made on PC programs.......so without PC what would console games be developed on :P
You know that BSD runs on every platform in existence, I386, Sparc, Arm, Alpha, MIPS, PC98, PPC etc...So with or without pc :p
Consoles and its not even close or up for discussion. Atari paved the way with the ground breaking 2600, and Nintendo saved gaming from an early disaster that was Ataris downfall, and made gaming an even more household thing. Standardized controllers, hugely popular and game changing hits like Mario, Zelda, etc. Gaming wouldn't be anywhere or anything close to what it is today without consoles.
Throughout the years both platforms have been responsible for bringing things to the table, PC from a technology point of view and for being the platform that pushed the envelope.
Then as console grew in power and popularity they took over and bought gaming to the whole world, something that PC would not be able to do due to it's image of being a 'PC' and price.
But most console games are coded on PC's, assets are made on PC programs.......so without PC what would console games be developed on :P
You know that BSD runs on every platform in existence, I386, Sparc, Arm, Alpha, MIPS, PC98, PPC etc...So with or without pc :p
when you look at marketing hype is looks like the answer is console.
when you look at historical data however its more clear that its PC
there is that side fun bit of not well known information as well which is all games are created on the PC first. meaning a PC is used to create the game..:)
When it comes to technology PC is where everything starts and years later it is implemented on consoles.
When it comes to games..well you decide. Half life, witcher, elder scrolls, crysis etc all originated on pc. While zelda,Mario, last of us,god of war etc originated on consoles.
As for impact on general audience well I'd say that for past generation it would be consoles. But for the current gen where every myths about PC gaming have been busted more and more are getting into PC gaming than ever before. So there's that too.
I'd say it's hard to nail down, due to the fact that both bring different things to the table... If I were pressed, i'd say consoles, but i'd argue that it isn't consoles that push everything further overall, but rather certain consoles. Look at the NES for example.
Gamers pay full price for games on consoles. Consoles push the industry forward while PC holds games back.
That's not really true, trends like Mincraft, Dayz and now Battle Royal derived from the PC's open nature and consequently bloom on console as an after-effect. Bringing in more money than e.g. The Last Of Us...
About 2001 it was a pretty hot take to proclaim pc gaming dead, when as always, it just evolves, even after the big publishers turned it into a port machine.
In the long history of gaming, even games you wouldn't suspect have computer roots, such as Grand Theft Auto, the biggest series around came from computers, along the likes of Rare, who are now a zombie chained to Microsoft produce mediocre garbage poo. A shadow of their suggested potential.
Computer gaming, especially in Europe, was a spring board of creativity. And right now, keeping certain genres alive. While EA defecate all over CnC in the most cynical shit the universe has ever seen, developers like Paradox have been constantly pumping out, and succeeding with strategy titles.
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Right now when a new gameplay style trend starts, it's probably going to come from PC. Thanks in particular to Steam, which consoles have also mimicked.
Overall, PC gaming is great, superb. Console gaming is ok'sh.
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