Is PC gaming dead?

[greylord]

Just note that no one has really posted PC sales here either...except someone who claimed EA made the entirety of last years PC incomes, which is odd.

 

What's even more interesting to note WHY PC gaming is dead except for maybe the MMORPG scene is simply put...no one makes PC games except the indies occasionally these days...why...

 

Because almost every PC game is a port of the game that they actually made for a console or a tablet.

 

Every major company at this point has left the PC gaming market retail and the creation of major games except for Blizzard, and even they are relenting to Consoles at this point with Diablo III.  They still create games, but they are for consoles, and the PC market is a sideshow...all you get these days are ports from the major creators of gaming.

 

NOW...there IS a major player in the PC gaming market, it's not obsidian, it's not even Bioware...and it's not even Blizzard (Blizzard has made splashes with Diablo III and StarCraft II...BUT), these guys are exclusive PC game makers.  Of course, non-of us probably play the games they make...so not expecting any of you to know who they actually are.

 

The thing is, you can say PC gaming is not dead...but PC gaming has lost almost all facets of it's self-identity once you toss out the facebook and tablet games.  Any AAA games are typically ports.  It's lost the mainstays of FPS, TPS, and Western RPG's to Consoles, casual game markets are all gone to tablets, and the only game type left for PC's to really dominate...RTS games...is all but dead in new IPs being created (as far as I know).

 

Almost all games on this thread if they are going to break a million units...they are ports to the PC market from a console game.  There are a few outstanding, but almost all major game release are on console and PC ports normally are what you have to live with.

 

Console games are on a decline as well...and they are giants compared to PC gaming....as I said, PC games are ports.  If Consoles are on a decline and some are wondering if they are on the pathway to dying in the next generation or two...PC gaming is so much more dead and dying than consoles...UNLESS you are counting what I don't count...which are the tablet and facebook games (once again).

 

Anyways, probably certain this has been posted here...I hate DRM...but this explains some of the decrease in PC sales and why a for years there's been so much concern about Piracy...and another reason if you want an explanation of why many PC game makers moved to consoles and gave up on PC games other than simply...PC sales were not holding up as much (not that I agree, I think they killed it themselves...but hey...this article explains what many of their viewpoints would be).

 

Old article...but it still would apply now.

 

http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/goinglopsided/the-decline-in-pc-gaming-202762.phtml

 

 

The ONLY big question in how dead the PC game market is, depends on Steam and how much it actually makes.  Steam is really the only thing comparative to the distributors of yesteryear.  It wasn't the number of any single game, it was the numbers of games as a whole sold that made PC gaming such a giant. 

[greylord]

Thanks, this works

[Hurlshort]

But everyone already refuted all your points in the other thread.  I would think this would be the point where you go "After looking at all the evidence, I guess my theory was off-base."  That's how the internet works, after all.

[greylord]

No one refuted anything except to say, they as PC gaming fanbois couldn't see the points.  Somehow they find these AAA titles that aren't ports...but except for the Blizzard games and MMORPGS (well, a few of them)...they don't ever say what those non-ported PC games are.

 

I remember when there were a TON of PC games that were AAA titles that weren't ports...now days...crickets.

 

We aren't talking Indies here, we mean the AAA games...just for clarification...the ones that actually sell over a million units...

 

All the ones I know of...are made for consoles and then ported to PC.  IF you are a lucky PC gamer...the ports aren't bad ports...if you are unlucky, they are.

 

That's another reason I've switched to consoles (beyond they entire PC DRM thing) is that the games are made for consoles first and foremost.  The games I play on PC these days and typically made for PC aren't the AAA titles...their all the smaller niche titles or Indie games.

 

AAA titles I typically play on Console (and occasionally buy on PC if I'm loyal to the publisher or liked the game on console enough, such as with Obs. games typically) because that's what they are made for in the first place.  Why play a copycat port when you can play the game on the system it was made for?

[LadyCrimson]

This again? Wasn't there one or more topics on this before, in the last year?

 

Is it dead? imo, no. Is it different than it was 15 years ago? Yes.

Do I care if PC gaming ends up being a category where most of them aren't "AAA" with all the graphic bells and whistles, marketing budget, or whatever, and don't sell 1,000,000 units? No.

[Bokishi]

PC gaming never dies

[Gorth]

PC Amiga gaming never dies

Fixed.

 

One of my all time favourite games still runs on the emulators...

 

Damn upstart PC and it's inferior hardware.

[alanschu]

 

 

Just note that no one has really posted PC sales here either...except someone who claimed EA made the entirety of last years PC incomes, which is odd.

 

Well, it's important to note that as the person making the claim, the burden of proof is on you:

 

For instance, however, you mention that EA made "the entirety of last year's PC incomes."  So, it seems as though your estimates as to what the PC revenues are, are incorrect.  WHere are you getting your numbers, as I get mine from the earnings call that EA puts forward, which is a requirement for a publicly traded company, and would receive penalties from the SEC if it was fraudulent.   Especially given that, from an MMO point of view, EA's PC revenue isn't heavily dominated by MMO performance.

 

Granted, PC gaming is going to probably include Facebook gaming.  It's probably important to note that EA seems to be backpedaling on social gaming, however, as they have closed up a lot of their games (and laid a lot of people off) that worked on these games.  EA isn't going to do this if social gaming is where the bulk of their revenue comes from.

 

 

 

 

Because almost every PC game is a port of the game that they actually made for a console or a tablet.

 

Every major company at this point has left the PC gaming market retail and the creation of major games except for Blizzard, and even they are relenting to Consoles at this point with Diablo III.  They still create games, but they are for consoles, and the PC market is a sideshow...all you get these days are ports from the major creators of gaming.

That games are multiplatform is not indicative of PC gaming being dead.  If your measuring stick for PC gaming being dead is simply the amount of PC exclusive titles, then I'd wager your measuring stick is not a very accurate one.  Yes, economies of scale place a restriction on PC exclusive titles.  Having said that, by extension console exclusive titles themselves are also rare.  Unlike a decade ago, it's easier to make a game (particularly an XBOX 360 game) also work on the PC.  After all, a decade ago, PC gaming was also declared dead.  Although by your account, a decade ago seems to be one of the golden ages of PC gaming.

 

Other advantages PC gaming now has, compared to a decade ago, is that barriers of entry have been removed.  How many kickstarter projects have been started for console games?  Take a look at how many of those games are PC exclusive?  Why?  Because the retail barrier has been knocked down by digital distribution.  A company CAN make a smaller game, and not have to worry about fighting and paying for retail shelf space.

 

Furthermore, retail stores (especially tech focused ones like Gamestop) had a financial incentive for marginalizing PC game sales: used games.  PC games typically are not resellable, and as such, Gamestop can't count on making the huge margins they do off reselling used games.  Even if the sales for both platforms were identical, it'd still make more sense for Gamestop to push console sales, because retail will make more money off of it.

 

 

 

 

I remember when there were a TON of PC games that were AAA titles that weren't ports...now days...crickets.

 

It wasn't a decade ago, however.

 

Of course, if you equate "Multiplatform" with "Port," then you've allowed yourself to be put into an unfalsifiable situation (i.e. your hypothesis would be academically rejected because

your hypothesis prevents you from ever being wrong).

 

The fact is, EA does more revenue off PC game sales than it did 10 years ago.  What you're observing, is that the console market exploded. 

 

Some numbers for you:

 

In FY 2006 EA brought in $417 million in PC revenues.

 

In FY 2013 EA brought in $928 million in PC revenues.

 

So in 7 years, EA's revenues went up about 125% for PC gaming alone.  A $511 million dollar increase.  The market may be smaller as an overall piece of the pie (which is being split in a lot more directions now).  The margins of these sales, however, are more likely higher than they are lower, due to the prevalence of digital distribution.

 

 

 

 

AAA titles I typically play on Console (and occasionally buy on PC if I'm loyal to the publisher or liked the game on console enough, such as with Obs. games typically) because that's what they are made for in the first place.  Why play a copycat port when you can play the game on the system it was made for?

 

I'm sure you even think that a game like Battlefield 3 is a console game ported to PC....

 

I play them on the PC because the PC is my gaming platform of choice.  They keep making them for PC because people like me keep buying them.  In other words, the market isn't dead.

[Hurlshort]

Greylord, what is your definition of a port?  Most AAA games are released for the PC right alongside the console versions.  Rockstar is the only major developer I can think of that releases on the PC as an afterthought.

 

Alan beat me to it

 

Also most of us here own and use consoles, so your PC fanboi labels are a bit off base.

Edited May 27, 2013 by Hurlshot

[Katphood]

PC gaming? Dead?! PC gaming is kicking ass! Steam and Kickstarter are all the proof you need.

Edited May 27, 2013 by Astiaks

[Humanoid]

I'll believe it's dead when Bokishi stops upgrading his PC.

[Zoraptor]

Just note that no one has really posted PC sales here either...except someone who claimed EA made the entirety of last years PC incomes, which is odd.

If you want an example, look at SimCity. 1.6 million sales according to EA's last quarterly report. If they sold all of those on Origin at full price (they didn't, of course) they'd have made $96 million from it. If Tomb Raider sold 4 million at retail, on console, it would have made similar to that for SqueeNix despite selling more than twice as much. That's the big advantage PC has, even if the example is skewed to be extreme- and you can bet SC had a far lower budget than TR as well. That's also a PC exclusive game released this year that sold a million plus...

 

It also explains why EA aren't keen on afflicting their games with steam- the difference there would be as much as $30 million going straight to Valve as opposed to them. Of course, steam as a gated portal/ walled garden console-on-PC is the only* real threat to proper, true, open PC gaming but fortunately there are brave, principled  and uncorruptible entities like me or EA out there fighting the good fight against the heretical steam zealots.

 

Steam vacuum facet!

Steam delendam esse!

 

*maybe until win8.1

[AwesomeOcelot]

This is called moving the goal posts. First it was about sales, with stats completely false and pulled out of someone's arse, and now it's about lack of AAA exclusives or levels of sales on par with consoles. I don't mind that PC gaming isn't as large as console gaming, and has never even been close, not in the 80's or 90's, a lot of console games are bad. The Wii sold more than the PS3/Xbox360, a lot of people only played WiiSports and WiiFit, that market is bigger than the "core" gamer market as is the tablet/phone market, but that doesn't mean PS3/Xbox360 is dead, or the "core" gamer market on console is dead. What kind of definition of "dead" is that?

 

It's not just PC gaming that's shifted to multi-platform releases, console gaming doesn't have that many exclusives any more, and out of those most are subsidized by the console manufacturer, and that's always been the case. PC gaming has never had money thrown at it for exclusives. "AAA" is a nonsense, the classics of the 90's, the games that made PC gaming great, weren't all big budgets for the time, a lot of them didn't have all the nonsense that causes the ridiculous budgets of multi-platform releases and console exclusives. That's an extremely odd definition of "dead", no one else accepts that definition of dead, you're just trolling.

 

The RTS genre has exploded, MOBA games are a RTS subgenre, there are quite a few new IPs in that area. There's always been a shift in focus in genres, even on console. Western RPGs died on PC and consoles, that's why so many are getting funded on KickStarter.

 

A lot of these console games are bad, because: FPS shouldn't be played on gamepad, they're designed for the lowest common denominator, PS3/Xbox360 hardware wasn't great even when it was new, too much resources were spent on really expensive set pieces, voice actors, and cut scenes. What gamer wants to play another virtually on rails, QTE infested, incredibly easy, constantly cutting user control "AAA" ****fest designed for consoles? None. A lack of "AAA" PC exclusives doesn't mean a lack of good games, independents are producing better games than console games all the time.

[greylord]

Greylord, what is your definition of a port?  Most AAA games are released for the PC right alongside the console versions.  Rockstar is the only major developer I can think of that releases on the PC as an afterthought.

 

Alan beat me to it

 

Also most of us here own and use consoles, so your PC fanboi labels are a bit off base.

 

That's an excellent question.

 

A port is a game designed primarily for a system, and then as a side effort, it is "ported" to another system...aka...a majority of PC games these days.

 

Alan is a little mistaken, the problem is there are too many specific games for PS3 or the Wii that came out to really realistically list them...though Xbox 360 I'm not as clear on.  Many of their games seem to be shared these days on other systems.

 

For example, you have the

 

entire Atelier series

God of War series

Uncharted Series

Killzone series

Little Big Planet series

and a bunch of non-series independent games that came out.

 

That's off the top of my head as for series (sorry, don't want to go through and list all the games in series).

 

Oh...and a whole slew of Japanese exclusives that never made it to the US or Canada

 

For those who follow Japanese game scenes...there's actually a TON more...(in just dating sims alone...you get a ridiculous number on the PS3).

 

Wii is similar with that entire Japanese games released in Asia that Americans aren't getting...but for America

 

You have the

Marios

Mario Cart

Zelda

 

and whatever other series, sorry, not as big into the Wii.

 

And don't really follow Xbox 360 at all...but I think

 

Gears of War is at least one Xbox 360 exclusive?

 

I know there are TONS of exclusives that come out on the consoles that are AAA games and in fact beat the 1 million mark.

 

However, Xbox 360 and PS3 are similar in enough with controls and game style (though architecture is significantly different enough) that ports between them play better in many instances than the ports they make to the PC. 

 

IF the Xbox 360 doesn't have as many exclusives I'm thinking that's perhaps one of the reasons, many games are designed for the Xbox 360 that are ported, but due to similarities between the architecture of a 360 and PC it's easier to port to PC, but control wise it also ends up closer to the original in gameplay on the PS3.  So due to ease of porting games designed for Xbox 360 may be ported more.  That may also be since I don't know of as many Xbox 360 ports since I'm not a big X-box 360 player.  Typically except for Gears of War if the game is coming out for Xbox and I want it I can get it for PC or PS3 for the AAA games.

 

Wii on the otherhand, literally a majority of their games WERE exclusives from what I saw...most taking advantage of the unique architecture prior to kinnect and move getting made.

 

Wii-U...jury is still out on that one.  They are holding many of their exclusives/major players till later this year, probably in anticipation of the new PS or Xbox release.

 

Wii-U may also be dead already, or not, hard to say.  It sold a majority of consoles sold for it in the first month of it's release...so it doesn't look terrific at this point, but it's been after Christmas for a majority of that time too.  We'll see what happens when they release the big dogs of their exclusives and if they have a lower enough price to compete with the Next PS and Xbox.

 

but normally a port is a game designed for one system, and then ported to another.  A majority of the cross platforms that I see I think are designed for the Xbox 360 currently.  They transfer well in control to PS3 NOT because of architecture (Which I understand can be a nightmare to port) but due to design schemes.  Unfortunately, for those who don't use Xbox360 controllers for their PC, the ports can sometimes be terrible in control transfer to the PC...and sometimes for reasons I can't fathom, even when you do have an Xbox 360 controller, they kill the real adaptability and make it so that it still has terrible controls. 

 

Games designed for PS3 specifically, don't seem to get ported as much.  There is Final Fantasy, which seemed to port nicely to Xbox 360, and many of the Japanese RPGs which get ported over...but overall most of the games stay in Japan that are made exclusives for PS3 in the RPG realms and datesim realm.

[Hurlshort]

If you are going to list games exclusive to specific consoles, then you are basically saying the consoles they are not released on are also dead.  

[babaganoosh13]

The Xbox 1 was a big reason why cross-platform releases include PC's, so AAA titles are more merged now than they were a little over a decade ago. When the 360 beat out the PS3 in the current generation console wars, it made more sense to port a console-centred game to PC, than vise-versa like it seemed more often than not for the Xbox 1.

 

-----

 

That really is a dumber name than the Wii U.

 

-----

 

Smoke has just avoided back-to-back big crashes that he was right in the middle of in the Coka Cola 600. Amazing.

EDIT: Nevermind, he got a bit of a boo-boo in his rear bumper.

Edited May 27, 2013 by babaganoosh13

[greylord]

This is called moving the goal posts. First it was about sales, with stats completely false and pulled out of someone's arse, and now it's about lack of AAA exclusives or levels of sales on par with consoles. I don't mind that PC gaming isn't as large as console gaming, and has never even been close, not in the 80's or 90's, a lot of console games are bad. The Wii sold more than the PS3/Xbox360, a lot of people only played WiiSports and WiiFit, that market is bigger than the "core" gamer market as is the tablet/phone market, but that doesn't mean PS3/Xbox360 is dead, or the "core" gamer market on console is dead. What kind of definition of "dead" is that?

 

It's not just PC gaming that's shifted to multi-platform releases, console gaming doesn't have that many exclusives any more, and out of those most are subsidized by the console manufacturer, and that's always been the case. PC gaming has never had money thrown at it for exclusives. "AAA" is a nonsense, the classics of the 90's, the games that made PC gaming great, weren't all big budgets for the time, a lot of them didn't have all the nonsense that causes the ridiculous budgets of multi-platform releases and console exclusives. That's an extremely odd definition of "dead", no one else accepts that definition of dead, you're just trolling.

 

The RTS genre has exploded, MOBA games are a RTS subgenre, there are quite a few new IPs in that area. There's always been a shift in focus in genres, even on console. Western RPGs died on PC and consoles, that's why so many are getting funded on KickStarter.

 

A lot of these console games are bad, because: FPS shouldn't be played on gamepad, they're designed for the lowest common denominator, PS3/Xbox360 hardware wasn't great even when it was new, too much resources were spent on really expensive set pieces, voice actors, and cut scenes. What gamer wants to play another virtually on rails, QTE infested, incredibly easy, constantly cutting user control "AAA" ****fest designed for consoles? None. A lack of "AAA" PC exclusives doesn't mean a lack of good games, independents are producing better games than console games all the time.

 

Naw, I still will hold with the amounts made (PC games were compared to Porn for all intents and purposes for sales numbers...which may not be complimentary in the connection, but the numbers while not as big as Hollywood were literally Billions upon Billions from what I can tell).

 

Before I forget, I know tomb raider was sold at retail...but PS3 games (probably Xbox games as well) are ALSO sold via download like Steam these days also.  ON PSN you can buy a LOT of the games you can buy at retail also.  That's one of the reasons why Journey probably got bigger and finally got the hardcopy release (guessing at this though) was due to online sales.

 

But since no one really wants to think about the numbers except to try to simply say...well...you find that hard to believe...I thought something more physical...something that is there in your face when you look at it and can't really deny...would be a better example as it's far more tangible everywhere than trying to toss numbers that we are contesting.  Sure, you can say...hey Steam made 20 Billion last year (which is uncontestable NOT because they did or did not, but because as far as I know, Steam doesn't release actual sales or profits made).

 

The amount of AAA games made specific for systems I think can be directly attributable to how profitable companies feel those systems are.  The one that makes you the most money is the one you design for...with the others as hopes that they will also bring in money...even if it's not as much as your target audience.

 

I'd say the PC market is returning to a similar market of the early 90s.  So, if you consider that alive, then right now it's particularly vibrant and growing even more healty...as Indie projects and projects that are gamer friendly rather than the AAA types are gaining more control

 

If you want it more like the time after Windows 95 started building the PC gaming sorts of popularity...I'd say PC gaming has been dying for a while in relation to how major studios treat it (as an afterthought or side thought for profits from ports).

[greylord]

If you are going to list games exclusive to specific consoles, then you are basically saying the consoles they are not released on are also dead.  

 

No, because the big three all had a large number of AAA titles designed for them, while the PC over the past two years...really compared to the others, is basically dead except for the MMORPG and Blizzard releases as far as AAA titles go.  All it gets are ports.  The others get ports, but also have a LOT of games specifically designed for them.  Xbox 360 is included as I said as I think a majority of ports probably are designed with that system in mind to begin with which is why it's harder to find exclusives for the Xbox 360 than it is for the PS3 or Wii.

 

Heck, I think even the VITA may have more AAA exclusives than the PC has for it, and they already say the Vita is a dead system!!!!  Even the Wii-U which people are wondering whether it's DOA at this point or not has more AAA titles in development for it currently than the PC from what I can tell...though with Kickstarter I'd say the PC has more gamer friendly exclusives being created even if they may not fall into the AAA range.

[melkathi]

NOW...there IS a major player in the PC gaming market, it's not obsidian, it's not even Bioware...and it's not even Blizzard (Blizzard has made splashes with Diablo III and StarCraft II...BUT), these guys are exclusive PC game makers.  Of course, non-of us probably play the games they make...so not expecting any of you to know who they actually are.

 

Fantastic argument you have there "I could say, but since you wont be able to guess what I would say if I said it, I don't need to say it and will just say that I know something you don't"

But maybe there is a reason you don't want to name them? Maybe its something too embarassing to post...

*wanders off to search the internet*

Didn't find a good candidate. My search-fu failed me because of the language barrier. There seem to be some strange japanese PC only publishers you could be refering to?

 

But I'll bite:

Exclusive PC publishers... NCSoft, Paradox, Kalypso, PerfectWorld. I take it Bohemia Interactive is too small?

Meridian4 has 89 titles in their catalogue on PC and 5 on mobile.

Focus Home Interactive has mostly PC games with only a few that allow for console also getting a consol version.

1C Company has eight upcomming PC titles and one of them will also be released to XBOX360.

 

Does PopCap release on console?

 

But you are basically only interested in AAA titles, so many PC exclusives don't count.

Does the Total War series count as AAA even though its not MMOs?

[greylord]

 

NOW...there IS a major player in the PC gaming market, it's not obsidian, it's not even Bioware...and it's not even Blizzard (Blizzard has made splashes with Diablo III and StarCraft II...BUT), these guys are exclusive PC game makers.  Of course, non-of us probably play the games they make...so not expecting any of you to know who they actually are.

 

Fantastic argument you have there "I could say, but since you wont be able to guess what I would say if I said it, I don't need to say it and will just say that I know something you don't"

But maybe there is a reason you don't want to name them? Maybe its something too embarassing to post...

*wanders off to search the internet*

Didn't find a good candidate. My search-fu failed me because of the language barrier. There seem to be some strange japanese PC only publishers you could be refering to?

 

But I'll bite:

Exclusive PC publishers... NCSoft, Paradox, Kalypso, PerfectWorld. I take it Bohemia Interactive is too small?

Meridian4 has 89 titles in their catalogue on PC and 5 on mobile.

Focus Home Interactive has mostly PC games with only a few that allow for console also getting a consol version.

1C Company has eight upcomming PC titles and one of them will also be released to XBOX360.

 

Does PopCap release on console?

 

But you are basically only interested in AAA titles, so many PC exclusives don't count.

Does the Total War series count as AAA even though its not MMOs?

 

 

Yes, actually, Total War counts as an AAA title...thanks I had actually forgotten about that one.

 

The publisher you are looking at do a LOT of PC games that are more kid based and such.  Another does educational games and software and due to probably libraries and schools buying their games make a tidy sum, but then again...triple A as far as what we would consider Triple A, probably not.  Gamer's Games like what I'm also looking at...probably not, so games we probably wouldn't want to play or even try to play.

[Sandro G Meier]

Well, N years ago, lots of people said to me, PC game is dead, the future is console's. And then time past, PC games still stand, and I even saw some article was saying the tablet game is shaking the console gaming market, console will died...

Actually, imo, none of the type of the gaming will die, just as the different type of players are still alive  . You've mentioned  AAA games, well, actually, not only the one type of (AAA) games are meet the bottle neck, it's the whole AAA games got that problem, not only PC or Console. An AAA game spend lots of resource, but with a high risk of failed. Plus, now we hardcore players are not the main part of the market, that's why lots of lighter games overwhelming.

And now the trend is multiplatform, you can't say this game or that game is made for PC/Console, sooner or later, you gets the game on the platform you want play on. Also, some games' PC version even realsed later but gets more features and better graphics(like Crysis, DMC, just need you got such a high standard PC.).

Last, the kickstarter, even it's still have some shorts, but we would like to see the future it bring to the game development. It's not only for indies, we can also see some product like PE and Torment on there(if you don't think these two are AAA, all right...), all you need are you got the abilities and willing for making good games.(trashes and trickers go App Store...)

[Hurlshort]

 

I'd say the PC market is returning to a similar market of the early 90s.  So, if you consider that alive, then right now it's particularly vibrant and growing even more healty...as Indie projects and projects that are gamer friendly rather than the AAA types are gaining more control

 

If you want it more like the time after Windows 95 started building the PC gaming sorts of popularity...I'd say PC gaming has been dying for a while in relation to how major studios treat it (as an afterthought or side thought for profits from ports).

 

 

I'm not sure what you are looking to achieve here, that is exactly why the PC is clearly not dying.  It has a vibrant and growing independent movement.  That's a pretty big deal.  Also, Obsidian and InXile aren't exactly small time developers, they are medium sized and they are both finding success by going independent.

 

 

 

The big question is can you show me a AAA game that was released on both the 360 and PS3 and was NOT released on the PC? 

[greylord]

Well, N years ago, lots of people said to me, PC game is dead, the future is console's. And then time past, PC games still stand, and I even saw some article was saying the tablet game is shaking the console gaming market, console will died...

Actually, imo, none of the type of the gaming will die, just as the different type of players are still alive  . You've mentioned  AAA games, well, actually, not only the one type of (AAA) games are meet the bottle neck, it's the whole AAA games got that problem, not only PC or Console. An AAA game spend lots of resource, but with a high risk of failed. Plus, now we hardcore players are not the main part of the market, that's why lots of lighter games overwhelming.

And now the trend is multiplatform, you can't say this game or that game is made for PC/Console, sooner or later, you gets the game on the platform you want play on. Also, some games' PC version even realsed later but gets more features and better graphics(like Crysis, DMC, just need you got such a high standard PC.).

Last, the kickstarter, even it's still have some shorts, but we would like to see the future it bring to the game development. It's not only for indies, we can also see some product like PE and Torment on there(if you don't think these two are AAA, all right...), all you need are you got the abilities and willing for making good games.(trashes and trickers go App Store...)

 

I can live with that answer.

 

I have to say I have high hopes for Kickstarter.

 

It used to be in the late 80s and 90s because it was cheaper and easier to make PC games and the market was more open, you saw more games (as interplay's banner slogan use to say) for gamers by gamers.

 

Indie gaming companies have tried to make that comeback, but it's still not totally with the games that I love.  I'm hoping Kickstarter can have slightly larger teams to make more of the types of games I want, and with them trying to appeal to gamers to back them...will go back to that idea of for gamers by gamers.

[Orogun01]

@Greylord: If you define "success" as having a large selection of exclusive AAA games then PC its dying, but if you realize that everything that AAA companies are doing amounts to strip mining while dynamite fishing what remains you'll realize that the more stable albeit smaller PC market will survive. Not only that but we are to soon see a resurgence in it when the Kickstarter projects finally pan out.

The reason that AAA focus more on console is a result of their bad business practices, they have shied away from the PC market because the money is on the consoles. As the development budgets got larger and the price to break even got larger as a result they have focused more and more on consoles. But what they are doing equates to throwing a bunch of shots and hoping one hits the mark, they are sustained by their large IPs which they continuously repeat whilst they hope some of their other games takes off.
Meanwhile they never considered creating a safety net within the PC and digital distribution market for niche games of medium sized budgets, which could had supported some of their bigger gambles. 
In the end AAA is likely to die with consoles and the world will be all the better for it.

[alanschu]

Naw, I still will hold with the amounts made (PC games were compared to Porn for all intents and purposes for sales numbers...which may not be complimentary in the connection, but the numbers while not as big as Hollywood were literally Billions upon Billions from what I can tell).

 

This analogy is meaningless.

 

PC Gaming pulled in $20 billion this year.

 

Given that former EA University Liaison, John Buchanan, described a demographic in 2004 that mirrors exactly what we see right now (consoles boom bust, while PC gaming slowly and consistently grows) - sorry my source was a 1 on 1 conversation with him at the University of Alberta, where he was recruiting new graduates, so I can't provide a link to his comments.

 

I'm skeptical that PC gaming was "literally billions upon billions" of dollars (in any amount that extends beyond current growth), and your vague references to porn comparisons aren't super convincing.  The best I could find was this which states that, in the US, $13.33 billion was spent on pornography.  Which, assuming PC gaming had a consistent 8% growth rate like we had this past year, would put its revenues at $11.66 billion.  So are we still in the same ballpark as adult entertainment?

 

 

 

 

Before I forget, I know tomb raider was sold at retail...but PS3 games (probably Xbox games as well) are ALSO sold via download like Steam these days also.  ON PSN you can buy a LOT of the games you can buy at retail also.  That's one of the reasons why Journey probably got bigger and finally got the hardcopy release (guessing at this though) was due to online sales.

It also had PC sales (principally digital).  The 3.4 million mentioned by Square-Enix omits digital sales (on all platforms).

 

 

 

 

The publisher you are looking at do a LOT of PC games that are more kid based and such.  Another does educational games and software and due to probably libraries and schools buying their games make a tidy sum, but then again...triple A as far as what we would consider Triple A, probably not.  Gamer's Games like what I'm also looking at...probably not, so games we probably wouldn't want to play or even try to play.

 

Just say who it is.  You obviously aren't hinting at someone like Paradox or the likes, so who are you talking about?

Edited May 27, 2013 by alanschu