you all now, that pc-games don't sell so well...
...as Console-games, for example. So it is fair and square that telltale makes compromises to get onto that market. At least, we can be glad, games come still in a pc-version. In 5 years from now, i guess, the pc will be mostly a non-game platform, while consoles dominate that sector.
So, I nevermind the WASD-Constrols. We should realise Telltales is just going with the times...
So, I nevermind the WASD-Constrols. We should realise Telltales is just going with the times...
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Why would that be? Still a lot of games are played on the PC and most of them are not even pirated. But if you spend 14€ a month for WoW you just cannot afford a lot more games.
And there are a lot of freeware games on the PC too....
^ This.
Retail sales are declining. Digital distribution is increasing. Unfortunately, the people that report sales metrics have not been including digital distribution, something that needs to change.
Rumors of the death of PC gaming have been greatly exaggerated.
What they said.
The PC just kind of quietly gets on with it in the background, but it certainly isn't 'dying' as people have been proclaiming for the last decade.
Hope not! Since I was 5 years old (and that means 20 years ago) I rallied in support of PC gaming over console gaming, what an eternal struggle.
Can't lose!!!
What a ridiculous statement. While PC games do not sell as much as consoles, the fact that Valve do so well with Steam and their own PC games shows that it's going no where. In fact, Capcom have recently done a U-turn and started putting out proper versions of their console games on PC with SFIV already selling like hot cakes with Resident Evil 5 and Bionic Commando around the corner.
The Sims is also one of the biggest money makers around, with only the REAL Sims games (1,2 and 3) being available on PC.
The fact the TMI is already on the top spot of Steam sales for the past 2 days should really tell you something as well.
Looking and running badly tends to be more of a problem with PC games.. It can be a nightmare to make older games run properly on PC's!
Also, games are only cheaper on the PC because it's the only way they sell. Heavy piracy is why they're so cheap.. Look at the PSP for example, games are dirt cheap for it, again because of heavy piracy. The second it started happening to that kind of degree to the PS3 or Xbox, they'd drop in price too.
That being said, I don't think PC gaming is going anywhere, it looked bad a few years back, but download services like Steam have saved it.
Compared to consoles, it really isn't a disadvantage. Getting older games running might involve a bit of knowledge, ingenuity and luck but how many other platforms (legitimately and legally) offer the same level of backward compatibility?
First, it's still the best and preferred platform for RTS, MMORPGS, and really FPS (mouse+keyboard still beats gamepad, and the Wii isn't exactly known for its FPS).
Second, newer digital distribution services.
Third, the complaint that it's hard to get old games working on a PC is completely unfounded. Compared to what? Seriously, the PC has the best backwards compatibility of any platform. You're saying it's hard to get games that are 20+ years old to run when comparing it to a console that hasn't even been around for 3 years. Of the three current consoles. Sony no longer sells backwards compatible PS3's. Microsoft - although the 360 does play X-Box games - the X-box brand hasn't been around as long as Nintendo and the Playstation so you're only playing games from at most 7 years ago (which PC's hardly have problems playing games from 7 years ago), and the Wii is backwards compatible with Gamecube, but you have to repurchase what is offered in terms of NES, SNES, N64. This is no different than repurchasing newly running versions of PC games off steam.
The simple fact is, there is almost no old PC game you can't play without downloading a simple program or patch. Consoles backwards compatibility is limited, so for the most part you're stuck playing games released in the 5 year life span of the system.
Fourth, any new current release that is multi-platform including the PC... will always look better on the PC than on the consoles graphic wise. Consoles are limited to their pre-designed hardware which ages fast. PC's can easily get access to the newest graphic cards.
And finally... mods and user made content. There's no way a console game will ever be able to compete with the community and user made possibilities of a PC. Sorry. Even console games that do have some form of user made stuff currently are like years behind stuff done for the PC.
As most console games are dumbed down, compromised (as called above), inferior graphics wise; today's PCs are more than capable of running them. What games studios should be doing is making every game designed with a PC in mind and build the game with high definition graphics textures, home theatre quality sound, in-depth gameplay and mouse controls. Then they should dumb them down for poor old console players.
When they do it the other way around and port a console game to a PC, it almost always looks like it sucks compared to a real PC game.
That's assuming people actually keep up with the times and have fairly decent PC specifications. Fortunately PCs are more upgradeable than consoles though. Unfortunately there are people out there who have old PCs and when they get a game and it runs badly they blame the game and designers rather than their own selves for having such a PC in the first place. I saw something the other day online where someone asked why the game they bought wouldn't run on their Pentium III with 128MB RAM and a 32MB Riva TNT graphics card. I thought you must be kidding - that thing could only run things like Monkey Island 1 and 2 and maybe up to Leisure Suit Larry 6.
Pc gaming isnt going anywhere ever
Steam has 20 millioner users alone, and im sure even Telltale are happy about the sales their, not to mention there are others like that, if you wanna sell on the pc platform, you gotta use youre brain.
Not sue gamers for downloading pirate copies, as Gabe from Valve once said, pirates are unserved customers that we havent been good enough to reach.
Who in their right minds dont wanna support a good company that makes games they love? i sure dont know any.
Now that i use alot of Steam i can only talk about the advantages there, mostly no annoying drm, download the games all the times you want, install on all the computers you want, automatic updates.
If you wanna sell its about making it better and easier for the user. Not using starforce or that crap, when PC drm was at its worst, in the case of drm, why pay for a game infested with drm that limit youre rights to use it, when you can get a free copy that works better without restrictions ? that is why companies are starting to understand.
I upgrade my Pc every 3 years, and i can always play everything on max, and pc is a hobby and hobbies cost money, i have no problem with that, i use aprox in dollars, my native currency is danish kroner, but i use around 2500$ every 3 years on hardware, i call that very very cheap, because i use my PC alot!.
and as other people say, i love playing my old gets, most console games has the, play and away, i play and save my games, nothing better than taking out and old gaming and being able to still play it, i mean just the other day i was playing Day of the tentacle today im play The Digg, and soon Loom. it just kicks ass. i wont ever sell the games i love, i wanna be able to play them again and again forever.
But yeah, pc = digital distribution.
Regardless of the sales stats, PC games and Console games will both continue for a long time.
- development of game is still cheaper on a windows platform (free on linux)
- distributing games is much cheaper as opposed to traditional optical media or the licensed (and assumedly heavily priced) digital distribution on the console network
- marketing can be done at a much cheaper rate on a computer game than a console game
- easier to locate the niche market for more targeted marketing online, than through traditional media for console gamers
- discussions and interactions with the development or publishing teams can further improve game hypes and sales
However, moving to the console is the right move. It makes no economical sense to spend thousands or millions of dollars to produce a game and limit it just to the niche crowd or a specific platform. Why bottleneck yourself in?
Relocalizations are the "in" thing nowadays. And although it might be a huge gamble, you would never know which console will help to boost your sales and further enhance your brand name. Even console gamers can be sick of regular first person shooter game sequels right?
Consoles are better for companies with a big budget as development costs are usually higher, but the user experience is potentially better (if the developer did a good job) because you can predict the platform better than you can on a PC.
So I take my PS3 for the big titles from companies that I know don't care about individual users, but for some reason know how to do solid games and I use my PC for more experimental titles.
P.S. You can read any statistic so that it tell you what you want to hear. Don't trust them!
On what planet did you learn how to use commas?
He just really wants us to take the time to think at every single word he wrote.
That's kinda nice
What PC game sold more copies 20 years ago than Super Mario Bros on the NES would have?
There is games for the PC that just don't work as well for a console and there is games that dont make much sense on the PC. Neither will replace the other.
PCs will always be far superior for games that build on a large modding community (e.g. Sims 2 would never have sold as well on a console)
I rather doubt it with the 5 years, btw. the market is pretty much equally split saleswise nowadays, the big gaming companies usually just make the mistake to see the consoles as one platform while in fact they are more than one. And the pc hardware situation has consolidated down to a relatively minor mix of configurations you have to support, so it is not that hard to develop for the pc anymore!
Even if there were no games coming out from the big ones, the PC has one huge advantage it is the only "console" with zero entry fee so smaller companies will get onto the ship. Even for the virtual console you have to have at least a track record of one published game to get onto the platform and you have to buy the devkit! For the pc side of things you can get basically everything you need legally for free (or if you want to buy visual studio for money) but you dont need any track record!
Look at what happened to adventure games, the big companies abandoned it and smaller ones entered the market (some of them operated on a budget which justified it that only a few thousand were sold)
But I agree it would be stupid for an already established company not to get onto the console market especially if the ports are easily done like in case of the xbox (and to some degree the wii)
Actually 20 years ago it was entirely different the console games sold millions while pc companies were happy to sell 30.000-50.000 copies, nevertheless many companies preferred to develop for the pc because of tactics Nintendo used to make life for their partners miserable and due to the inherent platform limitations.
This situation has somewhat changed consoles are not so far away from the pc, in fact if you develop for a console you basically nowadays develop for the minimum gaming pc as well, but it has been like that since the PS1 came out. It is usually like that console comes out 1-2 years ahead of the PC after 3 years the situation has shifted again towards the PC hardwarewise, and upgrading an existing pc becomes less expensive than buying the console!
438 millions euro = PC games (only retail, without WoW, Steam...)
744 millions euro = console games (PS3, 360, Wii and PS2 TOGETHER)
384 millions euro = handheld games (PSP, DS and mobile phones TOGETHER)
http://www.biu-online.de/fileadmin/user/dateien/BIU_Marktzahlen_Gesamtjahr_2008.pdf
So only several gaming platforms combined can beat the sales figures of the PC in good ol' Germany.
Are there NPD-numbers for PC-games-sales in 2008 or do they only count the sales of console gamesand don't even offer an actual comparison?
But currently you have backwards compatibility:
PC: 100% back to the 8086 and dos 1.0
SNES: Almost 100%
NES: 100%
All 8 bit SEGA consoles 100%
Dreamcast, 80%
Atari 2600 100%
Atari 8 bit computers 100%
Amiga 100%
Atari ST 100%
Aracade Machines, almost 100% on all 2d machines
PS1: Emulators are there i am not sure how good they are but I assume it must be around 80-100% compatibility
PS2 and Gamecube there are emulators I dont know the status!
Sure it is more than to press a button to get some games running but you wont find that much of extensive backwards compatibility anywhere, and this is due to the fact that the PC is an open system!
first the retail numbers do not reflect the online purchases, while Steam and Co thanks to the insane prices is not that popular over here it is a factor you should count in.
Second consoles as one entity is a huge mistake because they are so different that each game has to be ported to every console hence each console is a different market, if you would split that apart, the PC would be probably still #1 in sales worldwide while the console numbers would not look so good after all!
After all porting a game from the xbox to the PC and vice versa is less effort than doing a wii or ps3 port of the same game, hence adding all console numbers up is idiotic!
pc games in U.S in 2006: $13.5 billion in sales
console games in U.S. in 2006: $12.5 billion in sales (again, several systems TOGETHER)
http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/npd-pc-games-bring-industry-to-135-billion-in-2006/69941/?biz=1
http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/breaking-us-video-game-industry-totals-125-billion-in-2006/69918/?biz=1
Even IF pc games were now down to 10 billions and console games up to 20 billions, then pc sales would still be number one in U.S. (compared to each other gaming system on its own, not to all of them together).
The companies producing the games do not really buy that anyway, but some things have to be sacrificed for the sake of portability!
I personally think the console craze the last years helped pc gaming a lot, gone are almost the days where pc games where so buggy that you could often not run them on release day. Nowadays thanks to the hard testing on the console side PC games seem more stable than they used to be.
In fact except for GTA 4 it looked a lot to me that console owners often got bugger ports of their games than the pc side. GTA4 was however another issue, they enforced DRM on the PC side so brutal that the game suffered under it!
You have to be kidding. It still happens a lot now. Patches that are released even on release day seem to be quite normal.
It seems to be a myth that PC gaming is dieing, hell, Sims 3 sold 1.4 million copies just 2 weeks ago. Crysis exceeded EA's sales predictions despite it requiring a monster PC to run, it sold 3 million copies at retail to date. Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, an extremely niche and (at the time) unknown game sold 2 million copies at retail! Also, PC game development is much cheaper than console game development, so games don't have to sell a million copies to be successful and turn a profit. What I'm trying to say is PC gaming is nowhere near dead despite what uninformed people have been saying.
To be honest, I bought PC for working and I can't be bothered to buy another expensive machine for gaming if I can use PC also for playing adventure and strategy games.
lol i had a system similar to that - it was ok for the playstation 1 era lol and it ran gabriel knight 3 ok when it came out in 1999!
but yeah i will always be a fan of pc gaming because a) i like the better graphics on current games that pc gives you, b) i like playing retro games and with a pc you can play them all and c) i like graphic adventures and mmorpgs and you cant really get them on console either. oh and d) i like the modding community some games have on pc like how much better is oblivion on pc with some mods - cant do that with console either.
Yeah.... that's doubtful. MS and Sony have both indicated that the current generation of systems will be on a ten year cycle, so we won't be seeing another console from them for sometime, meanwhile the PC will continue to get more powerful.
Not to mention the fact that people started talking the end of PC gaming when the NES came out. I for one have always owned more PC games than console. PCs are not going anywhere.
It always is like that and in fact usually once a new console generation hits the stores it is up to the pc maybe 1 year ahead within a 2-3 years timeframe the pc definitely has surpassed the latest console generation by leaps and the hardware has reached the level that upgrading existing pcs becomes cheaper than buying the console!
This happend exactly last year til this year, when the current low-mid range graphicscards reached cheap to mid price levels. Those are exactly the graphics cards 1-2 generations ahead of what the current crop of consoles have. I dont want to even talk about the ram limits of those consoles.
The processors in the consoles are definitely at a much lower speed level than current pc processors but nowadays the processor is not even signifcant anymore.
But one good thing as well except or things like crysis the upgrade cycle nowadays has slowed down because most titles want to support all platforms so with a mid range graphics card nowadays and enough ram you are probably safe until 2012-2014 when the next console cycle hits the scene. (I dont buy the 10 years, at least Microsoft and Nintendo have to upgrade and Sony probably will also push a machine at that timeframe)
Same on the console except the wii unfortunately :-(
But I recognized a trend that generally unplayable games are rare nowadays especially for multiplatform titles.
Usually they have the same bugs as their console counterparts.
There are exceptions to those rules however.