• Join Us |
  • |
  • Sign in with:

Next-Gen Consoles to be the Death of PC Gaming?

by Alec Matias, Jun 03, 2005 11:44am PDT
Related Topics – PC Gaming

That's the scenario presented by C|Net editorialist David Carnoy. He argues that the price of a new console versus the price of a PC gaming rig will have gamers migrating their gaming habits to the couch and using the extra dough on items such as an HDTV. Even if they're only upgrading the video card, a $300-$400 console sounds better than a $400-$500 cutting-edge video card.

The bottom line is that console manufacturers often heavily subsidize their new machines, swallowing huge losses up front in hopes that they'll make it all back selling games. (Unlike PC games, the console manufacturers get a royalty for each game sold on their respective systems.) Other things being equal, the DIY-heavy PC-gaming industry can't hope to compete in that kind of market.
So with PC game sales either declining or remaining stagnant over the past few years and the fact that big-name titles are also landing on a console (Quake 4, Prey, Alan Wake, UT2K7), do you believe PC gaming is going the way of the arcade, losing its business to the consoles?


Read all the News


Comments

« Previous 1 2 3 Next »
96 Threads | 418 Comments
  • #365
    Refresh Thread
    By: S1ing B1ade x
    Reply
    IMHO the main thing that has kept the PC gaming alive over the years has been it's technical supperiority. We've always been able to play games that looked better on the PC. We were able to play networked games over the PC years before consoles were ever able to do this. Yes, it does cost more, but some people are willing to pay for that.

    Now the gap is narrowing. A hit game on a console is becoming more like what hit games on the PC have been like for years. Eventually the graphical gap that exists between two generations of hardware simply won't justify the price of an upgrade. But once that happens, you'll be in a situation where the cheap hardware of 4 years ago is just about as good as the current expensive cutting edge hardware. Which means the only real advantage that consoles have (their price) will eventually not exist. So why lock yourself into a piece of hardware that has intentionally been made incompatible with other platforms?

    Once console companies lose their price advantage, there won't be any need for them. Whatever system you buy will be cheap, and it will do everything you need it to do. Consoles will become PCs. If console makers exists, they will exists only to provide what will just be another PC, because the market will force them to produce something that can play games from anything. And who knows, maybe at some point we'll actually see games distrubuted "just in time" and your TV and "PC" will merge.

    But that day is still a ways off. Right now PCs still have a lot of advantages. I was watching some people play an Xbox game at best buy the other day on a 50'' Plasma. Good lord was that game ugly. At that size no AF and AA with the relatively low resolution produced REALLY ugly jaggies. I would NEVER consider dumping my PC for that horribly pixilated mess. And the only people who would will be people who can't afford a 50 inch plasma anyway.
    Jun 03, 2005 4:54pm PDT

    Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.