Is PC Gaming Dead, or just Loosing it’s grip?

You hear it everywhere: “PC Gaming Is Dead.”, “PC Games aren’t what they used to be”, “Gaming isn’t meant for a PC”.

Well, Let’s get straight into this one.

PC gaming is neither dead, nor is it going to be anytime soon..Maybe. What makes people think PC Gaming is dead? Well, I can think of a few reasons.

The Machine itself:

You can think of the machine itself as the core of the problem itself. Think of your favourite brand of computers. Now, think of the 3 flagship models they may have. Now, think of the many variations of each model, then, think of how many different customizable hardware the users of the model may have done. Instantly, you’ve got probably around 20 base (factory) models, and then a possibility of, lets say, 300 users who customised their PC, about out of 500 people who didn’t. (these aren’t based off any statistic whatsoever, but are just used as examples.) Now, compare all those models to a console. The PC variations will be more abundant then all of the DS remakes. So, now let’s look at what makes this a problem. Instead of a console game, which is built to play on just one console (not looking at ports here)you’ve got a game that is designed to be run on a million different types of machines, tied together by hopefully one thing; they surpass minimum requirements. Then, this is made even more of a problem by the fact that not everyone can afford to have a computer that can run a game so smoothly. and some people just don’t want to upgrade. It’s a hassle for them to deal with upgrading the hardware of their newly bought computer. Hardware for computers is being designed all the time. You buy the latest model today, tomorrow, there will be one better then yours. The Computer industry moves fast. We are in the 21st century after all- this century has been more dependent on technology then ever before. Don’t believe us? Well, why do you need to be able to play games,movies,music,share files, take photos,videos,write documents, etc. on a phone? For convenience? Yes. Take a second thought though- No, no we don’t need to. I digress. So many options may appear daunting to a casual gamer, or to a gamer who just prefers to have everything in the one place, without needing to deal with upgrading anything besides a firmware every now and then. Summarising this paragraph, first problem is: Minimum Requirements, and a hardware industry that moves fast.

Piracy:

The PC gaming ship was hijacked long ago, on its sail towards dominating the gaming markets. It’s been overrun by pirates for a while. No game is safe. You see it in store..That’s a big price tag. I can just download it. Is probably the thought that’s getting to people. Anti piracy has been anything but successful. Maybe the MMORPG’s are safe; but-then you have “private servers”. Okay, nothing is safe. The other side of this is of course, games getting bigger in size. Standard today, most pc games will probably be around 5-8 GB, with the occasional 10 to even 14gb game. No one really wants’ to download that. Then again, this goes back to the hardware issue: what if your 200 GB hard drive is already nearly brimming with data, and that last 20 GB can be useful for something else? Looking into the shop window, you see computers now have 500gb hard drive standard, and there’s portable ones with even 1TB of data. Even USB’s have capability for 20gb. But, they are expensive. very. So, that game you legitimately bought won’t ever be installed soon, so you take it back to the store. “we can’t refund PC games, or accept trade in’s.” it all goes back to the piracy. In that brief time you had the game, you might’ve burned it right to your harddrive. The issue summed up: Piracy and Size.

The Console is expanding:

No longer are consoles strictly for gaming. They can now offer a sizeable amount of what a computer can. Every console this generation offers Internet Access. Possibly the biggest offered this generation so far is the Playstation line, between the PSP and ps3 Offering quite a decent amount of services. The Wii offers you a fun way to edit your pictures. No need for [MS Paint] Photoshop!. The Playstation and Xbox can playback music. No need for [Windows Media Player] iTunes! DVD playback has been in the consoles since 6th generation. So, that’s one more thing for consoles. Significantly, the PS3 can playback Blu-Ray, so you know- a bluray drive isn’t really unique to the PC. Printing is a viable option on the PS3 too. Live streaming is also possible. That’s not to say the PC is a horrible out of date concept though. Anything the console can do, the PC can do better. Except, keep itself in the competition. Basically, with the console offering more and more services like a PC, the reason for having a PC to play games on is becoming more and more obsolete.

Now, to answer the question of IS PC GAMING DEAD:

PC Gaming isn’t dead, but it is losing its appeal. Since Computers without a doubt are the focus of the 21st century (and people are starting to accept, whether or not they realise it) that computers are what’s taking us to that vision of the future portrayed in so many sci-fi movies, the industry is growing each and every day. Proof: Microsoft, the biggest company in the world (I think?), and Apple, the company putting needless extras into our everyday lives. Since it grows so fast, and new technology is released every day, it’s hard to keep up with. Since games are getting better every year, it’s hard to be able to run the latest game on your one year “young” computer. The more convenient option for many is to just buy a Console, Which can offer at the same time, a sample of what your computer can. It’s also the fact that piracy is a big problem for developers. PC Games are very easy to share on the internet through torrents, and each new step developers take in security measures, they unintentionally make the people who figure out the methods to getting around it, more prepared for the next big anti-piracy function. No company wants to lose profit, and piracy is a big cause in profit loss.

All those reasons: Piracy, Technology and Console Development are playing the cards that are causing gaming for the PC to see a big slowdown.

Consoles: More than just gaming systems?

This is interesting. A report by Nielson has said that the consoles of this generation are becoming more and more like loungeroom standards, thanks to features such as DVD playback, Picture editing, Music Playback, News feeds, Online TV, and more. The console that has the most dynamic use is the Playstation 3. Interestingly, there might be a direct link between the figures and the marketing campaign of “it simply does everything”. 49% of total time using a Playstation 3 is spent gaming, with the rest on the other services availble. 26% of 360 owners watch streams, and 23% say the same for the PS3 and Wii. Rather biasedly, sony says that the Playstation 3 gives 14 services, the most of any outlet at current time. There isn’t really anything to confirm this, but it’s possible.

Now, of course external services have been offered in consoles for a while, but untill 7th Gen they where mainly restricted to MP3/CD playback and DVD playback. Now, There’s alot more on offer. Even the handheld Nintendo DSi offers a camera and an in-built picture editing program. but that brings up a question; Has the video game console platform lost it’s way? Should we be worried that developers will start to focus more on offering a range of services instead of giving the time and effort into building a top-of-the-range gaming platform? Who knows.

A big marketing tactic -which Sony and Nintendo have seen and clearly exploited where as the 360 seems to be dragging- of this generation is the fact that consoles are becoming more and more for everyone. Soon, people will start buying consoles not necesarily for the gaming function, but for the services that interest them. Think of the iPhone/iPad. It has a small part of the handheld gaming market, but if it was considered a console, then it would be the most sucsesful console of this generation given the fact people buy it for the features it offers. Microsoft seems intent on plastering the xbox 360 all over gaming adverts and seemingly wants to make the 360 synonymous with gaming, Where as Nintendo wants to keep pushing the DS (and to a lesser extent, the Wii) into a broader target audience position with innovation, and Sony is seemingly pushing the Playstation family into being an all-rounded entertainment package by putting the playstation brand on a new phone (‘Zeus’), building tv’s with Playstation 2’s in them, and continioung to offer services that whether unclear if the most availble on the one platform, definatley has the most availble out of the current consoles.

Will there be a complete reinvention of the traditional Gaming system before we see a generation 8 would be a good question, but it’s safe to say that this could just be something that us, the consumers, are doing. Whether or not Nintendo,Sony and Microsoft actually have any plans on capitilising the extra services they could offer will only be known if they make a statement about it.

Tron:Legacy (movie inspired by video games)

Tron:Legacy opened this weekend in the USA, and it’s garnered some pretty mixed reviews. But at the same time, it’s got some good ones. Every review it has gotten however has stated the amazing detail. What’s this got to do with gaming? Well, the story of Tron Legacy carries-on from a movie made 21 years prior. The film TRON is considered the first movie to actually use CGI, and it had moderate box office sucsess at around 30 million dollars profit, out of a 17 million dollar budget. The story is about how a computer hacker developed a few video games for the company Encom. The video games where stolen off the network by another employee, who skyrocketed to the top of the company. Kevin Flynn attempts to hack into the network of the company, however at the same time the company itself has developed a “virtual world” that the programs,files, etc. all “live” in. Kevin Flynn uses his friends to get inside the encom building, when the MCP (an evil program in simple terms) transports him into the world of the computer- “the grid”. Eventually Kevin finds evidence that the employee stole his games and so Kevin Flynn escapes thanks to the help of a program named Tron. Anyway, one night Kevin goes missing and so his child son is left in the care of his grandparents and that’s where Tron: Legacy starts. I don’t want to spoil the story of legacy, so I won’t go further into the details about the plot.

A movie where video games play the key point in the plot..it’s very cool. It’s interesting in how the games developed by Kevin Flynn are also exsistant in “The Grid” with a much bigger purpose-You loose, Your Derezzed (or killed.). It’s reminiscant of Gladitorial games, for sure. After I watched Legacy, I was thinking about if Video Games will be able to match the CGI seen in Legacy anytime soon. I looked towards the tie-in video game “Tron Evolution”, but it wasn’t what I was looking for, which was kind of a dissapointment. Still, It’d be amiss not to mention Tron Legacy on this blog- as it is video game related

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seriously, you can’t say no to visuals like that. oh, and Olivia Wilde is amazing in this film too.