Is PC gaming dying?

PC gaming is doing fine. Console gaming has a wider audience and is much bigger than PC gaming, numbers wise. Handheld/portable gaming is the biggest market right now.
All of these gaming communities overlap to some degree. Games may be exclusive to a platform, but gamers aren't.
 
Every time I see this topic I think of those scenes where Elmer Fudd finally thinks he got his Wabbit. Then Bugs goes into this long monolog “Goodbye cruel world!” fake dies, jumps up “Tell my wife I love her” fake dies, jumps up “And the kids too”, and so on and so forth.

Except in this case PC gaming has been “fake dying” for 20 years and the Fudds of the world still haven't wised up.
 
If anything, PC gaming is more alive then ever. Long gone are the days where you need a $1500 gaming rig to play 3/4 of the games out there. Thanks in part to the exploding indie scene, as well as the refocus of hardware manufacturers on power consumption over pure performance, you can now play PC games for a fraction of what it used to cost. An entry level gaming PC is nearly on par with a console at around $500.
 
SRTie4k said:
If anything, PC gaming is more alive then ever. Long gone are the days where you need a $1500 gaming rig to play 3/4 of the games out there. Thanks in part to the exploding indie scene, as well as the refocus of hardware manufacturers on power consumption over pure performance, you can now play PC games for a fraction of what it used to cost. An entry level gaming PC is nearly on par with a console at around $500.
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That and since games are almost always cross platform now, they should run awesome on a bargain basement PC (which is what a console is, anymore, a commodity PC without the KB and mouse).

That used to be one of the nice features of PC gaming, was that if you had the money, you could get a better experience from the game. Nowadays, not so much.
 
current bf4 stats
PC
21,534
PS3
30,929
XBOX360
25,421
XBOXONE
19,741
PS4
41,761

pc will never be as popular as consoles, but honestly a good amount of people have being making the switch to pc.
i know its just one game, but i see a lot of people on the bf4 forums asking for build help.
 
djoye said:
I've never played FTL but there are some decent indie games out there. Sometimes it's a nice change of pace from playing big-budget games.

Still got your WRX?
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Got rid of it last yr for a `13 fj cruiser TT. Miss driving the curvys somedays for sure.
 
PC gaming is not dying but it is no longer the dominant market for video games (for 10 years now?).
The primary market is consoles. Get used to it and move on.
 
xnikx said:
current bf4 stats
PC
21,534
PS3
30,929
XBOX360
25,421
XBOXONE
19,741
PS4
41,761

pc will never be as popular as consoles, but honestly a good amount of people have being making the switch to pc.
i know its just one game, but i see a lot of people on the bf4 forums asking for build help.
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And yet CS:GO's daily player count matches nearly all of those combined, and then DOTA is 5.5x that.
 
Doesn't it come down to personal preference?

I mean, I have a PC, 360, PS3 and Wii for options.
 
BF3 is a good game to measure because it is released on all platforms and often seen a popular among PC gamers.

The fundamental problem is that PC gaming is losing its practicality. It used to be that PC gaming made sense to just about anyone. Because almost everyone owned a desktop that could be upgraded with a video card. While PC gaming is still the best gaming experience period it has lost a lot of the practical advantages. Many people now days do not own a desktop at all, many of them have been duped into buying laptops with integrated graphics, or worse macs. So when they look at PC gaming and it involves buying an entire separate rig the cost / practical advantages are lower than they were in years past.

With apple rising in popularity and soon google with chrome or android the PC gaming crowd will soon see a more divided user base and developers will keep saying its too much work for each sale. PC gaming will continue to be where the innovation and indie development really happens. But sooner or later consoles are going to land winners with MOBA and MMOs that will erode the remaining strong holds for PC gaming.
 
xnikx said:
current bf4 stats
PC
21,534
PS3
30,929
XBOX360
25,421
XBOXONE
19,741
PS4
41,761

pc will never be as popular as consoles, but honestly a good amount of people have being making the switch to pc.
i know its just one game, but i see a lot of people on the bf4 forums asking for build help.
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Current stats from BF4Stats.com at time of this post:
PC
45,811
PS3
41,447
XBOX360
30,287
XBOXONE
23,923
PS4
52,643

PC has a VERY healthy population and 2nd place.
 
rudy said:
BF3 is a good game to measure because it is released on all platforms and often seen a popular among PC gamers.

The fundamental problem is that PC gaming is losing its practicality. It used to be that PC gaming made sense to just about anyone. Because almost everyone owned a desktop that could be upgraded with a video card. While PC gaming is still the best gaming experience period it has lost a lot of the practical advantages. Many people now days do not own a desktop at all, many of them have been duped into buying laptops with integrated graphics, or worse macs. So when they look at PC gaming and it involves buying an entire separate rig the cost / practical advantages are lower than they were in years past.

With apple rising in popularity and soon google with chrome or android the PC gaming crowd will soon see a more divided user base and developers will keep saying its too much work for each sale. PC gaming will continue to be where the innovation and indie development really happens. But sooner or later consoles are going to land winners with MOBA and MMOs that will erode the remaining strong holds for PC gaming.
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I know a few people (and read about many more on the net) who have moved to pc gaming following next gen console launch, these people feel like they had enough, realising the consoles overpriced and bad marketing practices.
 
Trackr said:
>80% of all Titanfall sales are on consoles.
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You could go back 10 or 20 years and basically find the same thing with a popular game that was multiplatform. PC gaming has always been a niche hobby although Steam has helped make it more accessible and user-friendly for the masses. Lower costs for the hardware has also made it more attractive over consoles.

PC gaming dying? Not in my lifetime.
 
You also can't act like the platforms are "PC" and "consoles". Rather each platform is discrete. The Xbox 360 is as different from the Xbone as it is from the PC (more in fact).

So if a game sells 20% on Windows, 20% on the 360, 20% on the PS3, 20% on the Xbone and 20% on the PS4, it is not accurate to say "OMG consoles got 80%!!!" Rather it is accurate to say "Each platform got a roughly equal percentage."

The reason is because that's how publishers think/care. The question in their mind is "If I do a port to a given platform, is it worth spending the money on?" So they aren't comparing one platform vs all the others, that would be silly.

Like When Deus Ex:HR got ported to the Wii U. The publisher wasn't thinking "I bet the Wii U sales will be bigger than the PC, 360, and PS3 combined!" Rather they were thinking "I bet it'll sell enough copies to justify the money spent on the port."

Windows PCs are just another platform for games, and by all accounts, games sell plenty enough to be profitable to port to it, and some to do exclusive on it.
 
It's the other way around. Consoles are dying. They are just transforming into home theater PCs.
 
One thing really against consoles which is what gamers are starting to learn is that microsoft and sony deliberatly changed their architectures each generation.

The reasons they did it are probably the following.

Make it harder for people to make emulators.
Make it harder for games to be ported over to competing consoles due to different architecture.

But this has bit them back as in turn its made BC awkward.
 
Trackr said:
I thought it was just a buzz-word but look at this:

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=titanfall

>80% of all Titanfall sales are on consoles.

And there are some people who claim that gamepad/touchscreen is superior to keyboard and mouse..

What is going on, people?
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Well it depends what you're playing. I actually prefer playing Walking Dead or Baldur's Gate on the iPad with headphones pretty much anywhere I want. Obviously I'll use a PC for games that play easier with a mouse. Although, I have seen some players that have done quite well with a gamepad (even against users with a mouse and keyboard) There was a user on TL that made it to masters solely on a gamepad in Starcraft 2.
 
I think the biggest threat to PC gaming is the "free to play" and MMO concept games are pushing. They're repetitive, boring, costly, and have dumbed down gameplay. Half the time is spent trying to find an appropriate game to join rather than actually playing. Aside from basement dwellers I don't think the average person cares for the hours of grinding that these titles entail.
 
bizzmeister said:
There will always be those retard *MASTER PC RACE* people that claim ILL NEVER PAY $400-$500 FOR A SHIT CONSOLE BRO! ILL BUILD A SICK GAMING PC FOR THAT MUCH , but clearly, they'll never understand.
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PC gamers who don't like console gaming are retarded and will never understand? Your a piece of work making blanket statements like that.

I've owned and played on many consoles over the years. Starting with the Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Collecovision, through the PS3 and Xbox 360. I can pretty much assure you I understand. I understand that consoles have become terribly boring to game on over the years and I find myself gaming pretty much exclusively on my PC. So I understand for the first time I don't want either of the new consoles at this point. Why spend $500+ for a console when its just going to gather dust.

By the way you can thank the MASTER PC RACE for those awesome console games your enjoying. If it weren't for the liberal borrowing of PC gaming features, hardware and games by Microsoft and Sony consoles would already be dead IMHO. Except for Nintendo.

As for the OP. I'm a hardcore PC gamer and own TONS of games but my interest in Titanfall is pretty nonexistant.They are promoting it likes it the next big thing but I don't see it. I might buy it when It finally drops under $20. In other words PC gaming is not dying. It actually on the upswing again.
 
samduhman said:
PC gamers who don't like console gaming are retarded and will never understand? Your a piece of work making blanket statements like that.

I've owned and played on many consoles over the years. Starting with the Fairchild Channel F, Atari 2600, Collecovision, through the PS3 and Xbox 360. I can pretty much assure you I understand. I understand that consoles have become terribly boring to game on over the years and I find myself gaming pretty much exclusively on my PC. So I understand for the first time I don't want either of the new consoles at this point. Why spend $500+ for a console when its just going to gather dust.

By the way you can thank the MASTER PC RACE for those awesome console games your enjoying. If it weren't for the liberal borrowing of PC gaming features, hardware and games by Microsoft and Sony consoles would already be dead IMHO. Except for Nintendo.

As for the OP. I'm a hardcore PC gamer and own TONS of games but my interest in Titanfall is pretty nonexistant.They are promoting it likes it the next big thing but I don't see it. I might buy it when It finally drops under $20. In other words PC gaming is not dying. It actually on the upswing again.
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No, console gaming is terribly boring for "YOU"! The PC Master Race is a bunch of elitist snobs and the only thing I would thank them for is I am not one of them. :D
 
I think free to play affects every device, console, pc and mobile. It's a horrible concept. As free to play means free to start playing but expensive to complete.
 
chrcoluk said:
I think free to play affects every device, console, pc and mobile. It's a horrible concept. As free to play means free to start playing but expensive to complete.
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Expensive to complete? You don't complete a free to play game, you only pay money to have advantage over others which destroys the games community
 
there is single player free to play as well, they get made really hard to beat without paying, tons and tons of grinding, or pay to power up and easy win.
 
chrcoluk said:
there is single player free to play as well, they get made really hard to beat without paying, tons and tons of grinding, or pay to power up and easy win.
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Or they place a limit on the amount you can play. See Ace Combat: Infinity. A mainly SP series since the early 90s has been forced to go free to play as a co-op game. From what I understand you can only attempt a mission a limited amount of times and a limited amount of missions a day. I assume other content is similar.

If they gave the option of paying $30-60 and it became like a traditional game I would not mind that... but I doubt any free to play game will do that. While the example I used is console only, it seems to be more popular on PC.
 
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