PC gaming dead?

Posted on December 29, 2005 by Ian Betteridge

Paul Thurrott:

While I would never question the success of Steam, which is a wonderful tool through which I’ve made several PC game purchases, this is a terribly uninsightful article. Facts are facts: The PC game market is slowing, and the consoles are kicking ass. Game over, sorry.

Well, Paul, what are those five million subscribers to World of Warcraft playing their game on? Assume that they’re all paying around $5 a month to play, which is a low assumption, and that’s a grand total of $300 million a year in subscriptions alone. How many console games hit that level of revenue?

Until consoles have keyboards as standard, MMORPGs will be a poor experience on console.

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  • Siobhan Curran

    “Until consoles have keyboards as standard”

    Why?

  • http://technovia.typepad.com Ian Betteridge

    Because MMORPGs are, at heart, about communication and communication requires a keyboard. Or voice, of course, but that’s too intrusive.

  • Siobhan

    Ah, that makes sense. Ta Ian

  • http://www.beckysweb.co.uk/beckysblog/ Becky

    And as nice as voice is, it completely ruins any Role Playing experience.

    I’d hate it if my svelte Night Elf maiden actually sounded like ME. :-)

    As much as “lean back” sofa-gaming like GTA and racing games are great fun on the consoles, there’ll always be a need for a platform “lean forward” desk-and-chair-gaming like The Sims, WoW and Age of Empires. Until they come up with a viable alternative for the mouse and keyboard inteface on the PC.

  • slybri

    I think one day they will invent a controller that is a perfect replacement for mouse and keyboard gaming while sitting on a sofa or laying on a bed cuddling with your significant other. It will be wireless, compact enough to hold in your hands, and able to move a cursor rapidly and with hair’s width precision, spinning around to perform a headshot or ordering a squad of troopers to attack a barracks as easily as whipping a Ferrari Enzo through the apex of a turn. And somehow it will be able to quickly type things like, “Suck it down, NOOB!” or “L60 Mage LFG BWL” as easy as it is with a full keyboard. On that day the PC gaming industry will die. But today is not that day.

  • http://www.nigelcooke.com monkeyleader

    Why do we have to have the PC vrs console argument in the first place. Im a gamer pure and simple. In the past my main pro-argument for console gaming was my the envionrment I had to game in on the pc vrs the consoles. Ive spent many an hour, neh many a day crounced, over a monitor slowly becoming one with my leather office chair (PC Gaming). Now I have a dedicated cinema room setup I have my pc (as well as consoles) plugged into the big screen so can kick back on the sofa (its still leather and now my whole body sticks to it tho) and have a much less DVT enducing gaming experience. Im actually in the process however now of when a game is realesed for both the XBOX360 and the PC going for the 360 version – okay its early days yet but so far Im very happy !

    Right time to slide myself off the sofa, grab a beer and settle into another sesion of PGR3 !

  • http://suttree.com Duncan Gough

    How can PC gaming be dead when Casual Gaming, predominantly a PC experience, is booming?

    http://suttree.com/2006/01/10/pc-gaming-is-dead/

  • SNAKE

    PC IS DEAD BITCHES, DIE BIL GATES<

    DIE MICROSOFT< DIE XBOX!!!

  • http://msn.com mike

    hey i have been gaming for a long time and i think pc gaming is dead because people arnt makeing games right now for it and then when u get it runs like shit if ur computer is just a lil bit old i play source now just fine but i am not planing on upgrading just for a new game like bioshock or crisis the day i upgrade my computer is the day before spore comes out. i cant wait for a shooter where xbox 360 and computer gamers meet online because the console owners will feel the rath of pin point acuracy of my g5 laser mouse when spin around in a sec and headshot him because i heard him on my 5.1 suround sound headphones