While there are plenty of console fanboys with their heads screwed on, you'll always get some who tell you that PC gaming is dead, but that's a complete load of Atari Jaguars if Valve's latest announcement is anything to go by. Valve has just announced that its game download store Steam now has over 15 million accounts, and that its year-on-year sales have now grown by 158 per cent. '"PC gaming is thriving," said Valve's president Gabe Newell, while noting that the industry was shifting away from traditional hard copies of games to an 'era of constant connectivity.'
While PC game sales look pretty grim in comparison to those of console games in the official charts, these statistics often don't account for huge download services such as Steam, or subscription-based games such as MMOs. However, Newell reckons that there's a lot more to Steam's success than game downloads. Newell said that Steam "gives us the ability to have a much better relationship with customers, not just for delivering our games, but across all aspects of our business - including the design, development, and support of our games. Features like Guest Passes, Free Weekends, Gifting, and the Steam Community have been very well received both by customers and the developers who are using Steam."
Valve also put the Steam's recent success down to this year's launch of the Steam Community, as well as being able to offer big-name launch titles such as Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock, not to mention Valve's own successful game package, The Orange Box.
Source: Custom PC
I agree as well, Although the Next Generation of consoles has taken the market by the knackers (so to speak) the PC market is still hanging onto a large chunk of the market. PC will never die out, I can remember when Compact Discs first arived and they said then records would die but they didn't. With people like Valve and CryTek creating new engines then we can assure the PC will continue to thrive.
Blizzard and Valve, As well as Bioware, Are some of the best game studios still in operation, But they are too narrow in the type of games they create, So we effectively got certain genres cut-off from decent game supply.
Blizzard and Valve, As well as Bioware, Are some of the best game studios still in operation, But they are too narrow in the type of games they create, So we effectively got certain genres cut-off from decent game supply.
The problem is that there are practically no independent dev teams left, because of the cost of making AAA games in a typical development environment (about $10m minimum, not including advertizing). Somehow dev costs have to come down for gaming to be good again, or independent teams have to find some way of getting funding from someone other than the big-name publishers who are only interested in making sequels or movie tie-ins. Otherwise, only publishers will be able to afford to make games, and you know how much those kinds of games suck (hint: the typical EA game). It's publishers who are responsible for pushing all the sequels and the generic games we've all playing before. It's the independent teams that come up with the good stuff every few years, because they made the game they wanted to make, not some bull**** some publisher forced them to make.
Agreed. PC's are more expensive nowadays and those that have enough bank get the latest and greatest plus I think theres still that gap between what a pc can help you accomplish (non-game wise) and that perception that game consoles are just for "kids".
In the old days, you got one or two good games a week. Now you're lucky to get one per year. So you guys go ahead and bite that golden apple Valve is feeding you while I sit back and watch as you choke on the poison inside. And that's all I have to add on this topic of discussion.
I don't remember that ever happening. Maybe in the old C64 days, but those games had the lasting power of a couple of days. Today you got PC games you can play for months.
In the old days, you got one or two good games a week. Now you're lucky to get one per year. So you guys go ahead and bite that golden apple Valve is feeding you while I sit back and watch as you choke on the poison inside. And that's all I have to add on this topic of discussion.
I call BS
Bought my girlfriend a custom built computer between $400-500, and it plays games like Oblivion on high with 0 lag. On top of that, I can browse the web, watch movies, burn movies, do work, and essentially, do anything a computer can do.
I mean, what am I going to miss? Halo 3? Pshh. Another Mario game? -shrug- Don't see how PC gamers are losing out in any way.
Hell, my PC of 3-4 years played last-gen games, and plays the current generation of games (minus Crysis, that game's just ridiculous). BioShock and all. Didn't have to pay $400 to be able to do that either.
Bought my girlfriend a custom built computer between $400-500, and it plays games like Oblivion on high with 0 lag. On top of that, I can browse the web, watch movies, burn movies, do work, and essentially, do anything a computer can do.
I mean, what am I going to miss? Halo 3? Pshh. Another Mario game? -shrug- Don't see how PC gamers are losing out in any way.
Hell, my PC of 3-4 years played last-gen games, and plays the current generation of games (minus Crysis, that game's just ridiculous). BioShock and all. Didn't have to pay $400 to be able to do that either.
Only suckers pay $60 for console games, you can get them new on amazon on certain days for $40, or you can do what I do is get them new still sealed on ebay for $30. Theres games like warhawk and ea skate that I want to play, and theres ZERO games like them on the PC. Like mike said most PC games have dropped in quality, most of the PC games that come out should still be in beta or release candidate stage. With most console games you get finished games that are not full of bugs. I still love PC games better, but playing games on my PS3 is also a joy.
John Doe on his PS3 with his analogue controller can't compete with my mouse and keyboard on my PC.
my opinion, PC owns the Console.
mouse and keyboard=FPS games and MMO games
controller=everything else
mouse and keyboard=FPS games and MMO games
controller=everything else
RTS?
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