opinion Is Console Gaming Doomed?

[Eric Veteran]

I think that consoles designed for specifically for games are on the way out. In the future most consoles will be media players that happen to be able to play games, too.

[McKay]

Are you serious? The current gen of hardware used in consoles was outdated compared to pcs before they were released more than 6 years ago. The ps3 has 256mb of memory ffs. I think the last time 256mb of memory was standard in a pc was pre 2004.

So? Try running a game like Gears of War 3 or Uncharted on a PC with 256mb of Video Memory. PC's require much higher specs to achieve the same quality as consoles. My computer with its 1GB of video Memory and 2.8Ghz i7 can't run Battlefield 3 at the quality it runs on my Xbox without the FPS plumetting to about 10.

[notuptome2004]

Are you serious? The current gen of hardware used in consoles was outdated compared to pcs before they were released more than 6 years ago. The ps3 has 256mb of memory ffs. I think the last time 256mb of memory was standard in a pc was pre 2004.

wrong for example when the Xbox 360 came out it had a Tri-core 6 threaded chip in it 512mb of Ram for both system and GPU the GPU was more advanced at the time then anything currently on the market then

in the PC world we had Single core chips same GPUs that the PS3 used the 7800 series we also had on the horizion intel Pentium D but very half assed at it

[trag3dy]

So? Try running a game like Gears of War 3 or Uncharted on a PC with 256mb of Video Memory. PC's require much higher specs to achieve the same quality as consoles. My computer with its 1GB of video Memory and 2.8Ghz i7 can't run Battlefield 3 at the quality it runs on my Xbox without the FPS plumetting to about 10.

Then there is something wrong with your computer. Consoles also can't run the games at the resolution pc's can. They can barely do 720p. MW2 for example runs at 1024x600.

[Raa]

I've never liked Consoles, I've tried friends, even bought myself one (it gathered dust)... I'll always be a PC gamer. (L)

[hdca18]

"unfortunately" tablet and phone gaming is the next big thing and is quickly taking over console gaming, though atm not eating into console gaming as that category is also still growing.

Not even close. Comparing tablet gaming to console gaming is like comparing apples to oranges, and frankly the two just can't be compared, and to say one (tablet gaming) will overtake console gaming is a silly notion. :p

[Rigby]

Who needs a 4k TV anyway, do you have a theater sized screen in your house? Stupid marketing, it's getting as bad as razors with more and more blades.

[compl3x]

I think that consoles designed for specifically for games are on the way out. In the future most consoles will be media players that happen to be able to play games, too.

I think gaming will always be the priority, only Ninty seems to believe consoles should be gaming dedicated. As far as I know, the Wii U can't play DVD or blu-ray, has no DLNA, and can't playback media files (.MP4, .MKV, .AVI etc.) - Some people argue why add it when it costs money to license, but I am of the opinion that these things are all pretty standard and should be included. Ninty wouldn't even have to pass on the licensing cost to consumers, they could take the hit. Although, that is probably sacriligious talk according to Ninty.

You can buy media players now anyway. I'm pretty sure a lot of blu-ray players come with DLNA and support for multiple media file types via USB. It would seem weird if Sony started saying "Hey! Look at our new media player, it's great! It even plays games!" I don't see that ever happening.

[vcfan]

The Tegra in the Surface RT, should be able to handle Crysis 3, especially since Crysis 3 is designed to be scalable, far more so than Crysis. The HD 4000 in the Pro however I'm not so sure, but I'm not sure where the intel HD series are in performance compared to the tegra's since Id on't much bother witht he Intel HD stuff.

the hd4000 beats the living crap out of the gpu in the tegra 3

tegra 3: 4.8 - 7.2 GFLOPS 200-300Mhz

hd4000: 166-294 GFLOPS 1150Mhz

I always laugh at the idiots that say tablet and phone games are comparable to console games. give me a ****in break. even an intel hd2000 integrated graphics kills even the best gpu on these mobile devices.

[neufuse Veteran]

the hd4000 beats the living crap out of the gpu in the tegra 3

tegra 3: 4.8 - 7.2 GFLOPS 200-300Mhz

hd4000: 166-294 GFLOPS 1150Mhz

I always laugh at the idiots that say tablet and phone games are comparable to console games. give me a ****in break. even an intel hd2000 integrated graphics kills even the best gpu on these mobile devices.

you have no idae what you are talking about obviously.... having 100+ GFLOPS is BAD!!!! it hurst my batterize lifes! evne on my pluged in console!!! Tablet makers told me so! I can run anything you can run but better on my android tablet and ipad! psh people that think they know stuff with fancy numbers......

[Brandon H Supervisor]

all I know is that this makes me consider getting a console again :) http://store.xim3.com/XIM3_p_12.html

[Lord Method Man]

Then there is something wrong with your computer. Consoles also can't run the games at the resolution pc's can. They can barely do 720p. MW2 for example runs at 1024x600.

LMAO 1024x600 is lower than the resolution I was using in 2001 :laugh:

[McKay]

LMAO 1024x600 is lower than the resolution I was using in 2001 :laugh:

My resolution now (1920x1080) is lower than the resolution I used in 2001.

[neufuse Veteran]

My resolution now (1920x1080) is lower than the resolution I used in 2001.

yay for fixed resolution monitors! oh the old CRT days where it could change pixel size on the fly... although a lot of them did max out at 2048x1536

[Hardcore Til I Die]

Hell no.

PCs are too complex.

Tablets/phones aren't complex enough.

Consoles target an audience that the other two don't necessarily target. Also, I've yet to see the level of innovation that has been seen as of late in console gaming, in PC gaming or phone/tablet gaming... these being Kinect and the Wii in general.

[devBrian]

LMAO 1024x600 is lower than the resolution I was using in 2001 :laugh:

My resolution now (1920x1080) is lower than the resolution I used in 2001.

On a 19" monitor that just looked ridiculous :p

[eviljedi]

This post is kind of silly imo. Even if you had a 4k computer monitor today, you wouldn't be able to play games at that resoultion with a decent framerate. Yes, 4k may eventually become the standard for games, but not anytime soon. The next gen consoles will long be past their prime before they need to worry about outputting games at 4k.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

honestly it was doomed the day they started putting harddrives in them.

Care to elaborate? If you're talking about the feeling that the developers think they can release less polished games and then release patches and add-ons later, I agree. But the blame isn't entirely to do with HDD. Computers had hard drives long before consoles, and yet a game that was released was as finished as it was ever going to be. What changed that was better connection speeds.

I remember playing Ghost Recon on the PC back when I had a 56k modem. A patch was released that was 60MB, and I had to give serious consideration about whether to download it or not. Today if my PS3 tells me there is a 60MB patch, I don't give it a second thought.

Console gaming isn't doomed. This rumour seems to resurface every few years and it has yet to happen.

[Buio]

This post is kind of silly imo. Even if you had a 4k computer monitor today, you wouldn't be able to play games at that resoultion with a decent framerate. Yes, 4k may eventually become the standard for games, but not anytime soon. The next gen consoles will long be past their prime before they need to worry about outputting games at 4k.

People have been playing on triple-monitor setups for some time, which would be about 75% of the 4K HD resolutions. I don't see how it would not be possible to play on 4K HD.

[enc_MAYhem]

They'll never die.. because there always will be people who cant or wont be able to afford expensive PC's just for the purpose of gaming! and when it comes to games what people mainly like to think is that they'll get to play it on a bigger screen, its only experts like us who worry about the lag and the fps, the texture quality etc.

There share as compared to PC will surely decrease but still they'll stay. people in my country still goto shops to play PS2 for like 0.2$/hour.. imagine that.

[neoadorable]

no

[The King of GnG]

Halo 4 sold millions of units in a weekend, earning Microsoft several hundred millions of dollars of revenues. On a single console. Yep, console gaming is dead, people clearly want to spend all their leisure time on touchy-touchy toys and $0.99 "gaming" "apps" (yuck)....

[HawkMan]

Halo 4 sold millions of units in a weekend, earning Microsoft several hundred millions of dollars of revenues. On a single console. Yep, console gaming is dead, people clearly want to spend all their leisure time on touchy-touchy toys and $0.99 "gaming" "apps" (yuck)....

No one ever said that.

[stockwiz]

I have this fear they are going to sacrifice raw power and performance in order to make the future consoles smaller and/or gimmicky like the wii U because the money comes from pawning off all these apps, hulu subscriptions, and other garbage. I want raw power. :)

PC gaming has already died in the sense that pirates killed it, pirates killed innovative, graphically intense games like crysis and drove all the manufacturers to the consoles. It may never totally die in a literal sense, but the desktop PC is dying as a whole amongst the general population. That trend will continue. Laptops will replace the PC for the home, tablets for travel.

I don't see processor speeds taking any big leaps forward so today's sandy/ivy hardware should be good for 5 years yet. Big leaps will occur in SSD speed and capacities as there is more fierce competition between manufacturers. AMD has not been competition to Intel, so we are stuck.

[Buio]

PC gaming has already died in the sense that pirates killed it, pirates killed innovative, graphically intense games like crysis and drove all the manufacturers to the consoles. It may never totally die in a literal sense, but the desktop PC is dying as a whole amongst the general population. That trend will continue. Laptops will replace the PC for the home, tablets for travel.

PC gaming is alive and well, thank you. Digital sales are up and PC have increased it's sales the last years.

PC gaming marked grew 15% march 2011 to march 2012 to record numbers.

http://www.edge-onli...-grows-15-cent/

Entusiast PC gaming increased too, contrary to the belief that powerful gaming desktops are "dying".

http://jonpeddie.com...illion-in-2012/

Innovative games? Did you really mean "games with big budget"? Because it's those that have fled to consoles. And they are mostly not at all innovative. They are made by companies only thinking about how to earn more money, which involves taking little risks and betting on safe cards.

On the contrary the PC have a bunch of upcoming games that are fan-supported via crowd-funding, where big greedy companies can't control the game design. And we do have a graphically intensive game coming from there too, it's called Star Citizen.