8 ms·

It'll finally a be a three horse race on the desktop.

ajross 14y ago
Six. You forgot about the other three horses ("Sony", "Microsoft" and "Nintendo") because they're so far ahead. And there are two little horses coming up fast from behind. Honestly, gaming "on the desktop" is a shrinking market. I'm sure I'll enjoy a few Steam games on my Linux box (which I use basically 100% of the time), but this is hardly a paradigm shift. Consoles and mobile (maybe "web" will persist as a separate sub-market, but I'm not sure about that) are the future of gaming platforms.
- daenz 14y ago
  > Honestly, gaming "on the desktop" is a shrinking market. Source?
  - ysangkok 14y ago
    http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/153/retail-pc-game-sales-still-on-life-support/ http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/153/retail-pc-game-sales-still...
    - Symmetry 14y ago
      Well of course retail sales are down, I don't remember the last time I bought a PC game in a store. I got a free trial in a box at PAX last year, but everything else I've played has been an internet download.
- masklinn 14y ago
  > Honestly, gaming "on the desktop" is a shrinking market. Let's throw bullshit in the air, it's not like anybody has numbers or give a flying shit about them anyway. > Consoles [...] are the future of gaming platforms. Consoles have been the future of gaming platforms for 25 years now. And oddly, computers are still there as gaming platforms with developers and distributors making significant amounts of money from them. Hell, computer-based gaming has never been better as far as I'm concerned, the big shitty franchise-based publishers are getting the fuck away from it and indies are coming back to the front of the scene. Consoles are not the future of anything, they're a gaming media amongst others. And mobile is nice, I play a lot on my phone, but let's not kid ourselves: it's the future of killing handled consoles and that's about it.
  - 10098 14y ago
    Also let's not forget that the best, cutting-edge games utilizing the latest technology are pretty much out of console gamers' reach. Consoles have a hard time keeping up with the system requirements of newer games simply because its impossible to replace a video chip (or other piece of hardware) in a console. Case in point: Crytek's new engine with soft body physics simulation will be coming to PCs soon. How long until we see something similar on consoles?
    - klausa 14y ago
      Until new consoles are released? It's not like Crytek is small company that no one ever heard about - they're well known, they have released games on current generations and I'm sure they have preliminary hardware of next-gens.
      - 10098 14y ago
        Well, yes, but imagine buying a new console vs. just buying a new graphics card or a few additional gigs of ram.
        klausa 14y ago
        Huh? Second-best graphics card (GeForce 680) is $550 these days. Xbox 360 was $300/$400 depending which version you chose. PS3 was $500/$600 and I really can't imagine next generation being significantly more than that. Or were you talking about something else?
  - astrodust 14y ago
    PC gaming is still growing, but the rate it's growing at is marginal compared to the growth of gaming in general. Console growth is considerable. Hand-held, including phones and phone-like devices, is growing even faster. What's prevented consoles from fully conquering the desktop is a few key applications for which the PC is still a superior platform. One is ultra-high-performance graphics, especially when directed at enthusiasts, and the other is anything that requires a keyboard to be reasonably useful, e.g. strategy games and MMORPGs. If the next generation consoles include a mouse and a wireless keyboard, the PC gaming market would implode in a matter of years. Kids that have grown up with an XBox of PS3 aren't going to want to fiddle with drivers or find out how to patch their game using the "Downloader App" or endlessly wrestle with DRM. They won't bother to switch unless there's a very good reason, and every day there's fewer reasons.
- heretohelp 14y ago
  >Honestly, gaming "on the desktop" is a shrinking market. So we're doing that thing where we just make shit up now about the largest gaming market in the world? Consoles are a primarily American/Japanese phenomenon with some other western countries participating. PC gaming is how the entire world games and it's growing faster than ever.
  - Roybatty 14y ago
    As much as I hate it (I'm a PC gamer..hate not having a mouse), the consoles have taken a big chunk out of the PC gaming market. That's just fact, whether you or like it. The "entire world" doesn't really matter. If some dude in Somalia has money to buy a PC game, he probably has money to buy a console.
    - ekianjo 14y ago
      Consoles are not always distributed everywhere, even if you have the money.
    - greiskul 14y ago
      Well, not really. I'm some dude in Brazil. It's cheaper to play games on PC, because consoles are very expensive here.
- pessimizer 14y ago
  Gaming on the desktop might be one of the only means of survival for the desktop. Recipe to make desktop into console. 1. plug desktop into tv. 2. buy wireless mini-keyboard and mouse, or install menu system that operates by D-pad to select games. 3. There is no step three.
- jjcm 14y ago
  Because of the quotes, I'm not sure if you mean that PC gaming is dead, or if you mean that the way we consume PC games is dying. Either way though, PC gaming numbers are on the rise. They overtook console gaming revenues back in 2010, and have continued to grow. http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/97705-pc-gaming-vs-consoles-the-infographic http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/97705-pc-gaming-vs-console...

Six. You forgot about the other three horses ("Sony", "Microsoft" and "Nintendo") because they're so far ahead. And there are two little horses coming up fast from behind. Honestly, gaming "on the desktop" is a shrinking market. I'm sure I'll enjoy a few Steam games on my Linux box (which I use basically 100% of the time), but this is hardly a paradigm shift. Consoles and mobile (maybe "web" will persist as a separate sub-market, but I'm not sure about that) are the future of gaming platforms.

daenz 14y ago
> Honestly, gaming "on the desktop" is a shrinking market. Source?
- ysangkok 14y ago
  http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/153/retail-pc-game-sales-still-on-life-support/ http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/153/retail-pc-game-sales-still...
  - Symmetry 14y ago
    Well of course retail sales are down, I don't remember the last time I bought a PC game in a store. I got a free trial in a box at PAX last year, but everything else I've played has been an internet download.
masklinn 14y ago
> Honestly, gaming "on the desktop" is a shrinking market. Let's throw bullshit in the air, it's not like anybody has numbers or give a flying shit about them anyway. > Consoles [...] are the future of gaming platforms. Consoles have been the future of gaming platforms for 25 years now. And oddly, computers are still there as gaming platforms with developers and distributors making significant amounts of money from them. Hell, computer-based gaming has never been better as far as I'm concerned, the big shitty franchise-based publishers are getting the fuck away from it and indies are coming back to the front of the scene. Consoles are not the future of anything, they're a gaming media amongst others. And mobile is nice, I play a lot on my phone, but let's not kid ourselves: it's the future of killing handled consoles and that's about it.
- 10098 14y ago
  Also let's not forget that the best, cutting-edge games utilizing the latest technology are pretty much out of console gamers' reach. Consoles have a hard time keeping up with the system requirements of newer games simply because its impossible to replace a video chip (or other piece of hardware) in a console. Case in point: Crytek's new engine with soft body physics simulation will be coming to PCs soon. How long until we see something similar on consoles?
  - klausa 14y ago
    Until new consoles are released? It's not like Crytek is small company that no one ever heard about - they're well known, they have released games on current generations and I'm sure they have preliminary hardware of next-gens.
    - 10098 14y ago
      Well, yes, but imagine buying a new console vs. just buying a new graphics card or a few additional gigs of ram.
      - klausa 14y ago
        Huh? Second-best graphics card (GeForce 680) is $550 these days. Xbox 360 was $300/$400 depending which version you chose. PS3 was $500/$600 and I really can't imagine next generation being significantly more than that. Or were you talking about something else?
- astrodust 14y ago
  PC gaming is still growing, but the rate it's growing at is marginal compared to the growth of gaming in general. Console growth is considerable. Hand-held, including phones and phone-like devices, is growing even faster. What's prevented consoles from fully conquering the desktop is a few key applications for which the PC is still a superior platform. One is ultra-high-performance graphics, especially when directed at enthusiasts, and the other is anything that requires a keyboard to be reasonably useful, e.g. strategy games and MMORPGs. If the next generation consoles include a mouse and a wireless keyboard, the PC gaming market would implode in a matter of years. Kids that have grown up with an XBox of PS3 aren't going to want to fiddle with drivers or find out how to patch their game using the "Downloader App" or endlessly wrestle with DRM. They won't bother to switch unless there's a very good reason, and every day there's fewer reasons.
heretohelp 14y ago
>Honestly, gaming "on the desktop" is a shrinking market. So we're doing that thing where we just make shit up now about the largest gaming market in the world? Consoles are a primarily American/Japanese phenomenon with some other western countries participating. PC gaming is how the entire world games and it's growing faster than ever.
- Roybatty 14y ago
  As much as I hate it (I'm a PC gamer..hate not having a mouse), the consoles have taken a big chunk out of the PC gaming market. That's just fact, whether you or like it. The "entire world" doesn't really matter. If some dude in Somalia has money to buy a PC game, he probably has money to buy a console.
  - ekianjo 14y ago
    Consoles are not always distributed everywhere, even if you have the money.
  - greiskul 14y ago
    Well, not really. I'm some dude in Brazil. It's cheaper to play games on PC, because consoles are very expensive here.
pessimizer 14y ago
Gaming on the desktop might be one of the only means of survival for the desktop. Recipe to make desktop into console. 1. plug desktop into tv. 2. buy wireless mini-keyboard and mouse, or install menu system that operates by D-pad to select games. 3. There is no step three.
jjcm 14y ago
Because of the quotes, I'm not sure if you mean that PC gaming is dead, or if you mean that the way we consume PC games is dying. Either way though, PC gaming numbers are on the rise. They overtook console gaming revenues back in 2010, and have continued to grow. http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/97705-pc-gaming-vs-consoles-the-infographic http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/97705-pc-gaming-vs-console...