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People have been making the same argument for more than a decade now, meanwhile PC gaming has only kept growing. If that was the case, why hasn't it happened ye

People have been making the same argument for more than a decade now, meanwhile PC gaming has only kept growing. If that was the case, why hasn't it happened yet?

pjmlp 1y ago
PC gaming has been growing since MS-DOS 3.3, when I was playing Defender of the Crown, in case people haven't been paying attention. Especially in Europe where consoles were largely irrelevant during the 8 and 16 bit days.
Retric 1y ago
It’s arguing desktop gaming is dying not PC gaming. Q4 2024 shipped 13.6 million desktops (down 1.8%) vs 53.2 million laptops up (6.8%). That trend of declining Desktops vs increasing laptops has been steady since 2010. There’s still plenty of desktops to justify major investments by gaming companies, but that’s not guaranteed long term.
- izacus 1y ago
  That's a strange movement of a goal post, not to mention that using percentages conveniently hides whether PC Gaming as a whole is growing or shrinking. Hows your post related to anything here?
  - Retric 1y ago
    What moving the goalposts? They specifically talked about gaming desktops as a form factor which needs developer support. “Games requiring desktop cases looking like a rainbow aquarium with top everything will become a niche, in today's mobile computing world”
- vel0city 1y ago
  That's just overall desktop and laptop sales though, right? So home multimedia desktop PCs could be falling off a cliff, business desktop PCs could be dropping, and gaming PCs could be growing a bit and the overall market of desktops could still be net down, right? The overall market doesn't give us enough resolution to determine the health of gaming PC sales IMO. There's too many other possible ways we get to that same number.
  - Retric 1y ago
    You see a similar trend in gaming desktops vs gaming laptops, but that’s just a sideshow. People game on the hardware they have, gaming specific PC’s are a subset of the overall player base. It used to be much easier to justify adding a dedicated GPU to the desktop's people where already getting, but when everyone is buying laptops that’s dying. As shown by end of generation mid range cards like the 4060 (2 years old, nothing newer) being relatively less common than they used to be on Steam. #1 Laptop 4060 4.99%, #3 desktop 4060 4.41%. Overall gaming desktop PC’s are still more common than gaming laptops, but the trend is very much down. #2 is the 4 year old 3060.
kcb 1y ago
Every kid and teen I know wants one of those shiny gaming PCs. Much more than past decades thanks to all of their favorite streamers predominantly playing on gaming PCs. They have half an aisle of those PCs just at Costco. Seems out of touch to suggest this is a declining trend.

People have been making the same argument for more than a decade now, meanwhile PC gaming has only kept growing. If that was the case, why hasn't it happened yet?

pjmlp 1y ago

PC gaming has been growing since MS-DOS 3.3, when I was playing Defender of the Crown, in case people haven't been paying attention. Especially in Europe where consoles were largely irrelevant during the 8 and 16 bit days.

Retric 1y ago

It’s arguing desktop gaming is dying not PC gaming. Q4 2024 shipped 13.6 million desktops (down 1.8%) vs 53.2 million laptops up (6.8%). That trend of declining Desktops vs increasing laptops has been steady since 2010. There’s still plenty of desktops to justify major investments by gaming companies, but that’s not guaranteed long term.

izacus 1y ago
That's a strange movement of a goal post, not to mention that using percentages conveniently hides whether PC Gaming as a whole is growing or shrinking. Hows your post related to anything here?
- Retric 1y ago
  What moving the goalposts? They specifically talked about gaming desktops as a form factor which needs developer support. “Games requiring desktop cases looking like a rainbow aquarium with top everything will become a niche, in today's mobile computing world”
vel0city 1y ago
That's just overall desktop and laptop sales though, right? So home multimedia desktop PCs could be falling off a cliff, business desktop PCs could be dropping, and gaming PCs could be growing a bit and the overall market of desktops could still be net down, right? The overall market doesn't give us enough resolution to determine the health of gaming PC sales IMO. There's too many other possible ways we get to that same number.
- Retric 1y ago
  You see a similar trend in gaming desktops vs gaming laptops, but that’s just a sideshow. People game on the hardware they have, gaming specific PC’s are a subset of the overall player base. It used to be much easier to justify adding a dedicated GPU to the desktop's people where already getting, but when everyone is buying laptops that’s dying. As shown by end of generation mid range cards like the 4060 (2 years old, nothing newer) being relatively less common than they used to be on Steam. #1 Laptop 4060 4.99%, #3 desktop 4060 4.41%. Overall gaming desktop PC’s are still more common than gaming laptops, but the trend is very much down. #2 is the 4 year old 3060.

kcb 1y ago

Every kid and teen I know wants one of those shiny gaming PCs. Much more than past decades thanks to all of their favorite streamers predominantly playing on gaming PCs. They have half an aisle of those PCs just at Costco. Seems out of touch to suggest this is a declining trend.