Piracy and the Hardware Industry... or will the Pcs die out?

PC's are expensive...
It costs 1000$ to get a decent PC which will be VERY weak compared to next generation consoles. The only "benefit" of paying for PC hardware copmared to the bundle console/games is the ability of huge database of software available online...
People save money on games and funnel that money on hardware since its a corrupt circle of: developers pushing the enjoyable specs (the min specs are out of question in next gen console competition) ---> Thus forcing the gamers to buy more expensive hardware ----> Gamers need the money to buy the games AND the hardware -----> Gamers save money on games and buy hardware...
IMO if piracy gets reduced significantly the Hardware industry will recieve a HUGE BLOW...

Hellenes

Actually, the consoles cost the manufacturers money...
they invest it and have to earn it back by selling games...

(below is just my view)
that's also one of the main reasons people prefer pc's over consoles : games for the pc are cheaper than for consoles (95% of the time), and have a much wider choice of games.

Besides the above, almost no one has a pc just for gaming, it's usually bought for Word,Excel, Internet Explorer.Playing games on it is a nice expansion :).

-Mithrandir.

I think that games belong on a console, sitting behind a pc just feels like work. when there is an alternative for the mouse then pc gaming will probably kick the bucket.

I game on a laptop, so I actually find it easier than on a console where you're restricted where you sit etc etc.

I don't think pc gaming will die out, simply because some games don't work on a joypad, M/S/Rtw anyone? Other true RTS' are a lot easier to play too with hotkeys to speed your play up etc etc.
You'd end up needing 3-4 contollers for your console to simulate the diverse uses a keyboard has. Or find a way to make a keyboard mouse combo useable in a more relaxed position.

To be honest, I could care less about the hardware industry. It's bloated it as it is and there isn't an awful lot of diversity out there in rewgards to technique. The software industry though, beinf artistic, needs all the help it can get, so basically, don't pirate.

Originally Posted by Fragony

I think that games belong on a console, sitting behind a pc just feels like work. when there is an alternative for the mouse then pc gaming will probably kick the bucket.

There used to be a time where people played with a joystick...

ancient times I think :).

i prefer playing on a PC. i have had countless consoles and i stick with PC's. Unless you are playing a fighting game, PC's are more aptly suited for detailed play. Games like R:TW and flight simulators are aweful on consoles.

PC gaming will never die out. Can you imagine trying to play RTW or other games like that on a console? And anyway, the PC game market is incredibly big. If it was to die out, it would either be due to some sort of super console like machine that is superior to PC's in every way, or because of a stock market crash that meant no one could afford PC's or games anymore.

Originally Posted by hellenes

PC's are expensive...
It costs 1000$ to get a decent PC which will be VERY weak compared to next generation consoles.

It won`t take too long before PCs have went past the consoles graphicwise, again. It has always been like this.

I'd much rather play a game on the PC than on a console.

Case in point: Call of Duty 2.
On the PC, I had no trouble fighting, aiming, moving around, and (more often than not) all three at the same time.
On the console demo for XBOX IS HUEG AM I RITE?, I got killed more by the wonky controls than bad judgement. A few times I accidently killed my British teammates before I got out of the truck due to pressing the wrong button. I couldnt even make it past the first German MG42 because I couldnt aim.

An experienced console player and an equally experienced PC player goes head to head using their systems of choice. The PC player will always win because it doesnt take 5 seconds to line up a shot with a mouse.

PCs are the basis under the coding/design tech. PCs are always more flexible. No more to say in order to dismiss "PC gaming dying out" claim.

Sure, the console gaming has been more popular than ever, but this is only the development stage of the market, there is a possibility that console gaming may die out one day. But PC gaming naturally will stand still.

No free [legal] software for consoles.

Incidentally, I hate pirates.

Until consoles can store Gigs of pr0n, allow the use of l337 in game forums and chat rooms, and generally let the user be free to make an ass of himself, PCs will never go away.

To me, PC gaming will always exist. The PC allows more flexibility in it's use, and definitely pushes the performance envelope more. The lifecycle of a console doesn't really encourage constant innovation in the hardware, PCs do this. The business model of the console lifecycle also dictates (limits) how games can improve. I don't really see the big advantage of consoles anyway, they are not that much smaller than a PC and the controls are terrible and limit the games.

kek - why is that pirate throwing up hockey pucks (with a grin)?

Piracy happens on all system types.

PCs can do a lot more then most consoles... convergence is a definite possibility.

The home console has been around longer then a dedicated PC. Some of the first home pcs used the TV, and now with large TVs we are getting media centers... pcs custom made to play DVDs on the TV, play games etc

While on consoles you can get keyboards and mice on some lines of consoles.

Convergence.

Add in internet, word processor, a basic spreadsheet and the consoles could do everything that a home pc could do...

this is the old
Oh now weve invented tapes,
what do we do with records...
now weve invented cd's what do we do with tapes.
OMG weve invented DVD'S! what do we do with cd's
Convo again

records,tapes,cds and dvd's Still going strong


and if i haft to buy 40 thousand pcs a month, for the rest of my life to keep pc's alive,
Then my bank manager better get rdy for my overdraft.

Originally Posted by hellenes

It costs 1000$ to get a decent PC which will be VERY weak compared to next generation consoles.

This line has been trumpeted every time a new console comes out for over a decade now. It never lasts, and it's never going to last. Plus factor in peripheral costs and PCs look much better value than consoles.

Eh....unless console manufacturers start shipping the mouse and keyboard standard with the systems, PC gaming will survive. There are simply too many genres which flat-out suck with a gamepad, and more where pads are workable but not ideal. After the fact add-on mice and keyboards don't help - developers just won't use them cause it cuts into their userbase so much. Which means the consoles, 'cheap' as they may be, always have a set of genres they're simply not capable of catering to.

For me, at least, the ability to play a game that isn't designed for under 12 buttons is a pretty big advantage.

A few times I accidently killed my British teammates before I got out of the truck due to pressing the wrong button.

Are you an A10 pilot in real life by any chance?

One small reason to add to why PCs will be here for a while: many people (like me) need a PC at home for reasons other than games. So its the console, not the PC, that represents an additional expense. Once you've got the PC then its an easy step to think I wonder if there are any games for it, so a market for PC games seems unlikely to go away soon IMHO.

Would never had met my future wife without ICQ, therefore without a PC. nuff'said.

Originally Posted by English assassin

Are you an A10 pilot in real life by any chance?

Keep the backroom stuff out of the arena.

Originally Posted by Papewaio

Piracy happens on all system types.

PCs can do a lot more then most consoles... convergence is a definite possibility.

The home console has been around longer then a dedicated PC. Some of the first home pcs used the TV, and now with large TVs we are getting media centers... pcs custom made to play DVDs on the TV, play games etc

While on consoles you can get keyboards and mice on some lines of consoles.

Convergence.

Add in internet, word processor, a basic spreadsheet and the consoles could do everything that a home pc could do...

Thats becous it would be a pc :)

The only Legaly true CONSOLE was the NES Nintendo's 8bit system.
You can read up about there trial over tetris, And see how they won due to the legal definition of a console. "I beleved they pulled it off as they had an Expantion slot that That the Nes never ever used on its under belly
"well maby it used it 1ce with that short lived nes robot who would play games with you."

Where as all its neaest competitors were branded as pc's,
Its whats reported to have finished off old rupert , you know That merdoc charicter.

Quite an interesting story that 1
Deception, Suspence, Russian and american relations were already frayed,.
Then The TETRIS SCANDAL !

Cool I loved tetris 2

IIRC, the grand plan from the console/AV industry was to have one box that does everything hooked up to the TV and internet. The box could play CDs, DVDs, console games, record shows ala TiVo, surf the net, etc. This was supposed to replace the PC as an entertainment device, and bring everything into one package.

The PC already can do all of this if the owner has a little know-how. This fact probably pisses off Philips, Sony, et al to no end. PCs also are a conduit/enabler for digital media piracy (music and video). It would not surprise me at all if the long term goal is to greatly reduce the number of PCs out there, replacing them with console devices which implement both DRM and media reporting through the internet connection. Remember when Disney wanted a pay-per-view DVD system? It would be much easier to implement if these do-it-all consoles are widespread. It wouldn't be difficult for a console to call home and report on what games are being played, CDs listened to, websites visited, or DVDs and TV shows being watched. All information used for marketing purposes, of course. A PC is still, for the most part, under the control of the user, where a multi-use console would not be. And given the latest Sony CD fiasco, I'm not sure we want to relinquish that control just yet.

[/tinfoil hat off]

Wasn't PC gaming supposed to die out over 5 years ago? Every time a new console comes out you get these kinda stories and PC gaming is still here...
Like said before there are just too many game styles that just aren't possible on a console and others that are plain better on a PC. Just as there are types of games that excell on consoles... most of them not my kind of games so I just stick with my PC

Hi Apache-san ,

I havn't seen you in the forums much. How are things going?

====

Consoles lose money on the hardware. In Australia it is legal to mod a console to make its DVD player multi-region... single zone DVD players were found to be anti-competitive.

A console and a PC share a lot of hardware, one is just a specialised version of the other. If you could chat, use the internet, Voice over IP and have a basic home office on a console then they would be much more versatile and they could knock the PC down a few notches.

I read an interview with Bill Gates in time (or was it discover?? probably time) that microsoft actually didn't make any money selling cosoles for the original x-box and they expect to make aprofit this time around. Thats the plan apparently.

It looks like they've made the same mistake they made with the original. There were very few must have games in the early life of Xbox and those that were there were mainly ports from the pc or multi-platform.

Besides, pcs are becoming less and less under the control of the owner, plenty of apps have software that's invasive, the WoW anti-cheating device being one. I can't remember the details, but doen.t the XP replacement project have some scary plans? Heh, maybe I'm just automatically paranoid about MS.

I think that there is room for PC's and consoles in the gaming world. And there probably always will be. Only Nintendo/Sony fanboy's (whose grasp of reality is tenuous at best) think that the new consoles will "kill" the PC gaming market. Now as to the point that there are some genres that consoles can't do well/at all, there is only one. The stratedy genre, and it's execution is only not good rather than bad. In fact the first RTS game ever was for the Sega Genesis. The Kessen series are all three of them RTS games for the PS2. And Madkatz makes a combination controller and keyboard for the PS2. The convergience that Pape spoke of.