Decline PC Gaming is Dead (this time we really mean it)

[Clockwork Knight]

Well I did state that the Steam argument is a valid one, but if you don't think that at the Steam shareholders' meetings they don't fret over the future of this industry then you're being as much of an ostrich as they are.

Maybe the Steam Machine is the result of those meetings.

 

[Gregz]

Look at them Crispy, so many heads in the sand.

I think they are threatened because your prediction, along with the public response to felipepe's article, portends the death of the Codex.

The end is near.

 

[Metro]

There really is no Steam 'shareholders meeting' because Valve is a privately owned company with GabeN holding the vast majority of shares.

 

[Black]

Am I wrong?

Yes

Convince me otherwise.

No, I don't care enough.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Look at them Crispy, so many heads in the sand.

I think they are threatened because your prediction, along with the public response to felipepe's article, portends the death of the Codex.

The end is near.

I'm a gamer, not a PC or console gamer specifically. I ain't going anywhere.

 

[King Crispy]

Sure, Metro. Less $ on visuals = eliminate the need for a "traditional" PC for gaming. No other demand in other segments (business people are shifting their needs to tablets and phones quite rapidly) = no more box + kb + mouse + screen. It's shifting to all-in-ones (touchscreens) and portability. It's an inevitable trend. That, to me, simply spells a paradigm shift in the nature of how gaming will be done on what we someday call "PC's".

But I'll go ahead and make an argument against my own conclusions. With the further advances in ASIC's and APU's, along with that continued startling elimination of space and cooling, that's going to bring cost of production down, it's going to further encourage more standardization, and thus begin potentially eliminating two of the most annoying things about traditional PC gaming: the need to constantly upgrade, and the unpredictable nature of compatibility, cross-platform, etc. This is actually a good thing.

I can imagine a small little NUC-like PC located somewhere centrally in your home or room, with still-traditional input devices wherever you want them. Everything wireless, everything easily broadband, everything extremely well QC'd and no longer a hassle. This should allow developers to focus less on deciding which platforms to cater to and allow them to keep this thing going. Great, right?

I just don't know if I'm ready for that, though. It's like the transition from old-school, easily-accessible V8-powered muscle cars to what are essentially impossible for the backyard mechanic to work on futuremobiles. You need in many cases very specialized tools to even diagnose a simple problem in them. It's just not the same.

Edit: Oops, honestly didn't know Steam wasn't public. Point still stands, though.

 

[Renegen]

What do people use at work? Real live computers. How do people properly create a resume, or a portfolio for their career field? Computers. As long as there is a need for work done, computers are going to be used and I just don't see tablets (granted I don't have one) replacing them. Yeah smartphones and tablets are great for play, but at the end everyone still needs to be doing some work and the PC is the only way to do that. Now if you have a platform in everyone's home you can use it for other things, including more complex games.

 

[Metro]

What Farage said is correct. Technology advances. So, sure, in the distant future you might be able to play 'PC games' on things that don't really resemble modern PCs. At that point I guess you can stop calling them PC games but what does it matter? You can play the old Bard's Tale series on a tablet these days... does that mean they're tablet/iOS games?

Your issue seems to be less about gaming and more about the hobby of building high end custom PC's.

 

[King Crispy]

Your issue seems to be less about gaming and more about the hobby of building high end custom PC's.

That may be.

 

[Metro]

In that case you can commiserate with Bruticis -- he could probably use someone to talk to.

 

[mindx2]

Everything is cyclical... in 20 years PC Gaming will be retro and the "cool thing" again. Plus people still have old C-64s, Apples and DOS machines running classic games even today so I'm sure I'll still be able to keep my machine running as long as I need to. With my machine, DOSBox/SCUMMVM and my huge backlog of classic & Kickstarter games my remaining gaming years will be just fine.
Yeah, I would be all doom and gloom if I was "some backwater computer repairman" but we all know those guys are going extinct...

 

[King Crispy]

In that case you can commiserate with Bruticis -- he could probably use someone to talk to.

Heh. Please edit your post to include a tag to him.

Edit: Bruticis

 

[Mortmal]

Everyone, the mainstream, want tablets and smartphones now. Maybe that will turn out to be a good thing pc gaming going back to the niche for the enthusiasts, the nerds and the wealthy like it was before 2000's.A niche it should never left !

I can see that . No more AAA titles, those are for consoles, its harder to hack games on those , its easier to optimize, and more important easier to please shareholders(me!) . It makes no sense to port those to PC.

We will be left with companies the like of paradox or stardock , crowdfunded projects(point and click, rpgs and more) for a small but profitable markets and using rigs under linux , new evolved tunable raspberyy pi sort of computers.

 

[Metro]

In that case you can commiserate with Bruticis -- he could probably use someone to talk to.

Heh. Please edit your post to include a tag to him.

Nah, I put him on ignore awhile ago and I'm sure he's done the same to me.

 

[Raapys]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/pc-gaming-hardware-worth-21-5bn-twice-that-of-console-market/0135289

PC gaming hardware is now worth over $21.5 billion (£12.6bn) globally – over double the value of the console gaming market.

...

“We continue to see a shift in casual console customers moving to mobile,” said Pollak. “While this is also occurring in the lower-end PC gaming world, more money is being directed to mid- and high-range builds and upgrades by gamers.

In other words, it's all good.

 

[mindx2]

Everyone, the mainstream, want tablets and smartphones now. Maybe that will turn out to be a good thing pc gaming going back to the niche for the enthusiasts, the nerds and the wealthy like it was before 2000's.A niche it should never left !

I can see that . No more AAA titles, those are for consoles, its harder to hack games on those , its easier to optimize, and more important easier to please shareholders(me!) . It makes no sense to port those to PC.

We will be left with companies the like of paradox or stardock , crowdfunded projects(point and click, rpgs and more) for a small but profitable markets and using rigs under linux , new evolved tunable raspberyy pi sort of computers.

I would LOVE to see my favorite hobby return to the 80s and early 90s. Man, I enjoyed building my rigs during that time, tweaking them just enough to squeeze just enough expanded memory to get my newly bought game to even run... ah, happy times...

 

[King Crispy]

Article's a year old, Raapys, but thank you. It is encouraging.

 

[Raapys]

Technically it's just 7 months old. Did anything happen in these last 7 months that make you believe it's no longer true?

At any rate, I think the reason you're not seeing that business is because of The Internetz. Can't remember the last time I went to a store to buy computer hardware.

 

[King Crispy]

Technically it's just 7 months old. Did anything happen in these last 7 months that make you believe it's no longer true?

Just market trends. For example, no more "K" designations on future Intel processors, significantly restricting overclocking or eliminating it altogether. Intel is not going to continue to target the enthusiast much longer as far as I can tell, which could translate into continued homogeneity and less "hobby" to our hobby.

At any rate, I think the reason you're not seeing that business is because of The Internetz. Can't remember the last time I went to a hardware store to buy computer hardware.

Well, hardware sales haven't been good for smaller brick-and-mortars for years. I've adapted to that.

 

[Raapys]

Technically it's just 7 months old. Did anything happen in these last 7 months that make you believe it's no longer true?

Just market trends. For example, no more "K" designations on future Intel processors, significantly restricting overclocking or eliminating it altogether. Intel is not going to continue to target the enthusiast much longer as far as I can tell, which could translate into continued homogeneity and less "hobby" to our hobby.

Humm where did you see this? Far as I know, Broadwell-E due in 2016 still has both Extreme and K-designated items in its lineup. A quick google search doesn't turn up anything either..?

*edit*

 

[King Crispy]

Well I could be wrong about that, too. I noticed it while doing my own recent research but I could have misinterpreted or the article I was reading may have been flat-out wrong. Looking...

Edit: Okay, Broadwell-K may still be on. It's looking like Skylake may be the restricted chips.

We can’t help but notice that unlocked Skylake i.e. Skylake-K is completely missing from Intel’s roadmap. Unlocking the multiplier on a chip doesn’t pose any technical challenge what so ever. Which tells us that the lack of an unclocked Skylake part could be due to a more novel marketing reason. Intel might want to get rid of the leaky Broadwell chips first before it introduces the more desirable unlocked Skylake CPUs. What’s certain is that it won’t show up anytime before Q4 as is evident by the roadmap.

http://wccftech.com/intel-launching-skylakes-unlocked-broadwell-q2-2015/

 

[Kem0sabe]

You could always just buy AMD for your gaming needs...

Spoiler

totally not sure if serious

 

[Raapys]

Well I could be wrong about that, too. I noticed it while doing my own recent research but I could have misinterpreted or the article I was reading may have been flat-out wrong. Looking...

Edit: Okay, Broadwell-K may still be on. It's looking like Skylake may be the restricted chips.

Hmm yeah, that could be the case. Or maybe they'll just come at a later point. I don't really think Intel would remove unlockable CPUs... What would be the point? "Unlocked" is the default state, so it actually costs money to have them locked. And they sell the unlocked CPUs at a premium, netting them more cash than they otherwise would.

 

[Siobhan]

PC gaming isn't about the hardware games are played on. It's about

- how the user interfaces with the game: keyboard and mouse, sitting close to the screen, rather than planting your ass on the couch 6 feet from the TV with a gamepad in your hand
- user control: many configuration options, moddability, possibly a level editor
- specific types of gameplay: slower-paced, more cerebral, less focus on action and instant gratification

None of that has to disappear if in the future desktops are replaced by smartphones with docking stations hooked up to a monitor and keyboard and mouse. Smartphones are definitely pushing towards reduced user control with their app stores and locked down OSs, but you can always flash a different OS and only install apps that grant you control (Cyanogen and F-Droid are your friend). And it's not like games have to cut out all configuration options just because they are run on a tablet instead of a PC. Hell, you can run Linux on ARM, so there is zero difference between PCs and tablets with respect to software selection. When it comes to gameplay PC-gaming has been dead for a long time in the mainstream, but there's been a resurgence recently thanks to indie developers.

As for building your own boxes and tinkering with software, a house full of smartphones and tablets still has a use for NAS storage, routers, etc. That's stuff you can overclock, mod, run custom firmware on, or write your own scripts for. Hell, one of my favorite hobbies is playing with the server in my home network that currently runs about 12 VMs. I don't see that kind of setup being obsoleted any time soon, quite the opposite. As programs like OwnCloud become easier to use while offering more and more functionality, there'll be an increased demand for quiet mini-servers.

 

[omega21]

Why is there an assumption that if mobile gaming rises PC gaming will be killed?