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Would the gaming industry be better off if consoles never existed?

Would the gaming industry be better off if consoles never existed?

  • Yes

    Votes: 55 52.4%
  • No

    Votes: 50 47.6%

  • Total voters
    105

ortucis

Prophet
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Apr 22, 2009
Messages
2,015
Of course it would've been better. Greenlight is the proof of that.
 

octavius

Arcane
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As long as consoles were kids stuff and separate it was no problem. But with X-Box and PS 2 (or was it 3?) games becoming cross-platform, and mostly developed on consoles first, things went downhill fast.
 

deama

Prophet
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Incoming CyberP butthurt response. : D

To answer the question: depends. While theoretically you would have more games focused on taking full advantage of the PC specs, as in, graphical capabilities and more free form controls, you would also have the danger of triggering a graphical arms race where game developers are focused on playing catch up with the latest graphical advancements and so be unable to focus on the other aspects of design as well. It would also mean computers would get obsoleted faster and quite a few would be stuck with playing only older releases. Developing for PC only also adds more issues on the development end since they would have to bugtest for many, many different configurations of systems possible, which would be a nightmare. Even though consoles are dominant in the market today, a bad PC port still goes a long way to sullying the reputation of your game. Imagine how much worse it would be if PC was the only valid option.
I would ague that this "graphical" period would be about the same as the one we had from 2000 to 2010. At some point we would start getting things like league, dota, WOW, minecraft or big MMO type games showing the industry that graphics don't matter as much.

With developing PC and there being lots of bugs there... well, maybe, because you do also have to consider that developers would become better, more effecient at optimising for PCs since those would be the only things on the market. Perhaps even Microsoft(?) would put more focus on the PC and optimise windows more.
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
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Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
I could probably go into a rather long-winded explanation here, but I sadly don't have the time right now. But the tl;dr of it is that gaming development would have been much slower without consoles, meaning we'd be at least a couple of decades behind our current point in games. It's even possible that computer hardware development in general would have been much slower as well since the gaming industry wasn't pushing so hard on the graphical fidelity and such.

ESh goes on a rant at the start of this thread about how horrible gaming would be if the launch of the X-Box had been prevented. That's nonsense. Preventing the X-Box from launching would not have crippled Microsoft, nor would it have led to Sony (or someone else) gaining a console monopoly. Inevitably someone else would rise to challenge them.
 

groke

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SAVE THIS CHARACTER? NO.
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera BattleTech I'm very into cock and ball torture
No. PC gaming went to shit all on its own. Until maybe Oblivion, the console decline was a self-containing phenomenon. There's no blaming consoles for FMVs, Diablo, Half-Life, WoW and assorted other legacy-building travesties upon game standards. Even Telltale lumbered first out of the PC gaming mire to assault other virgin lands.
 

deama

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I could probably go into a rather long-winded explanation here, but I sadly don't have the time right now. But the tl;dr of it is that gaming development would have been much slower without consoles, meaning we'd be at least a couple of decades behind our current point in games. It's even possible that computer hardware development in general would have been much slower as well since the gaming industry wasn't pushing so hard on the graphical fidelity and such.
Could you elaborate more on that if you have the time?
 

Siveon

Bot
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Jul 13, 2013
Messages
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
It wouldn't. Plenty of bad games were made on PC, and I'm sure there will be more bad games in the future. Your peripherals and performance won't really change that. Oh sure it changes what kinds of games it'll play, but that doesn't automatically account for talent when it comes to game design.
 

dragonul09

Arcane
Edgy
Joined
Dec 19, 2014
Messages
1,445
Consoles ruined everything,they are simplistic and it's pretty damn hard to design a complex game around a fucking controller,so of course without them everything would be much better,you would be too fucking dumb to think otherwise.
Consoles are weak,simplistic and the only games that work on them are fighting games and Mario,end of story.
 

Lerk

Learned
Joined
Jul 26, 2013
Messages
196
Location
Dunwall
Dark Souls and Bloodborne wouldn't exist without consoles. Neither would Bayonetta, Zelda, Metal Gear...because Japan cannot into PC's for entertainment. So, no.

There is a tier of Jap console titles that are every bit as :obviously: as anything PC exclusive from the west. I wouldn't be without them.
 

deama

Prophet
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Dark Souls and Bloodborne wouldn't exist without consoles. Neither would Bayonetta, Zelda, Metal Gear...because Japan cannot into PC's for entertainment. So, no.

There is a tier of Jap console titles that are every bit as :obviously: as anything PC exclusive from the west. I wouldn't be without them.
To me, dark souls is a Gothic reskin, I didn't like Bayonetta or Zelda much, and Metal Gear series is just an interactive movie.
 

Achilles

Arcane
Joined
Sep 5, 2009
Messages
3,425
Probably. Consoles made gaming a mainstream passtime which means that a niche nerdy hobby was invaded by dudebros. Gaming budgets would continue to bloat so some amount of simplification would be inevitable but the higher barrier to entry would create a smaller but more tech-savvy userbase.
 

Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
56,161
Dark Souls and Bloodborne wouldn't exist without consoles. Neither would Bayonetta, Zelda, Metal Gear...because Japan cannot into PC's for entertainment. So, no.

None of those games would exist without the advancements brought by the PC, which trickled into consoles. And one has to wonder what Japan could have produced had they not locked themselves into the world of consoles exclusively.
 

laclongquan

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Searching for my kidnapped sister
Incoming CyberP butthurt response. : D

To answer the question: depends. While theoretically you would have more games focused on taking full advantage of the PC specs, as in, graphical capabilities and more free form controls, you would also have the danger of triggering a graphical arms race where game developers are focused on playing catch up with the latest graphical advancements and so be unable to focus on the other aspects of design as well. It would also mean computers would get obsoleted faster and quite a few would be stuck with playing only older releases. Developing for PC only also adds more issues on the development end since they would have to bugtest for many, many different configurations of systems possible, which would be a nightmare. Even though consoles are dominant in the market today, a bad PC port still goes a long way to sullying the reputation of your game. Imagine how much worse it would be if PC was the only valid option.

I remember that arms race. Dear God! It was like, the games just released was already out of date compared to the hardware just released. Every eighteen months CPU cycles and RAM/Graphic card change. But every eighteen months was so not enough time for a game development.

The infamous buggy games of that period had plenty of causes, but the arm races was one.
 

Beastro

Arcane
Joined
May 11, 2015
Messages
7,938
It's obvious that we would get much fewer games with easy controls, like Horizon or Assassin's Creed, I think games would be much more Mouse dependend than they are now.

And that's would be a bad thing?

The only games I've ever used a controller for are console games or their modern imitations, like Odalus. Anything else is better with a mouse and keyboard.

Nope. I actually got way more interested in PC gaming after playing PC ports on the PS1. The decline started when consoles became the main focus rather than the complexity and depth PC games can deliver. Good thing that happened because the beta of Mount & Blade and Severance Blade of Darkness were godlike.

Because the controls were absolute shit and you wondered how much better they'd be with proper ones from a mouse and keyboard? That's what I ran into with the only playable game my cousins PS3 had was Oblivion and I had to suffer with the analog controls or watch TV.

Nope. I actually got way more interested in PC gaming after playing PC ports on the PS1. The decline started when consoles became the main focus rather than the complexity and depth PC games can deliver. Good thing that happened because the beta of Mount & Blade and Severance Blade of Darkness were godlike.
Dark Souls and Bloodborne wouldn't exist without consoles. Neither would Bayonetta, Zelda, Metal Gear...because Japan cannot into PC's for entertainment. So, no.

There is a tier of Jap console titles that are every bit as :obviously: as anything PC exclusive from the west. I wouldn't be without them.

Of those Zelda is fine because it's a kids game which is what consoles were based around when shit was sensible. Into ones teens is when consoles should be dropped when people mature enough to want something more complex and satisfying.
 
Last edited:

GrainWetski

Arcane
Joined
Oct 17, 2012
Messages
5,080
FPS, strategy games, RPGs, MMOs and adventure games certainly would be.

Okay, MMOs might still be shit, but at least they wouldn't be made for maxi pads.
 
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Lord Romulus

Arcane
Joined
Oct 12, 2014
Messages
765
The Xbox 360 was definitely when shit started going downhill fast for consoles. Consoles suddenly needed to have social media profiles attached with paid online and microtransactions for shit like wallpapers and profile pictures, and even name changes. Micro-transactions definitely wouldn't have been this bad either, it all started with horse armor on Oblivion, people on PC already had mods, nobody played Oblivion on PS3, but all the retards on the 360 probably bought it, encouraging companies to do more of that shit.
 

deama

Prophet
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Location
UK
A large amount of great games and franchises wouldn't exist if consoles didn't. I wonder if those developers would have developed those games for PCs instead
Then we'd have different franchises. Instead of battlefield and COD we might have ended up with something better.

dark souls is a Gothic reskin
DS and Gothic aren't even within the same genre
They're pretty similiar. There's secrets to find, a character to progress, and then get raped early on.
Even the combat is similiar.
 
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Falksi

Arcane
Joined
Feb 14, 2017
Messages
10,538
Location
Nottingham
It's all about balance.

Traditional consoles were/are mint for simple plug-in & play fun. Beat 'em ups, shoot 'em ups, platform games etc. - turn it on, have 30-60 min playing, do or play something else.

On the flipside you had your PC setup for games which often required much more effort to setup, but also had far, FAR more depth and which you could lose yourself in for hours on end.

My personal fave setup was having a Megadrive, SNES, PC & Amiga (I was lucky that a rich mate of mine was into gaming so spent a lot of money on them, and when he got bored I got them second hand for cheap).With that setup you had the best of all worlds.

I own a 360 & PS4 now. The 360 I've never once had online, and it's OK as a traditional plug & play unit. Not up to the old-school, but good enough to be enjoyable. But the PS4 is a fucking abomination of a PC-wannabee. It has loads of disadvantages, and few advantages.

So we would have been fine had we stuck with the early 90's balance & formula, which meant SNES for Street Fighter 2 & Smash TV, Megadrive for Thunderforce 3 & John Madden's, & PC for Baldur's Gate & Monkey Island.

Nowadays we've both trying to out-do each other and in the process forgetting what they should be focussing on instead. It's like watching Arnie shift from action to another genre - it just doesn't feel right or fit properly
 
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Lyric Suite

Converting to Islam
Joined
Mar 23, 2006
Messages
56,161
Japan confuses this question because developers there don't have an option between making games for consoles or PC. Those great console games aren't a testament to the greatness of consoles, but are an example of what creative people can accomplish reguardless of whatever limitation is imposed on them. You can't argue that consoles are good because without them we wouldn't have had Dark Souls without taking into consideration what we MIGHT have gotten instead if From Software had been PC rather than console developers.
 

sullynathan

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Dec 22, 2015
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Not Europe
Then we'd have different franchises. Instead of battlefield and COD we might have ended up with something better.
Battlefield and COD started on PC. If consoles never existed, both franchises wold have continued to exist and most likely still be popular. COD might have been hurt because it focused on console development rather early on.

what we MIGHT have gotten instead if From Software had been PC rather than console developers.
We might not have gotten Dark Souls at all or even anything like Dark Souls. Isn't FROM software a primarily console developer? Why would they even make something similar to DS if they were PC devs?

They're pretty similiar. There's secrets to find, a character to progress, and then get raped early on.
Even the combat is similiar.
DS & Gothic don't have similar combat. Gothic is an open world rpg, DS is an action game.
 

deama

Prophet
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Then we'd have different franchises. Instead of battlefield and COD we might have ended up with something better.
Battlefield and COD started on PC. If consoles never existed, both franchises wold have continued to exist and most likely still be popular. COD might have been hurt because it focused on console development rather early on.
At least we wouldn't get a long running franchise out of them?

They're pretty similiar. There's secrets to find, a character to progress, and then get raped early on.
Even the combat is similiar.
DS & Gothic don't have similar combat. Gothic is an open world rpg, DS is an action game.
Gothic is an open world action rpg, dark souls is an action rpg; fine they're not exact reskins, but they are damn similiar.
There's secrets hidden around the world in both games that you can exploit to give you an edge in the early game.
There's things stronger than you blocking the way in both games.
Etc...

The combat is indeed similiar, let's analyse it yes?

Gothic's combat is tempo/time based wherein you try and out-predict your opponent in whatever he plans on doing, whilst at the same time trying to maintain your tempo of your hits so you don't screw up your combo (thus making it slower) or be able to dodge/block at the right moment.

Dark souls combat is just prediction based, you have to out-predict your opponent and strike or dodge/block at the right time. I suppose you can stretch it too and say it involves tempo as well since you also need to master your weapon's speed since there are a decent variety of weapons.

They seem pretty similiar to me.
 
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AArmanFV

Arbiter
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Aug 28, 2015
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Arauco
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
It wouldn't, but in Japan. Here in occident games had an indie or amateurish feeling, and that was the likeable aspect of it (fun, design, passion), but when japanese consoles arrived to NA, the industry changed a lot, trying to emulate the style of the japanese companies, to copy that success, but losing the identity in process.
 

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