Console Games or PC Games?

[Helevitia]

I personally don't want to see PC games go away but with console sales outpacing PC game sales, I'm getting worried.

[Liquid Snake]

Indeed I think PC games will make a comeback. But then again I don't pay much attention to the console market.

[Wulfman]

who wants to play fps or rts on a console?

mfg
wulfman

[omegaRED]

Originally posted by Wulfman
who wants to play fps or rts on a console?

True. At least until consoles start shipping with keyboard and mouse. But then they`ll become even more PC-like ...

[SteveC]

The X-Box will be a great asset to the PC market - now all game manufacturers will HAVE to make thier games run fantastic on basically a PIII-800 with a GeForce 3. Finally, we have a benchmark system where if you exceed the specs, you know you will be able to play the latest games.

This is, of course, assuming X-Box games will make it to the PC Market.

[Jammrock]

Here we go again...I voted Other, BTW.

This happens EVERY time a new generation of consoles come out.

"Oh, golly gee," cry the silly console makers, "we can pump out more of X than a computer can."

And then all the silly consumers say, "well geepers, I guess I should buy console Y, because it can do more of X than my computer."

"BAH HUMBUG," I say.

Here are Jammrock's reasons why consoles will never take over the world:

1) Resolution. 95% + of all console are being run on normal TV's. This means that all your pretty polygons will look nice and jaggy. AA on the XBox will probably help, but not much. HDTV will help in the future, but this is now.

2) Outdated. The product life on consoles is approximately 3-4 years before the next gen unit hits. Within 1 year PC's will have so far passed consoles in technology, that the only people that use their consoles anymore are people that don't have computers. Or people that are hooked on 1 or 2 games that they can't play on a PC (i.e. Zelda and fighter games).

3) Game types. Each platform and each console have a target market. I used to sell these things for a living, I knew exactly what to sell to someone, just by the type of game they played. If you like fluffy kiddie games, with nifty graphics and fun story, you get Nintendo. For fighting, RPG and sports games, you used to get Sega, but they don't make hardware anymore. For racing, extreme sports, RPG and more teen aged title you get a PLaystation (2). For RTS, FP Shooters, non-console style RPG (Diablo, Baldur's Gate, etc), and just about everything else, but fighter games...you get a computer. Ever tried to play Diablo on a PSX...it sucks.

4) Game cost. Prices a console game recently? Console games run an average of $60 a pop. Many are $70+ now. To buy a PC game that costs that much you need to buy a special edition game, that comes with a DVD, a figureine and a bunch of other cool things. Most PC games you can get on sale for under $50 within the first month of it's release, unlike consoles where you haft to wait for at least 6 months to a year for a game to go on sale under $50. So all that money you saved on a console slowly dwindles away.

5) Functionality. Ever try surfing the web on a console? Unless you shell out extra for a keyboard and mouse it isn't fun. You are extremely limited on what you can do online and unless you buy an addition mod you can't use broadband. That cheap-o console is now getting expensive. What if you want to save that cool video or shockwave file you got? Unless you got the Xbox, good luck. Now try playing a DivX movie or typing a report...you get the drift.

I could come up with more, but I'm getting bored of typing. Some may say, "but I can add units Z to console X to do that feature that a PC can..." But you're spending more money, and console mods cost a fortune. You can get a NIC for your PC to connect to boradband for $10-20. An ethernet mod for a console could run you $50-75.

But PC's aren't for everyone. You do have a rather large upfront investment. For a casual gamer or technophobe a console is by far a better choice. But for hardcore gaming, no console will ever beat a PC. At least not in the forseeable future. The console taking over arguement was spit out when the Genesis/Super NES's and Saturn/PSX/N64 console came out. It's brewing right now, and in 3-4 years it will start all over again when the hype machine starts talking about the PSX3/Gamecube 2/Xbox2 hit.

In the end it will all turn out the same. The hype will stop, PC's will leap way beyond what consoles can do and the only people left using them are people without PC's.

Just my $0.02.

Jammrock

[Helevitia]

Frankly, I am amazed on how the voting went. It's nice to see that everyone here likes, wants, and believes PC games has a future Makes me happy.

Dave

[Alec]

And one more thing...

You actually can have BOTH things on a PC... the emulation world is working very well. You can not play arcade games of today, but you can play them 2-3 years later on your PC for free. Console games are also very well emulated - I´ve already played Super Mario 64 on my old G200, and Playstation games also run very well. I have dozens of arcade games (ol´time favorites) in my HD, and they run like a charm.

The bottom line is: Everything with a binary code in it will run on a PC sooner or later...


Oh, and a PC is not only for games - you pay more for a PC, but you can do a great deal of things with it.

[impact]

But GT3 looks pretty tempting. No jaggies or artifacts and other console stuff (yeah, there is that PS2 texture problem, but still...).

[DosFreak]

Project64 actually plays N64 games nicely and is much nicer than UltraHLE ever was. Also it's more updates.

I'm not a console fan and never really was. Played around with my nintendo from 85-90 at home but when I got my 286 in 90 from then on at home it was pretty much computer computer computer. Surfing BBB's and playing Wolfenstein at home and Doom on other people's 386/486's was more fun than some sidescrolling mario.

Now with games like Dronez/Achranox/Max Payne/Throne of Bhall/Warcraft 3/etc etc.... I can't see the time for me to waste on some crappy console.

[rugger]

Technology means nothing

The only thing that will determine whether gaming hardware is successful (PC or console) is the quality and quanity (both, not just one) of the games that can be played on that said system.

it doesn't matter if a console is more or less powerful than a PC or more or less expensive than a PC. People will buy hardware for whatever games they want to play.

Take the current and continued success of the original playstation. Nobody really cares (outside of technical channels) that the playstation has less computing power than a voodoo 1, or that it has broken z-buffering, or that it doesn't do anti-aliasing. The reason why they are popular is that there are many good games for the playstation.

The same thing applies to PC's. Nobody really cares about how good PC's are compared to console systems. The games still rule the hardware purchasing decisions of game players.

Because it is the games that rule the gaming hardware scene, as long as there is a continued influx of good PC and console games, neither device will die out.