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I'm too mad about this one to comment, so I'll hold off for a while. Here's the link:

http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6085583.html

Thoughts?

I rarely ever play PC games, so I'm one of the few people it won't affect, but my condolences to people who do care.

are you serious are they relly doing this

If you read the news story it says that those are rumors and they go on to quote an executive at EBGames saying that it is not true.

they are gonna keep selling them

Originally Posted by technic If you read the news story it says that those are rumors and they go on to quote an executive at EBGames saying that it is not true.

We've all been lied to by executives before...

No matter what denials are issued, I still have a bad feeling that the disappearance of PC games will, in fact, occur sometime soon. Maybe only at one of the stores (I'd go GameStop, as most of the stores I've been in recently have a small to nonexistent PC section), but it will still probably happen in some way or another.

Well, I hate to say it GW but I think for the most part it's the right way to go. This is coming from an avid PC gamer who used to play tons upon tons of Doom / Quake / Half-Life / Warcraft etc. Shit, I used to work as a programmer at various game companies.

But, console gaming is catching up to PCs in a major way in the technical and usage department and due to such things as:

- HDTV support
- Surround Sound
- Low Price
- Ease of Use
- Easy Multiplayer Gaming
- A Single Platform to Develop On (i.e. no configuration issues for developers, the plague of the PC)
- Market Penetration (more people have a PS2 than PCs that can run Final Fantasy, for example)

There is starting to be less and less that the PC can do that consoles can't. The gap used to be huge but every generation of consoles is catching up. In some ways, the Xbox is killing my PC - getting Dolby Digital on my home theatre system blows away any kind of sound setup I could do on my PC. You could argue you can do the same on the PC, but who wants to set up a surround sound setup around their desk?

With all of these things there is really almost no reason for a developer to release a game on the PC, except for certain genres (RTS and MMORPG? even that could change). To me, it's simply the evolution of the industry. There will always be things you can do on the PC that you can't do on consoles and there is definitely still room for successful PC games but with the technological advances of home consoles there appears to be less and less distinction between the two except price and ease of use in which consoles clearly win.

I've always been a fan of both PC and console games, and I tend to like certain games on either the pc or console.... although I will admit it is much easier to sit on the couch with a controller looking at the big screen as opposed to sitting at the desk sometimes

PC games won't die. Even if the big boys never publish games, people can and will write games on their own, as they have ever since the birth of personal computing.

Simple as that.

Who cares if EB and gamestop don't sell any more pc games. I don't buy from those overpriced stores anyway.

And whoever thinks pc games will die needs to pull their head out of their console.

And no consoles will never be equal to pc's because then console prices would be too high for the kiddies and mommies who mainly buy them. The ps2 was $300 when it first came out and look how far behind pc technology it was. Now imagine if it would have been equal with pc technology - it would have cost like $700

Originally Posted by Mulliga PC games won't die. Even if the big boys never publish games, people can and will write games on their own, as they have ever since the birth of personal computing. Simple as that.

True, and more power to amateur developers, but amateur developed games aren't the same quality as a professionally produced games for obvious reasons (no money being the biggest one). Developers used to be able to pull off amazing things say 10 years ago during the shareware model of the PC days (Doom era) but the game industry has upped the ante -- to compete you need to have million dollar budgets and an army of programmers, artists, and sound designers.

Originally Posted by Scrubking And no consoles will never be equal to pc's because then console prices would be too high for the kiddies and mommies who mainly buy them. The ps2 was $300 when it first came out and look how far behind pc technology it was. Now imagine if it would have been equal with pc technology - it would have cost like $700

Do you really think the Xbox is far behind power wise than the average person's PC? I would definitely say no. The average person doesn't have a Radeon 9800 or a Geforce FX 5900, the small market who does actually upgrade their PC on a regular basis to play the latest games (of which I am a part of as well, don't get me wrong) is not large enough to support more than 1 or 2 hits a year. Just look at the most popular PC game in a long time -- The Sims -- it's one of the shittiest looking games I have seen in a while. It didn't have huge system requirements so everyone could play it, but then it sure wasn't too impressive and surely didn't show off the awesome PC power you are talking about.

Also, you are completely ignoring the console business model when it comes to price. Typically, console manufacturers will sell their console at a loss and recoup the profits via licensing fees and software sales. Licensing fees of course do not exist in the PC game world since the PC is not a controlled platform (not a bad thing at all, but that is a seperate discussion).

Your mention of the price was a large part of the point I am trying to make - consoles are not that far behind a typical PC (probably not yours, but hopefully you see what I mean) and they are much cheaper. When little Billy wants to play some games and Mommy has to buy him something - what will she choose? The $180 Xbox or the $800 PC? Since it is obvious what most parents would go for there are going to be more Xboxs - or whatever console - in the world than PCs that are up to playing the latest games. With more people buying console games, where do the Devs go? They go to where the money is - console software.

I don't care. I hate PC gaming. Why? Because you need to upgrade to better video card (most of which cost more than a console itself, unless you plan to buy one every year), or processor, or memory. Hell, you should just rebuild a new computer every 1.5 years just to keep up.

Ridiculous. There are some genres better suited to PC, but I can live without some games just so I don't have to pay thousands of dollars to play games. Don't get me started on you can do more with that comp than play games, b/c to be honest, you don't need a 256meg video card to do your spreadsheets. If you are going to want to play games on the PC, this is what you have to do.

PC games will still be around the market is still not dead but unless they do something drastic it will be. I can see it dying. First of all if you think about it the majority of PC are not dedicated to paying games. Also when you do have a game to play, its really a bother to dowload patches becasue they rushed it into the stores. But one thing that really makes PC games stand out to me are the mods that are available for any number of games. If they can allow this to happen to console games then the PC gaming world can't really compare to the consoles.

I'm going to go on a little bit of a rant here, and some people might not agree with me:

First, there is no absolute proof to the statement that the Mall game stores will stop selling PC Games outright. Even if they scale back further, they'll still keep in the high profile titles. It's not like EA is going to stop making PC games, Doom III, Half Life II, Unreal 2004, Serious Sam 2 (well I had to put that one in there becasue I really dig the game, and there is a sizeable fan base/mod community) aren't going to be console exclusive, small developers/publishers will still be making jewel box only value titles, and hopefully you can see where I'm going. There'll always be a market for PC games, but the Mall retailers with limited space must decide what they will make the most from with their allotted shelf space. (And most PC games don't carry as high of a profitability factor as most console games, hence why I had an almost impossible time finding a copy of Will Rock in a store).

PC games are the hosts for innovation. There are things that can be attempted on high end PC specs that may not be available on consoles, especially for the smaller developers who can't get a dev. kit for a PS3, XBX2. Also in terms of development, there is a much more minimal cost, and there are no licensor restrictions either.

Another thing about PC games is that they are able to partake in innovative distribution systems, like downloading, time-frame specific rentals, and what ever else may come down the line. Distribution systems like these are only in their infancy with consoles, and that is mainly because of X-Box live.

There is no argument that the Console market is more prevelant than the High End Gaming PC market, but the Casual Games PC base CAN be more prevelant, it really comes to the scope of marketing. However PCs are much more adaptable to new technologies than consoles (new graphic chipsets, online applications, etc).

Even if the mall stores dramatically scale back, PC games can still be bought at the stores that carry hardware, online, or at PC shows. The PC Game market is far from dead.

OOps i actually read the wrong thing this was meant for another post i read before. lol that was off topic.

Haha, what are you talking about? Freedom of speech has nothing to do with what we are talking about.

Oh well, I don't really care. Theres a Gamestop,Circuit City,Best Buy,Media Play store all in a 4 block radius of my home. No big deal for me, but I am dissapointed.

Originally Posted by sisco1986 Oh well, I don't really care. Theres a Gamestop,Circuit City,Best Buy,Media Play store all in a 4 block radius of my home. No big deal for me, but I am dissapointed.

dude first of all read all the posts. Second of all dont bump a thred after like 4 months

Originally Posted by sisco1986 Oh well, I don't really care. Theres a Gamestop,Circuit City,Best Buy,Media Play store all in a 4 block radius of my home. No big deal for me, but I am dissapointed.

Damn you must be out near the Niagra Falls mall

Originally Posted by -Never4ever- Damn you must be out near the Niagra Falls mall

do you know of another best buy in buffalo? :wink: