Microsoft Says PC Games Are Doomed!

[dogscoff]

PC games won't ever go away. How do you think the ppl that code for the consoles learn their craft? By coding games on non-console platforms, notably the PC. You can't learn the art of game design/ coding without practise, and you can't practise coding on a phongin' playstation because you can't *code* for the playstation unless you happen to work for a games company with all the tools to port the code over, but you can't work for a games company until you've learned the art of game design/ coding...

So they start by coding simple little games (pacman, tetris) as excercises on their PCs when they're spotty teenagers, and then gradually work their way up and up through various freeware and shareware projects until they have all the complex knowledge needed to get a job coding a hit 3D FPS for the Xbox. For example, take a look at the evolution of Malfador.

This assures that the home computer market will always have a mid-level game scene, at the very least.

And nethack ain't going nowhere, neither. It's been around for twenty years, it will still be there when the gamecube is just another dusty exhibit in some museum.

The divot at M$ who made that stupid statement knows this too, they are just trying to scare up some sales for the Xbox.

[Xrati]

I agree with dogscoff, it's just a marketing ploy by M$. Just because Microsoft doesn't have any games that people want to play, they are now seeing a drop in ALL games!

It's been a long time since I've purchased any games for my computer because there's very little out there that appeals to me. I like to sit at my computer and play strategy games not shoot up the world on Internet play. I was just in a store the other day looking for some new software and NOTHING caught my interest. While it wasn't a software store and had a limited stock (I assume that the shelves were stocked with software that is selling) I still found nothing interesting. The only games that caught my attention was the "Band of Brothers" and only enough to catch my eye. I didn't even read the box or read reviews on it. Maybe it's time the software companies started putting out the kind of programs that people want to play and not the ones that they want out there.

How long has it been since anyone out there bought a game and didn't have to download a patch to run the game. I read in PC Games years ago about the software industries failure to put out functional games and that, that would lead to poor sales as customers aren't about to spend $50USD on a game that doesn't work. One of the most famous of those was MOO3! There are threads on this site about that game and it's problems. PLEASE I don't want to start another thread about MOO3 and it's problems, it's just used as one of the better known issues of software companies putting out faulty programs to meet time or financial quotas and screwing the customers over to rush out the product. There are many more games that fit into this catagory!

[NullAshton]

Dogscoff, actually it's very easy to code for the console, about as easy as coding for the computer. They use an emulator to test the code first, then they put it on a CD or something to try it on the real thing once they're almost done. Saves on having to transport it over all the time.

I think what we need to worry about, is people prefering free games over games you have to pay for.

[dogscoff]

NullAshton said:
Dogscoff, actually it's very easy to code for the console, about as easy as coding for the computer. They use an emulator to test the code first, then they put it on a CD or something to try it on the real thing once they're almost done. Saves on having to transport it over all the time.

Yes, but who are "they"?
The software and/or hardware tools to transfer the code from a PC to, say, an Xbox are not widely (or legally, probably) available to the public. You have to be an authorised developer. And to be an authorised developer, you need to have the l33t coding s|<1llZ. And to get the skills you have to have experience of coding, and where do you get the experience?

I think what we need to worry about, is people prefering free games over games you have to pay for.

Well, they just have to make paid games better than free games then don't they?

The truth is, most paid games are built on the backs of freeware/shareware games anyway. The graphics might be shinier and the cutscenes funkier, but at heart Halo is just Doom, Final Fantasy is just Rogue and Everquest is just one of those old MUDs you saw the geek hardcore playing in the labs at uni. Occasionally you get true innovation in the commercial market (think Populous or lemmings) but for the most part they are just rehashing the same tired old crap again and again, wrapping it up in ever glitzier layers of graphics to convince us that it's actually something new.

[Fyron]

SE4 is just SE3 wrapped up in shinier, glitzier graphics. So is SE5. Let's all play SE3 again! (Note that SE3 and SE2 are fundamentally different games, and both have about the same level of graphics.)

[NullAshton]

Actually, the emulators for consoles are free. Of course, there's not many developer tools out there...

[Rasorow]

I think you are missing something.... Its October... There is always scarcity and scare and PC games are always "DOOMED TO DIE" July through Sept/Oct. Then SUDDENLY as if by MAGIC the store shelves fill with games Nov/Dec. As some "MOST HIGHLY ANTICIPATED GAME OF THE YEAR" that no one heard of 2 months ago is released. To reviews stating that the "With the release of xxxxx the PC gaming business serves notice that it is far from dead......"

So I dont really believe them... and quite honestly... I know of several games that are coming in the next year or so that I will be getting.... Oblivion, Sword of Stars, SE V, as well as several others both on the Shrapnel site and retail that I will buy when/if they come out.

Rasorow

(Remembers to check on Dominion III)

[Renegade 13]

X3: Reunion, sequel to X2 will be shipping soon, in the space sim genre. Looks very interesting!

www.x3-reunion.com if you're interested.

[Caduceus]

I am by no means an X-Box enthusiast, but I do own one. I can't blame my kids (my daughter is 16 months old) and my second is in utero.

I enjoy some action games (Prince of Persia, Baldur's Gate) and RPGs (Knights of the Old Republic, X-Men: Legends) on the X-Box, which I have played to completion. It is a solid product backed by a *huge* corporation. I don't play X-Box Live, so I can't comment on SoCom or Halo, but I played LAN Doom 2 years ago in my younger days and I can see the appeal.

Of course, I played Doom 2 one moment and SE III the next. None of my other friends played both, as far as I know.

Microsoft is trying to bring the PC/entertainment into the living room from the office by trying to tie in as much as they can to the 360. It is a good idea. I would love to have less "stuff" - DVD, receiver, etc. - tied into the TV. I don't think the 360/PS3 is the death knell of PC games. The market of FPS, MMORPG and RTS may be swinging that way.

Look at the "console" market - there are (at least) six platforms now. PC, XBox, PS2, Gamecube, PSP and Gameboy. And two new ones, PS3 and 360 in the pipe, not to mention "the Revolution" from Nintendo. But the newer consoles will only equal the upper level PCs that are available today. They'll be behind the curve by 2008. And before you think, man that's a long time in the future, think about what you were playing on PC in 2002 (besides SE:IV).

[Atrocities]

You know if someone says something that is untrue long enough, it becomes a truth.

In this case the lie that PC games are dead was made up by the Console guys and twitch monkeys to shift focus toward their products and away from PC games.

The lie has been perpetuated enough now that everyone believes that the end of the PC gaming industry is right around the corner.

Of course this demise has been so heavily predicted yet time and time again has failed to come to pass.

PC Games are strong, the nitch market is going well, and the only major issue with PC games is that most are rehashed older titles that lack imagination and innovation that made the original games so popular.

Too much focus is on the eye candy and not on the game substance. Many developers have fallen prey to this and have reaped the benefits that come with it.... bankruptcy.

I cannot even begin to count how many game developers have been forced out of business do to the ever-increasing cost of game development.

That is the real PC game killer, the development cost and design curve. To make a really good PC game, a developer must have enough money to work for about two to five years. The best games were made on a shoe string budge with talent and innovation that for the most part seems to be lacking in today�s "make it pretty, make it dumb, make it cheap, but get it done yesterday" market.

Innovation has been made obsolete by the cost cutters and cookie cutter powerhouses of the industry like VUG, Activitision, Lucas Arts, etc.

To see a case study one only has to look as far back as Moo3, Civ3, and the original release of SimCity4. Moo3 was a dismal failure and an insult of epic proportions to the fans. Civ3 was half of a game, and not the better half mind you. Sim City 4, pre rush hour was a dragging disappointment to say the least.

Games like Half-Life 2, Doom 3, and Warcraft 3 were long awaited and for the most part did not fail.

Original games such as Farcry flopped not because they were bad games, but because they were too good. Farcry was an innovational leap forward in FPS games. It had a good story, a certain amount of RPG appeal, an open-ended map system that allowed for multiple angles of approach, not the tunnel pre-scripted paths as in HL2 and D3. It had replayability, was a fantastically good-looking game, and was balanced with good weapons and tactics. (Hated the save game feature though.)

The game that I was waiting for, Tribes Vengeance was not that good. VUG lied to us, they failed to listen to the fans of the Tribes franchise and then they lied to us. That translated into less than 40k copies of Tribes Vengeance being sold. (Compared to 500k in over all sales of Tribes 2)

What does all this mean, well it means that unless you have a lot of capitol, time, and innovative developers working for you, your not going to make it in the PC game market. This is the mind set of many would be PC game developers now. So what do they do, they subscribe to the lie that PC games are dead and they perpetuate this myth by choosing to develop crappy *** console games instead of kick *** PC games.

Over the next few years we are going to see a major fundamental shift away from PC game development toward console game and personal hand held gaming device game development. PC Gaming will be relegated to the far left back burner of the gaming industry and there is nothing any one can do about it. The only light at the end of this depressing tunnel is the independent game developer. The guys who program and design games in their free time.

Those games may not be all that great to look at, but they will have something that no other game does, innovation, inspiration, talent, and game play.

Those are the PC games to look forward too.