Is The Xbox The Cause Of The PC Gamer's Downfall? 194
Thanks to GamerDad for its editorial discussing whether the Xbox has grabbed much of the development effort and talent from the PC gaming scene, with the author arguing: "From what I've been able to gather, there just isn't much interest in PC games unless as an afterthought to a console release. Deus Ex 2 and Thief III are superb examples of this mindset." He continues of the Xbox: "Its introduction has clearly robbed a lot of the resources that used to be dedicated to making PC entertainment. This is fine if you're willing to buy an Xbox and support Microsoft directly that way. It's not fine if you're a PC gamer that wants what the PC can offer specifically, and not some watered down version of what you've come to expect from a company." Do you agree?
To a degree (Score:2, Interesting)
I think PC is where the hardcore ultra-realistic things happen, as well as the ultra innovative (see Gish slashdot article a bit ago) because you don't need a super expensive development kit.
Worked for me... (Score:5, Interesting)
Hopefully the next round of pc-gaming will come about on a Non-MS Platform -grin-
OMG (Score:5, Interesting)
Because of the differences in controls and displays some game genres are better on the PC and some game genres are better on consoles. Anything with lots of information on the screen like a Civilization or a Master of Orion, RTS games like Warcraft 3 and first person shooters are all PC genres. Games like platformers, fighting games and such are all console genres. A big screen and a gamepad are perfect for these. Some games work well on either, like puzzle games.
The reason that PC gaming is going down the tubes is that there is no innovation in the genres which are good to play on the PC. FPS and RTS are pretty much stuck in a rut. Each new game is the same as all the others. Sure there are better graphics and sound, but eye candy does not a hit game make. Think about it, there are only 2, TWO pc games coming out that people are anticipating. Doom3 and HL2. The reason they are anticipated is because they promise innovation is a dormant genre. But look over in the console arena, what do you see? What's that? Nintendo with its GBA hookups and FF:CC? XboX Live? I see new things there! It's not the same old game its always been.
Sure, there are more reasons than one why the PC is going downhill as a gaming platform. All the cheapass commodity games stocking up at Wal-Mart are no help. But then again, you see the same sorts of things coming out for the PS2 and GBA. The primary reason for PC gaming being in a rut is the lack of innovation in PC genres and the extensive innovation in console genres.
Some people I tell this to try to argue that there is PC innovation and I'm wrong. If this is you then consider this. Why is Counter-Strike the most popular online game ever after all these years? When it came out it was revolutionary. Real weapons, team based objective gameplay that wasn't CTF. And staying dead until the next round. This did not exist then. And since CS came out, no game has made such great leaps into making new gameplay as to unseat CS. Nothing. If one of them did, then CS wouldn't still be the most popular game. Tribes 2 and NS both came close, but they both suffered the same 2 problems. 1) Gameplay too complex to jump right in. 2) The devs killed the game off unintentionally.
So until HL2 and Doom3 come out my video game money is still going to Nintendo.
Of course. (Score:5, Interesting)
So, yeah. Consoles will be the main focus of the big game publishers and devs.
But I do see a silver lining. Smaller game companies and homebrew games will get more play time as PC gamers tire of ports of console games. I also believe that game publishers will promote open-sourceing of games on the PC and encourage mod communities to attempt the sucesses of half-life.
Re:It's funny (Score:3, Interesting)
pc gaming is not dead, it hasn't changed all that much in the past 5 years. sure, most games suck, but that's how it has been for the past 15 years on PC.
pc killed some platforms though, like the amiga, but then again the amigas were just pc's on a different architechture anyways so no big deal there either.
.
Re:OMG (Score:3, Interesting)
But player created content--I can't foresee the PC losing its edge there. If the Sims 2 is "designed to allow players to easily integrate content created by players outside the game", then how could this content be created or used on the XBox?
Then there are things even further out there like the frequently-hyped-on-Slashdot Second Life, an MMOG composed entirely of player created models and scripts.
Consoles will keep growing,simply because as hardware grows cheaper it no longer makes sense to have one cumbersome, all purpose device to do everything I want to do with computers. The apparent innovations on consoles number exactly two: convenience, and price. The games on consoles aren't truly more innovative--but consoles are the path of least resistence to players.
However, there are still some serious, non-FPS, non-RTS experiences that the PCs have to ofer that are simply not possible on the path of least resistence.
Re:It's funny (Score:5, Interesting)
One wonders what the gaming market today would look like if Microsoft has spent the billions they invested in Xbox into making PC gaming vastly better than game cube or PS2 could offer. Suppose they had launched a "Windows XP Live" service, and invessted in/bribed game developers into using it. Or if they had worked to make installing PC games as easy as playing an Xbox games--by encouraging the PC market to make a transition to DVD-ROM faster, or perhaps creating some sort of DirectX Virtual Machine. Suppose they invested money in DirectX 9 games, which would be far and away vastly better than anything today's consoles can offer, but doesn't really do much today because who the hell cares about pc games when Microsoft is willing to bleed money on the XBox?
And if they had done all that,and then perhaps integrated Tivo-like features into the OS, and even made it simple to view movies downloaded from the internet on your television (as if MS would fail to brush the MPAA aside like a gnat if they so felt it expedient to do so), and even co-opted the Apple route of writing consumer-level tools for editing music and video -- then that would have been it. Microsoft would have owned our living rooms,and no one could be happier.
Basically, Microsoft has given up The World, so that they can be fighting neck and neck with lowly Nintendo scavenging for the scraps left over by Sony.
Re:No.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Deus Ex II was a perfect example of this. The abysmal PC release interface was obviously built for the XBox controller, just as level design was for the XBox architecture. But the part that really killed the PC version was the complete and utter lack of effort to make it anything less than a port. v1.0 included
Of course, the crappy sales figures for the PC version then led to the circular conclusion that it's not worth developing for the PC.
--LordPixie
Re:I for one don't ever plan on playing consoles.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Fighting games are easier on the PC, in my experience. The keyboard is the most precise directional input, since you have separate keys for each direction which you hit with different fingers. No accidentally pressing diagonal or something. Also, the keyboard resembles the controls in an arcade much closer than a joypad, since you're pushing buttons with different fingers instead of using your thumb for all of them and there must be a reason people want to play fighing games on arcade sticks.
Also, mouselook helps against the shoddy camera systems most third person games use. Generally I have more problems with the camera in console games than in PC games. Super Mario Sunshine, for example, has a really bad camera system (yes, I'm aware there are worse, but Sunshine's is bad enough). You can correct it with the c-stick, but that helps little if you're busy doing something else (like running over a small path of timed blocks). On the other hand, I never had problems with the camera in Quake 3's or UT2003/04's third person modes or the games Oni and Max Payne.
Re:It's funny (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft tried the Live service with Windows; DirectPlay and the Zone. Developers didn't go for it, for various reasons; one of the hallmarks of the PC world has always been 'do it your way.'
But with the console, it just makes sense. You slap in your disc, it plays. You don't need to configure the sound drivers, select OpenGL or DirectX, you just slap it in and play. Well, extend that to online. Click the 'online' button and your done.
None of this 'buy the addons, figure out if the game works over the dial up or the broadband modem, does this game use a headset, does that one, do I pay for this one, do I subscribe for that one, how do I find a game to join, blah blah blah. With Live, it just works.
Or, put another way, in many ways, the Xbox is more 'consoly' than the Playstation 2....
XBox investment trivial (Score:4, Interesting)
MS has hurt PC gaming, by buying many PC developers and moving them exclusively to XBox dev (then porting to PC with a different developer later). The FASA (Mechwarrior) and Bungie (Halo) teams are prime examples. Basically, they've moved the PC game to play second fiddle to the XBox game, but adding all the missing features later. In many ways this works out good for MS, because the XBox is basically a standardized PC, which means many less configuration problems and simplified debugging (meaning shorter release schedule and thus less investment), so they can shovel the cost of PC hardware debugging to a third party developer. Unfortunately, it also means late releases on the PC and controls that either don't work, or are so dumbed down the game is either too easy or too hard
Rumors of the PCs death exaggerated (Score:4, Interesting)
The reason is exactly what many people point to as being the cause of it's supposed death. Two quick reasons. The first is portability. Consoles have finally reached a point where the price point and power can match that of low cost PCs. A game on a high end console can look an awful lot like the PC. Splinter Cell on the Xbox is almost the same as the PC. I see the next generation of consoles being able to port their games over the PC much easier than ever before. The second is that 2005 will have a gap for console users. The PC will have several new graphic engines out featuring several new games. Consoles have a bit of a lag waiting for the new hardware to show up. PC games will be able to take advantage of the gamer and be able to really "wow" them.
What you are seeing is the beginning of the PC and console merging into one unit. Microsoft holds a huge advantage in this area having the dominant OS. Already there are rumors of a Xbox Next PC which combines the next generation Xbox with a PC. Isn't this the logical evolution of gaming? Within five years, it's more likely that consoles will merge into PCs, rather than PC gaming dying off. The gaming community could see exclusive titles for the Sony Playstation PC or the Nintendo GamePC, but with universal PC titles being able to play on all of them.
MS has hurt PC gaming, by buying many PC develo... (Score:2, Interesting)
As things like OpenOffice mature, Linux becomes more ready for the desktop. But there's always been that, "Where are the games?" argument the Linux has had a hard time matching. Now that Microsoft is deprecating PC games in favor the the XBox, they're also chiseling away at the "Where are the games?" argument against Linux on the desktop.
Re:It's funny (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft likes having the computer world all fucked up; makes for cheaper hardware to promote Windows on, and allows them to act as the broker between mismatched hardware, via HALs and DirectX and what not.
Remember also that Microsoft *does* lead ATI and Nvidia around by the nose, now that DirectX is the defacto platform for PC gaming. Remember how they fucked over Nvidia by changing the DirectX 9.0 spec (or was it the pixel shader spec) after Nvidia had started producing hardware to the original version, while ATI got slipped a reach-around?
(The above should be taken as a Billy Wilson-ism)