JeremyMcClean wrote:Doubt the gaming industry will go away any time soon, it'll just probably consist of homebrew games and consoles that cost the user next to nothing but takes eons just to run on the computers, or possibly on the PSP, which appears to be a popular system to hack. (I'm pretty sure people could make homebrews for other systems as well, the PSP just seems to be really popular)
I don't see the gaming industry shrivelling up and dying when it's generating more revenue than Hollywood and has been for quite some time. Even if the 720, PS4, and Wii U all bomb spectacularly (the latter of which is already true), somebody will see the massive demand for a good console and move to supply it. There's too much money involved for everybody to just let it die.
Wallio wrote:AndreaModa wrote: Besides, I'm not ditching my 5 year old Vista-powered craptop just yet, I've grown quite fond of it!
This is I think my "problem" with the PC as a gaming platform. Its got wayyy to short a shelf life. A year and a half ago I bought a mid-range PC for $750. Now a mere 18 months later I can get a much much better model for $500! How's that fair? I always like a consoles lifespan. The 360 came out in 2005 and even a base model from then (if you can find one sans red-ring) they'll play all the newest stuff fine. Hell the PS2 STILL has games coming out for it (although recently only in Japan and only until April '13) and that came out when? '02? 11 years is a hell of a run.
Yeah, the thing is you don't need to keep buying new PC's, the only thing you really need to upgrade is the graphics card. Though, admittedly, those can easily be the most expensive part of your PC. Of course, there is the whole problem of installing it, but you should be able to go into a PC repair shop and have them do it. As for the 360/PS3 still running games, well, that's to do with the state of the industry. DirectX 11 came out
ages ago, and PC gaming has had the option to support it since then, but nobody's been using it because they're all using DirectX 9, because that's the most recent version that the consoles support. Frankly, this generation of consoles has been going on far too long - they should've been retired from active duty 2-3 years ago. All these new games you see being demoed for the new generation? That's what gaming
is on the PC.
Faustus wrote:Retro/Indie gaming all the way mate. Proper games, not idiotic FPS with different skins.
Fixed that for you. There are still a ton of good games being developed available to buy, you just need to know where to look for them, and ignore the yearly crap like COD BLOPS/Battlefield/Ass Creed.
Wallio wrote:BlindCaveSalamander wrote:It won't be compatible with PS3 games. I think Sony actually want to sell the last few PS3s.
EDIT: Also, it seems that the Watch Dogs demo wasn't running on a PS4 at all.
It was on a PC.
It's also because Sony ditched the very hard to program PS3 architecture for something much closer to what the 360 runs, in order to appease third party companies.
True, I forgot about that. Kind of a shame because I think the cell processor was an interesting concept, but if you can't develop for it easily, it kind of limits what you can do. Thankfully I think the PS4 and 720 will be running on similar architectures to PC, so porting games should be pretty easy, or at least easier than this generation.
FMecha wrote:Let's turn this into gaming rantbox again: does anyone think that iOS/Android gaming is crushing the handheld gaming market?
Yes, as much as Sony and NIntendo want to ignore it, it is kind of a problem for them. Especially Sony because Vita sales are even more embarrassing than the Wii U - but it's really Sony's fault that that's the case. It's a pretty good system, but it doesn't have a good library, and then they decided to make a proprietary memory system for it which costs far too much, but you have to pay for it in order to play most if not all games because it doesn't have any onboard storage! The 3DS is doing quite a bit better, but Nintendo still can't ignore phone/tablet gaming for long, considering a lot of people have iOS or Android systems. I'm not sure how they're going to deal with that, to be honest.
AndreaModa wrote:DanielPT wrote:but I reckon though that single player experience is noticeably dwindling into oblivion.
I'd agree with this. I'm not much of a gamer at all, but when I do I use my laptop, mostly for racing games, plus the odd burst of SimCity 4 here and there. Taking SimCity as an example, EA currently have the fifth version in development at the moment, and one of the biggest criticisms of it is that you can't just play on your own offline. You have to log in, and bugger about with their version of Steam, the name escapes me right now. Aside from all the other crappy things they've done to it (in my own view) this takes the cake. I understand it's all about preventing piracy and the like, but it's killing PC gaming off for those that aren't hardcore and like to just dabble in it now and then. And then the graphics requirements of modern games means you need a top-line machine anyway which is beyond me for multiple reasons. Besides, I'm not ditching my 5 year old Vista-powered craptop just yet, I've grown quite fond of it!
It's called Always On DRM, and it's been around for quite a while actually. There aren't a lot of titles which actually support that, and those that do are often cracked by pirates in a matter of hours anyway. It's gotten to the point where Ubisoft are actually abandoning the practice, having been it's biggest champions for some years now. So I have no idea what the hell EA are thinking, but they do seem to like to step in metaphorical dog shite at every possible opportunity.
DanielPT wrote:BlindCaveSalamander wrote:I was going to refute you, but if you want to run around like Chicken Little, be my guest. I'll just keep playing games on my PC as if nothing had ever changed. Because, you know, PC gaming is still totally a thing that exists.
I partially agree with you. PC gaming still exists and looks pretty healthy, although it is being fuelled by MMORPGs and online gaming but I reckon though that single player experience is noticeably dwindling into oblivion.
Not for me it isn't; there's still a ton of good single-player games on the PC, which is also pretty much the go-to place for indie games that want to be more complex than Angry Birds, since you don't have to shell out extra cash to Sony and Microsoft. Multiplayer games are growing and will continue to grow as the internet does, but single-player games will remain a thing because you don't always want to play with other people. And sometimes game concepts just don't work with multiplayer.
