PC game sales decline for first time ever, Console sales continue to break records

[Asher]

Originally posted by Fez
Another reason why consoles can kiss my ass.

Vietcong:

Vietcong looks like a good game, and I'll probably get a copy of it, but there are far more console games coming out soon that I'd want over Vietcong.

Just a personal preference.

And Vietcong won't sell very well. It's just not a mass market game.

And read between the lines on its platform availability

http://www.vietcong-game.com/us/faq.html#7

Will there be versions of the game for other platforms?

The game will initially ship for the PC.

[Asher]

And as for fixed platforms like Xbox being far more than you give them credit for, I'll quote some from John Carmack on the matter since I know where to find those quotes easily:

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=38207&cid=4091362

The NV20 back end has more work in it than any other, with two different cases for the lighting interaction, but on the X-Box I would probably create additional special cases to optimize some of the other possible permutations.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=38207&cid=4091191

The X-Box GPU is more of a GF4 than a GF3, but a modern PC is generally much higher end than an X-Box.

However, you can usually count on getting twice the performance out of an absolutely fixed platform if you put a little work into it. There are lots of tradeoffs that need to balance between the different cards on a general purpose platform -- things that I don't do with vertex programs because it would make the older cards even slower, avoiding special casing that would be too difficult to test across all platforms (and driver revs), and double buffering of vertex data to abstract across VAR and vertex objects, for instance.

etc

[monolith94]

Just so long as I get to play my Tron 2.0, Doom 3, And finish off the Deus Ex trilogy… I really don't care!

[ixnay]

PC Games

Console Games

Can't we all just get along? Each has its strengths, and each has excellent games best suited for their formats.

[dudemanjack]

It seems you get alot more for your money with consoles.

The ONLY reason for me to get a new computer now would be to play games. My current PC does everything else perfectly. I sure am not paying $700-800 on a PC that isn't even top-notch when I can pay $200 for an XBOX that comes with 2 free games (granted I don't choose them, but they are still free). I'll be buying myself an XBOX, thank you very much. (2 more days!)

PC's still have the best controls for RTS and other strategy games though. What they also have cornered is the MMORPG's. I can't see any of those going to the consoles in the near future, if at all.

[Imran Siddiqui]

At least half the bugs in the average new PC release are due to shoddy playtesting and game balancing, not the varied and complicated innards of the PC.

Yeah, but when there are bugs on console games (the X-box version of Morrowind comes to mind) it is almost impossible to fix them!

[Asher]

The only times there are major bugs in console games is when it's being developed by a wonderfully incompetent devteam like Bethadasa(sp) or rushed out the door by an anal developer.

That said, console games are (by far) less buggy than PC games, since there's far less hardware combinations to anticipate.

[Drake Tungsten]

I pity all these anti-console zealots, for they shall never know the glory that is The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. May Miyamoto-san bathe us in his benificent light for ever and ever. Amen.

[reds4ever]

in the UK a XBox costs approx £150, try playing Morrowind on a £150 PC.

[monkspider]

I agree Ix. I love both PC and console games. As a whole, I probably play more console games than PC, but my favorite games of all time are all PC games (Civ, EU, Panzer General).
I have actually been almost chained to my PC since Hearts of Iron came out.

[Dis]

I can care less which is better. In fact I hope more people go to consoles. I prefer to play my games with mature people. Neverwinter Nights would be horrible if I was playing with 13 year old punks (or older people that act like 13 year old punks).

The fact is adult games are only on PC's. You will never find games like Fallout on consoles. Until that happens I will stick with PC's.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Dissident
You will never find games like Fallout on consoles. Until that happens I will stick with PC's.

And why not?
Games like Baldur's Gate are already on consoles. And what's more, the console versions significantly outsold the PC versions...

I'll also never understand the "stick to" argument.

People seem to thinke consoles and PCs are mutually exclusive.

[Dis]

Just because it outsold the PC version means nothing.

Britney Spears outsells everyone. Is she the best singer out there?

I can't imaging the console version of Baldurs gate comes even close to the PC version.

[Asher]

It's a different style of game.

I actually prefer the console style BG to the PC, but that's a personal preference again...

And I wasn't saying that those that sell more are better, I just used it to counter your "you'll never find" argument. Console games sell better than PC counterparts 99% of the time, which is why it's a pretty sure thing games like Fallout will eventually end up on a console in some form or another...

[Giancarlo]

Okay, I will give you this. But how much longer until Consoles basically revert back to PC's? They are basically PCs anyways, without the added features and only for games.

Consoles can kiss my ass, because their games suck. Period. You cannot make a case because PCs are vastly superior. What you have tried saying is false and propaganda.

I will concede one point. Windows is a memory hog and probably slows down performance significantly. That is why I now have a copy of SuSe Linux in my room... should I install it? Linux could make the promise of the vastly superior PC a damn good reality... but will any games run on it? Only if Linux were to, it would seriously leave the console completely out in the cold.