Comments on: Future of the PC: “the de facto single format”

By: UK_John

UK_John — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:24:15 +0000

I think the convergence will be in the middle. Gaming PC’s that will be designed by others that we will have to buy as they will be the only PC’s that will play the PC games, and at the same time consoles becoming those same PC’s with a fixed architecture.

After all, with 95% of PC games now console conversions, we are mostly playing ‘console games’ on our PC. Also, step back and think what Megadrive players would have called a box with a hard drive and internet access and downloading of patches, etc. I think they would have said you were describing a PC.

So something in the middle, that I worry may please nobody. For example, most people don’t see it this way, but 5 million DOSBox downloads in the last 5 years is surely an indictment on modern PC gaming. With the recent success of GOG.com and the growth in the ebay PC retro section and the number of retro PC titles STEAM and D2D now carry all point to a disappointment in these dumbed down console conversions we get so often now.

By: Erlam

Erlam — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:09:30 +0000

In-order processing alone ruins any love I’d have for consoles.

Not to mention just how much I can do on a PC, such as say posting here, then downloading an indie game, then playing an MMO, while I browse youtube, etc etc. Consoles almost always make you do one thing at a time. Multitasking has, and will always be better on a PC.

Not to mention that fact that, while PC’s will always have the problem of “can I run ‘x’”, there’s a reason that happens – PC’s are ahead of consoles in every single way. Graphics, sound (at least, usually), A.I., CONTROL (mouse beats every type of controller I’ve used) etc. PC gamers claim games on both platforms are ‘dumbed down’ for console gaming, and that’s almost universally true.

Anyone remember shadowrun ‘balancing’ Console vs. PC gamers? Jesus, all they did was remove most of what you could do on a PC, and ‘assist’ console gamers with auto-aim, etc.

By: Bob Arctor

Bob Arctor — Wed, 14 May 2008 09:03:59 +0000

Or a cheap Radeon graphics solution.

By: zima

zima — Tue, 13 May 2008 22:10:28 +0000

From what I see around…if somebody buys PC it’s a laptop, and one with integrated Intel gfx. Gaming desktops are almost statistatically insignifant anomaly.

And…I actually think that there isn’t anything bad if we end up with “standard”, not very fast gfx which gaming companies will have to take into account when outlining system requirements…

By: CitizenErazed

CitizenErazed — Sun, 11 May 2008 00:35:12 +0000

I’ll never give up my desktop. I’ve a full tower case, and until I can upgrade and/or take apart a laptop as easily as I can a desktop box, I’ll keep a tower. I also use a shuttle box in the living room as a media server, and I think that’s the way people will go – I know a fair few people who’ve done it. Instead of one box to do everything, people might have two or three PCs – one for gaming, one for media, one for office or whatever. And with that will hopefully come customised operating systems optimised for each system – I hate having to stop/start half a dozen processes on my gaming PC depending on what I have to do. Or even reboot.

By: Bob Arctor

Bob Arctor — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:18:21 +0000

I agree with the laptops being the future. As a student everybody has laptops, I had one till recently but got sick of moving a desktop up and down the country, and up and down stairs.
Got a nice big laptop, 17′, now, does everything I want games wise, and is still portable enough to take to the sitting room and game there, so is more fun and sociable.

With more and more people house sharing and loads of students laptops are big sellers, and have come a long way since a few years back.

By: plums

plums — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:59:02 +0000

Apologies for the many typos and poor grammar, the comment system is failing to save changes.

By: plums

plums — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:39:11 +0000

Its all changing, desktop PC’s will be relegated to pro, business and the public sector. The majority appear to want a different kind of device for the typical PC needs, something simpler, instant on and instant recovery with a simpler interface and finger snap fast. Basicaly the design philosophy behind the mobile phone or any other electronic device that isn’t a PC. For example mobile phones which becoming more filinctional as a web device and remain simple, the success of the iPhone
for web browsing conversly web use has never taken off in front of tv just isn’t convenient enough.
With all that in mind there will be much less of a market so less will be developed on. What I think and hope will happen is that the PC will once again become a niche again and i hope be just like the old days. The other third of this pie is that people like microsoft are only on the console business to get a box in the living room and so it will be moving more and more to the media functionality and casual gaming, even apple are trying with tv appletv which is now going to have casual gaming presence. Also the only open platform I see advancing is one for MID’s and Mobile Phones.
I could go into much more detail but I’m sure everyone switched off after ‘the’ don’t worry the rest was just filler so inappear intelligent while I sit next to my collection of leatherbound books..

Hello to all, my first post. Finally a gaming site which isn’t staffed with peoples whose first gaming experience wasn’t a bloody playstation.

PS: typing this on an iPod touch whilst on the bog, I’d probably electrocute or strangle if I tried bring a desktop in hear. Plus the
Kettle & Toaster wouldn’t like it.

By: RichPowers

RichPowers — Fri, 09 May 2008 03:13:27 +0000

Agreed, but I would extend that further: content providers would love for DVRs, portable media players, and computers to all require internet access so content can be “verified,” thereby relegating us to the status of content renters.

I’m dismayed by how Microsoft treats PC gamers like shit. Next to enterprise users and sadists, we’re probably their most dedicated “fans”; despite its many flaws, Windows is still the best OS for gaming. But any effort to develop a special Windows account for gaming, I fear, would turn into a “console” partition that would be rife with “trusted computing” measures to facilitate DRM, etc. I’m all for standardization, it’s just that I fear the players involve would standardize the experience for their benefit and not the benefit of the user.

By: redrain85

redrain85 — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:22:50 +0000

If Microsoft would just add a special account type to Windows that’s strictly meant to run games: where all non-essential services, drivers, and other applications, were not active or taking up memory, and also came down hard on companies that write poor device drivers which are responsible for much of the instability people have (e.g. early nVidia Vista drivers), it would elminate much of the headaches for everyone involved. The game developers and publishers, the hardware manufacturers, and the end users.

As for the article itself: I also still believe that the PC will come out on top, eventually. But the console manufacturers and game publishers are too obsessed about absolute control over the end-user experience right now, to easily let go of their current locked-down, proprietary boxes. In fact, nothing would make them happier than everybody having a dumb terminal with no “brain”; that just delivers the content from a centralized server, which they have absolute control over. Which would be a step backwards in the evolution of computing technology, if allowed to happen.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:22:43 +0000

Does all of this mean there are sects within Microsoft, specifically the Xbox sect and the Games For Windows sect?

Will they be fighting eachother in bloody cultural wars?

Will those wars be simulated in an RTS (WindowPane), to be produced by the winning sect?

By: Kadayi

Kadayi — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:23:12 +0000

15 years a head with the current speed of technological progress is a hard thing to predict, esp with things hotting up in the ME as they are. Convergence is a wonderful word, full of whimsy, but the notion of a natural end point doesn’t quite do it for box sellers like Apple, Sony, HP or any of the rest who have quarterly returns to make. Albeit we might reach a point of ‘all in ones’, there will always be a need for newer ‘better’ models to continue oiling the relentless wheels of capitalism.