Is PC gaming dying? 'You Don't Hear Much, Except 'World of Warcraft'

Every couple of years - usually after a fresh crop of consoles hit the market - the drumbeat starts to sound: PC gaming is finished. Consoles are where it's at.

Three years into this so-called "next-gen" console cycle, sales of the game systems - and by extension, the games for them - have generated a boatload of cash. But you don't hear much about PC gaming these days, unless it's "World of Warcraft."

Is it true? Is PC gaming really dead?

[solar]

blah blah blah. www.blah.com

[yesah]

what do you mean Blah?! PC's are dumb i dont even own one. ive never used one in my life! of course computers will die, what are you dumb?

(/end sarcasm)

[solar]

yeah! why upgrade this pile to play crysis or bioshock or far cry 2 in its dx10 glory?! for $1000 bucks i can get a wii, ps3 and a 360. what the hell am i thinking?! and who cares about that inferior keyboard and mouse configuration for online fps's, and mmo's, and rts's? pfffffft. thx for showing me the light mr. kitteh wearing a suit. you saved my ass there.

;)

[TriggerHappy]

well I dont know but wait a bit more and Starcraft II will be lauching as well.

[decapitator]

It is true that you hear WOW a lot but there are some other great games on the PC as well which are not mentioned as much. Crysis is one.

[Cynical-Gamerzus]

PC gaming is for uhum cough...Losers!.
PC FPS engines are becoming so lame and rigid & Played to death.Then there's these lame online MMORPG they look like crap..Thanks to having to design for low specs rigs..
Everything on PC's screams been there done that!
And so Please keep all your lame engines versions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 etc..
Away from Consoles...Were variety and creativity isn't lacking...
R.I.P

[fermcr]

MORON Console Fanbabie always wining and crying... it's just SAD... i guess you are writing that stupidity in your console???

[Lord Vader]

I abandoned pc gaming a few years ago because of $$$... I got sick of spending all that cash upgrading & 6 months later, having to do it again. PC gaming is not cost effective.

Now that I have 2 HD consoles connected to my HDTV with wireless controllers, pc gaming is over for me.

[Noodlecup]

Yeh, because a console + a HDTV is cheaper than a PC right?

A gaming PC capable of running games at the level of a console will cost you about £350-£400 which is extremely cheap, plus:

- cheaper games
- more customization options
- much more precise controls for shooters and RTS
- a huge library larger than any of the consoles
- free games
- not just a games system

I own a PS3 and a gaming PC, I wouldn't trade the PC in for anything else. PC has the best multiplayer experience if you've played all systems, the PS3 has a great singleplayer experience which I'm enjoying too.

[fermcr]

Who in hell upgrade's their PC every 6 months... YOU DON'T NEED TO UPGRADE YOUR PC EVERY 6 MONTHS.

The normal cycle is every 2/3 years for upgrading your PC... PC gaming is cheaper then console gaming.
PC games are match cheaper then console games... do your math's and see the diference. 10/12 games a year in console and compare to 10/12 games in PC a year. See how match you save in a year.

[Lord Vader]

Wll, sorry noodles, I bought my HDTV for HDTV, dvd & Bluray...

The fact that I can use it for my consoles is a BONUS = I would have bought my television with or without my consoles...

Yes, I traditionally had to upgrade my ram, my video card,or something about every 6 months when I was an avid pc gamer & wanted to be on the cutting edge & run the newest games.

This is just one person's opinion, it's not gospel, I said pc gaming was over for ME.

[Charlie2688]

Vader the ONLY explanation for you "6 months upgrade" thing is if you bought cheap low end garbage which doesn't really put you in the "avid pc gamer" category...

you say video card and RAM? so what did you buy that was so crappy that need to be replaced 6 months later? last series of card for example the 8000 series for NVIDIA the 8800GTX that was the high end was available at launch and it was the top end for almost 2 years now and how much RAM did you bought that need so desperately to be upgraded 256mb? 512mb?

seriously dude if you are buying stuff that is forcing you to upgrade every 6 months you probably didn't knew what the hell you were doing and you were definitely NOT a "avid pc gamer"

[RealityCheck]

What is death? Zero sales, discontinued products? Then the answer is no, it's not dead and most likely never will be.

The article provides the answers, in sales it represents about 1/20 of the gaming market. It's small but it's there.

[Truplaya]

I tihnk its nearly dead. Lots of PC games are now console ports, something that never happened a few years ago.

PD games are now so cheap and pirated too much why would a developer want to make a PC game?

World of Warcraft and the SIMS are the only types of games still successful on the PC. You only have to look at UT3's salse figures on PCvsPS3 to see that

[DeadlyFire]

Its the luxery market for gamers. You have better accuracy with a mouse than a controller. You have free mods and extra content made by players and other gamers. Only downside would be cost of running servers. PC game servers are expensive around $40 a month for 20 player server, but console game servers are free are they not?

[gw4k]

I swear someone waits to put this on N4G every other week.

The truth is, pc gaming is not dead. It won't die. Stop posting this crap. Try reporting real news!

[iAmPS3]

Devs are aiming for the money, and PC gaming it's not where the money is due to piracy.

[jinn]

some cultures prefer the PC and some dont because the feel of the controller affects gameplay

[thisguywithhair]

While it does seem that PC gaming is declining, it will never truly go away. As long as a PC is useful for anything else besides gaming then why would anyone else go somewhere else when they want to take just a small break?

[BludoTheSmelly]

If it were truely dead would any company be bothering to bring their title over to pc months and years late from the console counterpart? All it is is now u can develop one game across multiple platforms and u make twice the amount of dough. I'm gonna keep playing pc titles. The piracy is the main thing that needs to stop. All you guys torrenting the games are just shooting yourselves in the foot for the whole hobby of pc gaming as a whole.

[OblivionStalker]

Piracy is not hurting the PC gaming. Nearly 95% of the pirates don't even think to buy the game in the first place.

And PC gaming is not dying.

[Pizza]

I believe everyone needs a PC to do some works like surfing internet, word processing, and on even editing video/music...
If you want to play the most recent PC game all you have to is to buy a newer graphic card. This is true extra cost for PC gaming. Actually the single Geforce 8800GT(around$250) is enough for most modern PC games and will serve for you for a couple of years from now unless you want max the setting for the upcoming PC titles.