The Number One Reason (Besides Piracy) That PC Gaming is Dying.

Once at the forefront of video gaming, the PC in recent years has slipped from the cutting edge to teetering near the edge. New England Gamer looks at one gamer's recent experiences with the platform to find some insight as to why.

[Nightshadow]

Your first mistake was giving your wife the credit card, but all jokes aside. Piracy is prevalent on all gaming platforms; I don't agree with some of the methods used to prevent piracy (DRM), but keeping your PC on an internet connection today is the norm I would think? And remember, It won't be long till consoles travel the same path as PC's and require a constant internet connection. I mean, who would of thought games on a console would require patches/updates -- this used to be only the domain of PC games.

[stewie32887]

I understand the reasoning behind it, but I disagree with the way that companies like EA are implementing it. It's one thing to need an internet connection to download patches and such, but to require it to access content I've paid for is asinine.

If a game doesn't require the internet for gameplay, it shouldn't be required at all.

[Nightshadow]

I agree that it's not right to be treated as a potential criminal when you have legitimately purchased the game (hats off to CD Projekt Red for taking the zero DRM approach), but there have been far worse implementations of copyright protection. Online verification is probably one of the least invasive forms and I wouldn't attribute it to a major reason that PC gaming is on the decline; on the contrary I believe PC gaming is doing quite well, almost on par with consoles. Downloadable PC game sales were up +66% compared to last year whereas console game sales fell -29%

The future for PC gaming is online vendors such as Steam. Microsoft has now also released their own version of Steam; these will all require online verification.

2010 Game Sales for the US -
PC/Mac Games = $7.3b
Consoles = $10.6b

[ATi_Elite]

I don't know, maybe I'm just easy going but in my logic what's the point of having a PC if it's not connected to the internet?

Sure you can play solitaire and do quite a bit of things offline but for the most part a PC connected to the internet 24/7 is like having a car with gas in the tank 24/7 you know like peanut butter and jelly, it just goes together.

You know what I really hate about PC gaming? I hate DX9. I wish it would go away. It's old, filthy, crappy, and is holding back a lot of games from being graphically awesome. DX9 has become the lazy developers crutch. DX9 should be banned. I know this may affect some gamers but seriously you can get a DX11 GPU for $50.

No McDonald's No Taco Bell No Mountain Dew No Starbucks for 7 days then bam!! Go Upgrade. DX9 is holding us back.

[stewie32887]

It's really dependent on your tastes. Neither my wife or I are big fans of multiplayer, and stick mostly to single player experiences. As a result our need for a gaming PC with an internet connection is limited. Buying the Dragon Age DLC was probably actually the first time its been hooked up in about a year, and we use the thing on an almost daily basis.

For surfing and such we both have laptops, which if we catch a virus or something isn't a big deal.

[toaster]

This is a pretty fail article. The game doesn't require constant online connection, it just requires it for the initial start to validate that your game is genuine. All EA games are like this.. herp derp. It needs to connect to the EA servers. I'm pretty sure it tells you this when you install the game.

"I know (hold your breath folks) why PC gaming is on the decline: it’s a pain the ass."

I would think that going to your router, unplugging it, going back to the computer, is more of a pain in the ass then just being connected all the time.

[stewie32887]

We live in an apartment complex where we share the internet with two other tenants. The router and wireless is not in our apartment. Moreover, we live in a rural area where the internet our internet is routinely unreliable. If it fails and a game requires the internet to verify whatever then I effectively can't play the game I paid for due to an unnecessary technicality.

And for the record, our PC doesn't have built in Wi-Fi. We use a USB connector that we just plug in when we absolutely need it.

But perhaps you're right, I may have a focused a bit too much on the internet issue. It's an annoyance but what was really frustrating was the run around we had to go through just to get the stuff to work. I'm of the opinion that when you buy things they should work, and it was incredibly frustrating to come from the console version of the game where I was able to download and use the DLC with no trouble, to the PC version where we had fix a bunch of crap before it would even work.

While things like digital distribution have certainly helped the PC as a gaming platform, the inconvenience that often comes with it is oft times ridiculous.

[spdarksky]

Just for this reason alone PC gaming is dying???? NVIdia, Intel, AMD, Razer and more does not share the same idea.

DAMN! Why Microsoft (your beloved XBOX360 manufacturer) officially release Kinect for PC if PC gaming is dying?

DAMN this article of PC is dying is really frustrating me. STOP THIS BULLSHIT ALREADY!

[stewie32887]

After considering your comments, I agree that the title of the editorial was unnecessarily inflammatory. I can't change the N4G posting at this stage, but I altered the name of article on my site to "The Number One Problem With PC Gaming (Besides Piracy)".

I hope that's more amenable to your tender sensibilities. :)

[mobijoker]

Lets give one reason pc gaming will never die.
There are two giant companies named Nvidia and AMD.Until they remain,pc gaming will stay.And they sometimes finance some games like Arkham Asylum.
And for the stats count ps3,x360 and wii titles .Add them and compare it to titles released on pc(don't forget the indies).Pc will still be no.1.