I've searched around but haven't been able to find anyone talking about this same idea. Forgive me if this is redundant from other posts, but I wanted to give it its own.
Years ago (about 18 to be exact) I started playing Descent on my parents' old Win95 system. A four-year-old gamer was born, and I saw PC gaming gradually grow, only to be overshadowed by consoles beyond the Nintendo stuff that had always been around. Here I am now with a 360 that my parents use for streaming Netflix but I hardly use for gaming (seems only fitting that I started using their electronics only to end with them using mine). And I've noticed that a lot of people my parents' age are picking up consoles for streaming services, while post-college professionals my age who grew up as gamers are now investing in beefier laptops. PC is a nice compromise between gaming and productivity, so for people who need to travel and check email, it provides casual gamers something more than Angry Birds that consoles cannot deliver.
I tend to think that gaming, especially console gaming, gained momentum a bit after my breakout into the gaming world. Exactly when is debatable, but I'm sure that most gamers my age can remember two distinct eras of "games are for nerds" to "everyone plays video games now". Thus, I have two questions:
1. For the people from the former era, did or do you find yourself moving away from console games to PC games because you were traveling/at school/working/whatever?
and 2. Can we expect today's gamers, clearly from the latter era, to make the same shift towards and/or return to PC gaming as they mature for the same reasons?
My guess would be that if question 2 is indeed true, there will be a flood of young professionals maybe 5 years from now (give or take 2 years) who will be pouring money into the PC market to keep their gaming habits and careers alive. The flood of people who made consoles popular may end up shifting to PC. Should this happen, it will probably spark momentum for AAA markets and hardware development back towards the PC platform.
Or maybe people will just stop gaming to go colonize Mars or something. Who knows. Any thoughts?
I have high doubts that the landscape we know for video games now will be the same in the future.
With the performance and accessibility behind mobile platforms such as tablets and phones, and their integration with all things today, I would wager that consoles themselves will die out. Some say this will be the last generation, but I imagine it may go one more. Regardless, PC gaming will narrow down to a niche group after probably seeing a strong influx of those shifting from consoles as consoles have begun to become watered down PCs. PC gaming may hit a few golden years - some may say it's there now or is close to reaching the apex of it - but as mobile devices grow in strength and accessibility, you will probably find that your phone will become more necessary part of daily computing, gaming, and browsing compared to that of your PC.
Essentially you may just plug your phone video mini-HDMI to HDMI into your TV, connect a Bluetooth controller and you will game. Or connect your phone to a screen at a desk with a keyboard and mouse and use the phones hardware to drive what would be the equivalent of a desktop.
The thing to keep in mind is that phones themselves won't ever quite be as powerful as desktop hardware for quite some time, so there will remain commercial and enterprise use of hardware for heavy computing - and maybe those extreme enthusiasts.
Fact of the matter is: gaming as a whole isn't going anywhere with studies now showing that 1/3 of the global population play games.
1. For the people from the former era, did or do you find yourself moving away from console games to PC games because you were traveling/at school/working/whatever?
No desire whatsoever to touch a console because the games don't appeal to me. Portability and lifestyle have nothing to do with it. The cutesy quirky anime hideo kojima grindfest cinematic whatever PS3 exclusives and the Broish Xbox exclusives just don't hold my attention. Maybe I'm just becoming less patient as I get older and want the most stripped down, pick up and go gaming experience, which leans me in the direction of PC exclusives which are typically more gameplay centric (throw you right in to the game, minimal/no singleplayer campaign) and less fluff (cinematics, minigames)
and 2. Can we expect today's gamers, clearly from the latter era, to make the same shift towards and/or return to PC gaming as they mature for the same reasons?
People will shift to PC gaming when they get a raise at work. Sure you can build a decent PC for $400 but nobody wants that. I don't think anyone who can afford a real gaming PC is going to play a game on it, then go back and play the same thing on a console and think, "that was better!"
Don't think traveling has anything to do with it. What I have noticed is a equalization in the experience you get from both a console and a PC. Years ago keeping up with drivers on PC was a pain sometimes. You had so many drivers for everything. Now today a lot of devices are consolidated under one driver. Like controllers on Xinput. Keeping up with drivers in most ways is just automatic now. You computer says I have a driver for this. You hit yes maybe a reboot and 99% of the time now nothing catastrophic happens.
On consoles used to be put disc and cart in hit power and your gaming. Now like PC's consoles have a UI you have to use to get to playing the game. Then there are the updates that are really no easier to do than on PC anymore. So in a way console are getting more complicated.
Then there are games. Games used to be hard to find on PC because there was not the support or user base for a lot of game publishers to be interested. And the games that where made where pressed in such small numbers that games where hard to find sometimes. Leaving PC gamers to go online a lot and order there game discs. So when steam came along it offered a online distribution and did not have to wait for shipping that was the major turning point for PC gaming.
The main problem is the size of PC's and word or mouth. PC need to shrink down more for some people. But something like the Alienware Alpha is the perfect size for a lot of people. When we start seeing CPU and CPU on a SOC for PC. Or socket ed GPU's to help reduce size. And you have Sony and Microsoft spending huge amount of add dollars to get the word out about there consoles. There is no one like that on PC. There are a ton of people that like to be force feed info. Then there are others and like to look for it themselves. There is no one out there spending add dollars on PC gaming ads or just to get the word out. Its up to just us gamers right now to get the word out about PC gaming.
I don't think the size of PCs is really the main factor but mini itx stuff has a more significant coolness factor. I think the word of mouth thing is kind of true. As a relatively normal dude who doesn't hang out with computery people, when I tell them I do the video game on a computer thing, I usually get looked at like I'm a bit crazy.
I will absolutely be one of those people pouring money into a PC. It actually has already started, you can see my investments on my profile. I grew up on mostly PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, in that order. My early gaming memories float around Spyro, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Halo. Once I could afford it I threw myself into PC gaming and never looked back. I think most older adults will stick to devices closer to what an Apple TV can deliver. I think the console market is dying, being lightyears behind PC even with their "Next Gen" graphics, a PC from years ago can do better.
Also it makes me really sad to see some of my old favorite titles being butchered my modern publishers. Halo for example, one of my favorite game series's to date. The original devs have sold the rights and the new one is taking away all the things I loved about it. Its kind of sad, but having a PC to go back and play through some old PC gold makes it a little better.
Yep. I just enjoyed PC gaming because I had more games on the platform. I had a PS2 in 2006 when I switched over. The modding support is what really got my attention with PC Gaming.
I don't think so. What really needs to change is the ignorance that comes from extreme console players. Examples being the up start cost and the keyboard/mouse debacle. Once that is squared away, people will open up to PC gaming.
Ya, homeworld mods. Man,i feel old. Simple easy to use gaming machines will always have a place, i guess? . I had my son building pc's at eight. I consider it an important life skill in this day and age. If you cant build your own pc in this day and age, you didnt look at the pictures. :)~
I think smaller desktops are inevitable. The amount of component integration today is insane and many of these techniques are being brought over from the mobile world. Watch form factors like ITX and NUC over the next few years, I bet you they will grow significantly. I also think it will become impossible for box stores to sell traditional towers as people's expectations for home computing continue to be shaped by the need for portability and mobility.
I honestly believe that whole generation of consoles was the last golden age of consoles. (also the 1.5 stage the Dreamcast filled between the gaps of the N64/PS1 and the GameCube/PS2/Original Xbox)
I had a lot of fond memories from mostly the GameCube and the PS2 - especially the PS2. Glad to see the Vita has put a lot of my nostalgia games on it. If I could find a Vita cheap enough, I may consider picking it up just for all the re-releases of outstanding PS2 games on it.
I just got my girlfriend hooked on Steam with access to my library with the friend sharing thing. I guess people who buy decent laptops every couple years could potentially be inclined to make the switch if a. integrated graphics continue to be surprisingly usable and b. they are aware that gaming is possible on the thing in the first place, comfortably, conveniently and affordably. I think in 10 years everyone is going to own a surface-type device (not necessarily microsoft) and just either use it with touch, a controller, or dock it with kb/m - what is and isn't PC gaming might become harder to define with unified platforms.
Let's be honest, the days of a somewhat average person building a pc, plugging in a monitor, and installing windows on it will probably end in our lifetimes though.
Not much longer than a year ago I too was an unwashed console peasant but with the help of an illuminated friend and by the grace of GabeN I was inducted into the GPCGMR. I believe the swell is from people like myself sharing their newfound calling and bringing the light to unclean horde of peasants whom we all know. Since then I've gone on to learn everything I can and so have my disciples and have built our own PC'S.
1. For the people from the former era, did or do you find yourself moving away from console games to PC games because you were traveling/at school/working/whatever?
Well as far as I can remember I've been playing on consoles and PC. Personally I don't get the whole consoles over PC or PC over consoles arguement. For me games are games, I play games for fun, not to argue with other people which platform is mightier. If a certain game that I want to play is not in a platform that I currently have. I either wait or If i'm sure that this is not coming over I'll buy the platform. To be transparent I've been a fan of playstation since their 1st console and I must say I had and still having fun with them. I pretty much have all of the playstation (except PS4) consoles as well as their handheld consoles but I also have Nintendo products such as the NDS, 3DS, Wii and so on. (I had soo much fun with the NDS) I don't have an Xbox cuz most of their game eventually goes to PC so yea.
And when I'm out and about. I have my handheld consoles to play with and currently I don't see any reason of buying a laptop.