Does traditional PC gaming have a future?

[Cool hand luke]

It's clear from the detailed stats in the UK last year that the current model of selling full-priced games to a dwindling audience just isn't working, for PC, that is:

Shawn layden interview When your costs for a game exceed $200 million, exclusivity is your Achilles’ heel.

Very interesting interview. Echoes what I have been saying for a long time. Console gaming peaked in the 7th generation in terms of units and you can only make up nickel and dining existing users for a while. They have no choice but to reach more platforms if they want to show immediate growth...

icon-era.com

PC software sales totaled £243m last year. Sounds big, right? The problem is that console sales were £1.2 billion. That doesn't consider the revenue generated from console subscriptions and console DLC, which are even bigger.

To make matters worse, PC gaming is an expensive hobby to participate in under the best of circumstances, with a very small percentage of players even having graphics hardware that plays games as well as a base, and much less expensive console experience. With interest rates through the roof and belts tightening, investment in incrementally better graphics cards is set to fall, which had me thinking about what could be done to salvage this doomed market.

A better outcome for everyone would be for the consumer hardware market to be terminated and replaced by cloud gaming. Companies would finally be able to reach a larger market and those who prefer gaming on PC would feel less of a sting in their wallets because they wouldn't be paying for incredibly expensive hardware up front but access to game streaming on the cloud.

It'd be a nice testbed for the new tech without much downside since there's not much revenue to sacrifice.

 

[Box]

Doesn't the yearly steam survey show that the majority of the users have really bad specials. The people with high end 4090 graphics are a very small minority

 

[Cool hand luke]

Doesn't the yearly steam survey show that the majority of the users have really bad specials. The people with high end 4090 graphics are a very small minority

Correct. Why are we forcing developers to optimise for dozens of different specs, different graphics card manufacturers etc when every single segment is so small and overall sales are totally insignificant. It's no wonder costs are ballooning. Cut them down to one cloud spec and give everyone the best possible experience.

 

[JAHGamer]

The AAA market on PC has always been a joke compared to PlayStation. They usually don't buy a game until its $30 or less. 99% of those 8 trillion PC gamers are playing free to play gaas junk, not AAA games.

But does it have a future? Possibly, with Xbox dying, PC is now PlayStations largest competitor. And with each port, Sony is making PC look like a better option. A lot of Xbox refugees are already seeking asylum on PC, and don't be surprised if PlayStation fans begin move over there as well. Why wouldn't they? It has all the "exclusives", free online, and cheaper games. And the barrier of entry is only getting lower and lower as handheld PCs become more mainstream and the popular streamers all play on PC.

Sony should be strengthening their platform, instead their propping up their biggest competitor!

 

[Firefly]

Horizon FW will be interesting to see how it preforms on pc considering the specs required. This problem will only get worse when Sony is done porting all the ps4 games and now has to focus on the ps5 games which are much more demanding.

 

[JAHGamer]

Horizon FW will be interesting to see how it preforms on pc considering the specs required. This problem will only get worse when Sony is done porting all the ps4 games and now has to focus on the ps5 games which are much more demanding.

Rift Apart was already ported and Spider-Man 2 has an unofficial PC port.

 

[flaccidsnake]

Yea it has a future. For AAA gaming, it's the only platform with a future.

PC gaming in China: Everything you need to know about the world's biggest PC games industry

Your guide to what's happening in the world's largest PC gaming scene.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Box]

Yea it has a future. For AAA gaming, it's the only platform with a future.

PC gaming in China: Everything you need to know about the world's biggest PC games industry

Your guide to what's happening in the world's largest PC gaming scene.

www.pcgamer.com

Most of these people play free to play GAAS games, unless this is the future you want?

 

[flaccidsnake]

Most of these people play free to play GAAS games, unless this is the future you want?

Fans of Baldurs Gate 3 in China could be a tiny percent compared with GaaS games and still an objectively large number of players by global standards.

 

[Gediminas]

AAA, AA on PC is unsustainable for majority of market. And i am talking about healthy market, not like 1 game sells ton of copies while other 100 flops.
Playstation ports were nothing less than embarrassing.

 

[Dr Bass]

It's clear from the detailed stats in the UK last year that the current model of selling full-priced games to a dwindling audience just isn't working, for PC, that is:

Shawn layden interview When your costs for a game exceed $200 million, exclusivity is your Achilles’ heel.

Very interesting interview. Echoes what I have been saying for a long time. Console gaming peaked in the 7th generation in terms of units and you can only make up nickel and dining existing users for a while. They have no choice but to reach more platforms if they want to show immediate growth...

icon-era.com

PC software sales totaled £243m last year. Sounds big, right? The problem is that console sales were £1.2 billion. That doesn't consider the revenue generated from console subscriptions and console DLC, which are even bigger.

To make matters worse, PC gaming is an expensive hobby to participate in under the best of circumstances, with a very small percentage of players even having graphics hardware that plays games as well as a base, and much less expensive console experience. With interest rates through the roof and belts tightening, investment in incrementally better graphics cards is set to fall, which had me thinking about what could be done to salvage this doomed market.

A better outcome for everyone would be for the consumer hardware market to be terminated and replaced by cloud gaming. Companies would finally be able to reach a larger market and those who prefer gaming on PC would feel less of a sting in their wallets because they wouldn't be paying for incredibly expensive hardware up front but access to game streaming on the cloud.

It'd be a nice testbed for the new tech without much downside since there's not much revenue to sacrifice.

The problem with this is a big one.

The fact that companies can pass on the cost of hardware to the consumer (you stated it's a "pro" that people wouldn't have to pay for "incredibly expensive" hardware up front, but then who is absorbing that cost?) is a good thing that makes this actually sustainable. Expecting the companies that are involved with this to buy and house "incredibly expensive" hardware AND maintain it in the cloud, so people can then just have unreliable connections with concurrent player caps is a terrible way to go.

Look at the problems that have happened with just getting capacity right for Helldivers 2,and all that's doing is network code. You want to start rolling up video and audio streams into those packets as well? And then you want to do this for all games in existence? The capacity isn't there. The bandwidth isn't there. The fact we "distribute" all the necessary compute for running games by having the consumers buy the little plastic box that runs them in the first place, as I said above, is a good thing.

The main problem with PC is the audience likes to steal software, or wait for prices to drop. They are literally typical Windows customers. Companies like Apple, Sony, and Nintendo, simply have much better customer bases that understand the concept of value and paying for said value. Which is why Sony trying to kowtow to the PC market is ridiculously stupid, when instead they should be going after more of the high dollar, high value market that is willing to pay for things that are actually worth paying for.

 

[anonpuffs]

PC gaming is only going to keep growing, but AAA games on PC will not, and will probably shrink. The cost vs return on investment for most large games just isn't there, but there are plenty of indie/AA games that people will buy - as long as they catch on. Like palworld, helldivers, etc and the occasional baldur's gate 3 (but the unpredictability of success is a major barrier to investment). That and due to the price of hardware that keeps increasing guarantees that most people will be playing lower end games.

 

[Systemshock2023]

Some of these guys just can't see gaming outside of their GameStop/physical game/console stuff. It's like you are on groundhog day perpetually trapped in the 90s or 00s related to gaming.

PC is the second platform in terms of share for AAA games behind PS. This has been confirmed by Ubisoft, Capcom and many other third parties. And a massive market for games overall. Over the last decade we have seen:

- Japanese studios bringing their games to PC. These days, PC has almost as much japanese games as PS or Nintendo. More if you count BC. Vanillaware seems to be one of the few exceptions.

- Microsoft going back to PC after 15 years of neglecting the platform. Valve saw an opportunity and ate their lunch there. Now, instead of dominating the market, they are only a big third party on it. Their bet on console gaming didn't turn out well.

- In an unprecedented move Sony bringing their games to PC. Now with only a few games left to complete their PS4 catalog. Will they open a PC client in the future? Who knows? My opinion is they might do it once they reach a critical mass of content.

-Publishers opening alternative stores to compete vs steam with varying degrees of success.

- Gamers on the largest growth markets (Asia) favouring PC gaming. As those economies keep growing, so will their spending power. Their per Capita spend in gaming might never reach the mature markets of US/western Europe/Japan but they more than make up for that in terms of population.

So no, I don't see PC gaming dying any time soon. Is it perfect? No, GPU prices became a significant barrier of entry for many users since 2019/2020. Once that is fixed, with good offerings on the low end segment (these days that would mean console equivalent/beater performance) PC gaming will have s significant boost in users, specially ones capable of playing AAA games.

 

[Cool hand luke]

The problem with this is a big one.

The fact that companies can pass on the cost of hardware to the consumer (you stated it's a "pro" that people wouldn't have to pay for "incredibly expensive" hardware up front, but then who is absorbing that cost?) is a good thing that makes this actually sustainable. Expecting the companies that are involved with this to buy and house "incredibly expensive" hardware AND maintain it in the cloud, so people can then just have unreliable connections with concurrent player caps is a terrible way to go.

Look at the problems that have happened with just getting capacity right for Helldivers 2,and all that's doing is network code. You want to start rolling up video and audio streams into those packets as well? And then you want to do this for all games in existence? The capacity isn't there. The bandwidth isn't there. The fact we "distribute" all the necessary compute for running games by having the consumers buy the little plastic box that runs them in the first place, as I said above, is a good thing.

The main problem with PC is the audience likes to steal software, or wait for prices to drop. They are literally typical Windows customers. Companies like Apple, Sony, and Nintendo, simply have much better customer bases that understand the concept of value and paying for said value. Which is why Sony trying to kowtow to the PC market is ridiculously stupid, when instead they should be going after more of the high dollar, high value market that is willing to pay for things that are actually worth paying for.

Good post. Sounds like it's not sustainable at all then. High prices and no one to absorb them. Developers can save a significant amount of cost by dropping support for PC altogether, or just releasing a port equivalent to the latest PS console version.

 

[Yurinka]

It's clear from the detailed stats in the UK last year that the current model of selling full-priced games to a dwindling audience just isn't working, for PC, that is:

Shawn layden interview When your costs for a game exceed $200 million, exclusivity is your Achilles’ heel.

Very interesting interview. Echoes what I have been saying for a long time. Console gaming peaked in the 7th generation in terms of units and you can only make up nickel and dining existing users for a while. They have no choice but to reach more platforms if they want to show immediate growth...

icon-era.com

PC software sales totaled £243m last year. Sounds big, right? The problem is that console sales were £1.2 billion. That doesn't consider the revenue generated from console subscriptions and console DLC, which are even bigger.

To make matters worse, PC gaming is an expensive hobby to participate in under the best of circumstances, with a very small percentage of players even having graphics hardware that plays games as well as a base, and much less expensive console experience. With interest rates through the roof and belts tightening, investment in incrementally better graphics cards is set to fall, which had me thinking about what could be done to salvage this doomed market.

A better outcome for everyone would be for the consumer hardware market to be terminated and replaced by cloud gaming. Companies would finally be able to reach a larger market and those who prefer gaming on PC would feel less of a sting in their wallets because they wouldn't be paying for incredibly expensive hardware up front but access to game streaming on the cloud.

It'd be a nice testbed for the new tech without much downside since there's not much revenue to sacrifice.

The PC market is perfectly fine and growing. What gets decreasing are its retail sales, which have been a minimal part of the PC game revenue since many years ago:

In fact last year PC was the segment with the biggest yearly growth, when during the last 2 decades or was mobile who had the best yearly growth every year. This year mobile is slightly down due to changes in related advertisement and because still recovering from the covid bump.

 

[JAHGamer]

PC is the second platform in terms of share for AAA games behind PS.

Yes....a very very distant second..... If they were runners, PS5 finished the race in 5 minutes, it takes PC 15 minutes to finish the same race, and Xbox 20 minutes . This fact alone makes the rest of your points irrelevant

Some of these guys just can't see gaming outside of their GameStop/physical game/console stuff. It's like you are on groundhog day perpetually trapped in the 90s or 00s related to gaming.

The exact same can be said about you and your buddy @flaccidsnake. You guys refuse to ever see anything from an objective point of view, and when you guys get intellectually decimated, you either run away, or say something like "you dont wanna share toys"

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Fans of Baldurs Gate 3 in China could be a tiny percent compared with GaaS games and still an objectively large number of players by global standards.

You always bring up the same 2 or 3 games to support your nonsense. The industry is a lot bigger than that 1 game you constantly bring up (because you have nothing else).

Do you seriously think western devs are going to rely on the Chinese PC market for their AAA games?

 

[Systemshock2023]

Do you seriously think western devs are going to rely on the Chinese PC market for their AAA games?

Yes they will eventually. Add India as well. Shareholders like perpetual growth and the console gaming market, while big, has stagnated for a long while. Gaming is more mainstream than ever but Sony will never get near 155M of PS2 sold again. That alone should tell you something.

Hardcore Console gaming is the realm of genx and milennials that grew up in the 90s with "Genesis Does" commercials and clunky expensive AF PCs where installing a game and running it properly was the final boss of it.

Many, if not all, of the myths of PC gaming are fueled by this demographic based on their childhood traumas when operating a PC to game. Some of those became jaded IT guys that just want to "sit on the couch press a button and play"

As those genx/milennials start getting arthritis/carpal tunnel they will be replaced by the younger generation that:

- held a smartphone since birth. So they can do casual gaming there.
-grew up watching streamers and their shiny LED lighted up gaming rigs. Some of them making big bucks doing what they like.
- saw their dads playing on a console. You don't want to imitate your dad as a kid/teen. Nothing less cool than that. Otherwise rock music would still light up the charts.

 

[klomzi]

Yes....a very very distant second..... If they were runners, PS5 finished the race in 5 minutes, it takes PC 15 minutes to finish the same race, and Xbox 20 minutes . This fact alone makes the rest of your points irrelevant

Can you show me some data to back up this info?

 

[xollowsob]

The pendulum is swinging back to PC as it does from time to time. Anyone old enough remembers dooming about the future of PC, only for it to pick up again.

AAA console games on PC don't have the lure of the old PC exclusives that pushed rigs to the max or AAA versions of the genres that consoles don't bother with like RTS.

Chuck into the mix that games have longer legs on PC because of the mod scene. Why play fallout 4 or 76 when you can mod New Vegas to your tastes? Likewise, while playing star field when morrowind, oblivion and Skyrim are still Replayable to this day?

Any articles declaring PC gaming is dead, especially ones that then defend the health of the console industry, are best worth ignoring.