The supposed "decline of PC gaming"

Ah. Well, yes. Bioware and Blizzard still fly the PC gaming flag high, no doubt. Not many other big publishers/developers left doing so, so good on them.
Bioware has taken the first step over to consoles with the Msss Effect series, though, and (arguably, i have no data to support this claim, but it's a suspicion) I would guess that's probably the more lucrative revenue stream for them right now. I won't be surprised if ME3 becomes an Xbox exclusive, for example. So I wouldn't be surprised to see them slowly shift focus over to the console market in the coming months and years. Blizzard is still 100% PC, but who knows what the future holds.

AFAIK, Mass Effect was Xbox 360 exclusive, then later it was ported to PC. Dragon Age was released for both PC and Console on the same day, as well as Mass Effect 2.

So clearly Bioware have noticed that the PC market is far from dead?

Same can be said for Modern Warfare 2. I quoted somewhere above, it sold only 170K units in the 1st week as compared to a couple million console sales in the same period. That's abysmal, relatively. But still 170K better than zero. When it comes to cross-platform titles, particularly on the Xbox-PC front, the cost-to-port is minimal. So, sure, it makes sense to port it to PC and get a couple extra units sold.

But it does mean that that's all PC gamers are really getting. Ports. PC gamers aren't getting their Uncharted's, their Gears of Wars, their Halo's or their Heavy Rain's. It has become something of a second rate, obscure medium, either paddling in the tepid waters of garage-sale handmedowns or cryptically dabbling in arcane curiosities. Perhaps the context was lost when I alledged it was a bona-fide rotting corpse. What I meant, and I guess I'll repeat it for clarity's sake, is that what it once was, is dead. And perhaps, just perhaps, something better can come from it's death.

MW2 got a lot of bad publicity on the PC. I know of many people that didn't buy it, purely because of that. Many of those people went out to buy the console version instead, since its appeal for playing it on the PC was non existent. Sad thing is, some just bought it for the single player. The thing that made MW1 on the PC such a success, was the multiplayer. Cut that out and you've instantly lost a lot of sales. (Anyways, I don't want to turn this into a whole MW2 dedicated servers debate)

Moving on; "Ports" should be deemed a thing of the past. It been proven many times now that games can successfully exist in the world of multi-platforms. Bioshock, Dragon Age, Mass Effect 1&2, MW2, Fallout 3, NFS, C&C etc etc etc. Yes, PC is not what it used to be. No longer is it the king of graphics or ultimate gaming platform, but it still is a good gaming platform. Hardware is still advancing at a rapid pace. And who knows; maybe this whole "online only DRM" might lead the PC gaming scene into something completely integrated, something like MMO's. Steam's been running like clockwork and people back then said that it would also fail.

The PC platform is so versatile that all the PC gaming industry needs for a resurrection is an innovative spark.

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Originally Posted by Skurm

Ah. Well, yes. Bioware and Blizzard still fly the PC gaming flag high, no doubt. Not many other big publishers/developers left doing so, so good on them.
Bioware has taken the first step over to consoles with the Msss Effect series, though, and (arguably, i have no data to support this claim, but it's a suspicion) I would guess that's probably the more lucrative revenue stream for them right now. I won't be surprised if ME3 becomes an Xbox exclusive, for example. So I wouldn't be surprised to see them slowly shift focus over to the console market in the coming months and years. Blizzard is still 100% PC, but who knows what the future holds.

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Seriously doudt it. BioWare have said on a few occasions now in order for an aaa title to be financially viable it needs to be multi platform.

On ME 3 being xbox 360 exclusive I think the chances are basicly 0. The reason I say this is because Mass Effect was initially schedule as an xbox 360 exclusive series and was advertised as this untill 1 month before the pc port was released, this was 5 months after the pc release. It make absolute zero sense now to not release me3 for pc as well considering ME 2 has sold very well on the pc, ME 1 was blighted by securom fiasco.

Also if you look at sales charts Dragon Age Origins pc has stayed in the top ten of a lot of pc sales charts around the world while the console version dropped out of the top 10 fairly quickly. So while the pc market might not make up as much of their revenue as the console sales it does still contribute.

BioWare in particular has a fairly a large pc fan base who will continue to buy their games. So it makes financial sense for them to cater to both the console and pc base.

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Originally Posted by Skurm

But it does mean that that's all PC gamers are really getting. Ports. PC gamers aren't getting their Uncharted's, their Gears of Wars, their Halo's or their Heavy Rain's. It has become something of a second rate, obscure medium, either paddling in the tepid waters of garage-sale handmedowns or cryptically dabbling in arcane curiosities. Perhaps the context was lost when I alledged it was a bona-fide rotting corpse. What I meant, and I guess I'll repeat it for clarity's sake, is that what it once was, is dead. And perhaps, just perhaps, something better can come from it's death.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. :D thats our flagship :D

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Originally Posted by RoosTa

Moving on; "Ports" should be deemed a thing of the past. It been proven many times now that games can successfully exist in the world of multi-platforms. Bioshock, Dragon Age, Mass Effect 1&2, MW2, Fallout 3, NFS, C&C etc etc etc. Yes, PC is not what it used to be. No longer is it the king of graphics or ultimate gaming platform, but it still is a good gaming platform. Hardware is still advancing at a rapid pace. And who knows; maybe this whole "online only DRM" might lead the PC gaming scene into something completely integrated, something like MMO's. Steam's been running like clockwork and people back then said that it would also fail.

The PC platform is so versatile that all the PC gaming industry needs for a resurrection is an innovative spark.

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Amusingly, the Xbox Dragon Age port is shit. I mean, it's really horrible. Compared to Mass Effect 2 on Xbox, it's pathetic.

As stated in my comment :)

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The main problem with gaming is there is always away to get around it.

I mean look at Counter Strike it had steam and took a little while to get a crack for it but people finally did, MW2 and soon Assassins Creed will be in the same boat might take a little while but some genius will do it.

The thing evolving around PC's is that what ever has a protection some one will get around it, banks, top secret computers, all are venerable to attack. If its on the net or has protection it will have a way to get around it no matter what. And that is where the PC industry has to fix.

The problem with a pc is that when you have the games installed and not playing it but on the internet. Those game makers are not allowed to search your pc and disable that game.

It reminds me of the criminal rights in south africa. I mean a guy rapes a girl and he gets caught. First thing is my rights, my rights state this my rights state that. Where are the dam rights for that girl?

Same with computers, the user has rights bla bla, but he has done a illegal act so those game makers should have the right to go on there and disable that illegal game.

Read tomorrows part 2 for another great comment :P

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Another strike for PC gaming; Starcraft 2 beta cracked.

Don't these folks realise they shooting themselves in the foot? Soon there will be nothing left for them to crack. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by RoosTa

Another strike for PC gaming; Starcraft 2 beta cracked.

Don't these folks realise they shooting themselves in the foot? Soon there will be nothing left for them to crack. :rolleyes:

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the warcraft 3 beta was also cracked as quickly. i can guarantee you that when the beta is over alot of the people who downloaded the cracked beta will move onto the battle.net servers with original products.

i downloaded and played the war 3 beta on the ZA servers setup by local guys.... everyone on there knew it was just a temporary thing. more than 90% of the guys i knew on those servers went on to buy the original so we could play on the proper servers.

with battle.net 2 being as awesome as i hear it is.... i am quite confident that many of the players playing the cracked beta will buy the original.

the sales will speak for themselves i reckon.