Are PC games suffering due to consoles?

[OmegaFenix]

Im a going to repost what I said in another thread before reposnding to DenSweeP's post:

I have a question.... in that piece its said that grpahics are no longer being pushed thanks to consoles... yet we will soon be graced by the Idtech4 engine which, in my opinion brings Brilliant graphics to all platforms. Also with Crysis 2 the consoles will also be showing off that it can keep up with their pc counter part. Is this more level playing field maybe not giving developers the chance to better code their engines?

Also isn't it better for the consumer (read PC gamer) that they no longer need to upgrade their GPU once a year to keep pumping out the best visuals?

Well think about it this way: Every GPU by say Nvidia has a similar but slightly differnt
Architecture, which is often while one game will run perfectly with (and this is just an example) a 9800GT but struggles with a 8900GTX. And then everytime a new GPU is released the devs need to work it into the game. Since all Xbox's and all PS3's have the exact same GPU with the same exact architecture the devs now dont need to worry about coding in 500 (Again just an example) differnt possible GPU and can instead focus on getting the best possible visuals out of that one specific gpu.

As a result of this many PC games no longer have the astromonical requirements thus opening up the market a little bit for people who do not have the cash to spend 2K on a GPU once a year.

Agreed. The manufactures are welcome to make new cards as often as they want, if they dont what GPUs will the next generation of consoles use. Similarly Game developers can choose to develope Crysis type games specifically for PC that utilises this new tech.
PC Gamers are also free to upgrade 2 twice a year if they (and their wallets) so desire.

But then dont go out saying things along the lines of:



or


or


I dunno where this dumbing down thing comes in but it makes me sick. For one Graphics does not = depth. Crysis is the best example of this, its a glorified tech demo which fails as a game. Similarly a deep and meaningful game does not have to have GPU roasting graphics. One of the best games ever made, Baldur's Gate 2, could run on a P2 with out a freaking GPU.

If anything the PC guys should be saying "Thank You Console guyz" since the advent of the original Xbox and PS2 brought gaming into clear daylight and is one of the biggest reason the industry is what it is today and not still 3 guyz in their mother's "carage house" coding pac man or something.

Ok Im getting of the topic here.
/Moves quietly along.

****

My very laymans' opinion is that yes, I think consoles are preventing PC games from being coded to make use of a PC's full hardware potential. I know that with consoles it's easy, because all consoles are the same, but each PC out there has a different spec and they can't cater for everyone, but that never seemed to stop developers before consoles. so why now?

My Agument is no, Consoles are Not hurting PC Games.

a PC's Full hardware potential

who's pc, the guy who barly makes ends meat and is running 2 year old tech or the tech savvy bachelor who has little to no other expenses other than pumping money into his PC? See that, in my opinion, is the problem with PC gaming, who gets to decide for which end of the spectrum developers develope?

can't cater for everyone, but that never seemed to stop developers before consoles

this time I ask before which consoles, the age old 16-bit or the PS1, N64, GameCube, DreamCast, PS2, Original Xbox, PS3, Wii or Xbox 360? before which generation of consoles? Lets set the bar at the dawn of PS2, when gaming really started to come into its own. No we look at games of that era, Half Life, Quake, Duke 3D, Quake 2, AoE, Star Craft, WarCraft, Diablo, Diablo 2. If you did not have a decent cpu Quake 2 was like playing in slow-mo. How did that cater to everyone?

In my opinion the advent of consoles like the PS2 and original Xbox helped this industry grow into the multi-million dollar industry it is now. If not for the vast numbers of people who bough a PS2 or Xbox and the games on those platforms would developers like Santa Monica (God of War Series) or Naughty Dog (Uncharted) or Bungie (Halo) have been enclined to cated to a small and niche market? Would we have gotten games with bigger budgets than some hollywood blockbuster? Would the industry have expanded and experimented with new ways of telling stories (Heavy Rain) or advances in multiplayer experiences (Halo, Call of Duty), I think not.

Even things like Xbox Live and PSN has made advances that the way we play. I mean the PC guys are in a flat spin(just like with MW2) about the dedicated servers. Yet here the console guyz are able to play perfectly stable game on matchmaking systems in Xbox live and PSN, which dont use dedicated servers.