pc market comeback

whats interesting is the comeback of PC.

all microsoft games now seem to be dual platform, and they now started developing directx again as well, plus with plans to add xbox live to the PC.

The PS4 because of this will start to look isolated and 3rd party developers may be hesitant to do exclusives for it due to the market restriction.

Sales figures for the last 2 years show PC outselling other platforms, I think when the next gen consoles got released, the lack of BC made people reassess the cost of PC vs console gaming.

Also looking on steam, I brought a load of games last week that were released less than 18 months ago for under £5 including all DLC, no subscription service for online gaming and that steam succeeded where the consoles failed in been a dominant online sales platform. Not to mention the variety of games available, point and click adventure games, puzzle games, RPGs, platform etc and with been single player only focused unlike console where seems an obsession to add some kind of multiplayer. Not just FPS and sports with the occasional action game.

For those who dont follow steam here are some features that are been worked on currently.

Big screen - to emulate console experience on tv's. This is been for quite a while.
Streaming to internet, using steam client can stream to other steam users and/or watch other people's streams, doesnt need a 3rd party such as twitch to send/watch streams, all integrated, and can control resolution, bitrate etc.
Streaming to other devices in home, can do local network gaming, basically like a cloud service but only over the LAN.
Integrated modding of games via steamworks.
Cloud saves (again without subscription fee)

Steam is what microsoft tried to copy when they launched the xbox one but failed miserably.

PC's are already more powerful as well, but when DX12 starts been used by dev's it will be capable of destroying other platforms for performance and visuals.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sun 08-Feb-15 11:32:05)

The PS4 because of this will start to look isolated and 3rd party developers may be hesitant to do exclusives for it due to the market restriction.

You need to find a consistent position/opinion, otherwise it all sounds like copy and paste media hyperbole.

The other day you believed Sony had ditched all it's title exclusivity, with the sale of SOE. Do you believe they would do that in light of your claim above?

In other news, I will be considering a PC as soon as 4k TV's become realistically priced, purely for Project Cars and my new wheel set up. Unless of course the PS5 is out first with 4k capability.

But it will only be for Project Cars. I still prefer console for general gaming and exclusive titles.

there wont be a ps5, sony's future is cloud gaming by the time ps4 lifetime ends.

Their profit in consoles has been in the software side not hardware, they probably didnt want to even release the ps4 as it has now segmented their market and they would have had costs associated with releasing it.

In 10 years or so when ps4 is considered obselete, casual gamers will be playing sony games on cheap devices that can stream from sony's servers doing all the graphics processing.

exclusivity is the main thing that made me get so many games for the ps3/360 but thats nothing to do with experience but more so that the console vendors were bribing software publishers to be exclusive to their platform also I think 5 years ago steam was still maturing and many pc ports didnt have controller capability (no longer the case), whilst there is still some exclusives on the ps4 I am interested in, its only a handful. Square enix have already backed down on FF15, its now going to come to pc albeit it at a later date. This just leaves ff type0-hd and the new kingdom hearts game.

It seems I have no reason to even consider a xbox one, as all their exclusives like ryse son of rome (paid a fiver for it) are on steam.

I am not dishing the other platforms, they have their merits, and for some people it will remain their preferred choice, but just saying PC is making a good comeback. For years directx was abandoned by microsoft, they were only seeing the gaming future in their console, now they changed their opinion.

Also android has the same baseline in place as PC for success, it has a online digital distribution for all its software and the hardware is dynamic (not tied down to one spec).

Edited by Chrysalis (Sun 08-Feb-15 11:48:21)

Sorry, I still don't agree. But if 4k screens come down dramatically in price, I would head straight for PC for sim driving games. I'm sure the flight sim crowd are exactly the same and that's why it's not really seen on console. 4k monitors are not for me gaming wise. A 50" 4k telly is.

For normal gaming I'm not too bothered, but some of the 4k videos of Project Cars that are floating around are simply mind blowing. In the main I suspect because the development time is far less than that of story driven/motion capture games, so they can concentrate on the polish.

Rather than bribery, the main reason devs flock to consoles is because the market is easily measurable, without the aggravation of multiple optimisation.

Edited by mrnelster (Sun 08-Feb-15 12:51:20)

I have a 4k 55inch Sony Bravia.....point is there isn't any content on it,apparently Sky are rolling out 4k in the summer which they have bought forward as a direct response to BT.

Obviously it's subscription based and it's going to cost even more......

As for Driving Games then personally I couldn't care less if they were in 8k and they offer very little in gaming pleasure for me,even now I'm wandering why the hell I even reinvested in Drive Club again as I have absolutely no interest in putting it on and find the whole affair a tedious one at best.

Edited by time2die (Sun 08-Feb-15 14:08:04)

In 10 years or so when ps4 is considered obselete, casual gamers will be playing sony games on cheap devices that can stream from sony's servers doing all the graphics processing.

I can't see it lasting that long

I keep looking at building a new PC
Consoles are ok but I'm still a PC gamer at heart


And IMO the ps4 is [censored] rubbish and a big disappointment

Edited by deleted (Sun 08-Feb-15 18:52:17)

I am talking about been exclusive to one console. The only reason for that is cash payments or rather rebates on licensing fees.

since xbox one launch every game that has not been a exclusive to ps4 is also on the pc.

make no mistake, exclusivity to a segment of the market is only done when a financial incentive is given, this isnt just in games but in all markets, even dragons den mentions this. To give an example as well think of some recent games, assassins creed and a few other games the developers actually made a separate version for last gen consoles as they didnt want to lose that market.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sun 08-Feb-15 20:19:07)

Well sell it then and go back to PC Gaming as you won't be missed on my Playstation 4 Farmers don't generally play games anyway,normally got there hands around some udders at 5am.

I generally do the same but they only have 2 legs

Edited by time2die (Sun 08-Feb-15 20:46:31)

No,Swanny had is 10 days and he's bored .....I really don't get why you are constantly complaining about the Playstation 4,I agree it's taken a while to get some top notch games out and there is much to get excited about during the next few months .

Dying light is brilliant,the last of us is brilliant,GTA5 is brilliant ,Tomb Raider is brilliant,Infamous Second Son is Brilliant ,Drive club is [censored] [censored]

Edited by time2die (Sun 08-Feb-15 20:50:15)