   Change in market.... Computers vs. consoles
  Alright.... Where do we think the game market is heading ??? Will consoles kill the computer game market totally or will game programmers find profit in vertical markets and technologies that consoles are still lacking, such as more advanced “AI”, “Artificial Life”, or “virtual tech”?    
  Consoles are little more than the computers of tommorow sold at a loss.   ;  People have been predicting the death of computer games for a long time now. The fact is that as long as people have computers, they will play games on them.   ;Quote:Original post by JohnBoltonPeople have been predicting the death of computer games for a long time now. The fact is that as long as people have computers, they will play games on them.Precicely.When the Apple ][ came out.  It's a nice toy, but games will never sell.When the IBM PC came out.  Good for spreadsheets, but not good for games.The Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis, PSX, N64, etc, every time, the death of the PC game was foretold.  Heck, take a look at the Macintosh, or Linux.  There are games on them.The fact is, PC games have only gotten more popular over the years.  Think of it like the job market.  PC game sales are falling, but only having risen for a long time.  It happens.Take a look at the Sims, the highest selling PC game of all time.  How many copies did it sell?  10 million.  When did it come out?  In 2000.  In fact, just look at consoles vs pcs hereBest selling video game of all time (not included with bundles), Super Mario 3 at 17 million copies.  When was that released?  1988.  How many of those top PC games were released on or before 1998?  Heck, how many PC games had over a million sales before 1998?  Compare that with console sales.Every new generation of consoles will supposidly be the killing blow to the Personal Computer, but all that happens is the PC gets more popular, and consoles become more like PCs.  It was only recently that the PC supposidly surpassed the power of the original Playstation CPU.   ;Quote:Original post by JohnBoltonPeople have been predicting the death of computer games for a long time now. The fact is that as long as people have computers, they will play games on them....and with recent OSs requiring better baseline hardware (OSX and Vista) so they can offer uselessly transparent and shiny new titlebars, there's even less reason for the PC to go away.If anything, consoles recently switching towards PC oriented companies like Nvidia & ATI is all the better for the PC. These are companies who would be very unhappy to lose the shorter cycle of the PC business. Not to mention all the companies that produce those games, and the company that wants you to periodically buy a new PC, which comes with their OS, to play all those new games.Seriously, there are a lot of people who have a great interest in keeping the PC market going... and the console market for that matter... why wouldn't they want even more money?   ;  I tend to agree with the others that PC gaming isn't really threatened by the new consoles.  They are starting to take on more of the functionality that was largely reserved for PC (networking capabilities being the prime example), but I think both markets still have thier place.Consoles seem to offer more of a social gaming experience, where you sit down on the couch with a bunch of mates to play a game and yell at each other.  They also appeal to more casual gamers with the fact that games don't require installation and should just work "out of the box", as well as even now beginning to have some appeal to non-gamers with thier added functionality as DVD players and the like.PCs still offer a much easier platform for indie and hobbiest developers to target, and also cater more easily to those games that require the more complex input allowed by a keyboard.  In addition, internet gaming is still huge, and there's also the market for games that can be played in breaks from working, etc.Also, your signature is HUGE (it's taking about 3 times as much vertical space as your actual post!), and isn't clearly seperated from the actual posts content.  Try to cut it down a bit, and perhaps make it a little clearer that it isn't part of the post somehow.   ;  I believe PC games will never die, mainly because games are made on computers. Not to mention if im correct MMORPGS are one of the biggest things in the world right now.   ;  The crappy resolutions compared to a PC monitor and general lack of a keyboard and mouse is more than enough to make me pretty much completely stay away from consoles. There are certain games (mostly fighting, like Super Smash Bros and Soul Calibur series) that I like playing once in a while at friends' houses but I don't see myself buying a console in the near future. I'm sure there are other people that are pretty devoted to PC games too. They might become less popular but they won't die.   ;  It is interesting that the relationship between consoles and PCs is always expressed as exclusive or oppositional. Empirical evidence suggests that, instead, consoles and PCs are ultimately to be unified into the "computers" of tomorrow, as consoles become more PC-like and PCs become more console-like.*shrug* Ultimately, who cares? There will always be transitions in technology platforms, and software developers and computer programmers will always weather them, migrating some of their existing skills and acquiring some new ones, too.   ;  Thank you all,    More than anything it shows me that the people involved in development still have the drive to research, create, and find new ideas regardless of market trends and new technology that is changing the topography of game development. In entertainment that is more important than hardware or opinions.  :) There are many very good “Independent Movies” that had nearly no budget but sold very well and became well known and made money. People want entertainment and will pay for it. People also get bored with copies and sequels. Right now consoles have the big dollars to throw around, but also they have the Hollywood mentality that gave us sequel after sequel. “Executives do not a game developer make.”    I think computers will always push the envelope.