A Post-Desktop/Post-PC World?

[Ack-Ack]

PCs aren't going to go anywhere.  PCs sales are down because of the ecomonic conditions in this country and worldwide and people are more likely to keep with their existing PC and upgrade instead of purchasing a new one.  The average age of a PC in a consumer's home is 2 years.

ack-ack

[smoe]

In the future all electronic devices will most likely un-evolve to this:  

[CptTrips]

PC gaming is getting more and more niche as time goes on. 

I don't think PC gaming will disappear any time soon, but its obvious that it doesn't hold the dominant position it once did, and I don't see it getting any better, only worse, slowly but surely.

An interesting read:
http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/goinglopsided/the-decline-in-pc-gaming-202762.phtml

Wab

[Meatwad]

I knew things were going downhill when Best Buy stopped selling PC games.

Actually I cant think of a place where I can go in and buy a PC game anymore

[Ack-Ack]

I don't think PC gaming will disappear any time soon, but its obvious that it doesn't hold the dominant position it once did, and I don't see it getting any better, only worse, slowly but surely.

An interesting read:
http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/goinglopsided/the-decline-in-pc-gaming-202762.phtml

Wab

That "paper" only looks at one aspect, namely the negative effect piracy has had, as it claims piracy is the #1 reason for the decline of PC gaming, which it isn't.  Console games are pirated just as much as PC games, in some cases even more (Call of Duty II is a prime example) but yet the decline in console games isn't being blamed on piracy but rather the poor economic conditions we face, which is the same reason for the decline in PC gaming and PCs in general.  It's very hard to justify spending $49 for a PC game or $59 for a console game today due to the economy, or spending a thousand or so for a new PC when you can upgrade your existing PC for a fraction of that cost.

Every so often we're told that PC and PC gaming is on the decline and will be replaced by such and such product but in the 17 years I've been in this industry, PC games and PC desktops are still around.

ack-ack

[cattb]

I am curious to how smart tvs will effect having a pc in the future for some people. I'm curious to see how smart tvs evolve in 5 to 8 years.

[coombz]

Console games are pirated just as much as PC games, in some cases even more

not even close to being true   

[vorticon]

the content matters. everything else is just a box collecting dust in the corner and varying methods of input.

[CptTrips]

That "paper" only looks at one aspect, namely the negative effect piracy has had, as it claims piracy is the #1 reason for the decline of PC gaming, which it isn't.  

Ack-Ack,

I'm sure you have insight into the PC game market that I don't.  I'm not sure I believe that piracy is the #1 reason, but I not be surprised its really close.  I'd be interested in any supporting information to the contrary.

You are right that the industry is down to some extent across the board because of the economy.  however, people are finding billions of dollars to spend on mobile devices and mobile games so I don't think the economy can be the whole story.
  

Console games are pirated just as much as PC games, in some cases even more (Call of Duty II is a prime example)

I'd be interested in any supporting links you could provide for that.  At least in the article in question, the stats are shown as PC having over 4 times the piracy rate as console (if I'm reading the numbers right thru my Dayquil haze).  That means profit margins on console would be 400% higher right from the start.  Pretty compelling.



Android has the same problems for a lot of the same reasons.  Not only have a lot of development shops dropped support for Android because of the maddening fragmentation but the piracy is insane (sounds like PC to me).  One shop thru server interaction was seeing 11 to 1 piracy rate.

Every so often we're told that PC and PC gaming is on the decline and will be replaced by such and such product but in the 17 years I've been in this industry, PC games and PC desktops are still around.

I don't think PC's are going to vanish.  I just think their day as the premier gaming platform are over.

Wab

[Ack-Ack]

not even close to being true    

It's very true, console games are pirated just as much as PC games.  For example, about 3 years ago we released a game on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 and sold about a few million units of the game, with the Xbox 360 version accounting for a slight majority of those sold.  After a post sales analysis, we found out that close to a million units were pirated worldwide of our game, with the vast majority being the Xbox 360 version.  Pirated games on the PS3 are less common than those for the Xbox but that's only because of the Blue-Ray format, its more time consuming to burn copies to Blue-Ray than the DVD format used by the Xbox 360.



ack-ack

[CptTrips]

It's very true, console games are pirated just as much as PC games.  For example, about 3 years ago we released a game on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 and sold about a few million units of the game, with the Xbox 360 version accounting for a slight majority of those sold.  After a post sales analysis, we found out that close to a million units were pirated worldwide of our game, with the vast majority being the Xbox 360 version.  Pirated games on the PS3 are less common than those for the Xbox but that's only because of the Blue-Ray format, its more time consuming to burn copies to Blue-Ray than the DVD format used by the Xbox 360.

It sounds on first read you are comparing xbox piracy rate to ps3 piracy rate.  But the question is PC piracy rate as a percentage of units sold to console piracy rate as a percentage of units sold, isn't it? 

You are asserting that console piracy rates, as a percentage of units sold, for consoles are equal to or higher than PC?

Wab

[Ardy123]

Ack-Ack is correct when it comes to piracy... PC & Console are bad, Mobile is worse!

PCs aren't going to go anywhere.  PCs sales are down because of the ecomonic conditions in this country and worldwide and people are more likely to keep with their existing PC and upgrade instead of purchasing a new one.  The average age of a PC in a consumer's home is 2 years.

ack-ack

Not quite true... PC sales are down because people don't need to upgrade, simple as that. PC games are down because most AAA PC game titles require huge budgets to compete so publishers are going to take significantly less risk. Contrast that to mobile games where most are made on tiny budgets around 100,000 dollars.

[CptTrips]

Ack-Ack is correct when it comes to piracy... PC & Console are bad, Mobile is worse!

Just so I understand, you are also asserting that Console piracy rate is equal to or greater than PC piracy rate?

That's an extraordinary claim.  Can you point me to some supporting info on that?

I know piracy is epidemic on Android, and I know it exists on jail broken IOS.
Are you asserting that piracy rate as a percentage of sales is equal to or higher for IOS as compared to PC?
Again, that is contrary to what I have understood.  Can you point at some numbers?

Wab

 

[Ardy123]

Just so I understand, you are also asserting that Console piracy rate is equal to or greater than PC piracy rate?

No, I'm asserting that its higher than you think but compared to the currently growing market, both are child's play.

Can you point at some numbers?

I can't because CEOs of publishers regularly blame their poor numbers/products on piracy, so discerning the BS from the truth is challenging.... I suspect that mobile from 65% to 95%. Some people have claimed that on android alone its a 9:1 for piracy (9 pirated to 1 purchased)! Oh, and sorry iOS cool-aid drinkers, its piracy is high there too... again I don't have exact figures...

EDIT: I do have numbers on certain products in the market place, but I can't speak freely of them.

[coombz]

To play pirated games on, for example, an Xbox, requires physical modification of the console itself. This leads to your online account being banned if you ever try to play games online with that machine.

So...requires money and effort just to be able to play pirated games...plus the fact that you can never use it to play online again.

Compared to PC piracy, where it takes just a couple of clicks to download a torrent of a new game, and this does not prevent you from playing other non-pirated games online if you wish. In fact you can even play some pirated games online depending on the level of anti-piracy stuff.

It's a lot easier to pirate stuff on the Nintendo Wii and DS, but less people using those consoles are inclined to piracy (well, the Wii at least). I don't know for sure about the PS3 but I assume it's something similar to the Xbox, where once you have altered your console either physically or via some kind of software hack, you can't use it for online stuff anymore.

In conclusion, it's ridiculous to suggest that console game piracy is as prevalent as PC game piracy. Only a small percentage of console owners bother to hack their machines to play pirated material, because of the effort and downsides involved.

Ack-Ack, I don't see how your mention that your companies' game released for Xbox and PS3 was pirated roughly 1/3rd as much as it was sold is relevant  no one is saying that console piracy doesn't exist....just that it is not as common as the pirating of PC games. I am just pulling this suspicion out of my bum...but I would strongly suspect suspect that for a great many PC games (especially single player ones) they are pirated by as much as 50% of people and paid for by the other 50%