Playstation 4

[Doombrain]

Look at the size of that thing.

[zewulf]

No one’s saying PC gaming is dying here, but compared to the mainstream, it is more or less a niche market whether you deny it or not, especially when you’re talking about those hardcore nutters who spend $1K+ on a graphics card alone. The last time I used a desktop PC was the gaming rig I built, and that was more than 10 years ago. I moved on to laptops, which wasn’t really suitable for gaming back then. Although laptops can now be a proper platform for PC gaming, I’m now ready to move on to tablets, so the cycle starts again.

Sure if you’re not a hardcore PC gamer, and you start off with a decent gaming PC, you can probably make it last 3 or more years if you’re not too fussy about frame rates, high quality settings, or playing at your LCD’s native resolution, but that doesn’t negate the fact that you’d still need to upgrade sooner and more frequently. Another big factor affecting your PC’s mileage is the games themselves. Some games will simply run better than others. For a multiplatform title, it’s even entirely possible that medium settings may get you by and be playable on your PC but actually looks worse and with lower frame rates than the console version. It’s a no brainer then which version I’d rather play.

I have to admit I’m not as crazy as I used to be about gaming, and I really don’t have time to be playing games anymore. In the end, which platform I game on is irrelevant. I do it on the platform that meets my needs and makes sense to me the most, which I’m afraid is not the PC platform. Could I get/build a separate PC just for gaming? Absolutely. But is it going to be worth it for me? No.

Oh, and I may be poor, but at least I’m debt-free and can still afford the more expensive console games

[zewulf]

Sony handing out PS4 dev kits "like candy." I'm no developer, but I wonder if I can get one too...

http://www.gamespot.com/news/sony-loani ... ar-6412084

[scared?]

Zenerd or just plain Zepoor?...

[shaft]

guy who hasn't built a pc in 10 years proceeds to tell everyone what type of mileage you can get out of a modern gaming pc....sounds legit.

[obsidian]

...compared to the mainstream, it is more or less a niche market whether you deny it or not

... which is why Valve and Steam has an annual revenue of $600-800 million and had passed the $1-billion sales mark in 2011. There are over 54 million active user accounts and over 6 million concurrent players. Just Steam, not counting the entire PC market. Yup, sounds like a pretty niche market.

...especially when you’re talking about those hardcore nutters who spend $1K+ on a graphics card alone.

So your perception of the entire PC gaming community has been formed by looking at the top 1% of ultra-enthusiasts? God, who can afford to drive anymore, a Bugatti Veyron costs over $2-million.

For a multiplatform title, it’s even entirely possible that medium settings may get you by and be playable on your PC but actually looks worse and with lower frame rates than the console version.

I don't know what gave you that idea. Even a low end budget PC rivals the performance of the latest unreleased consoles, so even if the game is unoptimized a PC will still chug through it. Most multiplatform games will have better texture resolutions, antialiasing and other special effects on the PC. There are lazy console-to-PC ports (Borderlands, for instance) where stuff like the interface is optimized for a controller instead of keyboard/mouse, but it's still quite playable, performance is great, and if you want you can plug in your Xbox controller. The same can be said in reverse, there are some pretty awkward PC-to-console ports as well, but graphics are almost always striped down.




Everyone here understands that everyone games on the platform that works best for them, but it seems as if you keep trying to marginalize the PC market as some kind of archaic niche that will be phased out by tablets of all things. Consoles haven't been able to make a dent in the PC gaming market, I don't know what makes you think that a device with even less performance power will somehow replace it.

There are two figures at play here:

• The overall gaming market is constantly growing.
• The market is diversifying across different devices.

But at no point is there any indication that one device is cannibalizing the gaming market of another device, each is growing independently.

[bitWISE]

You've been able to get a strong video card for ~$300 for this whole generation. Dropping $1k only gets you nerd points on obscure benchmarks.

[scared?]

Lol dumb poor ppl!...

[GONNAFISTYA]

I thought of replying to zewulf's idiotic post, but it's really a waste of time as he believes so much total bullshit. I mean, his first sentence is so blatantly wrong it's like attempting to reason with a Fox News fan who's swallowed the whole "birther" thing whole...there's no getting through because the walls of BS are simply too thick. I'll say this one more time and then I'm only going to bash from here on out: the PC is the LARGEST gaming platform, with the LARGEST number of users, the LARGEST number of games available for it and the LARGEST SKU that generates profits for devs/publishers.

For the last time, PC is not dying/dead/whatever stupid bullshit you've heard from some retarded gaming site/angry editorial. It's not a fucking niche market.

Fucking idiots.

Sigh...I find I'm having this attitude more and more with gamers who have no fucking clue what they're talking about. All this stupid reminds me of that fucking air-headed mother I met on the plane who thought my job was "to ruin children". Politeness just doesn't fucking work anymore.

[shaft]

Guy drops $180 on XBL for 3 years then says $180 for a video card every 3 years is a high barrier of entry.

[scared?]

Lol...this zeguy is extremely dumb!...

[scared?]

Also...I bet new gen games will look shitty for years...about the same as current Xbox...lol consoles...

[MKJ]

Guy drops $180 on XBL for 3 years then says $180 for a video card every 3 years is a high barrier of entry.

Good point

[zewulf]

Problem is, when you upgrade and depending on the games, you typically would not just be upgrading the graphics card alone, unless your PC was out of balance to begin with (e.g., the GPU being the bottleneck).

[shaft]

Problem is, you're wrong...most people don't upgrade all their components at once...that's called buying a new pc. I have an i7 from '08 with a gfx card from '10 which plays shit at 5x the quality of a ps3. If I was satisfied with console level graphics I would've kept my gfx card from '06. You don't even PC bro...just stop.

[Don Carlos]

Shaft is right; if I dropped £200 on a new GFX card I know my processor would be strong enough to cope with most games. My processor is 3 years old....

[Plan B]

I've been on a pretty consistent 3 year cycle for buying a new pc. For about 1200 bucks that's 400 bucks a year.
Consoles are on an 8 year cycle. For about 400 bucks plus 60 bucks a year for Live, that's 110 bucks a year.

Simply put like that, console gaming *is* cheaper. No debate there, really. A 300 buck pc is not going to outperform a console.

But comparing the two is a bit odd anyway, because you do so much more with a pc apart from gaming.
And gaming wise, I still prefer pc for its superior fidelity, customisability and of course keyboard and mouse support.
However, if high fidelity is your main concern, the new consoles will give current pcs a run for their money, so it would make sense to go with a PS4 or xbox1 and a low end pc if your pc craps out in the next few months.

[obsidian]

[Eraser]

But comparing the two is a bit odd anyway, because you do so much more with a pc apart from gaming.

Yeah, what most people are forgetting is that if you buy a console, you're most likely going to buy a (low-end) PC or tablet anyway because you need it to be able to type your Word documents and/or read the latest Facebook gossip. So that's 300 to 500 dollars you need to count on top of your console purchase.

edit:
also lets not forget that while the current generation of consoles lasted about 8 years, previously consoles were on cycles of 5 years or so. Additionally, don't forget that it wasn't until the current generation of consoles that the consoles have even been able to compete with PC graphical quality wise (early on in their life cycle I mean). Xbox, PS2 and GameCube haven't been able to compete with the PC at any time.

[bitWISE]

Not trying to support the console argument but you guys do know you can get live for $35 a year right?

[Plan B]

Yeah, what most people are forgetting is that if you buy a console, you're most likely going to buy a (low-end) PC or tablet anyway because you need it to be able to type your Word documents and/or read the latest Facebook gossip. So that's 300 to 500 dollars you need to count on top of your console purchase.

True, but 10 year old XP PCs can still perform those tasks quite adequately.
I may have sidetracked the thread a bit myself, but it should concern whether purchasing either of the new consoles is worth it, and IMO in some cases it is.

also lets not forget that while the current generation of consoles lasted about 8 years, previously consoles were on cycles of 5 years or so. Additionally, don't forget that it wasn't until the current generation of consoles that the consoles have even been able to compete with PC graphical quality wise (early on in their life cycle I mean). Xbox, PS2 and GameCube haven't been able to compete with the PC at any time.

Well, it's all fortune telling of course. 5 year cycle to 8 year cycle. Let's just say it's not going to be a 1 year cycle.
And of course these new consoles are already at a disadvantage compared to high-end PCs.
I doubt casual gamers on a smaller budget slouching on their sofa's can be arsed to tell the difference between antialiasing methods, though.

[Eraser]

True. In this discussion I've argued on both sides of the argument. I think there are valid reasons for buying a console in general, but there's also valid reasons for choosing a PC over a console. Technically, the PC may have the upper hand, but buying a console doesn't automatically make you a moron.

[scared?]

Not trying to support the console argument but you guys do know you can get live for $35 a year right?

?...

[bitWISE]

http://bit.ly/163ro1A

[Don Carlos]

So there were rumours of an October 21st launch date to try and steal a march on the Xbox One-eighty...

Now they plan to release the release date on August 20th...wonder if it will be the October date? It would be a hammer blow to Microsoft if it is.