Is The Computer Gaming Industry Finished?

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by deccan:
Hey Atrocities, check your Calendar. It isn't April Fool's Day.

If it is I am not laughing.

Myst was a game like no other. It defined PC gaming as a genuen market and never looked back. To bad they closed their doors.

The Sims most recently have been the ticket and before them was Everquest (bla bla bla bla everquest)

Half-life came out but it was Counter-Strike that made it a success.

There have been many hits, but recently the market has declined dramatically in quality and inspiration. There are really no new games coming out, they are all formula X or sequels.

Most good PC games are being converted to consule as that is a blooming market right now. Hey why not, I mean you have to follow the money in order to stay in business right? But the flip side to that is that the PC market will become a neglected redheaded step child. And that is no april fools joke deccan.

[geoschmo]

People have been sounding the death knell for PC games for ten year Atrociites. You just had this stunning revalation today?

As long as there are still PC's there will still be PC games. They may not dominate the market like they used to. But 90% of what was sold during the hey day was trash anyway. You may have to wait a few months for the console games to be ported to the PC, instead of teh other way around like used to happen, but it will still happen. And there will always be a place for games like SE4 that frankly don't work on a console, and don't have the kind of sales to make putting it on a console feasible.

By the way, where did you get this rumor that SEIV was being developed as a console game? I am not saying it's not true, but this is the first I have heard of it, and frankly it doesn't make a lot of sense in my opinion. All of the reasons SE4 is only available Online and not in retail stores are even MORE true for console games.

Edit: To remove some comments that sounded harsher then I intended. Sorry Atrocities.

Geoschmo

[ November 07, 2003, 12:14: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Slynky]

Money rules everything. The money market for gaming these days has become kids. Kids whose parents buy them everything and let them live at home till age 20-something. They get jobs that maintain the Mustang that mommy and daddy bought for them and the rest goes into feeding the (usually) multiple game boxes connected the TV to be used for entertainment purposes when they aren't out at one of those stupid movies made for that same age (translation: "Jack ***" etc.).

Ahhh, but I digress.

IMHO (yeah, right!), there will always be someone to make games for the PC platform. After all, if EVERY company quit doing it, SOMEONE would have to wake up one day and smell the customer's coffee and think, "Hey, we could be the ONLY company making a game for the PC! No competition!" (and then the cycle would start all over again as everyone hopped on the band wagon because 90% of the businesses out there don't have an independent thougt...hence the overloaded bandwagon of stupid-*** reality TV shows!)

[tesco samoa]

i agree aswell. The industry is moving back to its old format. Small companies making games they want to make and dedicated following. I am guessing in about 10 years or so this will take off and companies will join in on the band wagon. Wash Rinse Repeat. Or we will go the way of board top games... Which is ok as well.

[primitive]

The gaming industry in general is slowly approaching maturity. Whats going to happen is the same as happens in every other industry that grows out of the boom phase. The mass marked will be dominated by a few large companies with some niche companies (like Shrapnel) providing games for the fringe markets (like us ). Expect to see an even higher number of bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions in the gaming industry over the next few years.

PC vs Console. Some types of games just plays better on one type of system. But, it’s the money who rules; if there’s a market then there will be suppliers.

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
People have been sounding the death knell for PC games for ten year Atrociites. You just had this stunning revalation today?

Make fun of the idea guy. Seriously, its not a revalation as you have described, but more of a point of fact that this sounding of the death knell of PC games is no longer a "the sky is falling" chant, but has become more of a reality.

[ November 07, 2003, 12:44: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

[Loser]

If you didn't worry abotu the interface, but just about the requirements of the stock game, how primative, how old of a consol could you run SE IV on?

I would be most amused to find, one day, a SNES port of Space Empires IV.