I resisted to believe that pc gaming was dead but this just made me realize the hard truth: the only games the pc will see in the future will be online FPS and online MMORPG's , in other words any game that needs an internet connection all the time. (so it can be checked against a vault of legit copies) PC Play: How do you estimate the current state of the PC gaming industry? Some say that it's only a matter of time when it's going to finally die-off, the others say that "the big one" is only getting its comeback pace. Considering Crysis is a PC-exclusive title, what do you think of its market reception and its future? Skeptics would say that it's pretty risky going PC-exclusive with such a high-profile title. Cevat Yerli: It is certainly. We are suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis. We seem to lead the charts in piracy by a large margin, a chart leading that is not desirable. I believe that’s the core problem of PC Gaming, piracy. To the degree PC Gamers that pirate games inherently destroy the platform. Similar games on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more. It was a big lesson for us and I believe we wont have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future. We are going to support PC, but not exclusive anymore. more here http://www.pcplay.hr/modules.php?r=23

That's a very misleading thread title. They're still developing games for pc, only not exclusively. They never say "it's not worth it" like they're gonna stop developing games for pc altogether.

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I resisted to believe that pc gaming was dead but this just made me realize the hard truth: the only games the pc will see in the future will be online FPS and online MMORPG's , in other words any game that needs an internet connection all the time. (so it can be checked against a vault of legit copies)

Um. No?

Just because one developer -- of a game that didn't sell so hot, so it's understandable why he's all bitter about piracy -- says they won't be going PC-exclusive any longer hardly means that "PC gaming is dead" and that the only PC titles you'll seen from now on are always-on internet stuff.

I fail to see how you draw these conclusions based on anything but your own fear, uncertainty and doubt.

No fears at all ( I really dont care what happens to the pc gaming industry , Ill just move on where the games are)
i got my reasons after reading lots of developers thoughts on pc gaming.

you are more than welcomed to go check hardforums , in their pc gaming subforum there was a long thread about this same subject, there you will see quotes from other developers , quite interesting read.

if the title of this thread was misleading to you, I apologize , maybe I got that one wrong but that was what I felt at the moment of writing

edit: would you care to express what is your view on the future of pc gaming?

The sky is falling etc...

PC Gaming dying due to piracy? Stardock Disagrees, and for all their whining, Crysis itself seems to be doing better than expected. So very dying, this market is.

Casual games, RTSes, God games... there's a lot more than FPSes and MMOs that are basically defacto PC exclusive, even ignoring the fact that this noise about "PC Gaming Dying" has been around basically since PC Gaming began.

Console gaming is dying, not PC gaming.

Every console this generation has failed to live up to the hype. The 360 has price gouging up the wazoo, hardware failures, draconian region coding of Xbox live accounts that can’t be taken overseas, DLC issues. The PS3 has a poor selection of games, high price tag, poor online, lots of pie in the sky promises that may never be. The Wii is struggling with third party support, has no third party killer app yet, terrible online, terrible storage, terrible global shipping dates.

Every generation there was the go to console. The Snes and Genises were fantastic. The PSX was ground breaking. The PS2 was a perfect middle ground for people. This generation, every console seems to be just trying to keep their head above water. At the moment I don’t see any of the three consoles as something we can look back at and say "That was the best console" like previous generations, it's like trying to pick the best of two rotten apples and a pineapple that tastes like poop.

In the last year, Mass Effect is the only game I've played that was worth getting a console for, ignoring the fact for the moment it's on PC anyway. 5 out of the 6 great games I’ve played since last year have been on the PC. World in Conflict, Orange Box, Cod4, Bioshock and The Club (personal taste) were all on the PC with mouse and keyboard support, free online, dedicated servers and clearer voice support. Console gaming is the way to go?


One of the most common criticisms thrown at PC gaming is the price. What people seem to forget is that most PC owners, regardless of whether they are into PC gaming or not, tend to have a pretty beastly PC for work anyway. Chuck a $300 video card in most computers and they will already have enough RAM and speed to play any game on the market. Sure two or three years from now you might have to spend $1000 to upgrade you PC, but most people do that regardless. I don’t see upgrading my PC as a $1000 investment to play games, I see it as $700 I need to spend anyway if I want to have a PC and a $300 gaming card. When you compare that to the price of a PS3, it’s easy to see why consoles are running themselves into the ground.

Frankly I cant wait for this generation to be over and done with as soon as possible. Come next generation Microsoft will wheel out the $600 Xbox 720, Sony will launch a $400 PS4, and Nintendo will make a cheap $250 waggle-O-matic-2000. Thus with an obvious middle ground for people to jump onto, things shall return to the 'cheap/medium/hardcore' balance.

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I resisted to believe that pc gaming was dead but this just made me realize the hard truth: the only games the pc will see in the future will be online FPS and online MMORPG's , in other words any game that needs an internet connection all the time. (so it can be checked against a vault of legit copies)

Although this has been discussed to death, I'll be paraphrasing from a post Draginol made about Piracy & PC Gaming.

PC gaming isn't dieing. The hard truth is not that only online FPS's and online MMORPG's, or things that require an internet connection are going to be the future and the only thing that sells. It's about sales. Sooner or later companies will stop making games that look good, or they can brag about, and start making games that sell.

Honestly, does Crytek moving away from system exclusivity surprise you? Regardless of if it sold 100 million copies or 1 copy, expanding your audience is good.

And about Crysis and piracy? Let's be honest a moment. Crysis isn't a game designed at people who pay money for games. Now, developers would like people to pay, but piracy exists, it is a problem, yet piracy as it currently stands also requires a lot of technical know-how. So you respond with "Well, anyone can pirate. You just need to go onto google and search for ...". It's not that easy. You need to know where to search, what sites/etc are good, virus scan, etc. It might be easy for people who've worked with computers for awhile, but for your typical casual gamer, anything that requires more know how and effort than your typical console game is too complicated. And let's be honest. Crysis is the poster boy for games that require lots of tweaking. Thus, Crysis is targetted towards people who are more likely to pirate than people who are more likely to pay.

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My $.02 - just as it is now, alive and well. If you'd done a bit more research, you'd have found that the cry of "PC gaming is dead" has been around for at least a decade or more.

I've been reading the early issues of CGW (thank you CGW Museum!), and apparently, PC gaming has been dieing since it's inception, which was 1981, before the birth of the IBM PC, what we commonly think of the PC now.

And in 2007, PC Games accounted for 14% of Retail Game Sales in the US. $911 million, compared with $6.6 billion which accounts for all the consoles combined. And this doesn't account for digital distribution.

From Reuters:

According to the data compiled by the NPD Group, overall U.S.
video game console software sales reached $6.6 billion (153.9 million
units), computer games sales were $910.7 million (36.4 million units),
and a record $2.0 billion (77.5 million units) in portable software
sales. In terms of total units sold, approximately 267.8 million
computer and video games were sold in 2007.


And PC software isn't doing shabby either, with it's best year in almost a decade.

PC gaming isn't dieing, it's diversifying.