Re: There's no need for a new Xbox, says Microsoft

On Jan 15, 3:28 pm, Doug Jacobs <djac...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Morgan <nos...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I'm not disputing that the console market is more lucrative, or that
console gaming is more popular. I'm simply saying that's it's completely
and total incorrect to say that PC gaming is dead because it clearly isn't.

Agreed, but I think we can agree that the market for PC games from large
publishers has largely decreased.  The amount of space retailers dedicate
to PC software is much smaller than that of the PS3 or 360, for instance.  
Even then, much of the PC software is for more casual games, like the
latest iteration of "find the object" or whatnot, as opposed to more
serious PC games.  At the same time, the market for PC games is moving
from the brick & mortar store shelf to digital download services.

Unfortunately for the PC gaming market, the increases on the digital
download side have not kept up with the decreases in the retail side
which is why the "core" market has been on a downward slide.

Depends, give it another year and magazines like Games TM are still
multi platform, *some* people are gonna think "bloody hell the graphics
on that look nice.  I'm not saying that PC game sales will sky rocket..
I'm just saying that there will be a period of measurable growth.

Console gaming has always been more accessible to people than PC gaming.  
If a title is available for the PC and a console, the console version is
going to sell more.

I really can't think of any upcoming PC release in the next 24 months that
would drive PC sales in the way a big console title can drive console
sales.  Even things like the latest update to WoW will still run
reasonably well on today's entry level laptops and PCs.  You aren't going
to see folks rushing to buy higher-end PCs or even update their graphics
cards (or buying a Sound Blaster) as you did in the past.  Now if some new
game comes along and demands a new technology, say, 3d, then you might see
something like this again.

But for the most part, anything beyond casual games or WoW on the PC still
has the reputation for requiring more technical savvy, and more expensive
equipment as barriers for entry.  PC games can look better than the same
title on a console - no one is going to argue that.  But whether the
tradeoffs are worth it compared to a console.

Again, an unfortunate for the PC side of the industry as the tradeoffs
are not at all worth it for most gamers.

When you remove all of the casual and MMO games from the PC games
market, the remainder of the games - RTS, RPG, FPS, etc. - combine to
make up a rather small portion of the total games market.

But you can't just decide to ignore a large chunk of a platform because
it suits you.  It make no less sense to day "If you discount all, third
person action games and sports games then the console market isn't doing
much better than the PC one."

Outside of WoW, The Sims, and games like  Bejeweled and maybe Peggle,
there isn't that much to the PC gaming market anymore.

Bingo.

I'm not sure what you think I'm disagreeing with you on though. Like I
said, I'm not suggesting that the current state of the PC market is
comparable to that of consoles. Just that it's not dead.

I'm reminded of the bit from Monty Python's Holy Grail in which a guy
keeps trying to put his mother in law on the cart of corpses, and the lady
keeps chirping "I'm not dead yet!"

Except that was funny and this is just sad.
.

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