Maybe it’s PC gaming that could fade away, not consoles

For years people have been saying game consoles will become extinct and PC gaming is the future, but I’m starting to think the opposite could come true. Microsoft officially bringing keyboard and mouse support to the Xbox is part of this, it really is a game changer (we probably won’t see/feel the full effects of this move until the next-gen Xbox though). And about sales: in November in the US, for the first time in history, all 3 ‘home’ consoles sold over 1.3 million units each, which is especially impressive when you consider the Xbox One and PS4 aren’t new anymore. People want game consoles more than ever, they’re not fading away at all. Personally, if the next Elder Scrolls has keyboard and mouse support on the next-gen Xbox, why would I bother playing it on a PC?

Conversation 20 comments

  • skane2600

    05 January, 2019 - 8:55 pm

    <p>I think for the mainstream market you're probably right. The Switch has been a big success even though it doesn't use bleeding edge technology. I doubt that PC gaming will go away altogether but it's diminished in importance.</p><p><br></p><p>IMO, there's another lesson here: dedicated devices have advantages over "do everything" devices. I doubt that smartphones will ever displace consoles for the same reasons that PCs won't displace them.</p>

    • Bdsrev

      05 January, 2019 - 9:58 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#392064">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>Good point about the Switch, it uses an SoC from 2015 and it's selling like crazy, in a year from now it will have caught up to Xbox One sales!</p><p><br></p><p>Another funny thing about the Switch: I remember reading that smartphones will make dedicated gaming handhelds like the PS Vita and 3DS obsolete. The Switch is a dedicated gaming handheld and it's probably Nintendo's best selling console to date… Hopefully Sony puts out a Playstation handheld soon</p>

      • Daishi

        Premium Member
        06 January, 2019 - 10:21 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#392091">In reply to Bdsrev:</a></em></blockquote><p>What actually really surprises me is that we haven’t seen Sony make a bigger push to differentiate their fairly poorly performing phones business by linking it to the PlayStation brand. If they just ported the back catalogue of PSP and PS Vita games (and probably a bunch of PS2/3 games) to run on Android, accessible only from Sony phones, and sold a $50-70 controller accessory to put your Sony phone in, they could have given people a real reason to chose them, rather than just being yet another Android phone maker in the sea of Android phone makers.</p>

  • sherlockholmes

    Premium Member
    06 January, 2019 - 2:21 am

    <p>Maybe its time to stopp speculations like this? PC Gaming is just a huge business market. PCs have one big advantage over consoles: You can easyly change part of the hardware. </p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    06 January, 2019 - 3:33 am

    <p>I bought a PS2 when I got mono in 2001. I had just sold my house and was planning a move abroad, living in a hotel in Germany, when I came down with mono. I had 3 months of recouperation before me and had to move in with my mother until I was capable of looking for a temporary flat. </p><p>All my stuff was in storage, so I bought a PS2 as I could game on it, but more importantly, I could watch DVDs on it.</p><p>I bought, I think, half a dozen games for it over the years, but I think I played Gran Tourismo 3 and GTA3 regularly (once a month), after the initial 3 months of use. When it broke in 2006, I didn't replace it.</p><p>Apart from playing my brother's 2600 when I was a kid, that is the total of my console ownership.</p><p>That said, I haven't played a computer based game, other than Solitaire since 2008. I do have a couple of tower defence games on my smartphone, but they are for when I am sitting in waiting room etc.</p><p>What I do have is a cupboard full of board and card games and the family and our friends get together regularly to play (our kids, mid 20s, throught our friends (40s – 50s) to the grand parents (80+)).</p>

  • Greg Green

    06 January, 2019 - 11:12 am

    <p>I think Microsoft’s move to link Xbox and PC shows that PC gaming can’t be ignored. Revenue wise it’s still mobile gaming on top with about US$50 billion, console games at $33B and PC games at about $32B ($5B comes from PC browser games!). From <span style="color: rgb(43, 43, 43);">GamesIndustry.biz</span></p><p><br></p><p>Interesting side note from Hollywood Reporter: Without 'Fortnite,' Console Gaming Revenue Would Have Declined 6 Percent From Last Year</p><p><br></p><p>So maybe console gaming is more dependent on hits than PC gaming.</p><p><br></p>

  • simont

    Premium Member
    06 January, 2019 - 1:37 pm

    <p>For the simple reason that some gamestypes just don't play well on a console. Think strategy games like Civilization or RTS games. </p>

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    06 January, 2019 - 2:31 pm

    <p>Gaming is huge and there are success to be had on all platforms. You have not even considered Mobile. All three these platforms are doing well and growing. All three can exists without one fading or failing. </p>

  • justme

    Premium Member
    06 January, 2019 - 3:19 pm

    <p>I think the move to link XBox and PC is more about the console than it is the PC. Fortnite really helped consoles – to the point that without it, console revenue would have been down. I think bringing the mouse and keyboard to a console is about expanding the types of games a conosle can play well. I also think that there is plenty of room in the market for consoles, PCs, and mobile.</p><p><br></p><p>I will become alarmed for the state of PC gaming when Microsoft makes the ultimate money grab – charging a subscription for the use of Windows. Think consumer version of Microsoft365. They may have said in the past that they wont, but I put nothing past them because its money and they are a business.</p>

  • martinusv2

    Premium Member
    06 January, 2019 - 10:04 pm

    <p>For FPS games, consoles are no brainer for sure. They don't even need a keyboard or mouse. </p><p><br></p><p>But for other type of games like RTS, the devs would have to make the game keyboard or mouse only? For turn based strategy games like BattleTech, I think it would work well without a keyboard and mouse on console. I know that xCom remake did work nicely on console.</p><p><br></p><p>I would have added MMORPG to the list but the Elder Scroll Online seems to work well with a gamepad.</p><p><br></p><p>One thing I would say it's the MODS that you have for Fallout or Elder Scroll games that you can't find on consoles.</p><p><br></p><p>But if could play all my games on console with keyboard / mouse support, I would switch and have only a good laptop for productivity work. </p>

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    07 January, 2019 - 3:04 am
  • Thom77

    07 January, 2019 - 2:31 pm

    <p>"<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">&nbsp;if the next Elder Scrolls has keyboard and mouse support on the next-gen Xbox, why would I bother playing it on a PC?"</span></p><p><br></p><p>mods, a lot of which are not compatible with Xbox because they limit the access mods have.</p><p><br></p><p>The future isnt console. It's streaming, which will give total control to the companies and destroy pirating for the most part. But I am totally against it. Today, your twitch account is banned. In the future, it will be your Xbox account and access to your games. It will happen. These companies are bowing to the SJW mob left and right. And before people knee jerk on that comment …. In the future, it might be a different type of mob, perhaps Christian, perhaps some new movement. I don't care which mob it is … I dont want any of them to have any power to use their fake "outrage" as a weapon to restrict my gaming ability or freedoms in an attempt to censor me because they cannot compete in the battleground of ideas. </p><p><br></p><p>Also, remember that we would no longer own our games, like we no longer own our movies on Itunes, where previously bought Disney movies suddenly disappeared and Apple said "You never owned them" when people complained. </p><p><br></p><p>Basically, we will be paying for a subcription to game, along with inflated internet costs to allow gaming speeds. $$$$$. Internet goes out …. sorry. Make a passing comment about a THOT on twitch that is 100% accurate …. banned. Lose your job and cant pay for either your internet or gaming pass …. adios gaming. </p><p><br></p><p>Luckily, the infrastructure isnt in place (on either end) for totally streamed games anytime in the future.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • Craig Smith

      07 January, 2019 - 5:33 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#392599"><em>In reply to Thom77:</em></a><em> </em><em style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sounds like you've been behaving badly online and feel a bit sensitive about it. </em></blockquote><p><br></p>

    • maethorechannen

      Premium Member
      08 January, 2019 - 7:47 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#392599">In reply to Thom77:</a></em></blockquote><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">It's just a matter of time before the people currently chanting "free speech has consequences" find themselves on the wrong end of both that phrase and retroactively applied moral standards. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">Still, I'm actually more worried about simple corporate screw ups, where an AI decides to shut my account down for some unspecified reason with no way of getting it back (because actual customer service costs too much) than I am about getting screwed over by a company in the time between it getting woke and going broke,</span></p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    07 January, 2019 - 4:55 pm

    <p>I can get a couple of used i5 boxes, slap midrange video in them and set up a dead simple LAN party for around $700</p><p><br></p><p>To do that with consoles would require around $600 just for the machines themselves, then the displays, and then we still wouldn’t be able to play most of the games we want, and of those we can, it would feel like trying to walk through chest deep mud because we’re using pads.</p><p><br></p><p>I sincerely hope that console gaming remains a choice. One that I will continue to not elect. If the day comes that PC gaming is dead, I’m sure there are plenty of other ways I can find to entertain myself.</p>

    • skane2600

      08 January, 2019 - 12:35 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#392653">In reply to jimchamplin:</a></em></blockquote><p>Unfortunately people who are capable of setting up what you describe are in short supply, so the fortunes of PC games won't rise or fall based on people with your capabilities. </p>

      • jimchamplin

        Premium Member
        08 January, 2019 - 2:04 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#392835">In reply to skane2600:</a></em></blockquote><p>Unfortunately true. I'll probably have to find something else to do! :D</p><p><br></p><p>Maybe after all that, I'll just go into business running network cables.</p>

  • Tim

    Premium Member
    08 January, 2019 - 12:17 pm

    <p>VR is coming. I don't see this happening. </p>

  • ragingthunder

    08 January, 2019 - 2:20 pm

    <p>People expressing the views of the OP clearly don't play a lot of games from different genres. I am BOTH an avid console gamer and a PC gamer. I play FIFA and NFS on the console, Cities: Skylines and Civilization on the PC. I would never play FIFA on the PC, or Cities: Skylines on the console. I have a properly specced gaming PC and a XBOX One X. </p>

  • Anurag

    24 July, 2023 - 6:54 pm

    Cloud gaming is unlikely to “destroy” traditional PC gaming. Instead, it represents a complementary and alternative way for players to enjoy gaming experiences. Both cloud gaming and traditional PC gaming have their own strengths and limitations, and they cater to different segments of the gaming community.

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