With the decline in PC gaming players and the rise in console only titles the questions comes up, will PC gaming suffer due to the release of the console only (for now) multiplayer GTA4?
Long has it been said that the old PC cannot compete against the pick up and play console versions of games but when the PC is not even getting a version it looks as though the console may win through exclusive titles alone. Except for the World of Warcraft crowd but as soon as a console version of that comes around on the Wii its not hard to imagine all the players jumping across the divide.What makes this even more possible is the Battlefield franchise. Long has Battlefield 2 been one of the main games to play online for the PC but it was released years ago. Eventually games do show their age like Counter Strike and with the release of the next Battlefield title only on consoles leaving its PC home in the dust just like Grand Theft Auto the number of people spending more and more time on consoles becomes more obvious. The only thing that PC Battlefield players have to look forward to is the release of the Team Fortress 2 - but not, Battlefield: Heroes.
Even PC only titles such as BioShock and Crysis are being ported in some way or sequel to the consoles. What makes things worse is strategy gaming the one place a PC gamer felt safe in knowing was not going to be moving has done so. Take the C&C series with the release of Tiberium on 360 and the release at some time of the console exclusive Halo Wars things do look bad.
When PC games get old and no replacements come along could we all be sent to buy a console without knowing it?
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Tags: 360, Battlefield, Console, grand theft auto, GTA4, multiplayer, PC
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PC gaming will always be alive and well. It’s a different type of audience than console gamers. Eventually when there’s a super computer in the home then and only then will these two mediums merge, if you even want to call it that. The only difference between PCs and consoles today is their interface. After that it’s all the same.
The only reason games like GTA 4, Halo 3, and other such games are hitting consoles only or first, is because companies like Microsoft and Sony can make more money via XBox Live and PSNation than they can with any PC release. Today’s gaming world has been taken over by the accountants, with everything aimed in a manner to keep the cash flowing. By releasing games on console only, those companies force you not only to buy the game, but the console and controller, a subscription, accessories for that console, and then in some cases you buy things for the game. It’s simple economics, and has nothing to do with difficulty coding a game for the PC.
An example on how money is driving developers to choose consoles over PC would be the map pack release for CoD4. They released the pack for XBox and PS3 before PC, which has a HUGE player base simply because it is nigh impossible to get people to pay for the map pack on PC. They eventually decided to bite the bullet and release the maps anyways, but it still isn’t out yet. The point being, however, that the higher control they have over how and what is available to the consumer makes it impossible for gamers to get anything for free.
As for the survival of PC gaming — PC gaming will never be phased out until someone develops a keyboard and mouse interface for the console. Even then, the open source code platform provided by the PC has given birth to one of the single most popular online games in history (see Counter-Strike). Also consider that an MMO on the console is still clunky and difficult to manage things like inventories. Has it been done? Yes, with games like Oblivion, but those games will always be for the PC until someone develops that console friendly keyboard and mouse.
GTA4 will not be the end of pc gaming.. for one, there’s a ton of people who couldn’t care less about that tired franchise. WoW will never be on Wii, and WoW is by far not the only pc only game that has a good fanbase, its just the largest. Also, Bioshock was ported to pc, not the other way around.
Consoles make me mad, PCs are by far superior.
screw paying big $ for a game machine thats unmoddable, unupgradable, cant update games via patching, etc.
mouse aiming is > controller aiming.
PC is all good all around.
GTA4 will be out for PC guaranteed. Why?
1) They want the money
2) They release the consoles first because they’re much harder to copy
3) You can’t really mod console versions like the PC one, so if you use logic - they’re going to test it on all the console customers first, not that they haven’t tested it already, but issues do come up.
4) PC gameplay is much better than console and always has been. A solid mid-range PC will run this better than a console with more detail, resolution, and more control over input devices.