Will we all be playing on Consoles in 5 years?

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

"PC SALES 0817:

The decline in sales of personal computers (PCs) is likely to accelerate, according to research firm International Data Corporation. It says shipments of PCs are expected to see their "most severe yearly contraction on record" in 2013. It forecasts a fall of 10.1%."

 

 

 

This is a quote from the BBC today. At this rate PCs will become rarer in the home replaced by smart phones, tablets and consoles.

 

Will there be sufficient volume for the manufacturers to cater to the PC gaming market or are there enough of us to justify the continued development of the components?

[NoScream~SPARTA~]

Like a rare car, they will become the ultimate choice........

Smart phones= Mini coopers, hot hatch.

Tablets= MPV's, family car

laptops=compact sports car

PC's= luxury sports classics.

 

Apple products= electric vehicles....

 

I heard the same on the radio.... that it was doomed too.... but radio is now the most popular media in the car..... thanks to digital, more channels, special pod cast shows...

I love my PC....

 

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2040257/the-pcs-future-has-never-been-brighter-because-tablets-are-pcs-too.html

 

http://guardianlv.com/2013/12/xbox-one-and-playstation-4-beat-by-pc/

 

I believe the PC will evolve into a specialized high end platform....

Even the new consoles now run std PC processors instruction sets.

 

Long live our PC's, low volume, high end owners & players....

 

[Forrester~SPARTA~]

Nvidia predicts sales of PC games will be bigger than the sales of console games in 2014.

Also a Geforce GTX580 is much more powerfull than the x-box used graphics processor....

I doubt consoles will really make PC's obsolete. Not for me anyway.... (and my kids think the same, they game most on their tablets, but after that comes the PC and not the console.....)

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

I can't see my gaming choice switching to console. If anything I'd probably stop gaming if pc games dry up.

[Pringle~SPARTA~]

consoles obviously aren't a new phenomena, they're finally just beginning to match PCs in potency. Until they've surpassed them, I don't expect consoles to overtake the PC. I think many companies use propaganda such as this for free marketing: "get them while they last!", or on the flip: "consoles are the trend, buy them instead!".

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

John understands what I am saying. As people move towards smart phones, Tablets and any other form of mobile computing, production of mid to high end PC components will become very expensive (due to lower production runs). PC gaming will indeed be the sports cars of gaming(it already is to some extent) but will the price become prohibitive for many?

 

Now it could be that the continued downturn only affects companies that sell pre built PCs (such as Dell and IBM) and not so much the component manufactures such as Nvidia, AMD, coolermast, corsair etc etc, in which case we may be unaffected.

 

Having said that, a console offers 5 to 7 years lifespan without hardware upgrade and costs €500. You cannot realistically build a new gaming rig for that price and even if you do, new games will surpass it quickly.

[custard~SPARTA~]

Yep it depends on two things price of a reasonable gaming rig and quality of games made and I have also read (cannot remember were sorry) that games makers are forecasting a larger PC market I am not suggesting it will be as big as the console market just bigger than todays PC market.

 

My mother in law just got an Ipad (great product) just wait till it fails and she loses all her pics etc as she intends to use it as her only product she has no backup plan whatsoever not even cloud backup.

[adder360~SPARTA~]

My thinking of this is the flip side of the coin is that there isn't as much demand for developing new technology there for will slow down the rate of improved hardware that comes to the market.

so for instance when new versions of graphics card instead of being released every year or 2 (im not shore on acule times so don't take time scales to heart) will now mean a new card will get released every 5 years.

so game makers will have to be making games inline with the hardware around witch could mean that our systems would be able to keep up with the currently released games for longer, if you catch my drift.

so you never know the slow down could be a good thing for people whos main concern is to play games on pc

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

Having said that, a console offers 5 to 7 years lifespan without hardware upgrade and costs 500. You cannot realistically build a new gaming rig for that price and even if you do, new games will surpass it quickly.

I'm not sure that I'd agree with that logic. Using my own experience (admittedly a sample size =1), my pc hasn't changed in 6 years, other than 2 gfx cards & memory. All for under 500 and that has allowed me to keep pace with the games I want to play.

It might not be the best performance but it satisfies my demand, in fact Arma3 is my worst performer and even that is acceptable.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Interesting take Adder.

 

Watchy, if your talking pounds stirling that would be nearly €600 so thats €100 more already. I am not arguing for the console, I am too old to change to a controller for FPS games. Just bought this up for discussion purposes to get some different perspectives.

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

Interesting take Adder.

 

Watchy, if your talking pounds stirling that would be nearly 600 so thats 100 more already. I am not arguing for the console, I am too old to change to a controller for FPS games. Just bought this up for discussion purposes to get some different perspectives.

No, I was staying in euros for consistency, apologies for not stating. Can't remember the exact cost of 1st card changed but given I've always bought at the same levels I'd say my actual spend would be circa 520, so ballpark.

 

Interestingly, on a footie forum I use there's a fanatical Sony fan (freelance developer for them on PS3 & PS4) who put an interesting angle on the whole xbone / ps4 / pc debate.

 

He proposed that the real power in the consoles is gpu lead and although the ps4 uses a hybrid AMD sourced cpu/gpu it was easy to compare pc specs to.

In his view, my 7870, 2nd gen quad core Intell & 8gb ram was a 'ballpark' match to the ps4. and upgrading the gpu or cpu would give me a ps4 beater.

I took it all with a pinch of salt as he fanatically refuses to acknowledge any Xbox as a capable console when compared to the equivalent PS.

[PANiC]

depends on what you want i guess. 7 years ago, new consoles were better spec than PCs, the next gen consoles (relatively a lot cheaper than previous gen) are equal to a current decent pc , but in 5 yers console tech will be so far behind, they use sata2 hard drives? cannot run natively at 1080p.. meanwhile we will be enjoying 4k in all its glory (at a high price that we accept ;) ). in refernece to adder's comment, i hope that amd and nvidia are developing 4k capable cards as soon as possible, 4k is the next money spinner?

 

i though device like windows rt thingies would have been more popular.. tablet with dock keyboard. seems ideal for most peeps.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

Watchy thats impressive, I just priced out a mid range pc here and it cost €1200.

 

Holy balls 4k at what price?

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

Watchy thats impressive, I just priced out a mid range pc here and it cost 1200.

 

Holy balls 4k at what price?

Not sure if we're still at cross purposes. I wasn't suggested I built a pc for 500, rather I upgraded over roughly 6 years by that much to give me a pc that's a 'ballpark' match to a ps4. My point is that to match these next gen consoles we pc players don't have to build new, rather we go the strategic upgrade with our current pc.

This is the main attraction with a pc for me, I can build / upgrade as & when I want.

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

Interestingly, the Sony fan on the other forum pointed out that the real reason next gen's are so good,even with mud range components, is that they don't have a bloated OS eating up their processing power.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

OK I think I get it, you are saying that using a budget of €500 every six years you can keep up with or outperform consoles as well as play the latest pc games, by updating the PC you have.

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

OK I think I get it, you are saying that using a budget of 500 every six years you can keep up with or outperform consoles as well as play the latest pc games, by updating the PC you have.

Yes, that's it. There will obviously come a point where a total rebuild happens (my last one was 6 years ago) but in principle steady upgrades will do. Given that newer games push the graphic capacity of your pc, you could even say that's all you need to change.

I appreciate this is a very simplistic approach but it's working for me.

I expect I'll go through a major change within the next 12-18 months, with mobo & cpu. Maybe new ram if my current isn't compatible. However, as I'm not brand loyal and cash is king, I'll likely go with AMD 8 core and save a packet over an i7.