In about the next 5-10 years or so, how do you think PC gaming will change?

Will it become/remain outclassed by specialized gaming devices or will it gain popularity?
And will games continue to strive towards ever more graphically fancy features or will simpler smaller games dominate the market?

What are your thoughts?

If this belongs in gaming, please move the thread.

Do you want a quick glance at the future of PC gaming?

Alright. Here it is.






This post is satire and not to be taken seriously. Caekdaemon does not possess a crystal ball, but his attic may contain some chemicals that could in theory be used as a 'time machine'

^ that and shitty console ports

Who knows.



They. Are. EVERYWHERE!

Spoilered for hugeness.


More satire.

I think portable devices like phones and tablets are going to be big in the next ten years, but consoles and PC games will both still exist

It's the same thing people thought when 3D capable handhelds came out, that they'd replace the consoles and PCs.

They were pretty damn wrong lol.

Yeah, I don't believe mobile/casual games/gaming will ever replace 'regular' gaming. Though I think it'll probably continue to exist and grow besides it.

The future of PC gaming? Haptic feedback gloves and virtual touch modeling.

Bioware gonna get rich

Consoles will slowly start fazing out and becoming irrelevant, while platforms like steam (and to a lesser extent, origin) will dominate the gaming world.

Games like Bejeweled and Peggle have been around forever, but by no means are they replacements for full game experience (Hollywood wasn't put out of business by newgrounds).

IGN had a piece recently on the state of Console Gaming. Its dying only partly because consoles stink. Computers are becoming more and more capable of replacing every single possible use that a console could have. Heck, even the laptops nowadays can play console quality games.

Consoles have an uncertain future, but PC gaming's is looking bright.

As much as it is over-used as an example, Valve is the model for game companies of the future.

I don't know if that's really the case, zalo. Things like mobile devices and the Wii have opened gaming up to entire other markets, and if anything, the shift seems to be away from PCs, not towards. Before you tell me that the "core audience" isn't those people, keep in mind that the point of business is to continue growing, not to retain status quo. There will certainly continue to be PC games for the foreseeable future (if Origin is any indication, EA sees it as a profitable market), but by and large, I don't think we're going to see more PC games per year than we currently do. There's plenty of reasons for this:

1) PCs have widely varying specs -- far more so than any phone or console. This makes getting a game running difficult for the developer, but more importantly, for the end user.

2) PCs are not built with running games in mind. You could argue that phones aren't either, but with PCs, there's an entire layer of OS to deal with before you can get to your game, which, with phones, is usually minimal.

3) Keyboards are not an accessible method of control for most people. Touch screens or controllers built for gaming, which come by default with other devices, are much more intuitive to many people.

4) The current trend in popular technology seems to be toward integration instead of modularization. In other words, people want one device that does everything (e.g. tablets, smart phones). PCs don't mesh too well with this, as, although they can do far more tasks, they are innately modular. Anybody who's done PC gaming for more than a year or two knows that constantly upgrading individual pieces of the computer is just part of the process. Even from the standpoint of a PC when you first get it, it's going to come with peripherals to deal with -- mice, keyboards, speakers and monitors -- which is more than many people can handle, or at least more than they care to deal with. Laptops and tablet PCs are an obvious exception to this rule, and they're becoming increasingly popular, but at the same time, they're also significantly less powerful than their desktop counterparts.

So, what do I think is going to happen with PC gaming? I think the line between PC gaming and console or mobile gaming is going to blur. As I said, the "traditional" PC games as we currently know them will probably remain for a while, but that's going to be a niche market. Consoles are going to move toward being entirely based on digital downloads, much as mobile devices and PCs have already started to do (and in the case of PCs, I'd say it's nearly finished that process). The only difference between the devices will be how big they are, what you're using to control them, and what marketplace they're going through. So, while I do agree with zalo in that the model will be based on digital marketplaces like Steam, I don't think it's going to look anything like PC gaming as we know it.

Some other things consider:

I don't know for sure how long the social/casual game phase will last -- as with any fad, it's sure to die eventually, and it's equally possible that, with the growing audience, games will be able to grow as a medium and try some different things. In the meantime, though, the paradigm that has pervaded pretty much all of the history of video games -- that more power is better -- is not going to be the case. Again, there'll be a niche market for that kind of thing, but we're starting to run out of areas into which we can expand. Graphically, games aren't going to look wildly different than they already do, and processing power can only change so much from a gameplay point of view. The competition will probably be more in the field of who can get the best overall experience on their platform (such as ease of access, social network integration and pricing) in order to attract a more diverse audience.

Also, at the moment, touch screens seem to be the bandwagon everybody is jumping on, but that could just as easily fail, in which case the method of control is entirely up in the air. For now, I think consoles will probably retain their trademark controllers in one form or another, and, considering the new Windows UI, PCs are going to at least make an attempt at becoming touch-based.

Of course, this is all pure conjecture, but that's how I see it.

PCs and consoles won't be thrown out of their role unless somehow everyone who has one buys an ipad, decides to stop playing good games alltogether and starts mucking about with angry birds.

And what "role" is that, specifically? Like I said, I don't think PC gaming (and, by extension, console gaming) as we know it is going to disappear, but I do think companies are going to move toward broader audiences. That's kind of the point of business -- restricting yourself to a "role," especially when it's a shrinking one in light of the rapidly expanding business of video games, isn't going to make you money.

I tend to think that there's enough game companies out there with more than just plain economics in mind that we'll see plenty of games for all walks of life, leading to a sort of plateau in certain gaming markets, rather than a decline.
That might be what you're saying, TLB, and the "shrinking" is merely a failure to expand in reference to the entire gaming market, but I'm not sure.

Yeah, that's what I mean. As a whole, the industry is moving away from the traditional "gamer" audience, but I don't think that's necessarily going to mean that the industry as we know it will completely disappear. It's just that, overall, "hardcore" gaming is probably going to be a smaller, niche portion of the market in comparison to everything else. Obviously this also isn't going to happen overnight, but I think the next generation or two of consoles will move in this direction.

http://www.businessinsider.com/app-deve ... ses-2012-5

Besides, the social gaming industry is a huge bubble, don't really see why you're all so worried.