Consoles Are Dead, Long Live the PC?

[wraggster]

Wild Tangent's CEO, Alex St. John, made some 'brazen' claims at the ION keynote — one of the boldest being that console gaming is dead and the PC is looking towards a renaissance. It should be noted that St. John has blabbered about this before, so he's just retreading previous ground:

Beginning one of several brazen claims in his keynote, St. John spoke of the death of video game consoles: “Nobody needs a console when a game's value and DRM is defined by community or an input device. Consoles just serve to keep you from playing a game you didn't pay for.”

He asked, “What's Sony and Microsoft's motivation to make another console? It's been so rocky, and it's not about the pretty graphics anymore.” According to St. John, spectacular graphics have become a commodity, and not the platform for games to differentiate themselves. “The Wii is the exception that proves the rule — it's not about the graphics, it's about the input device.

He went on to talk about advertising models and targeting the right audience — but his statements on the console vs. PC pack the most punch.

http://kotaku.com/5009568/consoles-a...ng-live-the-pc

[masterchief929]

consoles are not dead, nor will they ever be.

[JKKDARK]

The console sales are strong so I don't think consoels are dead

[vicious1988]

Wild Tangent, isn't that the 3D web plugin for games? That $#@! is junk.

[osgeld]

i said this about the ps2/dc/xbox gen

"this wont last, its the same old crap we have been playing for almost 8 years, just pretty"

the thing is gaming tends to be a young thing, last i checked theres still new kids being produced

and mommy and daddy still dont wanna get a pc that jr can fk up with his video games in under a day

so here we are, another gen of the same old crap with even prettier graphics (and a handfull of gems that come along with any generation of video games)

and yea wild tangent was garbage when it came out, and they have no intention of making it better untill they get ppl to use it (its HARD to program, slow as crap, and has 64 bit gfx)

[F9zDark]

That's a pretty bold statement. Consoles are vastly cheaper than comparable gaming PCs. Sure there is a vast majority of fun, graphics-lax games out there, most freely available, but when one wants to play the likes of Crysis or COD4, the bare minimum for a PC to play these games is about 800 dollars; to play them at peak performance requires in upwards of 1000s of dollars.

Consoles offer the same experience for a lot less coin and is thus the optimal choice for those on a budget or those who don't see the need for a gaming PC.

So no, I don't think consoles are going to die anytime soon.

[JKKDARK]

Consoles are vastly cheaper than comparable gaming PCs.

Well, except the PlayStation 3, I agree with your statement

[Triv1um]

Well, except the PlayStation 3, I agree with your statement

Try and build a gaming PC with £280.

[JKKDARK]

Try and build a gaming PC with £280.

I just checked eBay and I noticed it's possible to do that with £280.

[limming]

The PC sucks for videogames unless you have one of those controller things IMO. I think keyboards suck for playing games but the mouse is good.