Has the PC bubble burst?

[beedubaya]

No, I am not talking about the 1999 dot com bubble. I am talking about the PC upgrade bubble that has existed since the 1980s as a result of Moore's Law. There are a few things that lead me to believe that bubble has burst.

-Not much incentive to upgrade to Vista
-Gamers rapidly moving away from PC games in favor of consoles (PC gamers have helped drive tech advances all these years)
-More and more consumers choosing low cost PCs ($500 or less) that really aren't much better than they were 3 years ago. With gamers going to consoles, far less people see a reason to go high end.
-Software (other than games) hasn't advanced fast enough to keep up with modern hardware, so average users have little incentive to go high end. A mid-range computer from 4 years ago can still do everything people need to do today.

I think probably the biggest of these is the fact the gamers are moving away from the PC at such a high rate. Without the gamers driving the sales of high-end hardware, what will? Even as a PC gamer, I see little need to go out and upgrade my hardware with the quality of games that are being produced on PC today.

 

[Luke]

well yes there are many people moving to consols but pc gaming still has many many people. Me and prob alot of the people on this forum may have consols but they will always use the pc for gaming as well (i use the pc for gaming more then my consol)

Also a pc provides much more pleasing games then consols can

-better storyline depth
-better graphics
-better sound
-more games
-better controls IMO (i'll take a keyboard and mouse over a consol controller anyday)
-the pc also does more then gaming....it has many more functions then a consol
-pc's can be upgraded...

i admit that the consol has a slight advantage because all the games will work at best performance because all the consols are the same and the game developers know that that is there limit.

 

[peterhuang913]

It guess it has slowed down..

 

[Kharn]

Vista take up has not been as MS predicted but that is down to a matter of choice an not one of you have to take Vista because it's the only OS with a mass apeal any more.

Gamers taking more interest in a console is worrying as they normally have less developed controls an story lines an don't look as good as the PC version. Some of this can be placed at the feet of unispierd developers sadly most FPS games now are generic run an gun or have no real depth. Crysis is the best example of this beautiful yes story lacking it was a case of being over hyped an over developed. Most of the games i am playing now are older or ones that are from smaller or indi developers.

The Tech that is needed to power games to there full potential are either to costly for the average jo to afford (at least in the UK) or they don't see the point. Not to mention the cost of games is retardedly high £35 quid for a game isn't what most people want to pay.

 

[Trotter]

The economic downturn has had an impact on the PC industry as a whole. People are making old comps last longer to save money, and Vista doesn't like running on old hardware.

 

[Peter.Cort]

what about WoW? i think that in itself is keeping the pc bubble afloat imo.

 

[psp_crazy1]

I don't think I'll ever buy another console.

There's nothing a console can do that won't want me to take my rig to my friends house, and have a lan party...

 

[Peter.Cort]

the problem with that is most people have consoles in my area. as in 9/10 people don't game on pc's and think its wicked dumb to game on pc's, so its just hard for me to have lan parties with people

and the people who do pc game don't play the same games as me so its boring...

 

[beedubaya]

what about WoW? i think that in itself is keeping the pc bubble afloat imo.

I don't think so. Yes, its keeping people gaming on the PC but its a 4 year old game and the tech was mediocre even by 2004 standards. Its one of the few games that will run on a cheap PC. Once WoW finally loses appeal to the consoles its players will go.

 

[Jorsoft]

I think is really just an economic thing. Market goes south, people buy fewer components. I don't think people are exactly "flocking" to consoles much more than they did in the past. Don't we have this conversation every few years when the next gen of consoles come out and everybody pees themselves over them? I don't think this is any different--I remember having the same thread about people supposedly abandoning their computers for PS2 and Xbox a few years back. Look how that panned out...

We'll be saying the same thing once the next generation comes out and fares well in the market, trust me. Same old, same old.