John Carmack and consoles (again)

PC News | "PCs not as important as consoles".

Popular PC enthusiast site Tom's Hardware revealed yet again that id Software's John Carmack is moving towards console orientated goals, calling the PC "more like the junior partner in id's cross platform strategy".

As prime developers of the PC industry, Carmack has said he has heard all the doom and gloom stories of the PC gaming industry limping to a slow death, many blaming piracy, yet he isn’t too sure.

"Well, it's hard to second guess exactly what the reasons are. You can say piracy. You can say user migration. But the ground truth is just that the sales numbers on the PC are not what they used to be and are not what they are on the consoles."

"We still think the PC is a market worth supporting, but we're not making decision around the PC," Carmack assures. "Obviously, our day-to-day development is predominately on the PC."

With id Software's confirmation will we see a greater rise in PC doomsday prophets? No complaints from Blizzard... yet.

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15 Comments

Dropbear

3 years ago

When are people going to learn: All PC gaming death predictions are false. FPS will keep the platform alive forever (GO ORANGE BOX!), and a few PS3/X360 games are ported to PC. Plus, unlike consoles, it is a true morphing console, able to be upgraded and tweaked to whatever you feel like.

inigel

3 years ago

I prefer a console. I can keep the same hardware for seven years (PlayStation 2). I don't like having to get a new graphics card and double my RAM every time a new game comes out.

But sometimes it is worth it. The Orange Box was kickarse! It runs rings all over the PlayStation 3 version.

lapzod

3 years ago

Ah Carmack, I missed you

Jellyfish

3 years ago

If you read the article it's actually the same one that Eurogamer stole and Kimberly posted about...

Aftershock

3 years ago

Sigh. People saying that PC gaming is dying make me angry. Ignorance may be bliss for you, but it annoys everyone else.

The Brett

3 years ago

It's natural for PCs to fall off a bit. Games are becoming "cool" but those same people with the Wiis are still hanging **** on PC "nerds." As gaming became more casual and about socialising, the one-player, anti-social PC environment was always going to be left behind. But it'll never go completely, there's too many nerds to allow that.

renegadesx

3 years ago

Those that blame piracy are idiots! Piracy has ALWAYS been around and always been big. Before the days of the internet and warez sites, it was traders and cracked shareware titles.

The Brett has it right. Games are no longer just for us anymore, the audience has expanded and games are seen as "cool" now. Halo made online gaming popular amongst non-geeks and trends are changing.

Those that say "its all because of piracy" dont realise yes of course you can setup a PC to your 42" plasma/LCD.. but how many people do that? How many non-geeks do that? How many geeks even do that?

My PC is located in my bedroom while I have my Wii60 setup on my plasma. I could easily have a decent PC setup (need a video card upgrade to play Crysis) but I chose not to because I prefer the living room experience.

My flatmates is PC gamer and a graphics whore and thats fine, he plays games in his room on his PC, the only time he touches my consoles are during party setups (Boom Blox is a major party hit btw) and GTAIV

Its all about different tastes and different atmospheres. I am not a graphics whore, so for me the 360 upscaler makes the Orange Box look more than good enough for me on 1080i, it is ALOT better than the Xbox 1 version.

The PC platform is long from dead, due to audience. The PC gaming audience has not really changed all that much.

The main gripe these guys are having is console gaming is booming at a massive rate while the PC platform has not really grown that much. The PC platform doesn't win these new converts because it really is still a geek platform. Most guys cant justify forking $1000 on the latest video card and wont even know how to install it.

Games are becoming more expensive to make so they need a bigger audience to make up for the extra cost. That is not happening on the PC.

The PC platform will always be around, and there will always be stable franchises that will be around for that audience. So those that say "the PC is dead" are idiots too and I think WoW proved that.

So yes, consoles are more important than PC's simply because the new gamers, the non-geeks, in this "games are cool" age flock to the consoles, thats where the boom is happening in the gaming industry, thats the place where the growth is.

IISpacebreakII

3 years ago

I think there is also the what you have to show for your money factor too. You have a $3500 PC, but what are you going to say, to most people a PC is a PC and theres only one decent use, internet. However you can say that you have a PS3/360/(Even a Wii sometimes) at school and the kids are like "REALLY? SICK" or something along those lines. I think with consoles you pay for a package and its a damn lot easier to see what your getting for your money.

Skiller

3 years ago

If you already have a keyboard, mouse, windows and a screen (which most people will) you can pick up a PC that'll out perform the consoles for around the same price as a retail australian PS3 ($700ish), and less than a Wii if you get it second hand.

A top end PC is only needed if you think the graphics in console games is vomit inducingly bad, otherwise a mid to low spec PC will still outperform the consoles for only marginally more (or even less in some cases).

Lord Haart

3 years ago

^Yup, the new range of 4850's cost around $200 and beat consoles BAD. And the rest of the PC is quite cheap. And you can use it for other stuff too! An xbox 360 120Gb HDD costs over $100, whereas 750GB of PC storage can be had for $99.

Anyway, I own a 360, so this isn't a console bash (more like a 360 revival). Consoles win out when you want to play with friends, or play more casually from a lounge. Different experience. But there is too much in favour of PC games for them to die out. What is a problem is piracy - while there is demand for PC games, people are willing to pirate, and that is why we Fallout 3 will probably be one of the last PC RPG's ever. EVER.

If pirates ain't gonna let us developers earn enough to live, then we are forced to resort to things like steam, monthly payments and consoles to stay afloat. There's no free lunch for gamers - quality games take time and money to make, and people who spend that time and money making something you enjoy deserve a return on that investment.

Furthermore, slag off the publishers all you like, but don't let that be a reason to pirate a game instead of buying it. If you pirate their good games, then those studios will fail. Consumers forget that publishers are more than just middlemen - they provide developers with funding, and like any investor, stand to lose alot. They will only take the risks to invest in new IP and expensive, quality games if those games deliver financially.

That said, many publishers have no idea what really appeals to gamers. But I still maintain that if you really want to pirate a game to avoid paying the publisher (or game store), then at least donate money to the developer - trust me, they need it. Even the best developers can go bust.

Anyhow, back OT: consoles are indeed a growing market, but I'd argue that while it's more about console growth than PC death, the PC is certainly being held back by (a) piracy (b) lack of simplicity (ie the need for patches, etc) (c) the inability to play offline with friends without 2 PCs (though some games allow this via keyboard, it is clumsy).

LordPaludis

3 years ago

Imo PC game developers just shouldn't bother with exclusively single player games anymore. For me the PC has always been about online multiplayer anyway, and it's virtually impossible to pirate multiplayer games, which is why companies like Blizzard are doing just fine developing exclusively for PC.

Sin Ogaris

3 years ago

Or alternatively have every game require an online connection regardless of multiplayer or not... oh wait they tried that and people *****ed.

Skiller

3 years ago

Lord Haart wrote

Anyhow, back OT: consoles are indeed a growing market, but I'd argue that while it's more about console growth than PC death, the PC is certainly being held back by (a) piracy (b) lack of simplicity (ie the need for patches, etc) (c) the inability to play offline with friends without 2 PCs (though some games allow this via keyboard, it is clumsy).

Agreed, though I don't think it's piracy holding it back but rather piracy protection. I've never not bought a game because I could pirate it, but there have been many games that I wont buy because of piracy protection. I'd have bought track mania AGES ago if it wasn't for starforce but I didn't buy it till TM: United Forever was released without starforce.

LordPaludis wrote

That'd kill PC games, some of the best PC games are single player, take most of the bioware games for example.

Sin Ogaris wrote

Or alternatively have every game require an online connection regardless of multiplayer or not... oh wait they tried that and people *****ed.

That doesn't work because you just need to disable the online check an it'll all work offline no problem. It's only possible to to have an online check work when you are playing online.

IMO people who pirate games are unlikely to buy them anyway so publishers should stop throwing away money on piracy protection that doesn't work and invest it in making the game actually good. That way they will attract more customers and also won't be turning away customers not willing to put up with crappy, invasive and damaging piracy protection.

notsofat

3 years ago

the comments here attest to the fact that there will always be nerds and pc gaming will nev444rrrr die...

Axe

3 years ago

As an individual game platform for software revenue (both retail and online), the PC was the number one game platform for 2007. None of the console systems even came in second place; that honor belonged to the Nintendo DS. The PC game market reached a record $11.3 billion and is expected to experience strong growth over the next few years.

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