can console systems survive?

[nicksimonsen]

I was recently laid off as a bug tester from nintendo of america, Redmond Wa. We were testing the game cube and the game boy advanced. Several of us were laid off. It seems like many people are switching to pc gaming and not purchasing new console systems. Defunct systems will always be used. But does anyone out there also think that console systems are soon going to disapear from store shelves?

[Tempest]

Not entirely. One thing that keeps console systems popular is that their easy to set up and use. PC's are still complex little beasts to many people and all that hardware compatibility problems and expense keeps alot of users away. Also, many people like to play games on their TV's (I know I do) rather than on a dorky little monitor. My perosnal belief is that Consoles may loose some ground to PC's but will never go away.

 

Tempest

[Rhindle The Red]

This seems an odd subject to come up now.

 

All I've been reading in computer gaming magazines (such as Computer Gaming magazine ) is how the computer game market is dying because of the increasing popularity of console gaming.

 

While some genres do well (RTS, Sims, etc.), they are niche products compared to the Marios, Zeldas, and Sonics of the world.

[Arcadenut]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Pitfall Harry:

Consumers have always known that there is a great risk associated with PC games. Can I get it to work on

my

machine? Maybe if I upgrade the OS, download the latest DirectX drivers, jam another 64 MB into it, disable my virus protection software and do it all without crippling the performance or functionality of the rest of my applications. Maybe if I NEVER install a single new application for as long as I own my computer, my PC game will continue to work okay. Maybe.

 

If, on the other hand, I purchase a game for a console then I know it was made for that machine. I don't have to worry about upgrades and downloads. I know that the uninstall will work perfectly, too, because it will be 100% successful the instant I yank the CD out of my machine. It won't leave any dead .dll or .ocx time bombs behind or inadvertantly delete critical files to screw up future game installs.

 

I step away from my computer and reach for a console whenever I want to play a video game. Knowing that the game will work exactly the way the programmers designed it, that it will work exactly the same way for me as it does with millions of other fellow gamers makes the gaming experience that much more satisfying. There will be no animation stalls while the OS forces a hard disk cache. There will be no annoying popup message boxes informing me that system resources are running low, no phone calls to Microsoft tech support. Nobody should need a degree in computer science to enjoy a video game.

 

On a console, it's just me and the game. No inexplicable hardware glitches, software component upgrades, no bullshit. Insert cartridge, play game. It doesn't get any easier than that. I'd wager there are a few million other consumers out there that feel the same way.

 

Ben

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Thats all true up the point where MS Releases the X-Box :-)

[liquid_sky]

I dont think consoles are going to die any time soon. This has already been mentioned in this topic, but when you buy a console you have everything you need. Each console is identical. Computer gaming is kind of something the rich or privigeled get the better half of. For example I have a relivitivly new video card, an Nvidia RIVA TNT2. But within a matter of , heck, not even a year, I will need to upgrade it. With a console the only time your system is obsolete is when a better system comes out, not when a more system hungry game comes out.

[Osbo]

I just don't play with my PC. Plain and simple

[Gunstar]

Well, I was going to add something, but Tempest and Pitfall Harry hit the target. Cheaper and easier and on the big screen. Consoles will survive, otherwise a company like Microsoft (COMPUTER company people!!!) would not be making a console...I never play games on my PC, for the very reasons Pitfall stated, when I want to play a game, I just plug in the cart or slip in the cd and I'm in videoland! My computer is always screwing up and more plumbing just makes it easier for the works to get clogged. I do fear that consoles may start having similiar problems though, now that they are going to have harddrives and game installation...that's what happens when a company like Microsoft gets their grubby, greedy hands on the console market, let make it as complicated as we possibly can so they will have to rely on us for service, tech support, patches, drives, and newer versions that correct the old bugs and add in new ones for the future!!! Somebody shoot Bill already. Dead.

[Albert]

I think there's a place for both console and PC games. I am in the unique position of having worked on PC games (most recently Deus Ex) and am now porting Deus Ex to the Playstation 2. This presents challenging problems, since the game wasn't designed from the ground-up as a console title. You want to recreate the feel and interactivity of the PC title while working with the limitations of a console controller, NTSC's poor screen resolution and a much smaller memory footprint.

 

At present, there are some game genres better suited for PCs and some better suited for consoles. That's not to say that some genres can only work on a console or PC, but some games just "work" better on one or the other. For instance, you wouldn't want to play NFL 2001 with three of your friends clustered around your computer's 17" monitor, not to mention the problem of getting four controllers connected to the PC simultaneously. And who would want to play real-time strategy games like Starcraft on a TV using a typical console controller?

 

Part of the problem is that it's difficult to get comfortable sitting on your couch if you need to use the mouse and/or keyboard to control the game. And if you need to present a great wealth of information on-screen, present-day televisions just cannot do the game justice. And most multi-player (as in, more than one person sitting around the screen) games are a much better experience if you can sit around a TV in the living room instead of where most people keep their computers (the bathroom, closet, attic, etc.)

 

As a programmer, PCs and consoles each present their own challenges. On the PC if you're writing to DirectX you don't need to worry quite as much about the underlying hardware, although you DO want to make sure your game doesn't alienate 95% of the gaming population who haven't yet upgraded to a Quad-Athlon 2.6Ghz machine with a 512MB GeForce 5 MegaUltraTranswarp video card. With a console, every single machine will be identical so you can take advantage of every ounce of power you can squeeze out of it, knowing it'll be available on everyone's system. But if that console only has 32MB of memory (as the PS2) then you have to make sure your game fits within those confines. Resources are definitely more extravagant on the PC, in terms of screen resolution, disk storage, networking, and available memory.

 

I could go on at some length, but I think I'll stop here. This debate rages every time a new batch of consoles is released.

 

..Al

[Gunstar]

quote:

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Originally posted by osbo:

I just don't play with my PC. Plain and simple

---

 

You got that right! My pc is for internet use, e-mail, and other productivity. I, on rare occasion, use an emulator for some atari computer/console to try-before-I-buy software and that is it!

[Gunstar]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Tempest:

Not entirely. One thing that keeps console systems popular is that their easy to set up and use. PC's are still complex little beasts to many people and all that hardware compatibility problems and expense keeps alot of users away. Also, many people like to play games on their TV's (I know I do) rather than on a dorky little monitor. My perosnal belief is that Consoles may loose some ground to PC's but will never go away.

 

Tempest

---

 

There's nothing like sitting in my barko-lounger, and playing games on my 36" tv, with everything hooked up to my surround sound system, with all my snacks, drinks and other "things" on the end table next to me...my computer, even with it's 17" monitor, and multi-media surround system and dvd player just don't cut it for watching movies and playing vids, for one, it's hard to crowd family and friends around the computer for those occasions either...the sad truth is that I feel I totally wasted my money getting a pc with all those "extras," since I never use them. If I was still in college in a little dorm room, it all would be used, but I'm not and they aren't.

[[email protected]]

quote:

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Originally posted by Albert:

On the PC if you're writing to DirectX you don't need to worry quite as much about the underlying hardware, although you DO want to make sure your game doesn't alienate 95% of the gaming population who haven't yet upgraded to a Quad-Athlon 2.6Ghz machine with a 512MB GeForce 5 MegaUltraTranswarp video card ..Al

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/me drools

[mos6507]

I think in the future computers will be more and more plug and play and the argument over ease of use won't be as strong. They've certainly gotten easier to set up in the last few years, although motherboard/BIOS setup is getting harder and harder!

 

What I dislike the most about PCs for gaming is its multitasking.

 

If you run a game, that game still has to share resources with the host PC and every other task that may be running on it.

 

If the OS pages to disk or is otherwise strained, then you can get uneven framerates in your game.

 

For the most part, the smoothness of a console game is constant, because console systems are designed to run only one program at a time, the game.

 

The cool thing about the Amiga OS was that programs had the option of turning off preemptive multitasking, so you could run a game and freeze out all the other applications except your hardware drivers.

 

For task-switching apps under Win3.1 or MacOS (pre OSX) I guess it's similar, but under 95/98/2000 there are all too many instances where a background task can glitch out your game, and that just adds a level of sloppiness to the gaming experience that you don't get on the console or the arcade.

 

The other thing I don't like is the separation between monitor refresh and game framerate. PC animation is all too commonly "tearing" where the update occurs halfway down the screen.

 

With console games the framerate is locked to the screen refresh. Even if the framerate drops, you don't get that tear in the middle of the screen.

 

That's another thing the Amiga did well, since most games were written for NTSC resolutions and were not promotable.

[Nateo]

I think they're going to make PC add-ons for new consoles soon, because of the increasing popularity of PC games. I can really imagine the XBox guys doing this.

[Ze_ro]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Glenn Saunders:

I think in the future computers will be more and more plug and play and the argument over ease of use won't be as strong.

---

 

I'd have to agree with this, though I also think that gradually, systems are getting slightly harder to use, and more like computers. The Dreamcast can be hooked up with a keyboard, access the internet, run Linux, etc. The X-Box actually IS a computer in a console's clothing, so I can see even more happening with it.

 

On the other side, things like USB ports are making things easier... though I'm not sure we'll even really be rid of the hassle of having to install a game and all.

 

I'd also like to point out the older 8-bit computers like the Commodore 64... It's interesting how much like a console it really was, with a cartridge port, simple joystick ports, etc. I wonder if we'd be having this conversation if IBM's were easier (and more capable) back in the days.

 

--Zero

[lost]

I would just like to add a point from a marketing perspective and illustrate why consoles games are only going to get more popular.

 

A PC game is doing great if it can sell 100,000 units.

 

A console game can sell 500,000 units and be considered a failure.

 

Money talks.

 

(my two cents )

[Jun Kazama]

in my openion console systems will never go out b/c they are cheaper than computers and more symplistic. I dont play PC games b/c my computer sucks and after i bought all the parts to fix it i could have just bought a new computer. So my other option is a X box or an HDD for the PS2 because they are basically computer and that will be like $600 than a new computer so console games are the better option for me.

[liveinabin]

I've got a Mac so it's consoles or nothing haha.

Anyway, if I'm going to spend a while playing a game I'd rather relax in front of the tv rather than be hunched up in front of a PC screen. I spend all day working in front of one, I sure as hell don't wanna be there all evening. It's like those people who sit there watching dvd movies on their monitors - wierd.

[Atari-Jess]

I like using consoles, tons of other people like using consoles, I like using my computer for games, other like to use their computer for games.

 

I like using my consoles for games more.

[Atari-Jess]

(this is going on from my last one it went weird)

 

But we all know that eventually its just gonna be entertainment consoles, TV, computer,DVD movies, Computer, video games, Internet, and more then eventually go portable then implants then so on.