PC gaming should adopt a console approach to regain momentum.

Ozium said:
um.. not really

multiplayer longevity on PC far outpaces console multiplayer
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I logged into Battlefront the other day on PC and had issues finding game types in playlists not named Supremacy or Walker Assault. I can find a match in any playlist right now on PS4 in seconds.

PC absolutely has issues with playerbase.
 
orochi91 said:
Yea, I've noticed that.

I'd be interested to know what percentage of the PC market actually purchases multiple games and/or have hardware comparable to something like the PS4.
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Why does it matter though? The market speaks for what it's interested in, and if people want to play those games and not console AAA games, then that's fine.
 
1. You should clarify who is the publisher in that sheet of data

2. Uh? ps3/360 aren't "kicking pc arse". pc 17%, xbox one 12%, old consoles 9% each.

3. What you are proposing has been proposed several times over the years. From the "let's do a gaming-ready seal" initiative, "let's make a new standard for specs" initiative, to "let's do console-like pc experience" (steam pcs?). By several reasons they went no where.
 
1) Microsoft tried to do something like this around Vista times except not really because all they really wanted was to push people onto 360. The results were, if I rememer correctly, pretty stupid, since they favored "regular" games over unusual ones which were heavily dependent on some performance factors while not so much on others, and they ended up heavily desyncing specs usage expectations anyway.
2) People aren't that confused when apps on their not-cutting-edge phones don't work (and sometimes, just don't work well). This proposal would only help more people understand the specs (or will to deal with understanding them) if the length of a cycle was similar to console one which doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
3) PC usage is simpler today than it was in 90s and yes, it was completely alright in the (late) 90s. The thing is, some people want consoles because they are simpler by very nature of abandoning fancier PC stuff - and the more they adopt, the more people find these confusing. The part that's still arguably confusing is buying the thing, connecting the parts and setting it up initially, if you want to get more PCs sold to people you need to make a business that does exactly that.
 
nynt9 said:
"Let's take away the main strength of PC gaming to cater to an audience that isn't interested"
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Pretty much this. Lowering the complexity basically goes hand in hand with lowering the modularity and diversity. Different architectures of roughly the same power bracket can perform differently under the same application code. Performance can additionally vary based on the drivers, so there's no way to easily classify or certify a game or hardware as falling into some neat foolproof bracket. Thus you're left with standardization of hardware and might as well just be a console.
 
MRORANGE said:
I think it's safe to say that PC gaming is trailing behind looking at these figures from one publisher, while it's doing beter than before it's still get it's arse kicked by ps3/xb360 which is quite frankly embarrassing.
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Who is that publisher and why should it matter? PC games are by far the most diversified.
 
NOLA_Gaffer said:
If it were that simple, that would be awesome. But taking a glance at the "i7" page of NewEgg I can see:

i7-4790K
i7-5820K
i7-5930K
i7-5960X
i7-4790
i7-4790S
i7-4770S
i7-6700
i7-975
i7-4771
i7-870
i7-6700k

Are that many varieties necessary?
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Of course they are. No need to force consumers into buying the newest more expensive models.
 
Obliterator said:
To me one of the biggest issues with PC right now is it does a pretty poor job as a platform of holding any kind of player base on multiplayer games. Unless its a MOBA or Blizzard or Counter Strike. PC players by and large seem to stick to a small set of games and just basically play nothing but those. Its to the point now I buy every major multiplayer title on consoles
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Something better than Counter Strike needs to come along to get PC gamers off of playing that game.

Much like how it took Modern Warfare to finally pull people away from Halo. You stick with what you know.
 
Pinko Marx said:
Nvidia graphics cards are labeled similarly as well. The 900 series are their latest, the 800 series came before that. Then you have 950, 960, up to 980
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Unless I'm mistaken, aren't low-end 900 series cards slower than high-end 800 series cards? The average customer would think buying the newest series would guarantee you a better product but that's not necessarily guaranteed.
 
orochi91 said:
+1
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I third this statement of secondy seconding. As someone who plays on all platforms, I don't want PC to try and emulate consoles in ANY way at all. PC is great because of its control and agency that it offers the user. It sounds like OP wants PC to be more like Apple products, and that, frankly, is a terrible idea. The people who don't care about control or agency are welcome to remain on console or go Apple; PC does not need to follow their business practices at all. I get where you're coming from OP, your hearts in the right place, but I think this mindset stems from a foundational misunderstanding of the inherent strengths and advantages of PC as a gaming platform.
 
nynt9 said:
Why does it matter though? The market speaks for what it's interested in, and if people want to play those games and not console AAA games, then that's fine.
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PC and consoles cater to different markets, naturally.

Nevertheless, I'd still want to see data on the parameters I've mentioned above, for curiosity's sake.
 
Obliterator said:
I logged into Battlefront the other day on PC and had issues finding game types in playlists not named Supremacy or Walker Assault. I can find a match in any playlist right now on PS4 in seconds.

PC absolutely has issues with playerbase.
Click to expand...

people probably left to play battlefront 2, which you can still find games for on PC.. you can't do that on consoles. That is longevity.

Also there are less options available on consoles so of course the population will be more focused.
 
GatticusFinch said:
Ahhh, memories.

qlSVe.png
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This guy seems serious.
 
orochi91 said:
I'd be interested to know what percentage of the PC market actually purchases multiple games and/or have hardware comparable to something like the PS4.
Click to expand...

So this now pops up in every PC thread? Mostly posted by the same people. PC gamers don't buy games and they own shitty computers because that's relevant for something.

Obliterator said:
PC absolutely has issues with playerbase.
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Totally depends on the game. Let's talk about Payday 2 or Left4Dead 2, healthy on PC, dead on consoles. Or CoD, the highs aren't as high but a few thousand are playing WoW and MW2 right now. BF4 is perfectly healthy (and Hardline dying everywhere else too by now, only took a little longer). Rocket League? Great, better than I ever expected but in general you can predict which games will do good on PC. The playerbase is just a bit more spread out and if a title doesn't grab someone there are alternatives for everything. Like Battlefront 2.
 
NOLA_Gaffer said:
Unless I'm mistaken, aren't low-end 900 series cards slower than high-end 800 series cards? The average customer would think buying the newest series would guarantee you a better product but that's not necessarily guaranteed.
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800 series cards aren't even a thing, save for in laptops.
 
Regain momentum?? What 'momentum' did the PC ever have, ffs? I haven't seen a single Christmas advert for the bloody thing- doesn't that tell you something? It's dead, guy.
 
derExperte said:
So this now pops up in every PC thread? Mostly posted by the same people. PC gamers don't buy games and they own shitty computers because that's relevant for something.
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Lol, no. I just wanted to see data on stuff like that, for curiosity's sake.

poodaddy said:
I third this statement of secondy seconding. As someone who plays on all platforms, I don't want PC to try and emulate consoles in ANY way at all. PC is great because of its control and agency that it offers the user. It sounds like OP wants PC to be more like Apple products, and that, frankly, is a terrible idea. The people who don't care about control or agency are welcome to remain on console or go Apple; PC does not need to follow their business practices at all. I get where you're coming from OP, your hearts in the right place, but I think this mindset stems from a foundational misunderstanding of the inherent strengths and advantages of PC as a gaming platform.
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Yea, gamers that don't care for the control or optimizations that PC offers will have no qualms about avoiding the platform altogether. It doesn't make sense to nerf PC gaming to cater to those markets that won't give a shit.
 
I think the colours should be reversed. I have completely other colour associations in my mind: blue seems like 2016 to me.

Likewise, what do we do when we run out of primary colours after 2016? Do we just start hitting up the rainbow or do we go into hipster colours like mauve and teal? But then PC would have an even higher hipster-stigma than it already does. That is what they call a catch-22.
Obliterator said:
PC absolutely has issues with playerbase.
Click to expand...

I think this stems from the fact that not everyone wants to spend $2000 so they can buy a pc that can play BF in the first place.
 
Obliterator said:
I logged into Battlefront the other day on PC and had issues finding game types in playlists not named Supremacy or Walker Assault. I can find a match in any playlist right now on PS4 in seconds.

PC absolutely has issues with playerbase.
Click to expand...

While it's no Counter Strike or Dota or LoL, there is a 50-100% bigger population for PC BF4 than Battlefront. Battlefront is a game that just doesn't cater to the PC platform. Like COD, Battlefront is huge on console but just didn't hit a chord on PC.
 
It's too early in the morning for this.

That said, I always wondered what the point of Steam Machines was. I'd be curious to find out how they fared.
 
Obliterator said:
I logged into Battlefront the other day on PC and had issues finding game types in playlists not named Supremacy or Walker Assault. I can find a match in any playlist right now on PS4 in seconds.

PC absolutely has issues with playerbase.
Click to expand...

Big console shooters will always have an audience because most console gamers don't stick to one single game and get really, really good at it. A lot of the PC shooter crowd are still perfectly fine with Counter Strike and TF2 and they don't really need anything else, especially a game as lacking in both content and complexity as Battlefront. Add onto that the fact that Battlefront requires Origin and also costs $110 for all the content compared to the $15 for CS and the $0 for TF2 you can see why it was destined to die quickly. You can also buy Battlefront 2 for $10 on Steam and still have lots of people to play with with a few simple tweaks. Hell, Battlefront 4 still holds a massive following on PC so the issue really isn't with PC Players, it's with Battlefront itself. Games like CoD and Battlefront were never made for the PC market, they could be great yet still not get the playerbase.
 
fspm said:
Got this today:

SSSQbLh.png


PC gaming in a nutshell.
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Older games occasionally having minor issues with a workaround available in the vast majority of cases, in exchange for several decades of backwards compatibility?

You're totally right, PC gaming should just take the console approach and have limited/no BC.
 
If only PCs "just worked" like Macs.
The thing is, you need a degree to use one properly and only brain surgeons can build them.
 
fspm said:
Got this today:

SSSQbLh.png


PC gaming in a nutshell.
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That's a 1999 game. It was done 16 years ago, for older OS.

PC has great backward-compatibility, the best of all platforms, but it isn't something that works without issues 100% of the time. If you want to play very old games you are going to put some effort and seach tweaks, fixes, emulators, configs, etc.
 
Obliterator said:
I logged into Battlefront the other day on PC and had issues finding game types in playlists not named Supremacy or Walker Assault. I can find a match in any playlist right now on PS4 in seconds.

PC absolutely has issues with playerbase.
Click to expand...

Because the game is sh*t ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Log into BF4

And we are talking about longevity and not flavor of the month.
 
Turin Turambar said:
1. You should clarify who is the publisher in that sheet of data

2. Uh? ps3/360 aren't "kicking pc arse". pc 17%, xbox one 12%, old consoles 9% each.
Click to expand...

It's Ubisoft.
And you're clearly misreading the chart. PC with measly 17% is obviously losing to both PLAYSTATION (36%) and XBOX (21%). And that's just on pure sale breakdown, when you take into account the fact that each sale on consoles is almost 100% profit for the publisher, whereas PC sales are only made when significantly (75% off at least) discounted and are most probably made with stolen credit cards as well, we can safely assume the profit margin for PC is lower even than the WII one...
It's a wonder why Ubisoft cares so much for the PC gamers with such low profits to be had on the platform. I mean, think of all the countless manhours they have had to spend on developing their social network, Uplay. Hours which could've been spent optimizing their console offering.
 
Theres a lot of good posts in here in terms of WHY PC has issues with playerbase in many games. And thats totally understandable and a ton of you used great logic.

That said for me as a consumer the WHY isnt as important. Its just it feels like a total waste of money to buy any big time shooter on PC now days which is a huge bummer as I love the platform. At this point if I want to play online its basically going to be on consoles because PC doesn't have the base.

I mean right now there are 8-9 times as many people playing BF on PS4 as there is on PC.
 
Obliterator said:
I logged into Battlefront the other day on PC and had issues finding game types in playlists not named Supremacy or Walker Assault. I can find a match in any playlist right now on PS4 in seconds.

PC absolutely has issues with playerbase.
Click to expand...


Nothing to do with the matchmaking bug on PC then, it's absolutely just dead player base, right ?

Pick any PC game with a multiplayer aspect in the last 15 years , I bet I can find active communities still playing it. A game doesn't need 100'000 concurrent players 24hrs a day to be active , something a lot of GAF have difficulty grasping .
 
There is no incentive for publishers and developers that are currently making money on PC to change things. You do not see Valve scrambling to keep older console versions of TF2 or CS GO up to date. They already have modest enough system requirements to attract an audience without turning over 30% of the revenue in the process. Similar situation with MOBAs and most MMO outside of FFXIV. Other than the big widespread hits like GTA and Fallout, most franchises have gravitated towards attracting either a PC customer base or a console customer base. There is barely enough overlap in what constitutes a popular title on each platform for most companies to worry about it.
 
TBH when you have an open platform like windows, third party sellers will continue to confuse the masses with SUPER FAST GAMING PC's!

I agree things should be simple, but large scale standardisation woild be oit of the window.
 
Ozium said:
I fail to see how your ideas address the lack of a comfy couch and the inability to plug a PC into a television set.
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This point isn't relevant now; I have my PC connected to a TV and a monitor and I can play from my bed or desk just fine. Everything has HDMI now, I can connect my phone to my TV if I really want to.

On topic: I think simplification would help in the short term, but I think selling the idea of complexity is actually a boon for the platform. Those who are interested get to learn, build, and set up a configuration they prefer to run the games they want to play. PC gaming is like it's own game full of puzzles and rewards. Take any of that away to make it beginner friendly, and you just have more complicated consoles rather than simpler PC's. People would still go to consoles to avoid any confusion.

Your example with the prebuilt pc highlights manipulative practices to sell cheapo stuff, which is a problem of its own.
 
orochi91 said:
PC and consoles cater to different markets, naturally.

Nevertheless, I'd still want to see data on the parameters I've mentioned above, for curiosity's sake.
Click to expand...

You know, console attach rates normally average to around 8 games, so.... It's not like the average anything gamer buys a lot of games.
 
Knurek said:
It's Ubisoft.
And you're clearly misreading the chart. PC with measly 17% is obviously losing to both PLAYSTATION (36%) and XBOX (21%). And that's just on pure sale breakdown, when you take into account the fact that each sale on consoles is almost 100% profit for the publisher, whereas PC sales are only made when significantly (75% off at least) discounted and are most probably made with stolen credit cards as well, we can safely assume the profit margin for PC is lower even than the WII one...
It's a wonder why Ubisoft cares so much for the PC gamers with such low profits to be had on the platform. I mean, think of all the countless manhours they have had to spend on developing their social network, Uplay. Hours which could've been spent optimizing their console offering.
Click to expand...

You know Knurek, some will take this as-is. I dont think sarcasm works when your target audience thinks it is the truth.


Btw Paradox has 99% of its sales on PC! Checkmate religious people!
 
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