Rise of the Machines: Epic battle of the ages between PCs, Consoles and Mobiles

[MessiaaH]

[TriniXaeno]

Edit:
And wyatt, please do remember, when the pc was in trouble a few years back, I was one of the few men who refuse to accept defeat and argued hard in favor of pc, when d whole internet was saying consoles go kill pc. 5 years later, PC gaming doing better. History has proven my theories right. Is too much money to loose, too much jobs, too much industries, too many factories, too much at stake, for things to play out any other way.

I do remember and I am surprised (if the numbers in your graph are correct) that it made such a strong come back against the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Still, the onslaught of the xbox one, ps4 and mobile (android & ios) will be the undoing of the platform going forward.

Don't worry, we will still be happily playing DOTA 2 / Starcraft for the next 10 years, just that we won't have many next generation players joining us. lol

[MessiaaH]

Still, the onslaught of the xbox one, ps4 and mobile (android & ios) will be the undoing of the platform going forward.

So they said 5 years ago, according to Moses in ten commandment's.......so let it be written........

Don't worry, we will still be happily playing DOTA 2 / Starcraft for the next 10 years, just that we won't have many next generation players joining us. lol

And yea, 10 years from now when sc3 launch, I all over that lol.

I think you underestimating the up coming generation gaming abilities though. But then again my view is based on son and lil cousins and thing, obviously they heavily influenced in hardcore.

[TriniXaeno]

Another nail in the coffin.

Somebody pinch me. Is it April 1st?

Microsoft releasing Halo: Spartan Assault on Windows 8 AND Windows Phone mobile.

Can you imagine? The PC hasn't seen a Halo game in what? 5 - 6 years?

And now...with the rise of the mobile machines....boom.....Halo game iwmc.

[MessiaaH]

PC hasn't seen a halo or gears game in 5 years for one reason and one reason only.

The Xbox needed them to be Exclusive to sell d console.

Halo assault epic regardless, nice game for mobile to complement d hardcore experience.
Cant wait to play it and see if it plays as good as it looks.

[Arcmanov]

Smash TV...hosed down in Halo juice.

1990 called...they want their game-design philosophy back.  :/

[MessiaaH]

Ah yes, Dan raise ah very solid point, nobody paying more than 3$ for a mobile game and thus big game revs will not invest s time and money required to make truly epic mobile games cause d profit margins just not there.

At d end of d day, is mostly about money oui. They will do just enough to afford to sell it for under 5$, but no more time\development to avoid suffering a loss on said game.

Until they can charge 40$ for a mobile game, it really cant compete with consoles. Add that as a 4th point in my 3 point argument Wyatt.

[TriniXaeno]

Wrong.

Using the old physical distribution model, you can't make a big triple A title and sell it for $5

But that model is dying.

The new digital distribution model coupled with in app purchases, you can.

Free2Play like DOTA 2, League of Legends, most modern day MMOs, etc...cost a fat zero dollars. The digital version of a  lot of big titles sell for $5 and $10 during sales on steam and amazon all the time. Just months after their initial release.

As the digital marketplace burgeons, it is becoming increasingly feasible to sell a game at a lower price point to the masses and still profit. Just 1s and 0s being pushed across the internet. Very little costs incurred.

Sure they can start off with a $19.99 price lets say...and then offer it on sale for $4.99 at various times throughout its life on the digital shelf.

I'm pretty sure the days of the $59.99 game are numbered. I haven't paid that price for a PC game in ages.

If they keep that up, it will be another factor driving the masses away from consoles and into the loving arms of cheap mobile gaming.

Also, current day, as you so persistently pointed out above, the mobile platform has a fraction of the horse power of modern consoles/ gaming PCs. Once that gap has closed and the fidelity is more on par, premium games will be able to fetch a better price. Along with the adoption of WiFi Display, the mobile game won't be limited to the small screen anymore and can justify itself as a real alternative to the console even in the living room.

[TriniXaeno]

All the bantering aside, I wanted to add a more philosophical question to the mix.

Should we, as an association, take up the mantle to "preserve" the dying art of PC gaming by say encouraging younger members to transition to the platform?

Doing things like promoting STEAM (which we already do to a point) and maybe showcasing affordable gaming desktops. Probably even going as far as to run some instructional videos on assembling one for cheap.

Or do we stick our heads in the sand and let the fate of the platform be determined by time (and the marketing prowess of the xbox one / ps4 combined)?

Thoughts?

[MessiaaH]

Firstly wyatt, is about money making like I said, and not everyone and every company can be successful with in-app purchasing, dota and LoL can get away with it, because they are heavy online games, ppl will be playing them for years on end. Most other successful titles, like Skyrim, Uncharted, Bioshock etc, are SP only titles, they will not benefit in no way shape or form, from online purchasing. So that argument mute. Also, it seems the industry going in the opposite direction you think they going, rumored price for next-gen games for xbox and ps4 are 70-100$

Yes, you read that right, d prices of games going to increase not go down, and u know what? People are going to pay for it. Yes sales are good, but the majority of game sales happen in the first 2 days, to the first week of launch. Most gamers not willing to wait 5 months, let alone 1, to play a new game. That is for men in d Caribbean, men in the US not waiting on no sale, them fellers buying thing at launch. So the steam sales argument is also mute.

If Sony and MS collectively agree to charge more for games, there is nothing mobile can do about it, because that price will be filtered down by the publishers as well. If more money and time is required to produce a next gen games, the publishers want to be compensated for that as well. And I repeat, they are not going to invest that time and money into a mobile game if they not seeing the returns from their investment. Even if mobile technology catch up, unless they can charge a reasonable price for their games, they not going to bother producing high level games on mobile. Like I said, mobile gamers doesn't even want to pay 2$ for a game. and all games cant be free-to-play like I explained.

...

As for as your question, HELL YES, what you think I being doing for years on this site. But I seem to be one of d very few who was trying to push PC gaming (and I don't mean just dota) (Arcman, Capt. Awesome, Berzerk are also noteable mentions to the effort). But the way yuh does be purporting the death of the pc, and the death of console, looks like you already stick yuh head in the sand lol.

I'm all for contributing to the PC effort if you decide to push it. Redlum recently got a windows phone 8 device and ask meh for apps, phoenix recently get one also and asking for apps, so ah take d time to do up the Getting Started Page, im not apposed to investing some time to help d community, so I dey.

[TriniXaeno]

I dunno...with free games offering to take up my "free" time I'm not sure how much more will be left over for triple A titles at US$100.00 a pop.

Do I really need to rush out and drop a wad of cash on the latest Tomb Raider? Or continue to play Dota/Lol/*insert free game of your choice here* and wait till it is on sale for US$19.99

That sort of thinking will get more and more pervasive, don't you think?

We should do a roll call of all those who bought the new Tomb Raider at launch vs those who waited and bought it at sale price.

Just as a sample.

As for pushing PC gaming, I know you'd be down for it. No doubt. Was hoping to hear if others held a similar view.

It seems a lot of people are just silently observing.

[MessiaaH]

I don't think that kind of thinking will get more prevalent, quite the opposite.
During a recession, with hardly any changes in it's hardware, the iphone flew off of Store shelves.

If u do a poll here I'm sure most ppl will wait on sales, like I said, Caribbean market different.
Them men in d states not waiting on no sale. It only takes 2 friends on d new COD and all others buying it to sweet with they crew.

When u see how much billions a game sell, d bulk of that is when d price high.
I wont run out to buy tomb raider for retail, but I pre order sc2 and Diablo, I was playing that at Launch, I also bought skyrim for full retail. Some games are just that good. Especially good multiplayer games, they will sell out at launch. D'oh want to wait six months when sc2 old to now get in on d hype.

[MessiaaH]

I also got HOTS at launch.

[TriniXaeno]

Well I ain't even get HOTS yet nor Diablo 3 nor Tomb Raider nor BioShock Infinite.

I will get them eventually at some ridiculous sale price when zerk or some other vigilant GATTer posts same in the Sweet Deals thread, lol

All good games I'm sure but just don't feel the need to throw out top dollar for them now.

Imagine if the price goes up to $100.00

Now self it sitting on the shelf.

But you maybe right, our market is a lot different to the US market.

So to better qualify my statement, in the context of the Caribbean, it will be a given that the new pricing scheme will fall flat on its face against the competition of free to play games. lol

[MessiaaH]

It very well may, but we're just a small dot, if that, on the global gaming scene. lol.

But let them charge 100$ for dota nah, nothing stopping alyuh men from buying that. alyuh dota men rel tusty alyuh buying that no problem lololol.

[TriniXaeno]

I wasn't paying a hot red cent for Dota strangely enough.

It was available for sale...for US$30.00  (still is I think)

Initially, you could only get in on the beta by special invite.

Sesimie gave me an invite thankfully. If not, would have remained a LoL / HoN player (which are both free....but also started off by charging)

Don't get me wrong...the game is worth that price and more....just that with all the free alternatives (and having played the original DOTA for free all my life, it is just incongruent )

Valve knows that, Riot knows that and even Microsoft knows that. Hence the switch to the freemium model.

Every big player in the industry is experimenting with it now and for good reason. Soon there will be an up and coming generation of gamers who will find it unreasonable to pay top dollar for their gaming experience. Since most of their gaming has been on the free/cheap2play model.

Those games aren't crappy like that Battlefield Free 2 Play fps (what a horror), they are increasing in fidelity day by day to rival top tier offerings that cost solid moolah.

[MessiaaH]

That mite be so, but based on MS/Sony studying to raise d price of games , it seems they banking more on price hikes, than freemium.

Like I pointed out, the freemium model cant work for all games. SP games especially, it just wont work. Developers would go broke. We don't want another THQ on our hands.

[TriniXaeno]

Valve ain't going broke.

Don't get me wrong, I don't expect Tekken to move to a freemium model anytime soon but the point is this...there are only so many hours in the day.

If a gamer can pass his time more and more with free games, he will be less inclined to spend for those that cost hard cold cash.

[MessiaaH]

Valve not going broke because of dota, vale eh broke because of steam. Also the budget to produce a game like dota is dramatically lower than something like Skyrim or Halo, valve can afford to experiment with the freemium model for games like that.

And game sales of both consoles and PC has risen in the last few years, so the majority of gamers in the world don't agree with this : "If a gamer can pass his time more and more with free games, he will be less inclined to spend for those that cost hard cold cash."

I personally am willing to pay money for my games, because like you pointed out, not many hrs in d day. So when I do get time to game, I have no problem spending money to make sure that gaming experience is the best it can be. Which is why I start writing off lesser games from my list, I only have time for the truly epic. The 9.5 and above games.
Not everybody is a dota fan.
And, the point about not spending money to game is sorta moot, cause obviously valve is making profit on dota. Which means, them same gamers you say want to play "free" game, are spending all their cash on in-game items (like mez) so at d end of d day, they not playing no free game, they spend d same dam money (maybe more lol) on dota.

It will always have d men willing to pay. You mite not, but billions of others will. I is one of them, ill pay 100$ easy for a next gen Zelda. Easy.

Edit:

BTW, that unwillingness to pay for games and only want to play free thing, is what lead to the rampant piracy that has harmed the gaming industry over the years, thanks to men like Valve self, people are now again comfortable with buying they games and not pirating it so. I only start really buying games with the rise of steam. lol.

[TriniXaeno]

Valve was making big money long before dota.

They had insane success with Team Fortress which is guess what....another freemium game.

Microtransactions looks to be huge, especially so on the mobile platform (which I think we all agreed, is going to be the new king with respect to the number of players)

Microsoft is already hinting that they plan to include microtransactions in the new Halo game.

It doesn't cater for the people that think like you (nor me for that matter) but we may soon be irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.