Silent Hunter 6

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

How many years have people been saying this? Guild Wars 2, Shogun: TW, Mount and Blade With Fire ans Steel, Witcher 2, Heroes of Might and Magic 4, Sims Medieval, MS Flight, Red Orchestra Heroes of Stalingrad, Diablo 3, Minecraft...

I'd say PC gaming is as healthy as it's ever been.

Nah...

Most Major PC games now are multi format titles not made exclusivly for PC, but also for Xbox 360 and or PS (like the ones you mention above) this hase several side effects on PC gaming

First off it becomes harder to convince someone to spend $300 on a high end graphics card every 2-3 years, when the same amount will buy them a console that will last 5 years+

Secondly Publishers always want a game to appeal to the casual crowd since they make up the majority of gamers and as such have deeper pockets collectively speaking So the games tend to become easier and shorter.
Today, games marketing is all about the family crowding round the Tv with a console and 4 controllers. As a result, hardcore PC genres like Sims and RTS are not as popular and profitable as they once were.

And thats just the tip of the iceburg, aslo off the top of my head-

1) Piracy puts developers off while DRM puts consumers off.

2) Consoles have improved both technically and Logistically - the Visuals are now on par and Online gaming is no longer limited to the PC, something that was its major selling point back in the day.

3) Console games pretty much work right off the bat, no need to worry about hardware requirments, patches and driver updates etc. Plus I've yet to hear of an Xbox game that CTD's
It MUST be easier for Developers also, they only gotta worry about testing on one hardware configuration - rather than half a zillion possible combinations.

4) MS and Sony enforce somewhat tighter regulations on the Quality of software released on their systems. Every third party release has to be submitted to and then QA'd by them, so anything too buggy or unfinished gets sent back.
I dont think there are any such relgulation in the place for the PC since its a pretty open market.

5) lasty have you tried to sell any unwanted PC games latley? noticed how they seem to be near worthless in value, (even if they are less than one year old?)
Like wise you may have noticed that the PC games section in the high street retailer is either restricted to about 2 shelves or non-existant.
Down to Piracy maybe?
............

Im not pro-console (I dont even have one) I'm just saying that as a games platform the PC has lost its edge and now resides as the bottom of the ---- pile for the majority of publishers.

But hey ho, thats life

[elanaiba]

I don't think PCs are dying, with Steam, digital downloading and the rise of free-to-play games, people are putting a lot of money into it. From both ends, that is - customer and publisher.

And you'll always have WOW and Starcraft 2 as examples of very successful, on the PC.

Regarding Cold War - yes, we had this idea floating for SH4 and 5. But its generally proposed by the guys that have no idea about a) SH b) submarines and c) Cold War.

[Dowly]

Nah, PC gaming's not dying (and like mookie said, the death of PC has been anticipated for a decade already).

Both Magicka and Minecraft really shot indie games to public knowledge and now you see them everywhere. You got sims like the Eagle Dynamics' DCS series, A-10C just came out and they are already planning/working on the 3rd DCS game. How about WWIIOL? Or Armed Assault? While not hardcore sims, certainly something unique for PC.

Then there's the games that are multiplatform, but their life is extended greatly by modding in the PC version (Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3 springs to mind first).

And lastly, strategy games. Combat Mission, Close Combat, Hearts of Iron, the ridiculously overpriced Matrix Games' "epic" war games.

PC has everything for everyone. Consoles don't.

[JU_88]

Well I hope youre both right ^^

[Arclight]

The market actually grew last year, like it does every year.

We're all doomed! Time is running out! What will stop the death of PC games? Perhaps continuing to get bigger each year, with a 20% annual rise in revenue in the already enormous market could help. Once again, our favourite format failed to meet the expectations of the publishing industry, and went and sold billions of dollars worth of games. What is it like, eh?

...

Of course, you have to assume a bit of guestimating to these figures, what with Valve still (madly) refusing to release Steam sale figures. With around 70% of the digital market, that's a hefty chunk to be guessing at. But there's little doubt the PC is thriving, against all the inane wittering of idiots.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...revenue-up-20/

Like mentioned, it doesn't even include sales on Steam. And that's just 1 article. Dozens more like it that were published over the last years.

[kapitan_zur_see]

Originally Posted by elanaiba

Regarding Cold War - yes, we had this idea floating for SH4 and 5. But its generally proposed by the guys that have no idea about a) SH b) submarines and c) Cold War.

ahah That's so true

[vodkaphile]

I just wish we had one company that didn't care so much about profit margins and only produced quality sims and quality strategy games.

Problem is they take lots of effort and research and don't pay nearly as much.

It takes time to play these games and knowledge, willingness to learn. They are sometimes slow and 'boring' to a lot of people so companies produce console style fast action games that sell well but have no depth or detail.


Every once in a while a good game will come out but they are few and far between.

PC gaming will never die but it has changed and will continue to change. I think as far as retail stores go and physical disks, they are more of a thing of the past. It is more digital these days. I still love those thick 500 page manuals though, shame.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by vodkaphile

I just wish we had one company that didn't care so much about profit margins ...

....Problem is they don't pay nearly as much.

.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by JU_88

Most Major PC games now are multi format titles not made exclusivly for PC, but also for Xbox 360 and or PS (like the ones you mention above)

Actually, I carefully chose my list. Those are all PC exclusives.

[JU_88]

Well as a wittering idiot , Im quite happy to be proven wrong in this instance.
Seriously though, there is a stong perception that the PC as games platform has gone/ is going down the pan, but if in realitly it isnt, why do so many feel that it is? Perhaps its just nosalgia kicking in?
In my case maybe its just that most of my favorite PC game franchises have either gone sour or been killed of completely.

[Arclight]

Think it's really that: stuff like simulations and more "hardcore" titles being in decline. It's not strictly true, what with the stuff from Matrix and Paradox, and recently DCS and Rise of Flight, but in general the selection has decreased.

There was a thread recently that revealed Ubisoft's most selling titles, and it isn't something like Assassin's Creed, but the shovelware titles that most of us probably never even heard about (some Barbie game or some such). Not really something any of us would take note of.

The market is fine, plenty of money going around, so as a platform PC is doing rather well. But at the same time a lot of (mainstream) titles suffer from being cross-platform; say what you will, but you simply can't do on a console what a PC can do, simply because current consoles have no more than 512MB of RAM, compared to 2-4GB in the average PC.

So yeah, PC gaming is not dying, but it is (has been) definitely changing.

[Jaguar]

If, eventually, PC games do die we will not bother. Either because we will be very old to play anything but Tic Tac Toe or game platforms will be so good we will want to make the change.

[Sepp von Ch.]

When SH6, then only WWI sub sim with austro-hungarian, german, british and russian subs!

[Obelix]

We will see the new SH only year ubisoft will create a new defense and it must be on something than to experience. SH5 - a testing ground for DRM. DRM is tried, SH5 now they do not need.

interestingly, there is a simular post on Ubi forums SH5. What I can't understand is most seemed to have voted yes, but the thread is full of complaints, I know there are a few niggly little problems with SH5 and that people have been known to get hot under the coller, especially while attempting to use the toilet only to find the door does't work.

For me SH5 is like watching cricket, you take a book to read and or an umbrella. Things will happen you do don't like, your team may loose, your hero may be out for a duck. If it rains, the teams leave the pitch for the pavillion, here they tell jokes and drink tea while you get wet.

As I look at the gold progress bars Ubisofts SH6 thread, I realize this is life passing by. Millions of us do exacty the same every time we turn on our computers, progress bars rush to the right hand side of the our screens and we seemed to have accepted this as a norm and never to question, why does the progress bar go from left to right and not right to left?

The rub is this, if you like watching cricket you will get wet especially in England ask any Austrailian cricketer, or fan for that matter, it's called life and if the progress bar of your life goes up, down left or right, enjoy.

Do you want SH6 to come
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...7/m/1581017719