i have always been a console gamer until recently when i start playing pc games more than ever before. i still prefer consoles games, Resident evil 4, Okami, shadow of colossus, final fantasy, zelda and the list is still long , those games cannot be found on the PC. However, current consoles are dying and x box is almost dead, for now there is not a single reason to go and pick up this console, ps2 is showing its very aging graphics after its fourth year, so my point is , only decent pc' s would let you have a smooth transition from current gen to next gen.

but what really strikes me is:

when the PS2 came out or dreamcast, those consoles had much lower specs in comparaison of the average pc' s at that time, and still they delivered so so much better graphics .

how now these next gen console will affect pc games, knowing that these (for the first time i guess) have much powerful specs than the highest pc today (3 cores, Cell anyone??), what should we expect from graphics (call of duty 2 look awesome on the 360 but is it what we expecting from the console?)

and let' s not take into consideration very rich people in this, who' s going to buy a 7800 GT for a $400 ?? let' s take the exemple of call of duty 2 ? what system do you need to run it with " almost" as beautiful graphics as the 360 version with no loss of performance ??

3ghz CPU + 7800 GT + 1 Go ram that' s around $600 only for these three componenets === then you should go with all headeachs that computers are sure to deliver (incompatibility with the new hardware, bugs ooh nightmare ....)

Hey i' m in late 2006 and the 360 delivers extremly good graphics but my PC can' t really keep up, oooh Gears of wars is out for pc as well (ook let' s just consider that), damn it looks awesome on 360 but damn if my pc should run that well the 7800 gt might be fine but the 3ghz naaah now i need a dual core cpu and 2 go ram, again a lot of cash is needed, and that' s worse my whooole pc should change since the whole structure that should support the dual core is needed, i should change my motherboard as well and may be the hard drive and finaly the game is not perfectly optimized....

yes it' s sad, no matter what you say or be, the true experience of gaming and fun is delivered by the consoles, even if your an FPS fan i think that the controler can do the job, not as good as a mouse and keyboard but still, next gen consoles have extremly more value than buying a PC for games nowadays... and i think this round, it wil take a very long time until pc' s will catch up on consoles...

I think PC games are as threatened by console games as they were during the 16-bit era... Both will always appeal to their respective crowds with a few cross-overs here and there. In a nutshell, that' s just my slightly fancy/long-winded way of saying that I think hardcore PC gamers will remain dedicated to their platform of choice, as will hardcore console gamers .

Im getting a bit worried for pc gaming...
All new fps to pc almost demand new hardware...

True on those words Terry. I' ve found that PC Games can be more diverse and not limited. With pc you can upgrade any time and not worry if your crap is limited to Nintendo, Sony or Xbox rights only. Especially on the Final Fantasy games. I' m very glad that they came out on PC and doesn' t force players to buy a Sony product. In my honest opinion, PC games are a lot better due to the diversity or capability to offer any game on the market on it. They may not right now have the ability of the Xbox360 but, in a matter of months or a year or two. That' s a whole different story. If your PC had the same graphic ability as the Xbox360 in the next few months or right now, don' t you think that an emulator could be made for it? That' s the convenience of PC the ability to run anything anytime when you' ve built it up to those standards. I mean look what you can download right now. N64 emu, PS2 emu and not sure on the Xbox emu. I' m not hating on consoles because I love the feel of a good ole unique controller in my hand and the ability to carry it around easily. I just think that PC' s are better instead of having to buy a new system every few years. If you build a computer just right and power punch it with top of the market stuff. It will last you for many years and you' ll only have to buy a new graphics card when games demand more graphic abilities.

I think in the next gen consoles will trump pcs for the first time. Why spend 3000 for a computer that will only give you more hasstle? There is far more value with consoles and a much more varied library of games then on pc, I mean fps and rts is all the pc has to offer, lame.

I agree.
Pc gaming is slowly dying.

I didn' t read all the posts in this thread cause they' re so long, but I' m sure they' re very well informed. My opinion, is that it' s going to be nearly impossible to make console gamers turn into PC gamers and vice versa. Console gamers love sitting in front of the TV playing games in the living room, and PC gamers love there setups in the office playing on super overclocked machines. As for the graphical issue, it' s always the same. New console comes out has to have better graphics. PC' s catch up and pass, creating the need for consoles to release new better systems to catch up and pass again.

I don' t think PC gaming will die anytime soon. I love PC games and I play them as much or even more than my consoles, but I think that one day we' ll see more of an integration of consoles and PC' s.

To put it bluntly, a console with specifications like the X360 blows most gaming PCs away. Sure, in the next year or two PC' s will have close to the same specs - but even then they CANNOT fully utilize it like an X360. PC' s have to deal with bloated OS' s, background applications, etc and developers have to take into account a large range of different system configurations and program things according to the lowest common denominator. Consoles are much more efficient than PC' s because there is generally only one configuration of hardware and software - so the most can be squeezed out of them.

There are also rumours of an X360 type PC that will be released later on. Whether or not next iterations of the X360 are going to add PC functionality is a moot point. Sometime soon enough that WILL happen. The current situation of having console, PC and home emtertainment all in separate appliances is rather nonsensical. Microsoft is quite correct in recognising that fact.

Soon enough, consumers are going to agree.

I cannot comment on the PS3 yet as much of the information on it is still up in the air but I am sure that Sony is also looking in this direction.

If PC gaming is treatened by consoles, that can only mean more and more FPS and RTS games coming to the consoles (since those are the only type of games they make for PCs). And more FPS and RTS games on consoles is NEVER a good thing. As for me, I' d rather have good games on consoles instead.

i don' t mind more fps and rts coming to consoles as long as they make much more the other types of games.
for the one that see a futur possibility of Pc' s emulatin xbox360, boy that will take a decade!! there is no PS2 emulator working even 80% (they are extremly slow even on a monster machine) and for x box it' s worse...

PC' s are not always easy to upgrade, for instance my PC which is a 3Ghz, 1 go, 9800 pro if i want to get a 7800 GTx, then i should change evrything , motherboard, hard drive, ram (since the card is a PCI express)... almost everything that' s another new computer and damn i just put 900$ less than two years ago!!

as unluckyone said, even if pc will have the same xbox360 specs in two years ago, they won' t match its power at all and the reason are known... and history proved it

PC gaming sales may be threatened by consoles, but I believe that there will ALWAYS be a market for pc games. If only for one reason; people use pcs for other things! If you already have a pc in your home that you use for writing term papers, email, surfing the net or other common practices, why wouldn' t you use it as a game machine? I mean, I personally prefer consoles (except when they crap out on me on launch day ) but even I have a couple of games on here. It' s just convenient.

I dont think pc gaming will " die" .
But i do think they will lose more and more people into consoles.

the Pc game will never die because the market is sooo huge, but for the next couple of years, games and specialy gears won' t sell as before

I agree - in principle - with UnluckyOne.

What I do see, is the merging of two similar (yet unique) mediums. Each generation of console is more like a PC with each PC release/upgrade having to compete that much harder with its console counterpart.

PC' s just require too many aspects to be ' just right' for them to play enough titles to be worth their $$, While consoles offer the ' out-of-the-box' compatibility that a growing number of gamers want - ease and simplicity, so one can concentrate on the gaming experience.

My suggestion (and this is only my opinion; and not trying to be mean) is for PC gamers to get used to consoles overtaking the current & future gen scene.

I never understood that whole keyboard/mouse thing for FPS games...

are Pc games threatened by these next gen cons ?

Yes. There is always someone, somewhere jealous of any new technology that surpasses their own.

We call those people babies.

I believe PC gaming will decrease because, for me, the biggest reason to get a powerful PC, to play games on, was that it was much easier to play online. And there were a lot more online games for PC than there were for the last-gen consoles. I think that lots of people feel the same.
But it seems that all three next-gen consoles, as well as the new handhelds, will have lots of online games and it looks like it will be easy to use. This will probably " steal" many online-players from the PC market.
The only real advantage a PC has nowadays is power, but I don' t think that the power is enough to get me to buy a 1000$+ PC when I can get a more powerful Xbox360 a couple of years earlier and use all that PC money into building a great library for the 360.
Also, I think it' s more fun to gather a group of friends and sit together in the same room and play split screen, than to sit separate all alone with a PC playing online.
What do you prefer:
Having your best friends playing Super Smash Bros Revolution or Eye Toy 2 and have some beer and snacks together at your place, laughing together in reality
OR: Playing an online game with your friends on a PC, alone in your dark room with some Jolt cola using the line " LOL" all the time to tell how much fun you' re having?

ORIGINAL: ginjirou

What do you prefer:
Having your best friends playing Super Smash Bros Revolution or Eye Toy 2 and have some beer and snacks together at your place, laughing together in reality
OR: Playing an online game with your friends on a PC, alone in your dark room with some Jolt cola using the line " LOL" all the time to tell how much fun you' re having?

I don' t know...

We are talking Jolt Cola after all!

In my opinion i dont think that PC games will die, the next gen consoles are powerful but not as powerful as the PC, in one more year the PC will take 2 steps in graphics and the next gen consoles only take one, so i dont worry about this topic as much, cuz i know the PC is moving much much faster than next gen consoles.

Huh, I' ll agree with you on that ColdBloodLover.

I guess I was the only one who actually played on a modded xbox. It had a 200gb hard drive in it with new ide atapi cables because Microsoft used some cheap ones. A Pioneer dvd player I believe (again big M used a cheap product) and a premade Linux OS configured specifically for the xbox. I had no problem with games and it ran better than other xbox consoles. Mainly due to the fact that the games were on the Hard drive. Unfortunately, I couldn' t test this online since big M had a lockdown on modded crap but I imagine it would have ran just fine. My point is that any console can be turned into a pc and any pc can be turned into a console. That is of course, when you know what you' re doing and you configure it correctly. Some of you say that a pc can' t beat a console system. Well, I say you' re wrong. How do you think we designed that console in the first place? By using computers and computer parts. A pc can outbeat a console anytime, it' s just the convenience of the console system that people prefer. Nobody wants to mess with 50 freaking wires just to take over to a friends house or carry a big huge cpu especially if it has a water cooler system. Instead, people prefer 2 cables to actually plug in and hardly any weight or size that can be stored in a book bag.

Pc gameing is not dying, in fact its growing, with WoW and Battlefeild 2 and many other very popular titles the pc market should be getting stronger in these years before the big next gen launchs. Then it will take a blow, But slowy rise again. Lets face it, on a console you cannot quiet your game, log into the interent and post on a forum what you think of it, a computer offers much more than just a means of playing games, console games will never catch up with the level of detail on mod tools, the coummitys for each game is allways huge with popular pc titles [espically if its mod friendly], the old Keyboard + mouse is the best option for Fps + Rts alike, and managment sims. And finally Computers have that thing where you must have your lastest Super Gefore 7800Tx pci express up and running, for maximum graphics and minimium money.

For me though, i am a little in both camps, i suppose i would call myself a hardcore console gamer and a semi-hardcore/casual pc gamer.

I dont play wow though, to pay money for any game after you bought it is a crime.