PC Games

I went into my local Best Buy tonight and found that they had reduced the PC games section to half of what it was. I find this a bit disturbing. One of the sales people had said to me a month or so ago that "No one buys PC games anymore. They all buy Xbox, etc" Xbox seems to be the number 1 console atm. I am wondering if that is really the case (it seems so for retail sales according to the stats on video games sales) or if it may be that many PC games are now purchased over download services such as steam. I personally prefer to have the discs because when I have to reformat a drive or w/e it quicker to reinstall from disk than download again from steam.

What does everyone think? You guys that own Xbox consoles, is Xbox so much better than gaming on a PC? I find it hard to believe because the hardware just isnt on the same par as PC. Yes an Xbox costs a lot less, but the games cose $10 to $20 more and I have heard that Xbox hardware breaks down alot more.

If I was gona buy one, Id go for an Xbox, but I really dont want to have to go guy a goddamned Xbox made by Microshit.

I have a xbox360 and if there was mouse and keyboard support I would probably use it, since there is not I just do the occasional non fps game and my son uses it for the most part.

As far as buying PC games I much prefer to download and If I were to buy a disk, well Best Buy would be the last place as they are far from the best buy price wise.

One other reason to avoid purchasing a disk for me is that I absolutely hate having to insert a disk, and with downloads = no disk = much better. When I reinstall I just let my games download over night or what ever, I don't get all wierded out if I cant play immediately.

Yea I agree that Best Buy isnt the "best buy" but there really is no other choice around here for video games and sometimes I do like to support the local economy.
I just dont like leaving things to download when Im not nearby in case the download fails or something. I don necessarily care about being able to play right away, I just like to get the games loaded back in as soon as I can.

the pc is an all around better platform and its reflected in the prices. it simply provides a higher level of entertainment. that is, if you can afford it. you can even buy an xbox 360 controller and plug it in your pc, youll get the same results that you would get on the xbox 360 but at a higher resolution and framerate. the biggest upside to our platform is customization. i dont think i have to explain what it means. xbox live is absolutely free of custom user created content and allows for little customization as part of a company policy.

fortunately i never had to resort to playing on a console.

I had a 360 and ended up selling it after two months or something.

I think that nowadays, with fast internet connections and torrents made simple, Hamachi for easy LAN play... If there is a cool multiplayer game, people will buy it on steam or on D2D. If the game is a singleplayer game, they will download and patch it, because they can.

I usually buy games from company that cares for their customers or that has something that I really like, and sometime it's just because of something silly like, i was in love with Bioschock's collector packaging, so i bought that instead of the steam version o_o

MAYBE the insane fast paced evolution of graphics and gameplay etc etc... makes buying hardware and constantly upgrading a high cost alternative to actually just buy a console that games are made to run on anyway.

Multiplayer wise, cheating/hacking is not only ridiculously tougher on console and getting another Xbox live account after they banned your infos from the DB is a pain in the neck.

And if you look at the Wii, market is re-orienting to real life multiplayer, wich the PC is simply not made for.

L2k wrote:I have a xbox360 and if there was mouse and keyboard support I would probably use it, since there is not I just do the occasional non fps game and my son uses it for the most part.

lmao. my thoughts exactly. once you train your brain to use a mouse and keyboard, a console controller is just pathetic. i have a PS3 and they have support for mouse and keyboard for online surfing, chat. some games have support for the m/k but most dont. i got my ps3 to play COD with some friends at work, i just cant enjoy it. using those stupid knobs drives me fucking crazy. my ps3 is just for sports games, mainly nhl hockey.

para, you think best buy is bad? go into a local game stop. the entire store walls from ceiling to floor is nothing but console games. then tucked away in the corner is the PC games stand. prolly 50, maybe. i cant remember the last time i bought a game in a store....oh, wait, ya i can. it was Q4, because i couldnt find anywhere to DL it. as far as DL games, i think its one of the few benefits of steam. stores all my unistalled games for me. i dont have to clutter up my office, the dogs cant eat them, the dont get scratched, plus i can buy them without leaving my house.

yea Gamestop is much much worse. I went into one once and never did again.

Best Buy, imo is really only bad for most hardware, especially components. Usually they dont have the latest models of stuff or all the options available at Newegg or Tigerdirect. However, I did buy my two monitors there which was fine.

I was always glad for the PC games section until yesterday.

I have to pass right by one on my way home and there is another one I can get to with a small detour so I don't have to make a special trip and leave the house just to go to one.

I havent bought a retail game since Prey, Ido most of my buying games through steam and PSN these days.

I have a 360 and that is all I really play anymore,

.conflict wrote:MAYBE the insane fast paced evolution of graphics and gameplay etc etc... makes buying hardware and constantly upgrading a high cost alternative to actually just buy a console that games are made to run on anyway.

exactly, I really can't afford a high end computer because I just don't have the money to spend on it right now, so a 360 is a cheaper solution for right now. also graphics and framerate may make a difference to a lot of people, but I don't mind not having them. but I do miss the customization though...

stretch

Lets face it microsoft own the PC market,and they have said that the 360 is the main market they wanna bleed for every penny.They have already fisted us PC users dry so with that money they have bought exclusive rights to things like the GTA episodes etc.Plus look at all this bollox with L4D2,valve know they cant release this content over GFWL cause its too big.So they re-badge it call it a number 2 and sell it,unfortunley us PC owners have to pay as well cause the 360 players wont be happy that we get it as download content and they have to pay.
Every demo from E3,comiccon etc are all played on 360's which is pissing me off, there doesent seem to be any games anymore which are built for PC then converted to console,times have changed.

Its amazing tho I used to love me consoles,I think Ive owned em all since the PS1 and only really had a PC for the past 4 years.But I bought myself a PS3 a couple months ago had a go for a couple weeks,got pissed off with the stupid mushrooms and flogged it on Ebay.And the proceeds went towards building a shit-hot computer which I can only play console re-makes on

well times are changing the casual gamer is coming more dominate than the hardcore that mostly resides in PC gaming. People just want to sit back on the sofa and jump straight into the game that's the whole appeal of console gaming and why is been more dominate in the game industry. Sure PC beats it in performance but in these economical times does anyone care putting up with semi descent graphics well not really if it save a compel hundreds let alone time involved in making sure the game works. Plus from a game publisher point you get perks like exclusivity deals and one hardware base that does not change which limits any compatibility issues and future game updates.

I enjoy both pc for fps and console for rpg and exclusives examples "metal gear solid 4" and "killzone 2" also I can't have my m8s over to play fifa on a pc can I.

I own a PS3 and a 360, while they do get used i own them more for their exclusives than anything else, it is far easier to go home sit on the sofa with a 32" HDTV and play Killzone 2, but then again the consoles don't make a game look as amazing as the pc can, i played Fallout 3 on PS3 first then got it on pc and was blown away by how spectacular the pc makes it look, I guess it's a different mentality with pc's we enjoy tinkering/updating which for me is half the pleasure of pc gaming (gets a ted expensive at times though).

when it comes to purchases i haven't bought a pc from a store in years i think the last one i actually bought was Half-Life 2 after that i got better broadband and just download them all

People aren't buying PC games anymore and the retail stores aren't stocking them for two reasons:

1. 12 million PC gamers play WoW. These gamers are not buying other games. Look at the PC section in any GameStop or even in Best Buy like Paradox was talking about.. There are multiple copies of WoW and all the expansions which make up a huge percentage of the stocked PC games, and one or two copies of anything else.

2. PC games are laughably easy to crack, and any disc is easily turned into a .iso file which can be torrented for free, whereas with a console, you are forced to buy the game (disregarding the small percentage of people who mod their consoles and torrent then burn the games.)


Why would you stock PC games if people aren't buying them? It's sad but very true. BitTorrent and World of Warcraft are ruining PC games. What can be done about it? Don't steal games and don't play WoW.

Merlyn wrote:Don't steal games and don't play WoW.

A fine solution, good luck convincing the idiots that comprise 99% of the gaming market to give up free and easy (respectively), though!

The internet is for WoW. Some peopl have 36 accounts so not 12 million individuals

Any PS3 users have WipeoutHD + the new Fury expansion?

damn imagine the electric bill for that place

thatguy wrote:damn imagine the electric bill for that place

with a set up like that for WoW, electric bills arent that guys (no pun intended) biggest issue. plus, he's prolly not spending any money on dates with chicks.

{EE}chEmicalBurn wrote:

thatguy wrote:damn imagine the electric bill for that place

with a set up like that for WoW, electric bills arent that guys (no pun intended) biggest issue. plus, he's prolly not spending any money on dates with chicks.

Someone with a setup like that doesn't even have time to masturbate.

That pic made me rage pretty hard over here. WTF is wrong with people? This is coming from a recovered WoW addict, too. Christ.

Uncle Rico wrote:Someone with a setup like that doesn't even have time to masturbate.

...and probably craps into a sock.

and has a trust fund worth more than any 20 of us put together