Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 8th May 2007 13:19 UTC
Months go, I reviewed Windows Vista, and concluded: "All in all, I am impressed by Windows Vista [...]. Windows Vista is better than XP, and definitely more than just an improved look as many say." After 5 months of usage, it is time to put that statement into perspective.
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Member since:2005-07-02
I don't see this happening.
And yet it *is* happening. The PC market now represents perhaps 10% of the gaming industry. Don't take my word for it, read industry papers. Go to trade shows. For most of the biggest developers, PC gaming is an afterthought.
The most popular subsets of games still don't map well to consoles: first person shooters, massively multiplayer games and strategy games.
Apart from a few core titles (HL2, WoW, etc.), these genres simply are not as popular (in terms of sales) as many others found almost exclusively on consoles: non-FPS shooters, RPGs, sports games (including driving games) and so on. I believe you see these games as the "most popular" because those are the types of games you play, and from a PC gamer's standpoints those represent the majority of games, but in fact they arent. Check the sales figures.
I'm not even touching the Wii stuff, which is quite unique and is catching like wildfire among casual gamers...
Plus, much of the PC gaming scene also revolves around the modability of games-- something consoles can't provide.
Perhaps, though saying they *can't* provide it is not quite true - it would be theoretically possible. However, you're talking about a niche market here, not a mainstream one.
In fact, from my perspective as a middleware developer, I see a rebirth happening in the PC game industry right now.
Well, it's certainly not dead, but as a game developer I don't see any particular changes in the basic trends that shape the industry right now.
Game development is slowing moving from large monolithic game houses to smaller studios.
Perhaps in your local area, but this does *not* represent the current global trend. On the contrary, the consolidation of development studios continues unabashed.
Note that this is not necessarily what I'd like...it's simply what's happening right now.
Linux has an opportunity to take advantage of this transition, but it will require a rather large effort to provide stable driver support and good tools for game development.
Honestly, I doubt it (and I'm a longtime Linux advocate). I think it's a strategic mistake to hedge any bets on Linux gaming (beyond casual gaming), though of course I'm not going to complain about any advances in that area.
Member since:
2006-02-26
This used to be true, but is less the case nowadays. The PC gaming market has become a fraction of the overall video game market, and more people are using PCs for productivity/Internet and consoles for gaming.
I don't see this happening. The most popular subsets of games still don't map well to consoles: first person shooters, massively multiplayer games and strategy games. Plus, much of the PC gaming scene also revolves around the modability of games-- something consoles can't provide. In fact, from my perspective as a middleware developer, I see a rebirth happening in the PC game industry right now. Game development is slowing moving from large monolithic game houses to smaller studios. Linux has an opportunity to take advantage of this transition, but it will require a rather large effort to provide stable driver support and good tools for game development.