When I ask you to name the technology world's most secretive company, you'd most likely respond with 'Apple'. However, there's one other technology company that, while substantially smaller than the Cupertino giant, is quite possibly even more secretive: Valve.
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Member since:2010-03-08
You know, I've been thinking about that actually.
Sure, PC hardware changes fast if you want to keep running games at max graphics settings. But if you do not care about that stuff and just use whatever settings work best (preferably those that are set up automatically when it works), a gaming PC can live a pretty long time.
My parents changed their last PC because they couldn't play games on it anymore when it was 8 years old, which is pretty close to the lifespan of a video game console. Given a RAM and HDD upgrade, it could likely have lasted a bit more, since its 7800GT was still not overwhelmed, but my brother and I decided that considering how pricey these were getting, it was best to just keep the PSU and case and change the rest.
In the end, what makes PC gaming so expensive is the temptation to max everything out, which you do not have on a console since game editors have chosen the visual settings for you. Otherwise, it is a bit more expensive than a console at purchase time, but you get that money back on game price later. Plus, you'll need a PC for work anyway.
Edited 2012-04-15 08:51 UTC
Member since:2005-11-10
All true, but an aspect I didn't highlight is that a gamepad and a TV screen hooked up to an TV is a competitive prospect compared to the current crop of the XBOX360 and PS3. It might not be "PC" gaming per-se, but it is a nice spot that caters for those who can neither afford (or want the technical headache) of a gaming PC, but also see the XBOX/PS3 (and the cost of their games) as too expensive too.
Member since:2005-08-18
Buying a new console every few years because the previous model has been obsoleted isn't really cheaper. Not to mention that you might have to buy a console from more than one manufacturer.
At least on a PC you can play today's games on the previous generations of hardware. Perhaps not on the highest detail but that's not something that bother the causal gamer much.
Member since:2005-11-10
Yes, but what I’m talking about is the spec of the latest game no longer being relevant to the consumer; it takes little hardware to stream a game. There's no longer the worry that "will my PC play this game", and getting a sub-par experience because your PC is not as powerful as somebody else's.
My laptop is five years old now, and I’m excluded from many games now and am becoming more limited as time passes; but the machine is perfectly capable of streaming the latest, highest spec game. Why should a consumer go through so much complexity of changing and upgrading a machine for the benefit of what? Being smarter / better / more well off than somebody else?
I’m not saying there _isn’t_ a place for PC gaming as it is right now—of course!—what I’m saying is that I can easily see that a majority don’t want to deal with the complexity of a PC for the reward of the latest game, they just want to hand over their money for the game and play it without hassle. I think few technically skilled people can see how much of a challenge and a chore PC gaming is right now.
Member since:2006-05-12
Subscription gaming? Ewww. Steam for Apple TV would maybe be OK if you got to own the games you buy.
I am having a hard time trying to guess what they would be collaborating on since steam already has clients for OSX and iOS.
It could be something simple like trying to nudge Valve into helping build an Apple gaming community since that could potentially benefit both companies.
Or just "Hi, I'm Tim Cook and here's 200 Mac Pro's, 500 iPhones, and a bunch of software licenses for your employees. Now help make people stop laughing when someone says "Apple Gaming".
Edit: To add to this, Apple won the hearts and minds of many nerd core when they added some unix tools and a proper command line shell to their OS. Gamers are a HUGE potential growth market for them and valve would be a useful company to have on their side.
Microsoft is potentially shitting on Valve with the future path of windows so it is a perfect time for Apple to welcome them with open arms.
Edited 2012-04-15 09:14 UTC
Member since:2006-01-16
I don't think there's really all that much point in Apple doing that.
Every game that Valve have developed since 2007, with the single exception of Alien Swarm, has a Mac version. That includes Half-Life 2, Portal, and Left4Dead series. Mac versions have been getting simultaneous releases from Valve for at least the last year. They couldn't really do all that much more...
OK, sure, they could port their games from before 2007, but that's likely not really worth the effort and those games are looking dated.
They could also port some games to iOS, but they'd all be essentially rewrite jobs since game interaction on a touch-screen require a fundamentally different approach. A hypothetical "Portal Touch" would need to work pretty differently from the desktop/console version.
Member since:2005-11-14
What? That used to be true, but now PC games tend to follow their console counterparts. Any decent gaming PC from the last few years is still a decent gaming PC next year. In fact, my old single core AGP system from 2005 could play pretty much anything except GTA 4, and "upgrading" it (keeping only the disk drives and the PSU) to a then mid-range gaming computer in 2009 cost pretty much exactly the same as a 32 GB iPad costs now. Currently, there's no need to upgrade. Then consider a 2010 iPad vs the 2012 iPad. Which one is most expensive to keep up with? (I'll give you a hint: it's the iPad.)
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Member since:
2005-11-10
PC hardware changes too fast, it’s too expensive for people to keep up; it’s not the future.
Perhaps Valve are looking at a streaming game service for Apple TV. £100 for the Apple TV plus some kind of subscription to Valve to play all the games you want would be a killer proposition.