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Loading ...Should the PC become more like a console?
garethogden
By now, most of you will have read Epic VP Mark Rein’s comments about how consoles are holding back PCs, but I wanted to expand on this a little, since it’s something I agree with.Â
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It’s a sad fact that consoles are where the money is in the games industry; it’s been this way for a number of years and is likely to stay this way for the foreseeable future. Setting aside arguments over whether PCs are better than consoles, the simple fact is that consoles are commercially more important because they are a fixed platform, and are sold as consumer devices at high-street friendly prices.
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The fixed platform is crucial, since this is what allows developers to concentrate their efforts. If a developer knows exactly what resources it has to work with then it can develop titles without having to worry about compatibility issues with different graphics architectures or versions of DirectX, and it also knows exactly how much performance is available. Add in the fact that it also knows the size of the installed user base (and will have a good idea about future sales of the platform) and it all makes for a very stable environment. Conversely, the huge variety in PC hardware and performance makes for a significantly less stable development environment.
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This fixed console platform is also the reason why console games just work (you just put in the disc and turn on the console), whereas PC games often have to be tweaked to run optimally, and require driver updates, patches and so forth. This hassle is hardly ‘consumer friendly’, unlike consoles, which are simple.
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Cost has also traditionally been a barrier for PC gaming, since gaming PCs are much more expensive than consoles.
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So if you look at it from the point of view of the games developer, consoles are obviously more attractive. They’re cheap, offer a stable development environment, they ‘just work’, and shed-loads of people own them. Therefore, when the development houses choose a base technical level for a game, they choose the lowest common denominator, which is the hardware spec of the primary console format that they’re developing for.
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This is why it’s no co-incidence that very few PC games made use of DirectX 9 until the Xbox 360 became the primary console platform, and it’s also why, as Mark Rein said, relatively few games will use DirectX 10 until DX10 consoles come along, quite some way into the future.
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Contrary to what console fanboys think, however, it’s not all doom and gloom for the PC. N00bs have foretold ‘The Death of PC Gaming’ for years and yet it has never died. PC gaming is, in fact, getting stronger.
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Much of this has to do with the PC’s online gaming capabilities, particularly MMORPGs and popular shooters such as Counter-Strike, but, paradoxically, the success of the Xbox 360 has helped too, since its DX9 graphics chip has given developers a commercial reason to include high-end graphics features in their games.
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The PC is also becoming a more viable gaming platform in general, since even relatively low-end systems are now capable of gaming. For example, the price of a PC that can play games at good quality settings and at decent resolutions is not that much higher than the price of a PlayStation 3. In fact, if you consider that you need an HDTV to get the most from a PS3 or Xbox 360, the cost of a gaming PC can easily be lower.
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The problems relating to driver issues, patches and the PC’s variable hardware platform are also improving. Direct-to-drive services such as Steam remove the need for manual patching, and Vista is more intelligent about suggesting driver updates than XP too, although updating drivers is still a barrier to non-techy gamers.
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Another issue is that playing a game on a PC still isn’t as easy as it is on a console, with their ‘install disc and turn on’ simplicity. However, this is a solvable problem, providing there’s the will to solve it. Vista’s Experience Index, while hardly a detailed benchmark, could be used to automatically set quality levels in a game, since developers will be able to interrogate this service to determine the PC’s performance and adjust the settings accordingly.
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Adjusting detail settings and resolutions, updating drivers and patching games are no hassle for an experienced PC gamer, but the truth is that for the PC to become a more mass-market platform (and therefore a more commercially viable platform for games developers) it has to become, in some ways, more like a console.
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This may be a bitter pill to swallow, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the PC must give up its advantages over consoles, namely its far greater flexibility and power, not to mention its ability to embrace new technologies. It simply means that the PC as a games platform has to be easier to develop for, and be less of a headache for n00bs to play games on. The reward for an easier-to-use gaming PC would be much more attention from games developers and, ultimately, more and better PC games.
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Could it work? Let me know.
As much as Microsoft is a dirty word around these here parts (yeehaaa), their Games for Windows branding could have made quite a difference to PC gaming, given that you just have to match up the score on the box with the score on your Vista machine. Trouble is the system assessment is a bit flawed since you could have very little hard drive space with a slow data transfer giving you a low score despite having a CPU and graphics card rated at 5.9 allowing you to run the game easily but with a score of 3 you’ll be a bit put off won’t you. Had it been an average it may have made more sense.
It should have also been mandatory and not timed to coincide with the release of Vista. I’ve seen a few questions on the Vista magazine forum asking if they have to buy GFW branded games to run on Vista so clearly it has slightly confused the issue.
I believe Steam is the future though and the sooner EA give up on their lousy EA Link and put BF2 on Steam the better. I’m sick to death of patching it.
It’ll make an interesting argument for Podcast 10, but console manufacturers have merely succeeded in persuading the man in the street that consoles are the cool way to play games and marketing is their real success. Since the ‘cool n00bs’ are happy to pay £40+ per game as a result, give me the PC’s problems any day - you learn how to deal with them once and that’s it, and the games are cheaper - 4 console titles will buy you any upgrade you require to keep your PC in the game if you built the core spec carefully enough.
Conversely, my mate in Australia has had his Xbox 360 repaired for the second time, so consoles are no more reliable in this generation than a PC and all you can do with them is send them back. With a PC, only that one game or that single piece of hardware is affected and you could still do something else with the rest of the machine.
I think the developers of Supreme Commander and its sequel have countered part of Mark Rein’s argument perfectly when they said that “DirectX 10 is not supported [in Forged Alliance]. We chose to use the time and resources to make the game more polished and fun for 100% of our fans than hit graphic tweaks that would affect a smaller number.” The rest of the PC gaming industry will be facing the same decision within the next calendar year/two generations of DX10 graphics cards.
I can’t believe making the PC more like a console would acheive anything but stiffle PC developmet. Afterall, if we want a ‘PC like a console’ isn’t that just a 360? The very reason I don’t own one. I do own a Wii for when I want a no fuss bit of gaming, the Wii being the ‘forget the graphics, enjoy the gameply’ alternative. When I wasnt to play on my PC I actually want the effort of tweaking the most out of it to get the beyond consoling graphical quality that sets the PC apart from the consoles.
People always complain about the ‘patch’ syndrome with the PC, but at least you can patch, and for that matter mod the games with ease.
I guess in the end, no one does (or at least should) buy a PC just for gaming. If that’s all you want you will always be far better with a console. But for a system to allow you to do pretty much anything you want and then also play games, I feel the PC is just fine as it is; a sometimes unstable, but always cutting edge alternative for those with the time. Maybe I’m just an elitest! 
if consoles allowed native use of keyboard and mouse in games, i woulndt heisitate and dump gaming on PC and go with a console.
I thought this is what DX10 is meant to do! The main issue we have at the moment from the PC gamer side of things is that we don’t have a successful range of graphics cards. By this I mean that low/mid range cards just can’t handle any modern games (especially in DX10) and even cards costing over £400 can’t handle many current games on max settings especially in DX10.
Compare this to the days of the 9800 Pro and 6800 series cards - you buy a top of the range card then and it would fly through anything you threw at it even a year or two later. Likewise mid range cards like the standard 9700 and the 9600 Pro could still play games at half decent settings.
I totally agree on the complication issues. I have several friends who are forever asking me about BSODS in games and which drivers to use and where to get them from - it would be nice if this was perhaps automated somehow but what’s clear is that PC games deveopers don’t put enough time in to testing games which is why we usually have a plethora of patches and drivers fixing issues and improving performance after a game is released.
It’s great when you install a driver and it boosts performance by a big percentage, but there are times when it’s nice to “just play” a game without worrying when it will next crash or counting down the seconds till the next patch release.
I suppose we may get/already have something like this for consoles with net connections but it has been a nasty necessity on the PC for years and this, combined with the instability compared to consoles which is probably the primary factor that puts people off PC gaming.
Part of this is down to the diverse nature of PC hardware and the difficulty making everything compatible but it’s very obvious looking at games like BF2 that very little testing indeed is done before a game or even patch is released - just look at the patch that caused the memory leak and other patched that have causes server crashes. If the internet didn’t exist then they would have to make games 100% stable to begin with as they do for consoles. Instead they usually do a bodge job to get the game out early and patch it later, usually leaving people with chronic issues.
Piracy too is a big factor that makes developing for consoles more attractive. So many games are freely available on Bit torrent that this will make an even bigger dent in sales compared to consoles. This is a shame because PC games are usually a fair bit cheaper than Console ones to start with which is why I’ve never bothered with the hassle of cracking games.
I think more cooperation between AMD + Nvidia with games developers to make sure cards actually work well when they are released and that new hardware can cope easily with current games and isn’t totally obselete 12 months down the line would go a long way to improving the situation for everyone. I wouldn’t mind paying more for a card that will last longer and perform better so I wouldn’t be totally against doubling the time period between current new card generations.
Of course DX9 cards being compatible with DX10 graphics is asking too much - after all that’s akin to the difference between a PS2 and PS3 - ie you have to buy a new console anyway.
I think the PC should undergo some changes to make it easier to use. Consoles are catching up quick, especially on the online front. I just hope it can change so we’ll still recognise it.
what as loss leaders 
for Vista
Pc’s have diferent drivers you can never have to much power, dasd or memory - soory did i offend anny COBOL programmers.
And is MS or Sony making any mony off of their consoles at the moment, at least pc’s have a decent market to drive inovation and advancement.
PC’s are and investment, just like buying a car or a home, you have to maintain it and keep it running smoothly. PC Gaming is the kind of investment one enjoys like a hobby; to keep upgrading your PC makes way to becoming a great computer engineer.
No I don’t like to ways have to patch this, and patch that, but if you look at it… That is what makes PC Gaming so interesting and challenging, and rewarding. PC Gaming all the way for me Bro… Plus I don’t ever recall seeing PC Land Parties for Console Games, have you?
It’s so cool to be able to take your PC Rig and customize it, than show it off at a land party to everyone else after spending hard earn cash and time building it. Try that with a Game Console, you may void your warranty, NO…. PC for gaming all the way my friend, I love this Hobby despite the expensiveness of it.