NVIDIA: Consoles Don't Threaten PC Gaming

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During an interview with EuroGamer, NVIDIA’s Roy Taylor said he believes that consoles do not pose a threat to PC gaming. I know this has been a hot topic for weeks now but, what do you think? Is Taylor onto something or just on something?

"I think we have to face the facts - the value of consoles is such that no-one is going to make a PC-exclusive game in the future. Why would they? Why would they ignore consoles?" said Taylor. "That said, PC gaming is changing - and consoles don't threaten PC gaming. They're just different. Adapting to that and understanding that is what I think is really, really important.
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Quite a few people are not taking into account the new online content delivery mechanisms.

Things like Steam, and MMO's. These new mechanisms count for what, Billions of revenue?

I'm not scared.
 
i want to see a scalable video game engine. by that i mean u can adjust the # of shaders, polygon counts, and complexities to a degree we haven't seen yet. so that let's say quake3 looks good in 1999, but can still push today's GPUin 2008 and 2016, etc. no1's done that yet. once u have done that, it'll be like a "virtual console" so to speak. games can finally keep scaling with hardware, etc.
 
Basically, consoles are better than pc only in that it is more difficult to cheat. Pc is better in every other category such as graphics, sound, mouse and keyboard support, tweakability but not cheating. The sole reason I think that I went to console only is cheating. I cannot play and fps on a console. It literally is painful.

Mix the two. Get the best of all worlds and I am IN.
 
Personally, PC games have been sleep for the past 2 years or so. Consoles have advanced so much. The way I see it is simple. Consoles gives you a good 5 year use before needing to upgrade to "next" gen. PC is an pretty much an annual upgrade.

Another prospective -- If i want to use my PC for productivity, then I'd have to build two --- One for gaming one for the other stuff. Because once you load PC games, and if it screws up well it may screw up something else.
With console, get the game, load it -- no real issue getting the darn thing going. On top of that, no need to upgrade, no need to check if my system have the specs for it. If two years later a new game comes out -- I'm damn sure it'll work on my console instead of having to upgrade system ram or something.
 
LANm0nk3y said:
Personally, PC games have been sleep for the past 2 years or so. Consoles have advanced so much. The way I see it is simple. Consoles gives you a good 5 year use before needing to upgrade to "next" gen. PC is an pretty much an annual upgrade.

Another prospective -- If i want to use my PC for productivity, then I'd have to build two --- One for gaming one for the other stuff. Because once you load PC games, and if it screws up well it may screw up something else.
With console, get the game, load it -- no real issue getting the darn thing going. On top of that, no need to upgrade, no need to check if my system have the specs for it. If two years later a new game comes out -- I'm damn sure it'll work on my console instead of having to upgrade system ram or something.
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sleeping, sleeping not "sleep" -- WHERE'S THE EDIT button ?
;)
 
could not edit my post??? here is the edited version.

Basically, consoles are better than pc only in that it is more difficult to cheat. Pc is better in every other category such as graphics, sound, mouse and keyboard support, tweakability but not cheating. The sole reason I think that I went to console only is cheating. I cannot play an fps on a console. It literally is painful. I can't play a fps on PC b/c of the percentage of players downloading skills. Especially in pubs. Even in leagues though. Well especially in leagues lol. Lame.

Mix the two. Get the best of all worlds and I am IN.
 
LANm0nk3y said:
Personally, PC games have been sleep for the past 2 years or so. Consoles have advanced so much. The way I see it is simple. Consoles gives you a good 5 year use before needing to upgrade to "next" gen. PC is an pretty much an annual upgrade.

.
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False on so many levels.. Cue up the dead horse...
 
Steve said:
Is Taylor onto something or just on something?
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Taylor's so remarkably out of touch with the tribulations modern PC gamers face. Console ports are a good thing? Who the hell is he kidding?

Yeah, I really fuckin' loved the X360 acceleration curves Irrational accidentally left in BioShock's PC port. That's fucking fantastic for PC gaming, right?

Please.
 
This will always be a hot topic if PC gaming is going to die or not.

There will always be a game that will be exclusive to an extent.
 
... coming from the guy with the brand new Raptor X, 9800GX2, etc. Any hardware there that's over 2 years old? :p

On topic, I used to game exclusively on PC. Now, I own a 360 and PS3. However, I do play a RTS game on the PC 1-2 times per week. However, this may be attributed to coming into a cubicle job and I don't want to sit in front of the computer when I get home.
 
spaceman said:
Basically, consoles are better than pc only in that it is more difficult to cheat. Pc is better in every other category such as graphics, sound, mouse and keyboard support, tweakability but not cheating. The sole reason I think that I went to console only is cheating. I cannot play and fps on a console. It literally is painful.

Mix the two. Get the best of all worlds and I am IN.
Click to expand...

While I do agree with the statements you've made, I think you missed the MOST important factor: Games and social factor.

All the positives of one system is mute if you can't play any decent games on it! That's not to say that PC gaming is lacking, but people just have preferences that will steer them to one of the many consoles and/or a PC. Like you said, FPS is more suited for a PC. But there are other platforms that are more suited for consoles. Then there is all that exclusivity of games...

As for the social factor, the PC opens up a wider range of audience. However, many people just like to play with their friends in the same room with less hassle. Consoles allow this as it is more accessible and cost effective. Not everyone owns a PC that is equipped for gaming, nor want to do lan partys.

There are more positives to a console than anti-cheating like you are claiming.
 
J Macker said:
... coming from the guy with the brand new Raptor X, 9800GX2, etc. Any hardware there that's over 2 years old? :p
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If you were referring to me the answer is "yes"..but thanx for paying attention..:rolleyes:
 
synergyo1 said:
While I do agree with the statements you've made, I think you missed the MOST important factor: Games and social factor.

All the positives of one system is mute if you can't play any decent games on it! That's not to say that PC gaming is lacking, but people just have preferences that will steer them to one of the many consoles and/or a PC. Like you said, FPS is more suited for a PC. But there are other platforms that are more suited for consoles. Then there is all that exclusivity of games...

As for the social factor, the PC opens up a wider range of audience. However, many people just like to play with their friends in the same room with less hassle. Consoles allow this as it is more accessible and cost effective. Not everyone owns a PC that is equipped for gaming, nor want to do lan partys.

There are more positives to a console than anti-cheating like you are claiming.
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I agree, with Xbox Live and even the PSN, its so easy to call up some friends and go "Hey you want to join me in this game." than on the PC's. With the PC's, usually you have to coordinate the server name and if there are alot of servers you better hope there are a good range of filters you can apply such as "Search by IP or Search by Name." Obviously there are games that are exception to this such as Counter-Strike and TF2 where your friend is on Steam Friends and can just easily join the game he is in by clicking his name. I think XFire also simplifies this process as well now. Well it used to be a problem in the past:p

Also when I play with friends, Im usually not looking to do anything competitve and just want to have a good time. For this I like to relax on my couch with my legs propped up on a leg rest and just have fun.

But yeah PC gaming isnt going anywhere. There are always going to be exclusives here and there. Plus PC gaming has its favorites such as Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, and Starcraft that will never die.
 
I don't understand this guy. The only possible defense for his comments is that PC gaming was dieing anyway. PC gaming is dieing, and it's NVidia that's killing it. Well, that's probably a bit harsh, it's the forced hardware upgrade to play each new game that's killing it, and NVidia is the company that benefits the most from that.

All that needs to be looked at is the cost of hardware. $400 ish for a new 360, capable of playing games for a good long while. Every time I see a new PC game I look at the specs, almost every time the specs have increased from last time, with no noticeable performance boost.

As previously stated, PC's have a foothold that they will not be easily pried from in MMO's, RTS's, IMO FPS's and free online play. But you can bet you ass the console market is trying their best to find a way to get into that.

I don't own a 360 or a PS3, if anything I'm a PC fanboy, but I can objectively look at my own platform. The number of good games for the PC is down and the number of good PC exclusive games is almost nill.
 
I hate it when someone says they won't need to upgrade a console and thats a plus. Thats a negative actually in my view unless you like sticking to old age graphics. Many older games can be upgraded with better graphics on the pc. With the console your games are obsolete after awhile and get boring. Replay value is less to me on a console than it is on the pc. Pc is better all around if your a real gamer. I own a wii for fun and multiplayer with friends but when i want to game with the real deal i use my pc for my graphics and multiplayer online games. Console are still limiting in multiplayer if you ask me. You are limited to what the developer gives you and thats it which sucks since they might charge you for additional content. Even then it won't be enough content to keep the game interesting enough to keep it lasting for awhile. Thats why the pc versions and the pc platform will never die. PC= open source platform, console = proprietary. More pc's are coming with better videocards stock so hopefully more can game on them in the future.
 
spaceman said:
Basically, consoles are better than pc only in that it is more difficult to cheat. Pc is better in every other category such as graphics, sound, mouse and keyboard support, tweakability but not cheating. The sole reason I think that I went to console only is cheating. I cannot play and fps on a console. It literally is painful.

Mix the two. Get the best of all worlds and I am IN.
Click to expand...

synergyo1 said:
While I do agree with the statements you've made, I think you missed the MOST important factor: Games and social factor.

All the positives of one system is mute if you can't play any decent games on it! That's not to say that PC gaming is lacking, but people just have preferences that will steer them to one of the many consoles and/or a PC. Like you said, FPS is more suited for a PC. But there are other platforms that are more suited for consoles. Then there is all that exclusivity of games...

Good point. I am too old. All of my friends have kids not consoles lol. For me, PC was much more social when I had a team to practice and fight with. Now, that is gone and all I do is play golf, bball or whatever against the console. So yeah, the social factor is huge I agree.
As for the social factor, the PC opens up a wider range of audience. However, many people just like to play with their friends in the same room with less hassle. Consoles allow this as it is more accessible and cost effective. Not everyone owns a PC that is equipped for gaming, nor want to do lan partys.

There are more positives to a console than anti-cheating like you are claiming.
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Good point. I am too old. All of my friends have kids not consoles lol. For me, PC was much more social when I had a team to practice and fight with. Now, that is gone and all I do is play golf, bball or whatever against the console. So yeah, the social factor is huge I agree.
 
Mass Effect and GTA4 run at 720p at 30ish FPS on my xbox 360 (oftentimes less, enough so that I suspect hardocp would put it below 'acceptable' framerates...I know I would, there's a lot of visible chop there).

I suspect a gamer that's willing to accept middling graphics settings (judging by experience on how ports to PC usually go) at 720p resolution with <=30FPS, I don't see how the person needs ANNUAL pc upgrades. You need annual if you get herpes from not running crysis at Very High with 60FPS at 1080p+.
 
J Macker said:
However, this may be attributed to coming into a cubicle job and I don't want to sit in front of the computer when I get home.
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I"ll be honest I sit in front of a computer for 40 hours a week for work, yet I still want to play computer games when I get home. I don't know if my computer chair is more comfortable than yours or something, but this is something I've never understood. Why does messing with excel or word all day make you not want to go home and play a game on your PC? (I'm honestly asking)
 
The biggest threat to PC gaming that comes from consoles is "consolitis"
Thats what happens when a console game gets ported to PC.
Halo, Lost Planet and Mass Effect are good examples of what happens.
Potentially great games that just look and play like crap on a PC.
Lower resolution graphics (aka the Turok effect), poor game control and lousy interfaces.
There are exceptions.
Bioshock and UT3 seem to have made decent translations. (any others?)

Consoles = gamepads
Gamepads + FPS = poo

PC's may not be the lead development platform anymore for many reasons.
Sad becuase PC's always offer the more flexibility and potential than consoles.

PC's have not been "asleep"
Games are just taking longer to make for many reasons.
 
erexx said:
The biggest threat to PC gaming that comes from consoles is "consolitis"
Thats what happens when a console game gets ported to PC.
Halo, Lost Planet and Mass Effect are good examples of what happens.
Potentially great games that just look and play like crap on a PC.
Lower resolution graphics (aka the Turok effect), poor game control and lousy interfaces.
There are exceptions.
Bioshock and UT3 seem to have made decent translations. (any others?)

Consoles = gamepads
Gamepads + FPS = poo

PC's may not be the lead development platform anymore for many reasons.
Sad becuase PC's always offer the more flexibility and potential than consoles.

PC's have not been "asleep"
Games are just taking longer to make for many reasons.
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Bioshock was designed for the PC and ported to consoles.
UT3 was just a big bucket of fail in general but yeah I agree here, it suffered from consolitis.
Halo is just a bad port in general. I have no idea what they were even thinking when they ported that and said ok its done, lets release it.....
Mass Effect and Lost Planet from what I heard are good ports and havnt heard many people complain about bad performance/graphics.
 
Have you played the PC version of Devil May Cry 4 on the PC? The game isn't for everyone, but I think Capcom did a very good job with porting the demo. Hopefully this extends to the final product.
 
Wow, these threads can be so hilarious sometimes is actually funny!

The number one thing that people just don’t get it when this topic comes up is that the most of the hardware in a console comes from the PC. As long as consoles are a loss leader on the hardware side, PC gaming can’t die, otherwise your console is going to cost as much as a PC, maybe even more as console volume are MUCH smaller than PC’s and you might as well count Mac’s since it’s the same hardware.

Secondly, what’s so bad about starting with a console base and then tweaking for the PC? That’s probably how they did games like BioShock and CoD4, and if I recall they didn’t suck.

For all of the prognostications, I don’t see a lack of PC games. Obviously wrestling and fighting games aren’t there (CAPCOM is releasing the next version of Street Fighter on the PC!) and certain games like GTA (which will make it to the PC someday I’m sure) and console version exclusives like Halo, but they are still being made. Going from Xbox to the PC can’t be that big of a deal and there’s still a market to be sold to in the PC world, piracy notwithstanding.

Lastly, don’t forget about the PC enthusiast hardware market. It’s far more lucrative than console hardware. I spend about $5K just on core hardware, that’s not counting software where I spend about $500 on games. EVERY YEAR! And I am far from alone. Folks were talking BILLIONS worldwide for the end PC’s and games drive a lot of that. I don’t think that nVidia, Microsoft, Intel, AMD are going to say just let PC gaming vanish and the billions that go along with it. And that money can’t be made up in consoles no matter how you slice it, unless Playstations start selling for $5K.

We’ll all be dead and our grandchildren will still be having this debate and there will be CoD XXI on the PC.
 
synergyo1 said:
Have you played the PC version of Devil May Cry 4 on the PC? The game isn't for everyone, but I think Capcom did a very good job with porting the demo. Hopefully this extends to the final product.
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Is that out, I thought it didn't come out till nex month?
 
RTS on consoles is like nails on a chalk board.

FPS with a game pad will never be anywhere near as "twitchy" as a m/k approach.

MMOs will continue to rule the PCs.

Honestly, that is the major problem probably. People buy WoW and other MMOs and stop buying other games.
 
I actually think its the other way around. PCs threaten consoles. Consoles are just PCs made especially for gaming.
What happens when everyone already owns a computer that can play the games they want and its already hooked up to your HDTV with a nice little xbox 360 like controller?

As PCs become more versatile lots of devices will become useless and gaming consoles are at the top of the list.
 
I think it can go both ways. PC titles like The Orange Box can help grow an existing franchise. Or help bury an aging one like UT3

It's great that Mass Effect was so well taken care of when brought to PC and I hope that level of polish will continue if a game is ported to the PC. A counter point is Bioshock with it's over the top drm and install limitations while not taking advantage of PC hardware.
 
vengence said:
RTS on consoles is like nails on a chalk board.

FPS with a game pad will never be anywhere near as "twitchy" as a m/k approach.

MMOs will continue to rule the PCs.

Honestly, that is the major problem probably. People buy WoW and other MMOs and stop buying other games.
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Totally agreed. Everyone I used to play Battlefield 1942 and Counter Strike with dropped off the fact of the planet when WoW came out. I blame that one game for at least some of the drop in overall PC game sales.

Personally, I never play it and think it is a massively addictive timesink. Screw that game. :)
 
The biggest problem to PC gaming are PCs themselves...The average slack-jawed yokel doesn't know why their brand new $1200 PC that they bought from Walmart or Best Buy won't play Crysis...it just doesn't. Thats a problem with the whole industry that needs to be addressed, otherwise game developers (outside of your Valves, Blizzards, EAs, and Biowares) will move exclusively to consoles because of the bigger market share. Right now, the developers, hardware manufacturers, and Microsoft are doing a piss-poor job fixing the problems they have.
 
erexx said:
The biggest threat to PC gaming that comes from consoles is "consolitis"
Thats what happens when a console game gets ported to PC.
Halo, Lost Planet and Mass Effect are good examples of what happens.
Potentially great games that just look and play like crap on a PC.
Lower resolution graphics (aka the Turok effect), poor game control and lousy interfaces.
There are exceptions.
Bioshock and UT3 seem to have made decent translations. (any others?)

Consoles = gamepads
Gamepads + FPS = poo

PC's may not be the lead development platform anymore for many reasons.
Sad becuase PC's always offer the more flexibility and potential than consoles.

PC's have not been "asleep"
Games are just taking longer to make for many reasons.
Click to expand...

Mass Effect PC was been great for me...
 
J Macker said:
... coming from the guy with the brand new Raptor X, 9800GX2, etc. Any hardware there that's over 2 years old? :p

On topic, I used to game exclusively on PC. Now, I own a 360 and PS3. However, I do play a RTS game on the PC 1-2 times per week. However, this may be attributed to coming into a cubicle job and I don't want to sit in front of the computer when I get home.
Click to expand...

*shrug* i sit in front of a pc at work 8-9 hours, come home and do it for another 9-10 hours, never bothered me in all the years i've done it. occasionally i'll do like wiifit or ddr to keep an excercise routine...and occasionally i have an rpg bender on a console.
 
oscrogo said:
The biggest problem to PC gaming are PCs themselves...The average slack-jawed yokel doesn't know why their brand new $1200 PC that they bought from Walmart or Best Buy won't play Crysis...it just doesn't. Thats a problem with the whole industry that needs to be addressed, otherwise game developers (outside of your Valves, Blizzards, EAs, and Biowares) will move exclusively to consoles because of the bigger market share. Right now, the developers, hardware manufacturers, and Microsoft are doing a piss-poor job fixing the problems they have.
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Agreed. There is no concerted marketing to tell people that such-and-such a machine will play a game. When it is so much easier (and cheaper!) to also a great experience on a console, it is no surprise that some people have moved on.
 
The thing I find interesting is that it has been individual software companies like Valve that have been evangelizing the PC as a platform better than the people who create the operating systems or the hardware manufacturers.

Microsoft has completely failed at their Games For Windows program. Steam has picked up the pieces there. And at risk of sounding all conspiracy theory here, I honestly don't feel like it is in Microsoft's best interests for GFW to succeed either. I'm not saying that they are going to outright sabotage it, but at the same time they aren't going to devote all of their resources to it either. Their resources are going to be making XBox Live on the 360 great. Their huge marketing resources (MS spend more on marketing than Apple spends on everything they do combined) are going to be trumpeting sales numbers for the XBox 360 and 360 games, not PC gaming. They will be promoting 360 games, not PC games. And why should they, Microsoft only makes money from gamers on the sales of operating systems every few years and a few of the games they publish.

This is opposed to all the money that they make on 360 games (they collect a license from each and every 360 game sold and piece of downloadable content, on top of what is produced in their studios) and the systems themselves now that they are finally making a profit on hardware and have worked through the additional debt they took on by extending the initial 360 warranty by an additional year.

So yeah, PC gaming might be the platform we are concerned about but it isn't obviously Microsoft's top priority to keep it thriving. Again, the proof is in their press releases and how much they push the 360 as the gaming platform out right now. For personal computing, business and the enterprise are what is really feeding Microsoft's pockets. They pay lip service to PC gaming in comparison.

As for hardware manufacturers, their marketing has always sucked. Naming conventions are confusing as hell even to the knowledgeable enthusiast at this point (look at the 8800GTS confusion when the 512MB model came out). Most people shopping at a Best Buy or a Fry's are completely confused. I don't blame them, I blame the hardware manufacturers for not doing their jobs. The job of marketing is to communicate to the customer, and they fail at that. And again, a part of me doesn't feel that it is that a high a priority for these guys. You know where they make their real money? Low end parts with high profit margins.

Fortunately we have developers like Valve who are still pushing the PC as a gaming platform with Steam and their related services like the hardware survey. They are planning on rolling out features like automatic driver patching and system evaluation, which will tell you just how well your PC will run a game that they sell. Why couldn't Microsoft make a service that functions as well? Either way, I hope Valve remains independent and keeps doing what they're doing.
 
Things like STEAM, something people seem to love to hate, are the best thing for PCs. Joe Blow can buy a game at a store or online, then come home install it, and have it auto-update. What percentage of the average population updates a game except if there is a auto-patch system or there is a multiplayer mode that requires it? Especially with the new services like saving saved games online and such.

Honestly, my last 100$ I've spent on games was through steam. Oh, and I don't get charged tax on the games which is allways nice :p
 
I'll go further than that, and say that Microsoft is a PC gamers worst enemy. They made consoles more like a PC, brought PC titles and companies to the console market, and also made online play big in the console market. They are trying to get PC gamers to be xbox gamers. They've clearly screwed over Windows gamers in favor of Xbox gamers.

Now on to the article:
"I think we have to face the facts - the value of consoles is such that no-one is going to make a PC-exclusive game in the future. Why would they? Why would they ignore consoles?" said Taylor.
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That's about the stupidest thing I've read lately. As already been mentioned by others there are some genres and games that don't translate well to consoles. There are always going to be PC exclusive.

If they guy doesn't understand that, or even understand why, then why the hell is he even working for Nvidia in a position to speak publicly for them. What kind of position is that for Nvidia to take or believe in? If he believes that does that mean Nvidia isn't going to support PC exclusives? The guy doesn't sound like he's even played a PC game other than solitaire. He's making CliffyB sound smart.

PC gaming is as big as any individual console platform. The size of PC gaming is bigger now then ever. How many PC gamers were there in the Atari 2600 era, or the Nintendo NES era? Back then PC gaming was insignificant compared to consoles, and even then there were pleny of exclusives. Now some of the biggest money makers of all time are PC exclusives like WoW or the Sims.
 
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