It's true. Developers more and more realize that games sell on PC, thanks to Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle. That's why we are getting so many once console exclusive games to the PC, like Metal Gear Solid/Rising, Castlevania Lords of Shadow, Mortal Kombat, Dark Souls, Dead or Alive, etc.
Yeah well, we have indie games, Unreal 4 free, virtual reality... although there's also the bad side things, I think gaming in general has been doing well.
On the other hand I feel no need to upgrade my 5 year old hardware but that might be me growing up, I just don't have the time for gaming to justify the price of a gaming PC.
[QUOTE=Killuah;47467146]On the other hand I feel no need to upgrade my 5 year old hardware but that might be me growing up, I just don't have the time for gaming to justify the price of a gaming PC.[/QUOTE]
my 7850 and 16 GB of ram is fine, the Phenom II 960T is showing it's age though. unfortunately to upgrade to anything worthwhile I'd need to get a new motherboard and DDR4 memory though.
until I can't run games on medium at 30 FPS I'm holding out
Good thing good PC hardware is pretty cheap now, too.
[QUOTE=Samiam22;47467174]Good thing good PC hardware is pretty cheap now, too.[/QUOTE]
Not where i live :v:.
I honestly think we're heading for a crash, not a golden age.
I hate to be a naysayer, especially with such amazing games as KF2 and friends on the way, but we've had a similar scenario before where the market got ludicrously saturated with utter shit (alongside the good stuff) and it killed atari and many other companies.
Just look at steam, the lack of QC has resulted in a vast plethora of utter trash on the store. There's still great games and I routinely buy stuff, but unlike 3 or 4 years ago where being on steam meant a game was guaranteed to actually be decent, now I'd say if you randomly picked a title and purchased it, you'd have a 1 in 4 chance of an acceptably bug-free and entertaining game.
[QUOTE=Empty_Shadow;47467203]
Just look at steam, the lack of QC has resulted in a vast plethora of utter trash on the store. There's still great games and I routinely buy stuff, but unlike 3 or 4 years ago where being on steam meant a game was guaranteed to actually be decent, now I'd say if you randomly picked a title and purchased it, you'd have a 1 in 4 chance of an acceptably bug-free and entertaining game.[/QUOTE]
But it's the same like always. There are always games that are like this. That's why you look up discussions, reviews, etc. Buying something blind resulted in the same penalty 10 years ago, by purchasing a not so good or bugged game.
[QUOTE=Empty_Shadow;47467203]I honestly think we're heading for a crash, not a golden age.
I hate to be a naysayer, especially with such amazing games as KF2 and friends on the way, but we've had a similar scenario before where the market got ludicrously saturated with utter shit (alongside the good stuff) and it killed atari and many other companies.
Just look at steam, the lack of QC has resulted in a vast plethora of utter trash on the store. There's still great games and I routinely buy stuff, but unlike 3 or 4 years ago where being on steam meant a game was guaranteed to actually be decent, now I'd say if you randomly picked a title and purchased it, you'd have a 1 in 4 chance of an acceptably bug-free and entertaining game.[/QUOTE]
Not gonna happen since the big gaming companies are not the only "support" of infrastructure anymore, the market is too dynamic to really "crash" and tbh. nobody would miss Ubisoft or EA.
[QUOTE=Killuah;47467215][B]tbh. nobody would miss Ubisoft or EA.[/B][/QUOTE]
I don't know about if you, but if they do end up crashing, a SHITTON of people will lose their jobs.
[QUOTE=Empty_Shadow;47467203]
Just look at steam, the lack of QC has resulted in a vast plethora of utter trash on the store. There's still great games and I routinely buy stuff, but unlike 3 or 4 years ago where being on steam meant a game was guaranteed to actually be decent, now I'd say if you randomly picked a title and purchased it, you'd have a 1 in 4 chance of an acceptably bug-free and entertaining game.[/QUOTE]
I get where you're coming from, but that's only really from the Greenlight programme at the minute. Lots of great games get through too though. There's early-access but you should expect a somewhat buggy game with that - it warns you.
There's still some great titles coming out nowadays though. Cities Skylines, GTA V in a week or so are a few notable examples (there are many more of course).
Also with Valve's ongoing push for cross-platform, Windows's dominance is now over in the gaming market essentially. No longer are you bound to a specific OS to play a game, and that can only be great for the consumer.
The modding scene's still active as ever too which is already great to see. Just look at Skylines Workshop, it's packed and the game hasn't been out for long.
Long live the PC.
[QUOTE={TFS} Rock Su;47467222]I don't know about if you, but if they do end up crashing, a SHITTON of people will lose their jobs.[/QUOTE]
Not the point.
[QUOTE=Killuah;47467215]Not gonna happen since the big gaming companies are not the only "support" of infrastructure anymore, the market is too dynamic to really "crash" and tbh. nobody would miss Ubisoft or EA.[/QUOTE]
It's not companies that are the only cause for a crash, it's the consumers distrust in the industry.
If the consumers see 90% of games are shitty, they'll stop buying them. It's happened to me, my video game purchases are down to maybe one every few months, if that.
Also, you say nobody will miss ubisoft or EA. But think for a second what would happen if Valve suddenly went under. I don't think it's a likely scenario, but I can see the sudden disappearance of steam resulting in quite a large fallout and general collapse of a lot of developers.
[QUOTE=Empty_Shadow;47467203]I honestly think we're heading for a crash, not a golden age.
I hate to be a naysayer, especially with such amazing games as KF2 and friends on the way, but we've had a similar scenario before where the market got ludicrously saturated with utter shit (alongside the good stuff) and it killed atari and many other companies.
Just look at steam, the lack of QC has resulted in a vast plethora of utter trash on the store. There's still great games and I routinely buy stuff, but unlike 3 or 4 years ago where being on steam meant a game was guaranteed to actually be decent, now I'd say if you randomly picked a title and purchased it, you'd have a 1 in 4 chance of an acceptably bug-free and entertaining game.[/QUOTE]
Nah, it ain't gonna be a full-out crash.
Steam (with all the dime-a-dozen indie devs) and the shitty purely-for-profit AAA publishers are gonna suffer though, but they've honestly been cruising for a bruising for awhile now.
[QUOTE=Samiam22;47467174]Good thing good PC hardware is pretty cheap now, too.[/QUOTE]
Not in countries that with currency not tied to the $ since it's pretty strong right now.
[QUOTE=Killuah;47467146]On the other hand I feel no need to upgrade my 5 year old hardware but that might be me growing up, I just don't have the time for gaming to justify the price of a gaming PC.[/QUOTE]
Well, nowadays people don't need to upgrade their PCs as much to keep up with games, games seems to have reached a point where it takes longer for there to be huge leaps in requirements that make people need to upgrade.
Like a PC bought today will probably play games maxed out for the next 5, maybe even 10 years, while 10-15 years ago a PC would last for 2 years due to how fast game visuals were evolving.
[QUOTE=Empty_Shadow;47467203]I honestly think we're heading for a crash, not a golden age.
I hate to be a naysayer, especially with such amazing games as KF2 and friends on the way, but we've had a similar scenario before where the market got ludicrously saturated with utter shit (alongside the good stuff) and it killed atari and many other companies.
Just look at steam, the lack of QC has resulted in a vast plethora of utter trash on the store. There's still great games and I routinely buy stuff, but unlike 3 or 4 years ago where being on steam meant a game was guaranteed to actually be decent, now I'd say if you randomly picked a title and purchased it, you'd have a 1 in 4 chance of an acceptably bug-free and entertaining game.[/QUOTE]
But back then there was just a load of shit games, literally just bad games everywhere, there were no good games at all and I'm not talking subjectively bad games like the CoD series where people hate it yet it's still highly played(which is what most "bad" games seem to be today), I'm talking objectively bad games, now there's a load of shit AND good games, not to mention that with the internet, shit games get buried faster and good games grow faster, customer trust in the video game industry is assured by the Internet.
AAA devs might suffer in the future, but I doubt that the game industry will ever crash again.
Steam takes a 30% cut and it's the only real platform to sell your game on PC.
Golden age... for consumers.
very few exclusives, some shitty AAA ports that don't always come out near the console releases or run well (need god tier hardware to run anyway), and a ton of shovelware indie titles.
what a time to be a PC gamer!!!
[QUOTE=Agoat;47467538]Steam takes a 30% cut and it's the only real platform to sell your game on PC.
Golden age... for consumers.[/QUOTE]
Is that a lot? I've never really thought about it. Would a "normal" distributor 10-15 years ago take a smaller cut?
[QUOTE=Agoat;47467538]Steam takes a 30% cut and it's the only real platform to sell your game on PC.
Golden age... for consumers.[/QUOTE]
There's a reason [URL="http://www.gog.com"]Good old Games[/URL] sells more than just old games now.
And that's because Steam has become a lazy giant.
[QUOTE=Agoat;47467538]Steam takes a 30% cut and it's the only real platform to sell your game on PC.
Golden age... for consumers.[/QUOTE]
Yes. And a similar cut is most definitely present on the PS4 and the Xbone.
Steam also cuts out any need to supply physical media and makes it much easier to get your game noticed.
[QUOTE=halfer;47467577]Is that a lot? I've never really thought about it. Would a "normal" distributor 10-15 years ago take a smaller cut?[/QUOTE]
On top of licensing costs for your game engine, yeah, it can be a lot. Last I checked Desura does a 30% cut if it's bought 100% through them. But if the developer links them to the sale page then they only ask for 15%. I'm very critical of Steam because I feel it's focused so much on consumers that developers have been hurt in the long run. Games go on sale so frequently that it doesn't make sense to buy a game around launch. Payday 2 has a ton of DLC because every sale it drops to $5. Killing Floor has been $2.50 for years. Both are great games that are definitely worth a lot more than a cup of coffee, but PC games have to be cheap to sell these days.
[editline]6th April 2015[/editline]
[QUOTE=Van-man;47467624]There's a reason [URL="http://www.gog.com"]Good old Games[/URL] sells more than just old games now.
And that's because Steam has become a lazy giant.[/QUOTE]
I had no idea they sold new games. Definitely going to shop there.
[QUOTE=Samiam22;47467627]Yes. And a similar cut is most definitely present on the PS4 and the Xbone.
Steam also cuts out any need to supply physical media and makes it much easier to get your game noticed.[/QUOTE]
You can self-publish on Xbox One, they are taking steps in the right direction. A game made in the US can go on the Xbox Marketplace for less than $3,000, and those costs are related to localization and insurance. Certification and updates are free as well as free dev kits! Microsoft also shows off killer indie titles as much as possible. I'm sure Playstation has something similar to ID@Xbox.
I was hyped for Killing Floor 2, still am, but more at a mediocre level now. The game looks great, but it has the same core mechanics that became a bit tiresome after playing the first game for awhile.
I don't believe that PC gaming is on a rise, when Crysis came out and blew everyone away, that's when things were truly shifting forward. Now we're slowly digressing, and making things cheap in video games, just so it can support the lower end consumer base.
I would agree. Console exclusives are slowly coming/returning to PC, and it's a fantastic time to be an indie game developer nowadays with the popularity of things like Greenlight/Kickstarter.
[QUOTE=Empty_Shadow;47467203]I honestly think we're heading for a crash, not a golden age.
I hate to be a naysayer, especially with such amazing games as KF2 and friends on the way, but we've had a similar scenario before where the market got ludicrously saturated with utter shit (alongside the good stuff) and it killed atari and many other companies.
Just look at steam, the lack of QC has resulted in a vast plethora of utter trash on the store. There's still great games and I routinely buy stuff, but unlike 3 or 4 years ago where being on steam meant a game was guaranteed to actually be decent, now I'd say if you randomly picked a title and purchased it, you'd have a 1 in 4 chance of an acceptably bug-free and entertaining game.[/QUOTE]
I completely disagree. There will never be another game crash because video games have become so cemented in culture. And the reason for all the shitty Greenlight games is because of the current golden age where developing video games is easier and cheaper than ever.
[QUOTE={TFS} Rock Su;47467222]I don't know about if you, but if they do end up crashing, a SHITTON of people will lose their jobs.[/QUOTE]
And in theory a fair number of semi-premium indie companies would crop up.
I'm pretty sure a "golden age" is something you determine long after the fact.
[QUOTE=Whatsinaname;47468195]I'm pretty sure a "golden age" is something you determine long after the fact.[/QUOTE]
We're not talking about nations here, though.
[QUOTE=J!NX;47454909]I'm starting to wonder if another video game crash like the one we had in the 80's would be a good thing, but I don't think that'll ever happen
we have so many developers that need to be told to fuck off, and so many studios doing some really sleezy shit. But if customers just bailed and stopped buying this crap outright maybe they would finally actually [I]listen[/I].
Steams refund policy is a joke and they don't care about fixing it.
Ubisoft is releasing unfinished games and shitting on its customers
many studios under EA are publishing some really awfully milked titles, and we're getting crap like simcity, and games being sold with really insane and agressive DLC
Developers are releasing games that are either ports or native titles that quite honestly run like piss, and are more concerned over marketing and preorder bonus's (Sometimes ones that even split the community slightly), than the game itself. They only care about money from preorders.
I want to see the game industry get a solid kick in to the balls. But I don't think it'll happen because so many users don't give a fuck and buy into extremely sleezy stuff, and then we get stuff like sim city or AC:M[/QUOTE]
[editline]6th April 2015[/editline]
Considering how many devs are pissing off preorders as a marketing scheme rather than a legitimate thing to get it day 1, and how many devs use illegitimate tactics to give unfair advantages, and online DRM has been so aggressive (lets not forget simcity), fuck no
there are more devs concerned over marketing a pretty game than a game that runs well
There are devs that would rather make the community work rather than optimizing the shit themselves
GoG is in its golden age, so is humble bundle and steam, and we're getting hundreds of fair games, but we're seeing more stupid shit like call of duty.
we DEFINITELY are entering the next generation of games once VR is fully released.
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