PC Takes Market Share Back at E3

[FrgMstr]

We have gotten to the point where we expect E3 to be a peasant-console-laden lovefest year after year. While we might have gotten a bit numb to this over the years, the guys over at GamerCrate were paying a bit better attention than we did. It suggest that Microsoft is front and center as it brought the PC platform to hold the crown for the most new "big games" title at E3.

Of course there’s been a bit of a surprising twist at E3 this year, as Microsoft chose to shift focus from Xbox exclusivity to a shared Windows 10/Xbox One environment, causing a nice boost to the PC as a platform when it comes to the sheer number of big titles it’ll see in the coming months. This move is hardly surprising, considering that as far as platforms go Windows 10 and the Xbox One are as close to cousins as any gaming systems can get, but the result is a huge win for PC gamers, who are rewarded with more new titles rolling out from the big names in the industry for PC than any other gaming platform.

Now we can only hope for those "shared" previously console-only titles not performing like total shite on PC when those do finally arrive.

 

[Gigus Fire]

Yeah, "hardly surprising" even though it took them about 15 years to do so. It's been a long fucking time coming. Prior to Play Anywhere, Microsoft all but turned their back on PC gaming. For a company that makes the OS for gaming PCs, it's been a bit of a travesty for more than a little while. Even if them embracing the PC again is probably the result of them trying to shore their losses losing marketshare this console generation, I'm glad it's happening and hope they stick with it this time. The more titles on PC, the better.

It's just a normal business mentality.
When things are good, try and wall off competition to squeeze as much money as possible.
When things start going sour, start innovating and adding value.

If microsoft had half a brain, they would have already developed the xbox to be a watered down computer by giving it access to their app store and allowing it to be used for productivity (office) applications.
Just the number of students who would have talked people into getting them one just for this would have probably won them the console market share from ps4.
The PC/xbox crossover thing they're doing should have been done years ago. It's probably the greedy publishers who wanted people to shell out for 2 licenses on the same game who fought against it.

 

[Archaea]

If microsoft had half a brain, they would have already developed the xbox to be a watered down computer by giving it access to their app store and allowing it to be used for productivity (office) applications.
Just the number of students who would have talked people into getting them one just for this would have probably won them the console market share from ps4.

Yup

 

[lcpiper]

.....If microsoft had half a brain, they would have already developed the xbox to be a watered down computer by giving it access to their app store and allowing it to be used for productivity (office) applications.
Just the number of students who would have talked people into getting them one just for this would have probably won them the console market share from ps4.
The PC/xbox crossover thing they're doing should have been done years ago. It's probably the greedy publishers who wanted people to shell out for 2 licenses on the same game who fought against it.

No so sure.

look it doesn't matter if you are talking game consoles or streaming devices, it all comes down to the same thing. None of them get an open browser application. As soon as you give a device a browser it can do anything. It can stream entertainment with or without a sub, it can play web based games, some of which are pretty good. It can hit Office 265 and all kinds of other web based application suites.

Can you imagine using a Chromecast and wireless input devices for your business computer and your gaming machine, and your streaming entertainment. $35 dollars.

 

[Criticalhitkoala]

Yeah, "hardly surprising" even though it took them about 15 years to do so. It's been a long fucking time coming. Prior to Play Anywhere, Microsoft all but turned their back on PC gaming. For a company that makes the OS for gaming PCs, it's been a bit of a travesty for more than a little while. Even if them embracing the PC again is probably the result of them trying to shore their losses losing marketshare this console generation, I'm glad it's happening and hope they stick with it this time. The more titles on PC, the better.

Well things take time and don't happen overnight. I'm sure all the "Free WIndows 10" upgrades were part of this plan.

If I learned anything from being on [h] though is MS probably was smart to avoid PC gamers for a while, we are a bunch of bitchy entitled people lol

 

[tetris42]

Just the number of students who would have talked people into getting them one just for this would have probably won them the console market share from ps4.
The PC/xbox crossover thing they're doing should have been done years ago. It's probably the greedy publishers who wanted people to shell out for 2 licenses on the same game who fought against it.

I highly doubt it. I mean 2001 is when this really started. MS had a robust PC gaming division, then that completely dried up and we got a bunch of Xbox exclusives instead. The greedy publishers wanting 2 licenses only works if there are actually 2 licenses to begin with.

Well things take time and don't happen overnight. I'm sure all the "Free WIndows 10" upgrades were part of this plan.

If I learned anything from being on [h] though is MS probably was smart to avoid PC gamers for a while, we are a bunch of bitchy entitled people lol

Shutting down their PC gaming efforts and focusing solely on the Xbox sure happened fast enough. And no, I don't think MS was smart to avoid PC gamers. They handed the keys to the kingdom to Valve instead. If MS had stayed on top with PC gaming, having Xbox / PC parity release back in the early 2000s and setting up an official store for them, the benefits they reaped could have been astronomical. They were perfectly positioned to do so. Instead, they dropped PC gamers like a hot turd, Valve stepped in to pick up the pieces, and now is making so much money they can't count it all from Steam.

As for whining, what do you expect? They basically betrayed loyal customers of the platform. If Sony decided to still sell Playstations, but announced it was only going to make new games exclusively for the Xbox, you think its consumer base would be cool with that? For gamers, that's practically what happened on the PC from Microsoft.

 

[Gigus Fire]

I highly doubt it. I mean 2001 is when this really started. MS had a robust PC gaming division, then that completely dried up and we got a bunch of Xbox exclusives instead. The greedy publishers wanting 2 licenses only works if there are actually 2 licenses to begin with.

I'm talking about all those crossovers that are for xbox, ps4 and pc.
Xbox should be treated like a PC. That's where this crossover thing is coming from. I'm not specifically talking about MS produced games.

 

[Ebernanut]

I always worry a little when Microsoft starts paying attention to PC gaming again, that's how we got Windows Live. The latest thing they seem to be pushing is the Windows Store which seems like it might be even worse than Windows Live because of how locked down it is.

It would be great if they actually promoted PC gaming and make it better but I suspect they're more interested in leveraging their position as the dominant OS for games to make things better for them, not us. Obviously that's there prerogative as a business but it would be nice if they tried to get ahead by making a better product that people want like they used to(well, every other OS anyway).

 

[Criticalhitkoala]

I highly doubt it. I mean 2001 is when this really started. MS had a robust PC gaming division, then that completely dried up and we got a bunch of Xbox exclusives instead. The greedy publishers wanting 2 licenses only works if there are actually 2 licenses to begin with.

Shutting down their PC gaming efforts and focusing solely on the Xbox sure happened fast enough. And no, I don't think MS was smart to avoid PC gamers. They handed the keys to the kingdom to Valve instead. If MS had stayed on top with PC gaming, having Xbox / PC parity release back in the early 2000s and setting up an official store for them, the benefits they reaped could have been astronomical. They were perfectly positioned to do so. Instead, they dropped PC gamers like a hot turd, Valve stepped in to pick up the pieces, and now is making so much money they can't count it all from Steam.

As for whining, what do you expect? They basically betrayed loyal customers of the platform. If Sony decided to still sell Playstations, but announced it was only going to make new games exclusively for the Xbox, you think its consumer base would be cool with that? For gamers, that's practically what happened on the PC from Microsoft.

Damned if you do, and damned if you don't if you are microsoft. Even if they did do what you said, they would of probably been sued again for being a monopoly I agree without you that microsoft dropped the ball, but I don't know business wise if it was something that an establish company like microsoft would of taken either the risk to pursue or the hassle to deal with. We've seen to many great ideas just stop being funded because companies put money in but don't have that "By the skin of the teeth' desire to keep it going...Steam had some mega shit issues early but Valve stuck with it...I don't know if MS or Sony, or anyone else would of done the same.


In this case about us being whiners and complainers as pc people, it just stems for watching what people write about. What I've noticed about a lot of PC gamers (me included in some cases) is we are like

- I WANT 60+FPS, I WANT 4K, I WANT 4000 CUDA CORES, I want THIS THIS THIS THIS - I WANT IT AT HALF THE PRICE!

- WHY SHOULD I BUY GAMES WHEN KIDS ARE PIRATING THEM. OH THIS CRACK DOESN"T WORK, THE COMPANY IS SHIITTY ANYWAYS

- WHY DO COMPANIES TARGET THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR, THEY SHOULD TARGET MY 9k COMPUTER (despite volume saying people with i3 and Intel HD graphics will buy a game like 15 copies to one).

 

[lironmiron]

If I learned anything from being on [h] though is MS probably was smart to avoid PC gamers for a while, we are a bunch of bitchy entitled people lol

As... opposed to... console gamers?

 

[tetris42]

Damned if you do, and damned if you don't if you are microsoft. Even if they did do what you said, they would of probably been sued again for being a monopoly I agree without you that microsoft dropped the ball, but I don't know business wise if it was something that an establish company like microsoft would of taken either the risk to pursue or the hassle to deal with. We've seen to many great ideas just stop being funded because companies put money in but don't have that "By the skin of the teeth' desire to keep it going...Steam had some mega shit issues early but Valve stuck with it...I don't know if MS or Sony, or anyone else would of done the same.

Yeah I'm not saying they SHOULD have done that, my point is I don't think snubbing PC gamers was a wise move, Valve's obviously demonstrated its potential since then. It's the near complete dumping of PC gamers that I didn't like. If they had parity release for the Xbox and PC this whole time, that would have taken away the vast majority of my complaints.

In this case about us being whiners and complainers as pc people, it just stems for watching what people write about. What I've noticed about a lot of PC gamers (me included in some cases) is we are like

- I WANT 60+FPS, I WANT 4K, I WANT 4000 CUDA CORES, I want THIS THIS THIS THIS - I WANT IT AT HALF THE PRICE!

- WHY SHOULD I BUY GAMES WHEN KIDS ARE PIRATING THEM. OH THIS CRACK DOESN"T WORK, THE COMPANY IS SHIITTY ANYWAYS

- WHY DO COMPANIES TARGET THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR, THEY SHOULD TARGET MY 9k COMPUTER (despite volume saying people with i3 and Intel HD graphics will buy a game like 15 copies to one).

Ah I figure that's the vocal minority. For graphics, that sort of solved itself since I think almost all AAA games look great now. If Ubisoft ever stops showing E3 demos that look way better than the actual game, there won't be anything to complain about! And yeah, piracy as a "protest" is retarded no matter how you slice it. I admit though, I'm in the camp that wants 60 frames a second. That and not have an FOV so small I barf. What can I say, it's frustrating when companies can't figure out how to fix problems that were already solved 20 years ago.

 

[Criticalhitkoala]

Yeah I'm not saying they SHOULD have done that, my point is I don't think snubbing PC gamers was a wise move, Valve's obviously demonstrated its potential since then. It's the near complete dumping of PC gamers that I didn't like. If they had parity release for the Xbox and PC this whole time, that would have taken away the vast majority of my complaints.

Ah I figure that's the vocal minority. For graphics, that sort of solved itself since I think almost all AAA games look great now. If Ubisoft ever stops showing E3 demos that look way better than the actual game, there won't be anything to complain about! And yeah, piracy as a "protest" is retarded no matter how you slice it. I admit though, I'm in the camp that wants 60 frames a second. That and not have an FOV so small I barf. What can I say, it's frustrating when companies can't figure out how to fix problems that were already solved 20 years ago.

It is vocal minority stuff . I learned a while ago the people who don't give a shit aren't commenting because they are already busy actually playing the game.

I do also like performance but as someone who was a friend with the higher ups at a a video game company I did have a very eye opening talk about hitting performance goals in the current market. The company I'm talking about still has to try to program for core2duos and amd chips. So it was really cool to hear the other side. Cause as mentioned despite having a pretty hoss machine I still only represent 1 person. Those 3 year old laptops with i3's and Intel HD graphics that sell for $250 outnumber and out buy the hell out of me.

 

[Criticalhitkoala]

As... opposed to... console gamers?

Their on screen keyboards and closed ecosystems don't really allow them to talk to us. But I'm sure they complain once in a while, while dancing around their fire and chanting.


To be honest though most pro console people I met just wanna play games. They could be cool, or douches, but yeah there are some who bring up the dumbest arguments possible. But I find most of pc arguments go be pure entitlement where anyone who truly argues about consoles seem more like tin foil hat people.

 

[kju1]

Their on screen keyboards and closed ecosystems don't really allow them to talk to us. But I'm sure they complain once in a while, while dancing around their fire and chanting.


To be honest though most pro console people I met just wanna play games. They could be cool, or douches, but yeah there are some who bring up the dumbest arguments possible. But I find most of pc arguments go be pure entitlement where anyone who truly argues about consoles seem more like tin foil hat people.

The following is my opinion on the subject. Disagree if you like but its MY OPINION and I am sharing it for the purposes of adding to the discussion only. I am not looking to convert/convince/etc anyone to or from PCs/consoles.

Consoles have a number of drawbacks when compared to the PC:

Controls - console controllers tend to force games down the same path when it comes to input. Some may think this is "good" but have you ever tried to play an RTS on a console? Dont.
Dedicated hardware - this is both good (it lets developers easily optimize) and bad as it means I now have a ugly box sitting on my tv stand that I can only use for whatever games I have for THAT console. Yes I know they have put browsers in the consoles now and all sorts of other apps like youtube etc. But lets be honest...do any of you *actually* use 90% of that shit? My guess is not anymore if ever. My TV can do that, my PC can do that, my tablet can do that...and I dont need to turn on a special device just for any of those functions.
Not Upgradeable - to be honest this is one of the largest issues I have with consoles. With a PC game I can use substandard hardware or elite hardware and have a gaming experience that is dependent on what I spend. With a console I am entirely at the mercy of the console hardware and what ever the devs can do with that. With PC games devs are free to do neat things that can be optional like including HDR texture packs or super high resolutions etc. Plus my experience has been console gaming just doesnt match up graphically to whats available on PC - I attribute this to the hardware which is why I include it in this section.
Price - Consoles are getting to be more expensive imo than PCs (per "game"?). For a console I have to spend $300-500 just to buy into the ecosystem and *hope* they have enough games that make them interesting for me. I have 3 games for my PS4 and I havent turned on my XBOX360 since about 6 months after owning it. Consoles made more sense to me when owning a PC was a bank breaking experience...
Games - outside of a few gems (final fantasy, halo, etc) console games just havent really drawn me in. And I have played quite a few (I used to only own consoles) over the years. I actually think the older consoles (SNES, Playstation 1, SEGA etc) were WAY better than what we are getting today. I had a lot more games for those I found to be fun. I look at the game inventory for the newer consoles and outside of the series Ive been hooked on for years I just dont see anything that makes me want to play. With PC there are TONS of games out there that I want to play.

Consoles I have owned (all purchased unless otherwise noted), rough game count, and fav game:

NES ~30+ games, Uncharted Waters (highly recommended)
SNES ~30+ games, Final Fantasy 3 (US)
Sega Genesis ~20+ games, StarFlight (a ton of fun, and apparently also a PC game)
Sega 32x ~10 games, no specific "most fun" (won in a contest)
Sega CD ~10+ games, Lunar Silver Star Story (actually the whole trilogy) (won in a contest)
Playstation 1 ~20+ games, Final Fantasy VII (and Lunar trilogy which I replayed)
Playstation 2 ~20+ games (plus all ps1 games), No specific favorite due to overlap in library with PS1
Xbox - 10-20 games, HALO (fable came in a close second)
Playstation 3 - 5-10 games, I honestly never got into any of them on this platform the latest final fantasy games have disappointed. Mostly this was used to watch Netflix before my TV supported it
Xbox 360 - 5 games, would have to be one of the HALO games, rarely gets used. Honestly couldnt say
Playstation 4 (gift) - 1 game (really 4 in 1) Uncharted Drakes Adventure by default. I have not seen any PS4 games I want to play...

Note that I have A LOT of favorites that arent listed above for example: Nobungas Ambition, Chrono Trigger, etc.

Consoles used to be so much more fun...

 

[SpaceFlotsam]

It's just a normal business mentality.
When things are good, try and wall off competition to squeeze as much money as possible.
When things start going sour, start innovating and adding value.

If microsoft had half a brain, they would have already developed the xbox to be a watered down computer by giving it access to their app store and allowing it to be used for productivity (office) applications.
Just the number of students who would have talked people into getting them one just for this would have probably won them the console market share from ps4.
The PC/xbox crossover thing they're doing should have been done years ago. It's probably the greedy publishers who wanted people to shell out for 2 licenses on the same game who fought against it.

Agree!

 

[tetris42]

The following is my opinion on the subject. Disagree if you like but its MY OPINION and I am sharing it for the purposes of adding to the discussion only. I am not looking to convert/convince/etc anyone to or from PCs/consoles.

Consoles have a number of drawbacks when compared to the PC:

Controls - console controllers tend to force games down the same path when it comes to input. Some may think this is "good" but have you ever tried to play an RTS on a console? Dont.
Dedicated hardware - this is both good (it lets developers easily optimize) and bad as it means I now have a ugly box sitting on my tv stand that I can only use for whatever games I have for THAT console. Yes I know they have put browsers in the consoles now and all sorts of other apps like youtube etc. But lets be honest...do any of you *actually* use 90% of that shit? My guess is not anymore if ever. My TV can do that, my PC can do that, my tablet can do that...and I dont need to turn on a special device just for any of those functions.
Not Upgradeable - to be honest this is one of the largest issues I have with consoles. With a PC game I can use substandard hardware or elite hardware and have a gaming experience that is dependent on what I spend. With a console I am entirely at the mercy of the console hardware and what ever the devs can do with that. With PC games devs are free to do neat things that can be optional like including HDR texture packs or super high resolutions etc. Plus my experience has been console gaming just doesnt match up graphically to whats available on PC - I attribute this to the hardware which is why I include it in this section.
Price - Consoles are getting to be more expensive imo than PCs (per "game"?). For a console I have to spend $300-500 just to buy into the ecosystem and *hope* they have enough games that make them interesting for me. I have 3 games for my PS4 and I havent turned on my XBOX360 since about 6 months after owning it. Consoles made more sense to me when owning a PC was a bank breaking experience...
Games - outside of a few gems (final fantasy, halo, etc) console games just havent really drawn me in. And I have played quite a few (I used to only own consoles) over the years. I actually think the older consoles (SNES, Playstation 1, SEGA etc) were WAY better than what we are getting today. I had a lot more games for those I found to be fun. I look at the game inventory for the newer consoles and outside of the series Ive been hooked on for years I just dont see anything that makes me want to play. With PC there are TONS of games out there that I want to play.

Consoles I have owned (all purchased unless otherwise noted), rough game count, and fav game:

NES ~30+ games, Uncharted Waters (highly recommended)
SNES ~30+ games, Final Fantasy 3 (US)
Sega Genesis ~20+ games, StarFlight (a ton of fun, and apparently also a PC game)
Sega 32x ~10 games, no specific "most fun" (won in a contest)
Sega CD ~10+ games, Lunar Silver Star Story (actually the whole trilogy) (won in a contest)
Playstation 1 ~20+ games, Final Fantasy VII (and Lunar trilogy which I replayed)
Playstation 2 ~20+ games (plus all ps1 games), No specific favorite due to overlap in library with PS1
Xbox - 10-20 games, HALO (fable came in a close second)
Playstation 3 - 5-10 games, I honestly never got into any of them on this platform the latest final fantasy games have disappointed. Mostly this was used to watch Netflix before my TV supported it
Xbox 360 - 5 games, would have to be one of the HALO games, rarely gets used. Honestly couldnt say
Playstation 4 (gift) - 1 game (really 4 in 1) Uncharted Drakes Adventure by default. I have not seen any PS4 games I want to play...

Note that I have A LOT of favorites that arent listed above for example: Nobungas Ambition, Chrono Trigger, etc.

Consoles used to be so much more fun...

The big things consoles have going for them is simplicity. You plug it in, put the game in, and play. The PC needs more streamlined consumer options if it wants to get to that point. While everyone in this forum can handle how simple a PC can actually be, it's not that way for everyone. As for past games, back in the 90s, the console hardware really was radically different to each other and the PC and each platform played to their strengths. Nowadays, there is no meaningful hardware difference, except maybe from Nintendo. It's all x86. On a technical level, there's nothing they can do anymore that the PC can't do better, so they have to artificially have exclusives as a way to rope people into their ecosystems.

 

[kju1]

The big things consoles have going for them is simplicity. You plug it in, put the game in, and play. The PC needs more streamlined consumer options if it wants to get to that point. While everyone in this forum can handle how simple a PC can actually be, it's not that way for everyone. As for past games, back in the 90s, the console hardware really was radically different to each other and the PC and each platform played to their strengths. Nowadays, there is no meaningful hardware difference, except maybe from Nintendo. It's all x86. On a technical level, there's nothing they can do anymore that the PC can't do better, so they have to artificially have exclusives as a way to rope people into their ecosystems.

Except that I would argue that PCs today are largely plug and play as well. You dont have to worry about using the right interrupts anymore. Installs are nearly automated both for the OS and the game. Drivers and updates can occur in the background. And major integrators like Dell and HP have made it such that the average person doesnt need to know anything about building a PC to play a game. You can buy prebuilt gaming computers from them. The majority of gamers out there likely do just that to some degree.

I agree people here are different. We build them. But my friends? No so much. They buy and then either buy new when it slows down or ask me for help upgrading or pay someone like Best ("Worst") Buy to do it for them.

EDIT: Did not mean to imply that consoles are not simpler than PCs. Just pointing out that I think that gap is much narrower than perceived.

 

[heatlesssun]

EDIT: Did not mean to imply that consoles are not simpler than PCs. Just pointing out that I think that gap is much narrower than perceived.

I'd saying using a basic laptop and downloading a game from say the Windows Store isn't really much different than doing the same thing with an Xbox. But a gaming PC can be a considerably complex device than a basic laptop and that's where things are generally more complex.

 

[Design1stcode2nd]

It's much much better than back in the 80's. I think most who buy consoles don't realize how easy it is to build a PC these days. I was one of them until just recently. Also a lot of consoles are probably bought by parents for their kids. We already have TV's and they can open it up on Christmas day and plug it in. There isn't a need to find desk space/monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc or install anti-vius, anti-malware, worry about them going to websites they shouldn't. It's just put the media in and play or download from the ecosystem and play.