Consoles Are PC Gaming Killers

january 25, 2003

Yea, yea, it's been said over and over again. There are still new PC games coming out. But, it can be argued that PC games are not coming out as frequently as console games. I think that companies are already looking to dump the PC gaming market and just concentrate on the console market. It's only natural. Why? PC gamers are hardcore, I was a PC gamer once (though I was not really hardcore :) ) and it was cool because my PC with a kick-ass 3D video card and a fast processor (and gobs of RAM) would give me game output like no console could -- I mean come on, my Nvidia against a PSone or N64 at the time? But, the drawback was that I had to upgrade to keep up with the gaming industry -- faster processor, better vidcard, more RAM, different version of DirectX -- and that was a constant pain (both timewise and in the wallet!) So when this latest generation of consoles came out I picked up a PS2 and was amazed at the quality of the gameplay and the graphics. Though not quite as good as a high-end gaming rig it was still really entertaining and accessible. And that's what will kill PC gaming: accessibility. It is nice that high-end gaming rigs can pump out purty graphics and all, but how many Joe What-The-Hell-Is-A-Mouse peoples are going to have high-end gaming rigs at home? They'll have their 486s with 32MB RAM and a 28.8k modem just for surfing the net and that's it. But if you drop a console into their livingroom it's good to go because there's no need to startup Windows, no need to launch games, no need to upgrade the machine for a while, and there is the benefit of multiplayer on the same console (and not trying to squeeze two players onto one keyboard!) That's what I call accessibility, and that's what's going to make console gaming the king of all gaming. Eileen and I just got a second console, a GameCube and it lives with her. And between the PC (Sims) and GC (SSX Tricky and SuperMonkeyBall2), I think she's been playing the GC more. I know that I don't game on the PC anymore, well except for those occasional insane bouts of mine sweeper and solitaire. It's all PS2 gaming now. It's just so convenient and accessible. That's just my 2 cents! Welp, I'm off to play [b]The Getaway[/b]!


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