PC gaming concern - Is it dead or dying?

[Zak_M]

I know I might seem silly for asking this, but I've been tracking things like steam player stats, sites like game monitor and so on... I've been a console gamer this generation, and never really been a PC gamer since I don't have very powerful hardware. Do I have to worry about getting into games for things like Call of Duty for example? (I'm not a COD fanboy, I like battlefield better, I know CounterStrike and such is better too, but I like to play COD every once in a while) Is there a healthy population for MMORPGs? I plan on building a PC very soon, when I see numbers like 11k players on MW2 I think hm that's not very many at all, because I was used to seeing numbers like 700k+ on xbox live on weekends before black ops was released, am I just over reacting when I see what I consider to be "low numbers"?


I looked into some numbers that were I suppose "peak amounts" for some games I would like to play :

Battlefield 2: 11k
Call Of Duty 2: 6k
Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare: 22k
Modern Warfare 2: 36k + 7k = 43k
Black Ops: 28k
Team Fortress 2: 23k
CounterStrike 1.6: 192k
CounterStrike Source: 209k
Left 4 Dead 2: 16k

Now, am I just over reacting? I just don't want to be stuck in ghost towns

[SugarJ]

Yes, you are over reacting. PC gaming is alive and well, and much better looking than consoles when you turn up all the eye candy. As for some of those games you mention, they are OLD. Battlefield 2, COD2 are both 4-5 years old. Walk into those as a rookie, and play some of the diehards that have played every day since launch. Prepare to be pwned.

Also, I tend to think the "quality" of gamer is usually better on the PC side with not as many 14 year old internet tough guys, probably because a PC is more expensive than a $300 console.

As for MMORPGS, it depends on the game and server. There's lots of games with large communities, and there's games that are close to folding. Do some research before you spend your money. Or try some of the Free 2 Play ones.

[_dangtx_]

as per above,cranck it up and while the console will still show some fps...the difference in quality will be eye murdering :)

[On2wheels]

I doubt it's dieing. Gabe Newell is a huge pc fan, and if BF3 turns out as well as they say, it will bolster pc gaming for a few more years at least. In my opinion, the hidef framerates you get on pc are no match for any console, and I don't know why more developers aren't screaming to hardware makers to centralize on all that stuff John Carmack talks about in his sleep to allow them to fully utilize todays machines and make eye popping games so much easier.

[thorn]

Also, not everyone has Steam (or at least bought the game through steam) so they wouldn't appear on the steam statistics for a particular game. Even if you consider 11k people playing, and 64 slot servers, that would still be over 170 full servers. You certainly wouldn't have trouble finding servers to play on.

[neojjjk]

I am planning to buy a ps3 ...so that I will try to stop upgrading my pc for some months.
anyway I am waiting for ivy bridge and nvidia kepler (collecting money now )

[Shadowmeph]

I doubt very very Much that PC gaming will ever die

[muse108dc]

No the only people who are saying PC gaming is dieing these days is the actual brick and mortar stores. Steam, Impulse, D2D, etc is where all the sales have gone and good riddance to EB games.

[ToXic]

22k for COD4 doesn't sound right. Last I heard there was still a good 100K+.

I know when I play theres about ~8000 servers.

To answer the root question, its far from dead.

I prefer console to play with friends (they can't usually afford a high end PC, and socializing is fun!), but PC for serious things, and the Macbook for COD4 haha.

[thorn]

Originally Posted by ToXic

22k for COD4 doesn't sound right. Last I heard there was still a good 100K+.

I know when I play theres about ~8000 servers.

That is because Steam only tracks users that have bought the game through steam.