not really on topic but for me, consoles stopped being consoles when they started getting direct ports of PC games.

The golden era of gaming for me was the nes and snes era when you had COMPLETELY different games on console to what you had on the PC, PC games were deep, time consuming and generally solitary experiences, flight sims that needed hours of training to master, god sims where a single game lasted days and so on, console games were fast, fun and social, exactly what Sega did to the bitter end too.

Sony and especially MS ruined what console gaming was to me, now we have endless posts on message boards comparing the PS3 and 360 based upon framerates, clockspeeds, GPU power, FSAA and resolutions. this isnt what console gaming is about. We have peter moore (or whever took his place) and other execs hammering stats into our heads.

The Wii is the one true games console in my opinion, its not a PC without a keyboard like the competitors. The specs of the wii are generally unknown and nobody cares, they plug it into their telly and have a good time, regardless of gender and age, just like the nes/snes days. Instead of stats from men in suits, Nintendo have Reggie telling us we will have fun, and we do.

Handhelds >>>>>> PC

I think that should kill this ^_^

Oh wait darn... emulation makes handheld games free... =( Guess PC is >>>> than everything else... man ok PC wins free beats everything by defacto.

Also for those who disagree it's not the PC's fault that developers are too dumb to make games that work for everyone and not just an elite few who can afford a Pentium Hexacore 7.

This is very very true. I couldn't tell you which games I liked back then more, PC or console simply because they were so different. Right now I can tell you exactly which system has the higher quality games without even second-guessing myself, except for thos special games on the Wii, of course.

I had the technical knowledge to build two PC's for myself and went through a binge of MMORPG's while I was playing Star Wars Galaxies. In the three and half years I was on SWG, I was mostly playing others games for my PC as well since I spent most of time already at a computer.

I'm a devout console gamer now. The truth is, I just don't care enough to suffer through the headaches computers give me to play a silly game. They're games, merely entertainment, and not worth a whole lot of trouble in my book. Typically I only play flash games on my computer now because they invovle virtually no effort on my part to work properly.

Even if I had the technical know-how to elivate these headaches, I still perfer consoles. I don't care about online play that much, I enjoy playing with people in the same room much more, something consoles traditionally cater to more. I can't rent PC games, something I do very often. I don't care if a mouse is more accurate then a joystick because I'm not some overly competetive freak who always has to win, I much happer losing while comfortably lounging as much as possible with a controller in hand.

I'm lazy yeah, but these are supposed to be games, not work. Gaming is just a big hobby for me, not serious buisness.

good point

I suppose it all depends on the market said PC developer is shooting for.

Many hardcore MMORPG fans lamented over the general dumbing down of WoW relative to others in the genre in the beginning, even though it's become it's own enclosed genre of players by now (many of which play no other video games; just WoW).

But, years later, still going stronger than ever and the basic module still runs on just about any PC made within the last TEN YEARS.

The point some are missing is that most PC developers aren't looking to make games that appeal to the broadest demographic of players, that sell the most copies and generate the most revenue.

Most mainly want to stay in business so they can keep developing games.

Profitability makes this easier, but by no means is it the mission statement of every game being developed. Believe it or not, many developers prefer working on games they themselves would actually like to play and enjoy.

And the reality is that many of the games that hardcore PC gamers like are the very kind that generally don't run too well, if at all, on a discount preconfigured PC.

Hence the big demand for consoles like the Xbox and PS3

@greenmedic

1. Developers do complain and then shift to console development and when that model seems to not work so well then they complain again, what they do after is yet to be seen. Looking at Epic and Insomniac and R* and so many others.

2. Developers who make games for themselves? Fine but then they shouldn't package the game and put it for sale or offer it on Steam, I mean it's for themselves right? Looking at it again, developers who make games for themselves do so because they believe their pov is right and that that pov which they are paid for is given life through the game developed for them, they develop the game to be cool to them and that's all. Heres the thing the PC developers that I'm knocking in my last post aren't developers as much as they are technologists, to them they can't fulfill their projects ambitions without more power. The game could come out amazing and be great but the sequal would be much of the same with more core improvements. (Sprinting comes to mind) You could say I'm only looking at FPS's but I'm really just making a point out of Epic. (This leads into a whole other conversation.)

3. So you speak for all "hardcore" pc gamers? I know you don't speak for me so I'm going to say your wrong on my account. Unless I'm not a hardcore PC gamer now... so how do I join the club?

1. Not sure if developers are waffling between saying the future is in PC or console, or if what we're really hearing are conflicting opinions which clearly run on both sides of the argument. Rather than just blame the platform, it would probably make more sense to take a closer look at what's actually selling on any given platform, and make a product said audience is likely to enjoy. But then, it's easier to just blame the platform when an 8 figure project tanks well below expectation.

2. Not amateur developers, but developers who make games they like such as Miyamoto, Kojima, Blezsinski, Will Wright, etc. Jonathan Mak falls into this category as well seeing as how his game was a labor of love. Jonathan Blow; same thing. It helps greatly when a developer is working on a game they believe in or is something they'd like to play themselves even if they weren't on the development team. I'm saying this as a former employee of Capcom. They made many of my favorite games, making them the ideal developer for me to work for, particularly because I worked on many of the franchises I played long before I was hired.

3. Hardcore pc gamer is a very general category. For some it's being a hardcore WoW addict, which doesn't require any sort of special build at all since it practically plays on ten year old PCs. But there are plenty of WoW players who easily clock more time playing that one game on a weekly basis than I do on the seven different platforms I game on and hundreds of titles in my library.

Some are really into retro gaming, and not just for the novelty of seeing old games play at ridiculous speeds on current hardware with all settings maxed out. They play fine on old computers or budget computers as well, which are now the equivalent of expensive builds from years back. And some people just prefer old games.

You could even have hardcore casual gamers who play often, but stick to casual genre games rather than the typical shooters, RPGs, RTS, etc. more common to the heavy gamer.

And then there's the hardware hardcore PC guy who either makes do with what's on hand by optimizing everything, upgrading in small increments and has honed the fine art of OCing everything in his/her rig.

And of course the elite hardcore builders, who are constantly building new rigs or upgrading to the latest and greatest, cost be damned, before they proceed to overclock the hell out of everything to post the fastest stats on overclocker sites.

So there are definitely different levels of hardcore. And no, I'm not speaking for all of those people.

Consoles>PC only thing pc is good for is forums, internet, porn and mmorpgs.

i have to agree with you there on the porn.