Is the high-end (and expensive) gaming PC dead?

Posted Dec 24th 2008 10:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Hardware

The whole topic of "Is PC gaming dead?" has been talked about so many times that's its not worth mentioning anymore (except to say, "No, it's not"). However is the era of the high end $5,000 gaming PC rig dead? Rahul Sood, the founder of the gaming PC maker Voodoo PC (now owned by HP) has posted up a new editorial on his personal blog site that says, "Yes."

Citing the current economic crisis as part of the cataylst for this move, Sood states, " There was a time when selling high-end hardware was easy, because we believed in it. Now we're retooling and retasking our configurations so they make sense; let's face it, high-end hardware has delivered diminishing returns in terms of value. This is why you don't see ridiculous offerings like Quad SLI and 2-kilowatt power supplies coming from our company."

Sood feels that PC game developers know they can't rely on the high-end hardware audience to buy their titles anymore. He states, "The glory days of wicked-stupid hardware requirements are pretty much gone. Game developers are in the business of making money, and thus want to distribute their games to the widest possible audience."

Tags: hp, rahul-sood, voodoo-pc

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Basically:
"Boohoo, I cant sell over-priced E-peen tech anymore cause people are wising up that bigger isn't always better"

IMO, its about damn time this crazed little corner of the market died. I'm tired of all the people who think they are so special cause mommy and daddy helped em buy a 5-10k rig.

Happiness doesn't come from spending 6k for a glorified computer.
It does come from, however, having a friend with a 47inch flat-screen tv you can plug your comp in and use it as a monitor :D
suck on that a while Mr. "Voodoo"Posted at 10:55PM on Dec 24th 2008 by devilsei

Honestly, hearing all this hooblah about the PC becoming the next non-entity for gaming is getting old. PC games, gamers, and rigs are gonna stay. We invented stuff a decade ago that console gamers are just discovering (we're looking at you, DLC). On top of that, most of their DLC costs money, as opposed to the opposite being true of PCs. A console alone may be cheaper, but a decked-out console with games gets to be way more expensive than a decent gaming PC. Besides, we have WAY more buttons than they do.Posted at 10:58PM on Dec 24th 2008 by James

Not to mention better graphics and sound, and games always cost less. Console gamers go crazy for a game with a level editor, meanwhile, we've been building whole new games with the stuff that comes with our games, lol.Posted at 11:22PM on Dec 24th 2008 by Crunch Jingles

Well, i can really relate to this, as i just sold my big-a$$ desktop for a tiny little m1330.
Why?!
A. I needed mobility
B. I couldn't afford to have both
C. Why have a $2000 gaming machine when i can get a 360 (which i did) and have decent choices (laptop does ok and 360 does good).

Really, it needs to cost $1000 for a decent quad core, a 3870x2, 4gb-8gb ect... otherwise PC gaming is screwed.

The other screwing-over factor is piracy (indirectly). Games are sucking because less work is put into it / a port of it, thus people pirating it more because "its not worth the price", so less work is put into games, people pirating it more because "its not worth the price"... ect...

Me personally?
If i had money, i would have both my desktop and my laptop.

if i had MORE money (than the above statement) i would just desktop a $6000 laptop and call it a day :D )

Regardless, i think the problem is (more or less) people figuring they would rather have a console for games, and a computer for internet and work. And the fact that people are very over-reactive about messy ports.Posted at 11:35PM on Dec 24th 2008 by Armon

I have a two-and-a-half-year-old laptop. 1.73GHz Pentium M, Intel GMA 915 integrated graphics. The Sims 2 barely manages full speed on my PC if I keep settings low. I truly appreciate when games come out that actually run on my PC, because I can't afford a huge upgrade.

The fact of the matter is, though, that a large part of the reason modern games tend to have high requirements is simply because they're bloated. So many games, especially 2D games, seem to have ridiculous requirements that they shouldn't possibly need. There's no good reason that most RTS games should need high end hardware, yet they do.

Just look at Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing. It required a 1GHz (recommended 1.5GHz) processor in spite of having very simplistic graphics, physics, and AI. Now, I know that the average game is better than that, but quite a few make equally poor use of system resources.

With a concerted effort, devs could make games that look and play identically to what's out, but with lower requirements. High end gaming is only a sign of developer laziness.Posted at 12:25AM on Dec 25th 2008 by Covarr

When you can build a computer for well under $1000 that can run even the most technically mindblowing game ever created (Crysis) at detail levels (High) and resolutions (1680x1050), it's pretty damned pointless to be spending $5000+ on something just because of the name.

Hell, as of the time when Crysis was released, it was possible to build a computer that could run it at high details for under $900.

Is the era of over-priced under-performing nonsense over? Yes. But people are still buying PC gaming hardware by the millions.Posted at 12:35AM on Dec 25th 2008 by Bob Jones

"Happiness doesn't come from spending 6k for a glorified computer."

For you, no... For others, possibly yes. Just like tricking out a car is a hobby, so is tricking out a PC. For most people that use a computer and a car, a faster computer would save them more time. Making 150MPH in a car is bloody pointless, as the places you could get even close to that speed don't exist outside a track. Booting your comp in 15 seconds and opening photoshop instantly, however, will come in use every time you turn on your computer.

It all depends if that 5k was spent on something that brought you the most happiness and utility you could get. If I was rolling in cash, I probably would buy a Voodoo Omen mostly for the quality of design and great aesthetics.

Now Voodoo's statement is perfectly accurate. Building a PC isn't dark magic anymore. High performance components are accessible to consumers almost the same day, if not the same minute, as they are available to big companies. Water cooling is no longer something that only hardcore enthusiasts and companies do, kits can be bought for a couple hundred bucks. So it's understandable that their market has been minimized significantly.

But to say that high-performance PC gaming is dead is just asinine. Posted at 1:03AM on Dec 25th 2008 by Reader

I used to love Codemasters games because they are developed great and not so demanding on hardware until recently. I still love PCs until I saw a friend use a keyboard and mouse on his PS3 and then I got to thinking that MMO for console will soon be out. I really think that console is becoming more of a standard as it is really now becoming more like a PC (cpu, gpu, ram, hdd, nic, keyboard & mouse, ubuntu). In 2009 it'll be probably a $500 pc for me and console for gaming because I have to admit there's a whole lot of games genre for console and almost 1% upgrade needed (HDD space).Posted at 1:24AM on Dec 25th 2008 by Glenn Quagmire

I just built my self a brand new budget gaming rig.
It cost me less than $1000 with a 22" Monitor.
And runs everything at 1680 x 1050 on high setting. (Besides Crysis.)
If you are serious about gaming on PC, you build it yourself.
Can't afford it any other way.
Posted at 1:43AM on Dec 25th 2008 by joeybeast

Last year I would not even think I would be a PC gamer. I have owned every console since SNES and I though it was just too expensive to have a full blown gaming PC because I only looked at companies like Alienware, Voodoo, and Falcon West which sold at ridicules prices. So last year I did about 6 months of research and bought all my parts to build my own rig. I could not believe how easy it is to build a PC, my first build took me a little over 5 hours. And although I spent more then buying a PS3, Wii, and 360 all together I know it will be cheaper down the road and you get a lot of advantages my reasons for this are simple.
1. I get to play games at higher resolutions then what PS3 can handle. 1920x1200
2. For the last year console gamers have wanted PC features, but companies deliver non feature rich substitutes ex. web browser and online gaming
3.One of my biggest reasons I get to upgrade when ever the hell I want to.
4. Another huge advantage at least for right now is that there is not a lot of games for PC which means you can sit down and really get to know that game in and out. WoW is massive
5. I have yet to buy DLC
6. I can do what ever I like on my PC because its open if I want to play iTunes, watch a movie, surf the web, and play a game at the same time; my PC can do it.
7. You know how console gamers like to make there console unique and spend more money on faceplates and stuff well PC cases have so many different looks that unless you get the best PC cases your going to have a different case no matter where you go.
8.We all know 360's overheat well I cant fix that, but if my PC feels a little hot I can just go buy a better fan or I can step it up and go water cooling.
9.Well what about HD movies PC's had the first HD-DVD and Blu-Ray combo drive and as of right now you can get a internal Blu-Ray drive $200 less the a stand alone.
10.You know some people don't like certain controllers well PC has so many different mouse and keyboard combos it would make your head spin
I could be an Energizer Bunny with this, but its late and I want to sleep. Posted at 1:54AM on Dec 25th 2008 by Xanthonus

Most people 5 years ago would consider crazy anyone that bought a voodoo machine or one of those alienware. It was just "pay us $2000 extra for our seal of approval and our really nice case" for hardware you could find on your own (at least I did). Apple manages to sell million of macbook pros a year, and their price is pretty much what they are worth, so they charge $100 extra if you want it black or some crap like that. But people buy them.

I guess the crazy $$ kids that bought these machines are the ones paying for World Of Warcraft, and that runs on almost anything.Posted at 3:52AM on Dec 25th 2008 by ridgecity

I built a gaming PC that plays most games on medium to high settings for under $550 (just the rig, already had a monitor, mouse & keyboard). All I did was look for sales and mail-in-rebates. Finding a cheap but effective gaming PC is simply a matter of how much attention you're willing to pay to how much you're paying for what you get.

But then, I know a guy who intentionally looked for THE most expensive parts out there and all sorts of ridiculous add-ons (like a 5.25" bay cup holder >_< ), spent $5000+ on his computer, so there are still nutcases out there willing to waste their money.Posted at 2:00PM on Dec 25th 2008 by JonEthan

I was once a PC gamer. I decided to stop gaming on my pc and move towards a console (PS3) because I was tired of upgrading to the latest and greatest just to play a game at a decent resolution without it crapping out on me.

It makes no economic sense. Pay $1000 now, upgrade the video card in 2 years, then upgrade the processor (hopefully the platform hasn't changed) after 4 years. In the life cycle of a $400 console, you've burned through at least $1600 in PC hardware. Posted at 2:18AM on Dec 29th 2008 by Slaytan

In the past consoles were for the casual gamers and PCs tended to include the more hardcore gamers, in the FPS and MMORPG genres. Now a days that's starting to switch over to consoles. I don't really care one way or another.

if you don't think PC gaming is dying you need to open your eyes. Almost every major game is ported to consoles, and think of a brick and mortar store that carries a large collection of PC games. The only genres the PC had in the past were the MMORPG and FPS, now a days shooters have gotten a huge following on the consoles, and the MMORPG market has died and transformed into the WoW and clones market.

The article basically says "Awesome game developers will design gamers for cheaper computers which will hopefully give a jump start to the PC gaming industry" and you guys turned it into a console vs pc war. Good job.

Although I think WoW has also indirectly helped kill the PC gaming market.Posted at 2:53AM on Dec 31st 2008 by David

"Although I think WoW has also indirectly helped kill the PC gaming market."

Abso-fuckin-lutely.

Well, what console gamers don't get, as someone above pointed out, is that some of us PC enthusiasts are just that. Enthusiasts. Nothing gives me more pleasure in the world than building a new rig with the research that goes into it, such that everything is to YOUR taste, and it's a very personalised thing with your own touch to it. It was such a treat the day I picked up all my hardware, sat down to assemble it, install my OS, drivers and crap, all with the anticipation of being able to run Crysis with all the eye candy turned up at a solid 30+fps.
A console just doesn't give you that. To my mind, at least.
Games were invented on the computer, and there will continue to be a massive market of geeks, for lack of a better word, like me, who continue to pine for that newest graphic card and save every penny we can scrounge to fund it, and play games with a keyboard and effing mouse.Posted at 1:42PM on Jan 3rd 2009 by skydancer