What Happened to PC Sports Gaming?

[Gotmadskillzson]

It is a couple of things that happened in the past 5 years or so that caused the decline of PC sports game.

1. 360 and PS3 - These 2 consoles are as powerful as any PC was 4 years ago.

2. Pricing - A gaming computer cost well over a $1,000. And I'm not just talking about the graphics card. The CPU itself have to be powerful nowadays. I was at Walmart yesterday browisng the PC gaming section. All the modern games, Godfather 2, Wheelman, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Civilization 4, etc all require a minium CPU of 2.8GHZ.

PC gaming is expensive and every 2 years it requires a faster CPU to run. Then with graphic cards, good lord you have to get a new one damn near every year. And then you have to have at least 3GB or more RAM.

That right there is why PC sports games fell to the way side. You can buy a 360 for $300 or PS3 for $400 and it will last you a good 7 or 8 years.

You buy a $1,500 PC and it will last a year before you have to upgrade the graphics card or buy more RAM for it. Now granted the communities OVERALL for PC games is vastly superior then consoles, but that price difference will always make PC games sales decline.

[biglami]

I am thinking of getting a laptop (Apple or PC?) for my travels, and the only quality games I am seeing are NBA 2K9 (PC only) and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Apple and PC). Am I missing anything? Or is that pretty much the point of this article (that there is nothing)

I am a 360 guy, and for my in home needs, I cant be happier with EA/2K for sports and Halo/ COD for my thirst for carnage on the console

[P-Dub]

I'll tell you what happened to sports gaming on the PC. The Xbox360 and the PS3 happened.

What are you going to do, ignore them as a developer and continue to work on a game with a dated engine for the PS2, X-Box, and PC? 'Yeah, we'll make the PC version with old-generation graphics so we don't lose 1,000 customers who won't be able to upgrade their machines, but we will be missing out on 10,000 customers who don't buy the game since it doesn't take advantage of their modern hardware.'

The PC is just not a priority. Bless 2KSports for what they did this year and I hope they continue doing it. I bought both their games. I also bought two versions of NBA 2K9, one for the 360, one for the PC.

Who sais I can't lean back in my chair while playing PC games?

[nrt25]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gotmadskillzson

It is a couple of things that happened in the past 5 years or so that caused the decline of PC sports game. 1. 360 and PS3 - These 2 consoles are as powerful as any PC was 4 years ago. 2. Pricing - A gaming computer cost well over a $1,000. And I'm not just talking about the graphics card. The CPU itself have to be powerful nowadays. I was at Walmart yesterday browisng the PC gaming section. All the modern games, Godfather 2, Wheelman, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Civilization 4, etc all require a minium CPU of 2.8GHZ. PC gaming is expensive and every 2 years it requires a faster CPU to run. Then with graphic cards, good lord you have to get a new one damn near every year. And then you have to have at least 3GB or more RAM. That right there is why PC sports games fell to the way side. You can buy a 360 for $300 or PS3 for $400 and it will last you a good 7 or 8 years. You buy a $1,500 PC and it will last a year before you have to upgrade the graphics card or buy more RAM for it. Now granted the communities OVERALL for PC games is vastly superior then consoles, but that price difference will always make PC games sales decline.

If you custom build a gaming PC and you put 1500 into the PC (WAY more money then you need to build a decent PC) then I can guarantee you it will last longer then year before you "need" to upgrade it. That said PC gaming is still more expensive then the consoles and its very intimidating for someone who doesn't know much about PC hardware.

Factor in that low install base with the fact that PC gamers would be much less likely to buy he same PC sports franchise every year because of the great user created mods that often appear for sports games to upgrade and update them. It then becomes pretty easy to see why companies would be reluctant to put out new sports games on the platform.

[hbk_wess]

actually the every 2 years thing is soooo overated. only when 2k released mlb 2k9 on pc have i even thought of upgrading to play a game on the pc. ive ran the same pc setup for over 5 years and until now i havent had to upgrade.

[Mr.Scarface]

Peter Moore is what happened to PC Sports gaming. Since he joined EA, he has killed All of their PC sports games. This guy doesn't know what he is doing. EA is listening to a guy who was basically fired for RROD fiasco of the Xbox 360. Sales of all EA sports games are done since this guy has taken over. They need to remove him from control.

[tiedyed]

If you think console games, are hard to pirate, then you are very misinformed.There is no great modding needed anymore.Do a search for xbox torrents or wii torrents, in any search engine and you will see.
As for needing a new pc every year or two to play new games. My pc is 5 years old had to spend 74$ on a new vid card this year to play anything, that is made for the pc.,and comparing cosoles with 3-4 year old graphics cards to today's pc's is just foolish.

[EnigmaNemesis]

I was mainly PC for sports gaming back when it was prevalent.

High Heat, MVP, Madden, Microsoft Baseball, etc.

Mainly due to the better versions graphically, and ONLINE, which the consoles at the time did not have.

But in the sad world of piracy, etc, and the fact that The Show is PS3 anyhow ... the PC gaming for sports no longer gets love for me. But I still use it heavily for RTS, RPG, and FPS games.