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Dell XPS Phase-out is a Symptom of Declining PC Gaming
arstechnica.com — Dell announced today that it intends to phase out its XPS line of gaming systems, as they've cut into Alienware's sales. This isn't what you'd call a vote of confidence in the PC gaming industry, though Alienware's recent addition of a low-cost AMD system might get some buyers and enthusiasts to give the company a look.
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- greevar, on 05/13/2008, -2/+8This proves nothing. Nay-Sayers have been claiming that PC gaming is on it's way out since the beginning. I'd have to ask if they numbers on game sales reflect the truth. I doubt these numbers are accurate. Do they factor in the resale of use games? If they do, I'd say that the numbers for consoles are much higher that they actually are. I'm willing to bet that retailers like ebgames and the like do not differentiate between used and new game sales in their reports. I also don't buy the "piracy did it" excuse either. Console piracy is as nearly as old as PC piracy itself. People have been copying cartridge ROMs for years.
- Kicker01, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3Google groups from February 2003 discussing the demise of PC gaming.
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.ibm.pc.gam ...- greevar, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2A five year old post on google hardly makes for an effective argument. First off, Steam does an acceptable job with multiplayer gaming, voice chat, modding, and community. With apps like ventrillo and teamspeak the consoles really have nothing to their advantage. Secondly, console games are easier to port to PC because the hardware requirements are lower on consoles. It's much harder to make a top notch PC game work on a console. Thirdly, consoles do not have CPUs made specifically for gaming. That's a myth. The fourth point is rather subjective and shows a lack of technical knowledge of the author. Network issues affect PCs and consoles just the same. I do concede that consoles are easier to develop for being that their hardware is standardized. Fifthly, I wholeheartedly disagree that PC gaming will go away even if PCs still exist. Just look at the Mac. It's not known as a gaming platform, yet it does have a library of games.
As long as personal computers can run games there will still be games. The web based game market is still huge after all. Consoles are not the holy grail of gaming either. The hardware is locked. You can't upgrade your box, you have to buy a new machine entirely to play the latest games. Whereas a my PC can be upgraded piecemeal fashion. A new CPU today and a new GPU next year is all it takes to keep up. With increased complexity comes more problems. Consoles are on their way to becoming as complex as a PC and when that time comes, they will be crashing games just like a PC. The 360 has its own OS as well as the PS3 and the Wii. Let's not forget the modding community. PC's make games. Why? It's because the tools required make games are too complex and resource intensive to run on a console. Even the mod tools that come with some games require a PC to use. I'd hate to try to use the Unreal Editor on a console. The interface doesn't work for it. Consoles are doing better than PCs not because they are better at games, but because game publishers like the consistency of the hardware and the level of control they have over the content. - Kicker01, on 05/15/2008, -0/+1"A five year old post on google hardly makes for an effective argument."
It wasn't an argument. Merely reinforcing Greevar's statement that people had been arguing this for years. However I agree with you. Another thing to add to that is the fact that graphical innovation and processing power on the consoles would no longer advance as fast. The demand for better visuals for cheaper prices is constant in the PC market, and seeing as though consoles are just using old PC technology Consoles would not progress any where near as fast as they are today.
- greevar, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2A five year old post on google hardly makes for an effective argument. First off, Steam does an acceptable job with multiplayer gaming, voice chat, modding, and community. With apps like ventrillo and teamspeak the consoles really have nothing to their advantage. Secondly, console games are easier to port to PC because the hardware requirements are lower on consoles. It's much harder to make a top notch PC game work on a console. Thirdly, consoles do not have CPUs made specifically for gaming. That's a myth. The fourth point is rather subjective and shows a lack of technical knowledge of the author. Network issues affect PCs and consoles just the same. I do concede that consoles are easier to develop for being that their hardware is standardized. Fifthly, I wholeheartedly disagree that PC gaming will go away even if PCs still exist. Just look at the Mac. It's not known as a gaming platform, yet it does have a library of games.
- Kicker01, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3Google groups from February 2003 discussing the demise of PC gaming.
- luchid, on 05/13/2008, -12/+6PC gaming is dead. Deal with it. Having to spend thousands of dollars worth of hardware, every single year and dealing with installing and fixing crap to make them run at a decent speed is a huge deterrent.
- SanTe, on 05/13/2008, -1/+7Seems like consoles are doing their damndest to catch up to PCs in that regard though. Console prices are much higher than they used to be while reliability has plummeted. Anyone remember when you could buy a console, take it home, plug it in, and it just worked? No firmware upgrades, no red ring of death, no freezing / locking up...
Makes me really glad that I like retro games a lot more than modern games.- SpectralSounds, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1You must not be talking about the N.E.S. I remember having to jump through hoops to make that damn thing work.
- yournamehere, on 05/13/2008, -1/+7Thousands every single year... what are you talking about? PC gaming isn't dying. everyone has a pc and so everyone would play games on the pc at one time or another. Hard core pc gaming is taking a hit but that's not really a direct competitor to consoles anyway. The issue is how they push the limits of the technology in pc gaming and the cost for the consumer to keep up. But for the casual gamer games are still there without the need for upgrades and at a reasonable price, some even free.
I just upgraded my wife's pc for $300 bucks and it will play anything out there today and should last for two years which is arguably cheaper than current consoles. Have you seen the price of RAM now? It cost me 59 bucks for 2 Gigs of Kingston DIMM2. That's crazy cheap. - cococooky, on 05/13/2008, -1/+6What a load of *****, PC gaming will never die. Some of us actually like tinkering with our hardware, and an upgrade every couple of years is a more accurate assumption.
- Sokkratez, on 05/14/2008, -0/+10You don't have to spend thousands of dollars every year. Your brand of hyperbole is what is making people PERCEIVE that PC gaming is in trouble.
- SanTe, on 05/13/2008, -1/+7Seems like consoles are doing their damndest to catch up to PCs in that regard though. Console prices are much higher than they used to be while reliability has plummeted. Anyone remember when you could buy a console, take it home, plug it in, and it just worked? No firmware upgrades, no red ring of death, no freezing / locking up...
- yournamehere, on 05/13/2008, -0/+6I dont understand how they have the title say one thing and then their article says another. They say XPS in phase out because of declining in pc gaming but the article says it's because it is a direct competitor to their other brand - Alienware.
- lucidguru, on 05/13/2008, -0/+1As the fine line between television and the internet blur together, the line between console and PC gaming is also blurring. "Gaming systems" have fallen off because "mainstream systems" have become much more adequate to play PC games. What's also happening is that consoles are evolving into PC themselves... You can surf the web, IM, and run non-game application off of the 360, PS3 and the Wii. All consoles really are, are "locked systems" that will eventually be cracked by hackers and emulated on the PC. It makes much more sense from a business point of view to sell games that can be played by anyone. I think Nintendo realizes this and this is why they are pushing the forefront of how you interact with the games and not hardware... Consoles are quickly becoming the next DRM.
- beforeIforget, on 05/13/2008, -4/+1PC gaming is dying because of cheaper HDTVs and more powerful hardware consoles. Instead of buying a new PC, I got a nice big HDTV and a 360. I'll admit that I'm still getting used to the xbox controls (vs. keyboard and mouse), but overall I'm very happy with the experience so far. And this TV and (probably the xbox) will last me for years until the next console which will only cost about $400... vs. ~1.5 to 2k for upgrading a PC next year.
- GeneralLC, on 05/14/2008, -0/+8The chart is false, to an extent. NPD Group (Which came up with the statistics.) only counts store bought PC games. But it fails to count Steam, Direct2Drive, EA Downloader, and all other forms of legal digital distribution. All this proves is that things like Steam are on the raise, which is much harder to pirate games from.
- lordtyros, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Amen. All that proves is that consumers don't wast time with brick and mortar anymore. I know I haven't bought a physical PC game in over a year. And I buy lots of PC games.
- JimmySpaza, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Maybe it's simply that Dell's XPS line was not profitable enough because of competition at the high-end level. Besides, anyone with that much cash to purchase a high-end PC either may not go to Dell for the best or build the machne themselves.
If anything, gaming consoles are far more restrictive in what you can do with them. On a PC, you can modify, tweak, and upgrade just about anything at anytime...if you know what you're doing. With a gaming console...not really.
From a financial aspect, PC gaming is way cheaper in the long run. To keep my PC competitive, all I need to do is buy a new component every so often. I can control the technology and upgrades. With a gaming console...nope - plan to spend big bucks for an entirely new machine.
And we haven't even talked about how I can use PCs for other uses, including posting this message on Digg. - GOVStooge, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3Why would you buy a dell when you can build a better machine for significantly less money without the hassle of cleaning all the crapware off?
- Kicker01, on 05/14/2008, -0/+3Sorry, but Dell's XPS line is not going to be phased out and will continue to co-exist with their Alienware brand.
http://www.cnet.com/8301-13924_1-9943775-64.html?p ...- lacronicus, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1I believe that refers more to the "gaming" XPS line. Certainly, the difference between a good gaming machine and a good machine overall is very small, but I believe they're plan is to push the XPS line as a more general-purpose high-end machine, with Alienware becoming their premiere gaming platform.
- Psythik, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1They just updated the story, saying that XPS isn't going to be phased-out after all.
Buried as inaccurate. - LANjackal, on 05/14/2008, -0/+2Simply put, PC gaming is retardedly expensive, and the games come loaded with DRM and other anti-copying measure that both inconvenience the user and have an adverse effect on his or her system. Good that the XPS isn't being completely phased out though, Alienware's machines are hideously expensive yet lack some of the XPS' features.
- latova, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1Console systems have had DRM ever since they started. You can't make a backup of a game unless you modify your console (or crack the game on PC).
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