PC Gaming keeps getting said to be in decline, but then games like Diablo 3 come along and smash records. BF3 sold more on the PC than it did on consoles, etc. PC gaming is just teetering along on it's own level. Not on the scale of console's at all, but PC gaming is very much alive and well! Valve are still a private company and haven't felt the need to go public, so that's something.
It's market share is in decline, it's not collapsing or anything but it's been a long time since it's hey day.
There are certain types of games that just work better on a PC, the decline in the quality of FPS titles gameplay is solely because of the problems on aiming with a controller, it used to be they made a PC shooter and adapted it to play on a console now it's the other way round.
But RTS and ARTS title (which is an emergent market in tournament play) are soo vastly better on PC you don't see them on consoles at all hardly.
Android with a standard non-touchscreen controller setup could be something interesting.
At the price. It won't hurt any indy dev to get one, and check at least check out.
maybe a stupid question...
Can Android run well at the level of a high end PC?
it seems so mobile focused that I get the impression that it wouldn't perform very well with (or at least take advantage of) an attached to a hefty rig.
Oh. I suck at those (RTS'). I'm too busy building this little nest with defences and stuff and then BAM, some cunt comes in and steamrolls me. I just enjoy playing the campaign of those games. COH2 is going to be a good game, I think.
The help with Steam and its sales is a big help to the pc market plus indie gaming has become the in thing at the mo. Theres so many bundle sales out there to show that and it works. It keeps the PC going but i agree PC isnt as big as it was. Most all the ppl i know who were big pc guys all switched to console just for the ease and price.
I think it comes from developer focus.
Most of the publishers are putting a primary focus on consoles, with PC coming in as an afterthought, or not at all.
while I'm sure personal preference has influence, I'm not convinced its the dominate factor overall. I think it really just boils down to people just following the games.
As an independent is shitloads easier to release on a PC than it is a console. So that's probably why the bulk of the Indy games are there. However I'm sure if given an access route to the consoles, that was just as easy, many indies would focus there too. Which might be one of the attractive attributes that Ouya has.
Personally since about age 11 I'd always envisioned making a game and playing it via controller on my NES.
That really hasn't faded. a Mouse/Keyboard or a Touchscreen...that's just me settling.
I think the issue is that consoles are widely viewed as game specific machines, where PC's are generally viewed as workstations that can also play games.
It depends on the game, any sort of 'smart' targeting system can go die in a fire as far as I'm concerned.
Twitch combat games such as FPS deserve a better control system than a controller, which currently and in the past has been garbage for this purpose and have sullied every title in the last 5-6 years. Unfortunately for puritanical fuddyduddy old assholes like me it's massively fucking popular.
It's a work in progress. It's using VNC as there's no Native GUI and I have to clear out a shitload of memory and make sure SystemUI isn't drawing lots of shit on the screen to get it somewhere near usable, but it's a start.
Also, since Canonical are being arses about releasing their Ubuntu for Android, this'll have to do until them. Hopefully they don't charge for it like I heard they were going to, because what they had looks fantastic.
Wooo Jelly Bean baby! A tad glitchy being an experimental ROM but I'm happy.
Matt, I'm not sure what SD card solution you're using but I highly recommend INT2EXT4+. Knowing how it works on a technical level, I find it remarkably simple but highly effective. Instead of the ~300MB I would usually get for /data, the phone now reports 2GB, and unlike previous SD card solutions, there are no messy symlinks to slow things down. You may also find this post I just made interesting.