PC Sales Tanking

[W8taminute]

^Agree.  Having to shell out between 300 and 600 for a new console every 5 years or so vs. shelling out 1500+ for a new PC rig every 5 years is a big difference.

If both desktops and laptops go out of vogue because of tablets or other devices and if consoles move to the STEAM model where you no longer own a game disk and must always be online to play single player then gaming is not worth it anymore.  Will we be stuck playing angry birdies the rest of our lives?

Maybe there will be a big comeback in board (war)games?

[LongBlade]

The history of programming computers has been one of a swing between two poles: fat client and thin client.

By "fat client" I mean a machine that can do heavy processing and holds lots of code. Like an FPS such as Call of Duty.

By "thin client" I mean a machine that might be as little as a monitor and keyboard. All the processing and code is done off-site. Like a bank ATM.

Where any program (or game) is on that spectrum is a mixture of hardware ability, hardware price, bandwidth availability, and bandwidth cost. We (computer users) constantly go through the cycle, though it may take years (or decades) to swing from one extreme to the other.

So, yes, it's likely that at some point PC games as we know them will go out of fashion - maybe even close to extinct. And then they'll come back. Maybe not in the same form, but eventually a fat client will be in vogue again.

Currently with the cheap availability of high speed internet (both wired and wireless) and the widespread availability of tablets and smart phones (which are essentially dumb PCs) we're moving toward the thin client model.

[W8taminute]

A nice explanation that makes sense.  Thanks LB.

So now my question is what quality of gaming can you do with a thin client model?  Sounds like FPSs and hardcore strategy games will no longer be. 

[Centurion40]

A nice explanation that makes sense.  Thanks LB.

So now my question is what quality of gaming can you do with a thin client model?  Sounds like FPSs and hardcore strategy games will no longer be.

Take a look at tablet games.  FPS's and hardcore strat ain't the same!  I suppose that the good news might be, as we all begin to approach old age, tablet-esque games might be all we'll be interested in handling!!

[LongBlade]

A nice explanation that makes sense.  Thanks LB.

So now my question is what quality of gaming can you do with a thin client model?  Sounds like FPSs and hardcore strategy games will no longer be.

It all depends on how easily the numbers can be crunched on the server and fed back to you.

Even the thinnest of clients will typically have at least some code running on them. Typically it's a mixture of the two.

That said, Small General Eastern Front (a review is in our publication pipeline) offers a solid operational wargaming experience on the Android OS (I played on my phone - a Galaxy III S). So it's very possible.

I don't see why FPS games couldn't be played with a thin client - though the graphical quality may deteriorate without heavy code and a robust GPU.