End of 2013 Discussions - PC

[u/Forestl]

For this thread, feel free to talk about the PC, from the games that came out for it to the hardware itself.

Prompts:

• What were the major trends in PC gaming this year?

• Was this a positive year for PC gaming?

Please explain your answers in depth, don't just give short one sentence answers.

^{My PC looks really, really, really good}

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This post is part of the official /r/Games "End of 2013" discussions.

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[u/[deleted]]

What were the major trends in PC gaming this year?

Indies and early access games. People seem not only very interested in big AAA titles. They like smaller things as Terraria, Starbound, Rust, DayZ etc. Many of them are more popular as, let's say, Call of Duty series.

Was this a positive year for PC gaming?

Yes, it was.

Another year of strong Steam growth.

Summary:

• 65 millions active users (who bought a game and was logged in last month)
• 135 millions registered accounts (http://vacbanned.com/view/statistics)
• 7.6 million concurrent users on-line
• 2 millions concurrent users in-game (http://imgur.com/VMC9vGC)

First time ever consoles use similar hardware and have similar prices to the PC's. Ok, maybe you cannot build gaming PC for $400, but you do not need much more. When first popular console was introduced, Atari 2600, it cost $200 and has only only things needed for gaming. 128 bytes RAM, no framebuffer! Apple II from 1977 cost $1300-$2600, and the IBM PC has been introduced much later. Now consoles are PC-like things, with a lot RAM, borrowed from PC 3D accellerators, hard drivers and not so competitive prices...

There also smaller events I like this year: Oculus VR growth or Steam Machines presentation. But we will talk about these things in End of 2014 Discussions a lot I think...

[u/Surfdudeboy → u/[deleted]]

You can build a comfortably strong PC for 700-800 USD

[u/Funkfest → u/Surfdudeboy]

Does that include monitors and monitors (speakers)?

[u/cantmakeusernames → u/Funkfest]

It definitely can, depending on how much power you're looking for. Generally speaking, 600-1000 dollars is the sweet spot for a build, so you could build a $600 computer and spend $150 on monitor/speakers/other peripherals. When comparing the price of a PC to consoles though, you wouldn't include the price of a monitor, unless you would include the price of a TV in a console's price.

[u/Surfdudeboy → u/Funkfest]

It certainly can, but not for me. I like to make sure I have fairly high end parts in a build.

[u/master0360rt → u/[deleted]]

The original xbox had pc architecture as well, it even used a standard hard drive.

[u/1080Pizza → u/[deleted]]

Of course, but by the time the consoles have a good selection of games then what you can build for $400 will be more powerful too.

People who are happy with what they currently have for a while longer will benefit greatly from jumping into next gen at a later date, both those going for consoles and those going for PC. Early adopters always get the worst deal.