(The oldest war known to mankind, or at least to our generation anyways :D , is the old P.C versus Console dispute.)
The two sides have their rightful points. P.C's do whip any console's butt when it comes to advanced graphics and load times. Not to mention the fact that P.C communities are usually much more powerful and are much more helpful in creating custom patches to P.C games that have gone astray. Console users have no ability to patch their games since they're on static unchanging hard discs and have to wait for the developers to issue updates; sometimes waiting forever for updates that will never come out.
If you mention that to the opposite console fanboy they'll simply laugh and ask about the price associated with buying a gaming P.C. He'll mention that even when the PS3, the most expensive console, came out, it was still only $500 and less than half the price of a modern day Gaming Rig. They'll also consider the fact that console gaming and Xbox live has gotten much more popular and outsold the P.C market, a market they say is dying.
Both are slightly extreme positions, possibly because they're both said by fanboys, and especially because Skyrim completely removed the myth of the dying P.C genre. But the question remains if there can ever be peace between these two warring factions and what lies ahead for both industries.
The Futures of the P.C and Console Industries
I'd like to ask a very specific question that will steer our discussion about the future of these industries. That question is very simple:
Can a future Xbox Console ever run Microsoft Windows and would you want it to?
That singular question will have sent shock waves through most gamers minds, as it did mine when i thought of it. Imagine though, just for a second, hooking your console to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, then... boom, there you go, you now have a gaming rig AND a console.
Don't forget that modern PS3's have 9 Processors and extremely expensive and fast Graphic cards, easily able to undertake the constraints of the Windows Platform.
Xbox may not be there yet with their 360 but the successor to the Xbox360 is said to be a huge step up and will definitely have to be better than modern day PS3s or else no one will buy them instead of just buying a PS3 alternative.
Also don't forget, Microsoft owns Xbox. Why wouldn't they want people to game and use Windows? That way they'd be killing three birds with one stone by selling us a console, a p.c, and a software license of Windows!!
That would get Microsoft in a BRAND new industry it's not even in yet which is P.C manufacturing!! It makes perfect business sense and it would cost them NOTHING except to sell the consoles they were selling anyways. Once PS3 saw this they'd have to make an equal or GREATER product!
There was already a report released in July of 2011 about future plans for Windows 8 to let users play Xbox360 games natively!
Do you see what is inevitably happening? Since Consoles are just smaller sized P.C's anyways, and hardware is becoming cheaper and faster, eventually a gaming rig will be cheap enough to be a console. Some argue, if you hack the PS3, we're already there.
The future of the P.C and Console wars is a surprising harmony and truce that will blend the best elements of both into one singular hardware device. A console, beautifully constructed, with monitor outputs, and gaming inputs, that does everything you could ever dream of, all for $500 dollars or less.
Current gaming rigs are between $700-1,200, depending on whether you make it yourself or buy one pre-built. Regardless, we aren't far away from a gaming rig that functions as a console too.
New Trend in P.C Market
I bought my Core-I7 in February of 2009 for $1,350 and 3 years later it's still on top of the market because Hardware has surpassed software. Software makers are having a harder and harder time maxing hardware because it's becoming faster and cheaper. A MUCH better rig today is selling for $900, that has twice as much HD space as mine did and nearly 3 times the ram. All this again for $450 dollars less.
Picture Source By phil_g
This trend is why consoles will be able to afford gaming rigs and harmonize them together as one product. They will buy CPUs that are super fast and cost a fraction of what they used to, when consoles first came out.
A brand new future is looming where the P.C versus Console debate is about to be ended. A longstanding peace awaiting with glorious rewards for the gamers that waited patiently til that last victorious day. A day when the dispute will finally come to an end.
