PC is in its new golden age for different reasons

1. The spirit of indie game development has come back through Steam, Kickstarter, etc.

In the past when the industry was young and there were no big companies yet, almost every game developer would have been considered an indie dev by today's definition. Unlike the PS1/N64 and PS2/Xbox eras where most small devs were in the hands of big companies, right now going indie has become viable. Small studios are able to flourish like the creators of Braid, LIMBO, Minecraft, etc. Veterans are able to do what they truly want (former Rare developers transformed to Playtonic Games, the remnants of CRPG developers, etc.)

2. No longer is game development exclusive to programmers and professionals through software geared towards students like Autodesk Maya/3DS Max, Blender 3D, Pixologic Sculptris, GIMP, The Foundry Nuke, Unity 5, Unreal Engine 4, MuseScore, etc.

People here know Unity and Unreal but have you heard of Maya, 3DS Max, Sculptris, Nuke, GIMP, MuseScore, etc.? All of these are free for non-commercial purposes and can be learned by anyone. All of these contribute to learning game development (art, music, game design). This level of openness of game development is unprecedented. This enables young talent to freely develop more easily.

3. The internet exists

When internet was young not many people got to use it. Internet is the place of communication and exchange of information. If you want to learn anything about game development, lots of forums/communities exist to help. If you want to check reviews of a specific game lots of sites and user reviews exist. The latest news, videos, etc. can be digested. Just imagine today without internet, it's impossible.

The most important thing to remember is this: The level of openness heightens the ratio of good games and bad games. Right now, there are more mediocre games. But there are also more great games to play than in the past even though they might not be on the level of ground-breaking games of the past. Denying this is being blinded by nostalgia. When the game industry was young, innovations being abundant was natural because everything was new. Right now, the game industry is still considered young and new unlike the film industry. It will continue to evolve and some are saying that the game industry is following on the footsteps of the film industry in its evolution.

didn't we have the same discussion a few days ago?

PC always has golden ages since its a platform that is always evolving unlike its static console counterparts.

That's what insecurity does to people.

Yeah thats why we see games like slaughtering grounds and all the other crap on steam.

PC has always been in its golden age, ever since Warcraft was release it was game on.

lol...

oh Blizzard.

Unlike handhelds, consoles and smartphones where pure crap simply doesn't pop up.

PC gaming stopped being in a golden age?

It's been sitting atop a golden throne since the early 1990's.

@skelly34: I still remember like it was yesterday playing Warcraft on PC, boy were them the good ol days. The game was like nothing i had ever seen before, was amazing. Still hard to find a strategy game as fun as those. Blizzard is awesome.

Yeah, because consoles have not a single crap game, right?

Yes but people argued how the 80s, 90s were the true golden age and want the PC to follow that, it is not gonna happen anytime soon, at least until the global economy improves, I remember Chris Roberts talking about PC Gaming making a comeback in a different way compared to that of the 80s and 90s. To be honest I find it a bit unfair as the economy didn't demand developers to need as much money back then plus gaming was still new so of course there was tons of new innovation. Chris Roberts talked of how back in the days PC was getting thousands of quality titles released a year and basically proved that the video game market crash was really on a console thing and PC gaming actually benefited from it since the devs went over PC.

Console becoming more mainstream and taking things that were once PC stuff like FPS and Online multiplayer a long with Microsoft basically shutting down their PC studios and moneyhatting other PC studios into making Xbox exclusives for them. Piracy was also rampant and developers weren't making much of a profit so there was a whole lot of PC bashing in the early 2000s and last gen.

I feel that way..

The fact that my personal Kickstarter and Early Access experiences have been nothing short of amazing and worthwhile and added to my normal PC gaming habits , goes some way to helping that thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKlBq-MDq-0 :D

Doesnt get much better than that!.... (it really does!) :P

Ultima & Wizardry (PC, 1981).

Best games of all time are not PC games lol.

Can't be a golden age. Gaming died 2004.

/thread

@running-target: O yeah, them some good ones also, they were before me, but i played one of the later Wizardy games.

I agree with the thread, the only real pc gaming genre that is not making a comeback is flight sim genre, but it's on another level of complication, so it's understandable.

Many games on GS's "greatest games of all time" list were PC games....more than any other one system...

Immortality has its privileges (but they should probably be "checked" in this sensitive day and age).

Many people argued PC isn't in its golden age.

yes during the ps2 and vista ages.