Why now is the time to become a PC gamer

The new consoles from Microsoft and Sony are available at a store near you, and there are finally some games worth playing on them. As anxious gamers stress over which one to buy, it might be worth stopping and considering for a moment that the correct answer might be neither. Right now is the best time in years to direct the money you’d otherwise spend on an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 toward becoming a PC gamer. This doesn’t have to be a crazy PC gamer master race thing — there are legitimate reasons you might want to do this.

The Elder Scrolls Online PC Visual Analysis

The Elder Scrolls series has always managed to set new standards for the gaming industry. Be it gameplay experience, the setting, the twisted story or the graphics. The latter became prominent largely due to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim also helped a little by the modding community.

PC, Mac gaming to top $24bn

Personal computer and Mac gamer spending and direct banner/video ad outlays across all digital channels will grow to over $24 billion worldwide by 2017, according to the International Data Corporation's (IDC) new digital PC and Mac gaming software and services forecast.
The forecast also found that global digital PC/Mac game revenue will rise about 4% per year between 2012 and 2017. North American digital PC/Mac gaming revenue, however, is forecast to slip at the margins over the forecast period.
This is mainly the result of the cannibalisation of casual-leaning, browser-centric games (typified by Zynga's Farmville 2) by smartphones and tablets, states the IDC, adding that this is further compounded by a steady drop in hard-core subscription revenue (typified by Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft).
The IDC notes that digital PC/Mac gaming revenue outside North America should expand by more than 5% per year through 2017. This, it says, will be largely driven by rising living standards in BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA) and the inability of game consoles to establish much of a beachhead in key developing economies.
"Other than the casino genre, it's been tough sledding for most casual-leaning PC game genres in the past year," says Lewis Ward, research director of gaming at IDC. "Most of the growth is coming from hardcore-oriented freemium titles such as Tencent's and Riot Games' League of Legends, Valve's Team Fortress 2 and Dota 2 and Wargaming.net's World of Tanks.
 The forecast also points out that Valve's Steam service has a significant opportunity to expand into North American and western European living rooms in the next few years based on the company's Steam Machines initiative.
"Demand for prepaid digital games should remain stable if not rise at the margins through 2017 partly because key developers, publishers and platform providers will ramp up their offerings on HDTVs," adds Ward. "The difference between what PCs, consoles, micro-consoles and perhaps even smart TVs will be able to deliver three years from now will be mostly semantic. The platforms that outperform will have great games, a wise mix of business models, an ability to strain key customer insights out of a sea of big data, and offer great a social experience."
The IDC report breaks out North American totals from a combined rest of the world region. It segments subscription, prepaid download and add-on, and freemium gamers and revenue. Hard-core versus casual PC/Mac gaming dynamics are also considered in the 48-page report.

Forget AMD: Here's Why NVIDIA Will Continue to Dominate the PC Gaming Market

Shares of graphics chip company NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA  ) have soared over the past year, rising about 50%, with sales of the company's high-end gaming GPUs making up for a weak PC market. The rise of mobile gaming and the new generation of game consoles haven't hurt the PC gaming market at all, and NVIDIA will continue to benefit from strong global demand for PC gaming products. While competition from AMD (NYSE: AMD  ) is a threat, a lack of focus from the troubled competitor gives NVIDIA an important advantage.
NVIDIA's edge in PC gaming
The gaming market generates revenue in excess of $100 billion per year, spread across game consoles, PCs, and mobile devices.

DIY PC Gaming Pedal: Floor General

A few years ago Ben Heck made a breath-operated controller to substitute for the kick drum pedal of the Guitar Hero drum set, allowing a wheelchair-bound player to rock out. This time, the master modder made his own USB-based pedals to give him added control options when playing video games on the PC.
 Ben’s pedals are run by a Teensy board. His computer will recognize them as a keyboard, making it easy to map commands in games. Ben made it so he can map up to two commands per pedal: the first command is activated with a slight press and the second command is triggered by pressing harder on the pedal.

Crysis 1 and 2 PC Multiplayer Going Offline With GameSpy Shutdown

Two more high profile games will be losing their online portions once GameSpy goes down on May 31. Crytek has confirmed that both Crysis and Crysis 2‘s multiplayer modes will not survive past that date, and they will remain single player titles from here on out.
“The single-player campaigns in both games are unaffected by this transition, and the multiplayer mode in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 versions of Crysis 2 remain playable,” reads a statement on the official Crysis forum.

Steam PC gamer habits and game statistics analysed and revealed

Thanks to Steam PC gaming is rather healthy but what are the numbers? Who is playing what and for how long? What are the habits of Steam gamers?
These are questions that have not really been answered so Ars Technica took it upon themselves to come up with a system that would scrape user profile pages for data and then compile hundreds of thousands of pages into data that was understandable. While not 100% accurate, the results are pretty close to what is happening on Steam based on sales figures already revealed by developers and what we know about Steam gamers and their purchasing/playing habits.

Mean and green: How to build a gaming PC that’s fast, quiet, and efficient

Every enthusiast wants a killer, high-performance PC that blows fire and chews up benchmarks for breakfast. (PCMark, yum!) But packing a PC to the gills with cutting-edge hardware creates a hot rod in more than name alone: Truly powerful rigs tend to be big, hot, and loud, and they usually suck power faster than a parched pre-teen chugs Kool-Aid.
It doesn't have to be that way, though. With all of the CPU advances, it’s now possible to configure a relatively fast system that's also whisper quiet and surprisingly power efficient. With the right component choices and some careful planning, it doesn't even have to break the bank. Here's how we did it.

‘The Elder Scrolls Online’ PC, PS4 and Xbox One cross subscription fee clarified

A representative at Bethesda Softworks has clarified the cross-platform subscription fee structure for “The Elder Scrolls Online.” According to a report from Dual Shockers on April 13, the publisher was asked if a single subscription can be used across the PC, PS4 and Xbox One versions of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The spokesperson responded by saying that it won’t be possible.
Instead, players will need to have a separate account and subscription in order to play “The Elder Scrolls Online” on different platforms.

Watch Dogs dev reveals what you’ll need to be packing to run the game at ‘ultra’ on PC

Ubisoft has yet to post the PC spec requirements for its upcoming open world game Watch Dogs, but the game’s Creative Director Jonathan Morin has been less hesitant. Morin took to Twitter and confirmed what you’ll need to be packing in order to run the game at its “ultra” setting.
“We expect a lot of different specs to run the game at a high,” he tweeted (via GameSpot) “But here are the ultra specs for the few who have them and ask for it. Ultra specs: Intel Core i7-4770K with a GeForce 780.”

PS4 vs. Xbox One Sales, Specs, Games & Prices: Number of Game Titles Get Easter Discount

For a limited only, NewEgg, an online video game retailer, is having a blowout sale for a number of new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One video game titles, as well Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo's Wii U games, along with some accessories.
Some of the big name PS4 games for sale right now are Killzone: Shadow Fall and Knack for $28 each while NBA 2K14 and the Skylanders SWAP Force Starter Pack is going for $35 each, according to Gamespot.
The LEGO: Marvel Super Heroes game for PS4 is currently sold out as it was selling for $25, while Forza Motorsports 5 and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is also sold out now.

Intel is right—the PC isn’t dead

The numbers: Not terrible. First-quarter revenue rose 1.5% to $12.76 billion versus the same quarter of 2013. Profit fell 4.8% to $1.95 billion. Gross margins rose 3.5 percentage points from the prior year. Intel raised its gross margin guidance. Shares initially rose after hours.

The takeaway: Like the old man in that famous bit of Monty Python’s Holy Grail, the PC market isn’t dead yet. The decline of operating income at Intel’s PC Client Group, has slowed quite a bit. Revenue at the unit was down just 1.4% over the prior year. In short, the PC market is stabilizing. It shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Trials Fusion day-one update increases resolution on Xbox One

The Xbox One version of Trials Fusion will require a day-one patch to increase the game's resolution to 900p, Ubisoft has confirmed.

Prior to the application of the patch, Trials Fusion on Xbox One will run at 800p at 60fps. Ubisoft also confirmed developer RedLynx had originally targeted a resolution of 1080p for both the Xbox One and PS4, but the team was still optimizing its game for each platform. The PlayStation 4 version of Trials Fusion will run at 1080p at 60fps at launch.

Trials Fusion from developer RedLynx launches tomorrow for the Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PC.

Lenovo announces an aluminum-clad all-in-one PC and several new laptops

Lenovo has announced a number of additions to its consumer all-in-one and notebook PC lineups, including a smaller version of the A740 all-in-one it showed off at CES in January.
The Lenovo A540 AiO will feature a 23.8-inch IPS display that delivers resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. Encased in a distinctive, all-aluminum enclosure, the desktop PC will be offered with CPU options up to an Intel Core i7 and discrete graphics up to an Nvidia GeForce GT 840. Prices will start at $1280 when the computer ships in July.

Several new laptops will add to Lenovo’s alphabet soup: The budget-priced B50 and G50 series will join the pricier Y- and Z-series, Flex 14D, and Flex 15D laptops the company announced at CES .

Microsoft details every new feature coming in new Xbox One update

Microsoft has shown that it is dedicated to improving the Xbox One user experience, having already issued multiple big software updates for the new console that was released just five months ago. Beginning late Monday night, the company began rolling out its Xbox One April update, which includes a number of fixes and new features that were detailed by Microsoft on one of its blogs.
Xbox programming director Larry Hryb, better known by his Xbox Live user name “Major Nelson,” ran through all of the new features on his blog Monday night:

As PC market stabilizes, Intel focuses on smartphones

Inside Intel's family of chips, communications is now its problem child.
Intel's revenues for the first quarter were about on par compared to a year ago, with a slight 1 percent increase in revenue. Typically, first-quarter revenues slide fairly dramatically from the fourth quarter, the traditional height of the sales season.
The good news is, in the words of Intel chief financial officer Stacy Smith, "the PC market is stabilizing." Overall, Intel reported net income of $1.9 billion, down 5 percent from a year ago, on revenue of $12.8 billion. But revenue within the PC Client Group totaled $7.9 billion, down just 1 percent compared with a year ago. Operating income rose, too, to $2.8 billion.

Dark Souls 2 PC Retail Release Delayed

The UK boxed launch of Dark Souls 2 on PC has been delayed until May 2nd, Bandai Namco has confirmed. The game was originally due for release on April 25th, but has slipped by a week due to "a manufacturing issue with packaging", a statement reads. The digital release is unaffected, as is the PC release in other countries.
News first broke earlier today when Amazon UK pre-order customers received an email explaining the delay, with retailer ShopTo also amending its product page to show the revised release date.
The PC release of Dark Souls 2 was already trailing six weeks after the console versions, which launched in March.
The full statement from Bandai Namco reads as follows: "This is only affecting the UK on the boxed release of the game. It will be delayed unfortunately and we apologise to UK customers. This is due to a manufacturing issue with packaging. To confirm this will only affect the UK boxed launch".

Six accessories for hardcore mobile gamers

Smartphones have come a long way over the years. They have progressively become better at each and every feature they carry, whether you're talking about audio quality, high-end graphics, or touch-screen responsiveness, and this has also made them pretty interesting gaming machines.

Users buy smartphones based on features that suit their needs. An audiophile will look for the best sound performance, and a movie buff will pick the phone with the best screen. This reporter wants a better gaming experience in his hands.

But there's still room for improvement in our phones, and that's why there are plenty of gamers who aren't satisfied with the experience of playing on our phones. If you are tired of watching those tiny characters under your thumbs while playing a game, then buying the right smartphone gaming accessory can make a big difference.