In light of the current economic reality

Dec 23, 2008 12:02 GMT  ·  By

With the global low-economy slowly influencing the market results of several major IT companies, fears that the gaming PC is reaching the end of life are catching on. Rahul Sood, the creator of one of the world's most successful custom PC brands, the Voodoo PC, says, in a recent post on his blog, that the “gaming PC as we know it is doomed.” One of the main reasons for his claim is the fact that the global economic downturn is slowly changing the face of the market, as various hardware component makers are expected to face a series of issues in the near future.

 

Rahul Sood speaks of a niche market, specifically targeted towards those enthusiast users who, prior to the current economic phase, would have gone all out on a system that would provide them with a few more frames in the most performance demanding games. According to him, PC systems built with up to four GPUs, a 2-kilowatt power supply, 16 gigabytes of memory and a stack of hard disk drives aren't likely to raise the interest of any PC user in the near future.

 

Rahul writes: “I am not saying PC gaming is doomed, because it’s not—far from it—but the PC with four GPUs, a 2-kilowatt power supply, 16 gigabytes of memory, and a stack of hard drives is all but distant memory, at least for the PC gamer.”

 

The computer and the PC gaming industries are expected to undergo a series of changes, in light of the current economic reality. Computer users will likely be heading towards products that are more price-competitive, delivering a decent price/value ratio, which is why system makers are expected to change their policy and deliver less expensive products. But that can only happen if hardware makers also lower the prices of their products.

 

Rahul doesn't write specifically of a product that HP is expected to release in the near future, which will be in line with the current market situation. But taking a look at some of his earlier notes, HP might be considering a system that will provide gaming users with a new alternative. However, such a product is yet to be confirmed.