This is probably one of the most complete examinations of the general health of the PC industry I have ever read:
Why the future looks bright for PC gaming
Is PC gaming dying, changing or growing? Anyone who answered dying, go and stand in the corner. If you answered either changing or growing, have a biscuit and feel proud of yourself. That said, every man and his blogging dog seems to have their own pet theory on the state of PC gaming, and that can make it wildly tricky. Compounding this is that 'PC gaming' has become an astonishingly broad term. Are MMOs, for instance, a mere part of PC gaming, or do their players' tendency to stick with one game for years now make them a separate industry of their own? Should the independent developers churning out inspired Flash games and mods be lumped in with the mega-budget Need For Speeds and Crysises of this world? Think beyond the box So while, yes, retail sales of most PC games in plastic boxes may not be in the rudest of health right now, PC gaming as a whole is expanding. Visit Kongregate or Newgrounds and you'll leave with a justified impression that there's more people currently making PC games than ever before....
Is PC gaming dying, changing or growing? Anyone who answered dying, go and stand in the corner. If you answered either changing or growing, have a biscuit and feel proud of yourself. That said, every man and his blogging dog seems to have their own pet theory on the state of PC gaming, and that can make it wildly tricky.
Compounding this is that 'PC gaming' has become an astonishingly broad term. Are MMOs, for instance, a mere part of PC gaming, or do their players' tendency to stick with one game for years now make them a separate industry of their own? Should the independent developers churning out inspired Flash games and mods be lumped in with the mega-budget Need For Speeds and Crysises of this world?
Think beyond the box
So while, yes, retail sales of most PC games in plastic boxes may not be in the rudest of health right now, PC gaming as a whole is expanding. Visit Kongregate or Newgrounds and you'll leave with a justified impression that there's more people currently making PC games than ever before....
I encourage you to read the whole thing because it covers a wide variety of factors that many other pessimists overlook.
One thing PC Gamer pointed out in their magazine... The console hardware is getting really outdated. The question will be whether or not MS and the gang are willing to lose billions more cranking out a new system which is up to date. And more importantly, how many more cycles of it are they willing to go through? IMO consoles are to focused. First of all, at this point in their cycle a mid range computer beats the crap out of their specs. Second, they are only able to be used for gaming. They have no ability to do work on them or effectively surf the web.
And most importantly of all:
PC MOUSE AND KEYBOARD FTW!!!!!!
Joysticks went out of style shortly after Pong IMO...
I always thought PC gaming was slated as dying because of sales on PC compared to console.
One theory is that us ebil PC gamers are just illegally copying every other game we play. Hence the money made is 10X higher on a console, but something like twice as many people play it on the PC compared to a console.
I know that's the line they trot out with every fps that's released on both. I have to say every example I've seen quoted was an utterly appauling ports from console to PC. You know the ones where a PS2 game ported to the PC looked worse than pong and had load time that where about 50 times as long. I know I've always giggle when seeing that. I mean your PC version of the game game runs and acts like something that just fell out of my backside and you wonder why it didn't sell? Oh it must be pirates rather than your high quality port...
But it does ask the question why do PC games are constantly out sold by consoles?
Because, even the current mid-range PCs are 2 or 3 times more expensive than an Xbox or Wii, let alone a good PC to play the newest games. Plus, game will continue to be made for those that platforms that are guaranteed to run well. So the psychology is definitely in favor of the consoles there.
That said, I think the indie game market will put the PC back in its place. Several reasons for this come to mind:
Especially with Steam sales games can be REALLY cheap for PC. Heck, a couple months back I got Mount & Blade for $7.50. If I had gone on an Xbox with that amount of money, I probably couldn't even download a map pack let alone an entire game (which gave me over 60 hours of entertainment so far).
I would wager that if you buy games mostly on sale on Steam, if you combined the price of a mid range machine and games, over the lifetime you would probably be spending about the same as a console and its games. Hmm... lets try a little theoretical math...
Keep in mind I don't know to much about console pricing, so this is just a general estimate...I will use an average of $30 per game for PC, since if you use digital distributers that is probably about what you will spend on average w/ their frequent sales.
Console PC---------------------------------------------- machine| $300-$400 | $1000per game| $50-$60 | $3010 games| ~$550 | ~$30020 games| ~$1100 | ~$60030 games| ~$1650 | ~$900----------------------------------------------30 games| ~$2000 | ~$1900+machine| |
So if you buy around 30 games per hardware lifetime (about 3 or 4 years) a PC will be about the same price as a console. And likely a $1000 PC will be able to run at higher graphics settings. These are rough estimates of course, but they do make my point. Also note that I do not take any paid DLC into account, which would also likely add up to at least another $100 for most console owners.
excellent point alway , I've always been a big support of PC over console, and your math makes excellent sense. also make note I get a lot of my PC games at the 25$ price point.
The "PC gaming is teh dying" meme was so incredibly stupid. If your product fails, then PC gaming must be dooooomed...it couldn't possibly be your product?It's safe to say that the PC is the most popular videogame platform on earth when you take into account MMOs, flash games, RTS, 4X, FPS, RPG, etc. etc. Personally, I find that PC gaming is actually improving now that consoles are becoming (gimped) PCs themselves. As Brad Wardell said in an interview, consoles have a lot of advantages over the PC from a usability point. Steam, Impulse, and other services make PC gaming easier, IMHO, which is a good thing. But you have to take the good with the bad: stupid DRM with activation limits, coupled with a flood of crappy ports that no one wants, has taken a toll on the PC...
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