Who Killed PC Gaming?

[Sir_Brizz]

The thing with piracy is, it has ALWAYS happened. Back in the Atari days, we'd go to the Atari club meetings and people would just sit around and copy applications like it was nothing (and it was).

The other thing with piracy is, you just CAN'T cater your development cycle to those people. Let's face reality, no matter what you do your game is going to get pirated (and the harder you make it to pirate, the faster it will be pirated). This is akin to paying someone thousands of dollars to obfuscate your HTML. Yeah, it may deter casual hackers, but, at the end of the day, it was a complete and utter waste of money.

If the gaming industry in general wants to improve their image, the first thing they need to do is start treating their paying customers like honest people and just ignore the pirates altogether. People buy in to games when the developer is good, after market support is there and they feel like they have been dealt an honest hand. Who do we need to tell that anti-piracy measures are LITERALLY turning customers away? Because they seem to not be getting the message.

 

[Crotale]

oh no, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it is right by any means. It is completely wrong and should not be done. But to say that is why pc gaming in suffering is just completely incorrect. But it is your opinion and I respect that you have one, so me saying it is completely incorrect is not an attack on you, just me stating my opinion.

Okay, that's cool.

I still find it amusing people seem to ignore piracy on consoles, and call it a safe world. Yet piracy on pc equals automatic doomsday.

That isn't the point. The point is that is easier and more commonplace for PC gaming piracy than on consoles. And, PC gaming by its design is a slightly different business model than console gaming.

EDIT:/ Brizz, you are on the mark.

 

[Chrysaor]

Brizz you make a good point, you can look for good studios who produce a good game, and develop loyalty with them. But when they make you feel like a criminal just to play the game, as a company it does alienate your base. Security deters the friendly atmosphere of any "game".

 

[Lizard Of Oz]

There is simply a bigger market for consol games. Maybe there are more PC’s in the world, but people buy console for games. Most people don’t buy a PC for gaming, they want to tweet and and watch porn. Mine Sweeper is good enough for most of them.

Developing games for console is easy compared to PC’s. With PC’s you have to develop a system that can run flawlessly on a million different system configurations, but with console it’s 1 or 2, maybe 3, different systems. Post sale support for console games in nearly un-needed.

Developing for the consol is cheaper in the long run, and there’s a bigger market to sell you stuff. And, if you’re willing to put up with the post sale support issues, you can port over your crappy console-fied game to the PC to squeeze out a few extra bucks.

Hell, looks to me like developing games for the PC is a really stupid business plan, unless you’re into that whole niche-market thing.

Vista was never the demise of PC gaming, but consoles will be, and we FPS fans will suffer for it.

 

[elmuerte]

Of course, in the end most of the arguments we introduce in this discussion are pulled straight out of our ass. And most of them are just correlated, and are not causation.

But claiming the PC gaming market sales are dropping based on NPD numbers is simply wrong.

 

[Leak]

We killed it, and here is the proof.
Pirate Bay Top 100: Video game downloads for PC

Well, I'm not surprised that SFIV leads the list, what with it costing 45 EUR here in Austria in brick & mortar stores - but instead of pirating it I've simply ordered it from Amazon UK where it costs 17.96 UKP, which is just shy of 21 EUR plus a few EUR for shipping... *shudders*

 

[brold9999]

It may also be a factor that there has been a rise in "social" gaming, and PC games don't usually do 3-4 player split-screen very well. LAN parties are probably "better" but aren't as common. PCs do have a lot of advantages but many of those cater specifically to PC "enthusiasts" and/or genres which are less popular these days. However it must also be said that the linked article references only video game sales, and the majority of online gaming is played in browser games, which probably is not included in their statistics, particularly since many are free.

Overall though, I don't think PC gaming is "dead" by any means. The console market may have gotten bigger in proportion, but it's not like there is a total lack of PC games available. There are still far more awesome PC games than I will ever have the time to play; even if there aren't as many as are available on consoles. It's unlikely that PC gaming will ever completely subside.

PS: Technically if we count browser-based games, which are primarily accessed from PCs, the PC gaming "market" would actually be bigger than the console "market." However, gratis competition in the browser game "market" may mean it's not as profitable.

 

[JaFO]

Car analogy failure!

I'm not going to pay 20k-50k for a game, or between 8k-15k for small games.

but you wouldn't pay 50$ for a car if it broke down as soon as you tried to start it ... and with no help from your dealer except 'close all windows and hit restart'
oh ... and you might want to get rid of your luggage as well, because not every bit is compatible with your car.


I don't mind paying a lot of money for games, provided there's no problem playing them.
// ---

 

[Sir_Brizz]

but you wouldn't pay 50$ for a car if it broke down as soon as you tried to start it ... and with no help from your dealer except 'close all windows and hit restart'
oh ... and you might want to get rid of your luggage as well, because not every bit is compatible with your car.

Seems like you'd be getting what you paid for, in that case

 

[Grobut]

Well, to be honest, and without actually looking at numbers, has PC gaming been as big as console gaming, ever?

Yes, if you care to look outside the US's borders, you will find that PC gaming has allways been the top dog in Europe and Russia, and it still is.

Even back when the NES was riding high in the USA, we where more interested in the Amiga's, and the smash success that was the PS1? yeah, i don't know a single person who owned one, it was all PC's, and they had to sell the PS1 games here at twice the price of a PC game to make any money off of them.

Consoles have become more popular since then, but there's no doubt that the PC is still the #1 platform around here.


Anyway, here's my own little list of "things i feel has been trying to kill off PC gaming", in no particular order (this would be the tl:dr part for you thickies, please start scrolling now if you have an IQ below 90):

• Vista and the DX10 debacle, Vista was in no way a good gaming OS when it came out (it has gotten much better, sure, but back then it was rubbish), and dropping directsound and propper OpenGL, whilst also not making DX10 avalible on XP, it drove a wedge into PC gaming, lots of gamers have never "upgraded" to Vista, whilst others have, leaving game Dev's a split market to develop for, this has undoubtedly also raised production costs.
  
• The rise of Multi Platform developemnt, or as i like to call it, "make it for the Xbox and port it later" development, why continue to upgrade your gaming rig when the vast majority of games beeing released are also avalible on the Consoles? and worse, where designed for the Consoles in terms of gameplay and controls, so there's no inherent reason to get the PC version? sure we can point out a few games that got ok PC ports, but for the most part, you are left with control shemes that could have made better use of all thouse keys on our keyboard, horrid mouse acceleration, menu's that are not ment for a mouse, and gameplay that often feels dumbed down and too easy when you have the accuracy of a mouse on your side, and MP support and maps that where never ment for 32+ players.
  
• Lack of advertisement (this ties in with the point above^), Consoles get crammed down our throats on TV, billboards and Web ads all the time, and even when you see TV ads for multiplatform games, they rarely care to mention it's also out for the PC, hell, even if you read a game review of any MultiPlat title, it'll allways be reviewed on one of the Consoles with no mention of how well, or poorly it has been ported to the PC (atleast thats exceedingly rare).
  
• Franchiside, again a victim of MultiPlat development, the PC had lots of great franchises that could have kept on trucking, and made the PC a real contender, but one by one that have been stripmined of all that is PC in nature and made avalible on the Consoles, often changing gameplay feel to such a degree that it's fans nolonger wish to play the new versions, and then they wonder why the PC versions aren't selling anymore.. are they really that dense!?
  
• DRM, it needs to die, now, all this new draconian DRM does is promote piracy and make honest people like myself not buy games, hell knows how many games of late i would have bought, had they just not used draconian DRM or other BS subscription and blotware account rubbish, treat your customers right, or i'll have to continue voting with my wallet, and you wont see a dime from me.
  
• Unrealistic market expectations, seriously, what the hell where they thinking when they released Crysis with thouse system req's in todays market? and Crysis is not alone there, somebody dropped the ball and forgot to check if gamers where still upgrading at the same pace they where in the late 90's and early 00's.. well they aren't, leaving some of the few PC exclusive games that has been released lately unplayable for much of their market, who wants to buy games that must be run on low to med graphics and are full of bugs because all the dev time went into whizzbang graphical gimmicks you have to disable anyway to get 30 Fps? This would have been a great oppertunity for them to save some Dev time on ultra bling-bling graphics, and spend more time on gameplay, story, making the games a bit longer and adding more polish and depth, to make the kind of games the PC geek wants on his PC because he knows it woulden't be this good on a Console, an oppertunity they blew out of their collective arses..

Thats just some of the bile i have to spew for today.

 

[elmuerte]

but you wouldn't pay 50$ for a car if it broke down as soon as you tried to start it ... and with no help from your dealer except 'close all windows and hit restart'
oh ... and you might want to get rid of your luggage as well, because not every bit is compatible with your car.


I don't mind paying a lot of money for games, provided there's no problem playing them.

Let me guess, you don't own a car?


ps, I don't get the luggage analogy, what's it about?

 

[madspacemarinemustdie]

PC games are just too complex now. To play games you have to spend and infinite time to get everything right. And most games aren't fun in the first 10 minutes.

The WWW otoh is plug & play.

 

[elmuerte]

Too complex? I don't have to configure a thing these days, well.. maybe change the resolution, volume... but I don't have to select a drive to use for the video card, sound card, select irq, dma, etc...

 

[madspacemarinemustdie]

Installing the game, looking for the latest drivers, direct X, tweaking, takes 1/2 hours. And it doesn't mean that the game runs smooth, when the requirements are met. So before buying a game, you have to look on the net, what hardware is REALLY necassary.

After trying to find out, if the game is really what was advertised, in previews and reviews.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

looking for the latest drivers, direct X, tweaking

You only really have to do this once, not every time you install a game. I haven't messed with drivers for ages (and most games automatically install DirectX if necessary, not like you have to do anything for that).

And it doesn't mean that the game runs smooth, when the requirements are met. So before buying a game, you have to look on the net, what hardware is REALLY necassary.

IMO, this mostly just has to do with either lack of education or unrealistic expectations about what the computer you own can do.

After trying to find out, if the game is really what was advertised, in previews and reviews.

And... you have to do that with most console games, too! Amazing!

 

[{Ogre}Spin]

The last half dozen or so games I've installed have automatically detected the normal resolution I play at (which is not a standard res), grabbed quality settings according to auto-detection and nvidia control panel presets. I think that saying that installing is too fiddly is no longer a valid argument....that you have to install at all, perhaps, but not that it's so fiddly that you have to spend time setting up a game (this is on vista, I'd add, don't know if xp users have the same experience).

I'm only running a dual core and an 8600gts, so I don't have a top-end machine, but every game I install runs exactly how I'd like it to.

 

[dragonfliet]

IMO, this mostly just has to do with either lack of education or unrealistic expectations about what the computer you own can do.

Not really. Recommended requirements don't make the game look like the box. Sure, if you're REALLY into PC gaming and you follow it really hardcore, you understand this. The GENERAL POPULACE (you know, the people that buy most of everything?) doesn't know this and so they pop in the game with a little over the minimum requirements and see a game that barely plays at all and is a slideshow when it does, or they meet the recommended but the game still looks 'meh'--Well, they get annoyed at that stuff and don't know how to tweak it until it looks decent. It was these people who enjoyed games but didn't feel like learning all about computers in order to play them (like anyone who doesn't feel like learning how to replace an alternator might like to drive a car nonetheless) switched over to consoles.

This list is bullcrap. That Vista was somehow to blame for losing gamers is crap. Games were easily tweaked to run on XP with DX10 features so it's not like anyone said: oh, well Vista isn't that fast of an OS, I guess I'll GIVE UP PC GAMING ENTIRELY. And then MS took their games and put them on the console, as if MS was the backbone of the PC gaming community anyways...

Look, consoles are cheaper and easier, have a longer life and you get to sit on a couch to play them (HUGE plus). Oh well, these kinds of articles always give me a chuckle, at least.

~Jason

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Not really. Recommended requirements don't make the game look like the box. Sure, if you're REALLY into PC gaming and you follow it really hardcore, you understand this. The GENERAL POPULACE (you know, the people that buy most of everything?) doesn't know this and so they pop in the game with a little over the minimum requirements and see a game that barely plays at all and is a slideshow when it does, or they meet the recommended but the game still looks 'meh'--Well, they get annoyed at that stuff and don't know how to tweak it until it looks decent. It was these people who enjoyed games but didn't feel like learning all about computers in order to play them (like anyone who doesn't feel like learning how to replace an alternator might like to drive a car nonetheless) switched over to consoles.

Honestly, you could make this same argument about consoles. The screenshots they use for marketing and promos aren't "SD" shots are they? Yet most people still have SD TV sets or sets that are incapable of the resolutions that the screens are taken at.

So, again, it's either lack of education (that you might need to fiddle with some settings to get exactly what you want) or unrealistic expectations (my 6 year old Dell should be able to play this game at highest res and settings, which amounts to "WHY DOESN'T GEARS 2 LOOK THIS GOOD ON MY 10 YEAR OLD SD TV SET?!?!?!?!?!?!").

Look, consoles are cheaper and easier, have a longer life and you get to sit on a couch to play them (HUGE plus). Oh well, these kinds of articles always give me a chuckle, at least.

It's true there is a draw to consoles, but I think it's dum to say that the PC market should ever overtake consoles, especially considering that consoles are becoming more and more PC like and not vice versa (PS3 has some games that have to be installed).

 

[q_mi_4_3]

you get to sit on a couch to play them (HUGE plus)

Kind of OTT here, but it's really hard to understand this point everytime it's brought out. Why is it so much better to sit on a couch instead of a chair? When I play games, I would like to play with my body in a serious posture. Why would playing games with you back lie down on a couch or on a bean-bag really improve the gaming experience (not counting spit-screen)?

 

[dragonfliet]

Honestly, you could make this same argument about consoles. The screenshots they use for marketing and promos aren't "SD" shots are they? Yet most people still have SD TV sets or sets that are incapable of the resolutions that the screens are taken at.

Just a note, but the majority of console owners (this gen) own HDTVs, so that's mostly a moot point.

Also, a game running all the bells and whistles of shaders, higher poly models, longer draw distance, etc. @640x480 looks better than a pop-up ridden, lower poly, dx8 shaders, etc. @1600x1200. It doesn't look as crisp, but it more closely imitates life. (granted, this is my opinion but I'll certainly take

Very high @640x400 (well, it was 1280x800 which I then downscaled to 640x400 and then upscaled back to 1280x800 for apples to apples comparison
[SCREENSHOT]http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/3478/crysishigh640.jpg[/SCREENSHOT]

Over Low @1280x800
[SCREENSHOT]http://www.breakitdownblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/crysis_low.jpg[/SCREENSHOT]
Fuzzy reality-ish > crisp mediocre videogame. That's how I see it, at least.

@q_mi: I prefer to relax and my nice comfy leather couch is WAY more relaxing than my (admittedly nice) computer chair. Add in a nice 1000 watt surround sound system (not that logitech's aren't nice, but a 200 watt system even really close fails to impress as much as good theatre speakers). You enjoying being poised forward and hurting your neck after an hour may work for you but I prefer to lean back and enjoy myself.

~Jason