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Adinnieken on 06 March 2013
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Mummelmann said:
Adinnieken said:
Mummelmann said:
PC gaming has been dying since around 1990, that's when it started.

Um...it wasn't on the decline in 1990, but it has been on the decline since the late 1990's. 

PC Gaming needs to solve several problems before PC gaming comes back.  Microsoft tried to solve the problems with Windows Gaming, Steam sort of addresses the problems but introduce others.  Origin does nothing to resolve any of the issues.  Don't think anything else out there addresses the issues game developers have with the PC, which is why they have gone to consoles in droves.


Wasn't in a decline but still believed to be in peril, it was believed that Arcades, home consoles, handhelds and fringe PC/console units such as the Amiga, which was pretty hot in Europe for a while, would take over the market and end the PC as a gaming platform, or at the very least leave it crippled. The arguments we see today are largely the same and the chances of PC gaming dying are also the same.

PC as a gaming platform is without a doubt the most adapted one and will always have the benefit of ease and simplicity of development as well extreme advantages in cost of distribution and development (doubly so since digital distribution is growing immensely on the PC). Nevermind the fact that it usually provides a superior gaming experience from a technical standpoint and has more connectivity, media capability and features than anything else on the market and still remains, and will remain, the primary development tool for everything software related.

With all due respect, what?  No, in  the early 1990's PC gaming was actually very strong.  I was a part of it.  Don't confuse mergers and aquisitions with decline, many of those happened with some of the most successful companies.  There were some challenges that developers face, especially in 1995 when Windows 95 was released, but PC gaming continued to thrive.  The problem began with the advent of cheap CD-R/RW burners, then high-speed Warez Internet sites.

By no means am I suggesting PC gaming is dead.  However, the growth rate experienced in the late 1980s and early 1990s won't exist with current PCs.  Until developers have a 100% piracy proof solution.

In terms of the Amiga, in the time period I'm referring to it wasn't even a factor.  Not in the US Market.  Sony and Nintendo during the late 1990's combined for more than 50% of the video game industry in the US.  As well, Sony, Nintendo, and SEGA combined for the majority of gaming hardware, which included PCs.  That doesn't leave much room for other players if Sony owns 50% of the software market, and combined the three console makers of the era account for 50% of hardware sales. 

The early 2000's saw one of the largest vaccuums of gaming software on the PC.  RTS games all but died.  LucasArts had maybe one or two titles in the first half of the decade.  The projected growth for development of gaming software going into the decade was only 1%, with most of that switching to consoles there just wasn't a lot of growth happening in PCs.

That vaccuum did give small studios room to start working on games, but most of those either have folded or been bought up by now.  Only a few like Crytek still exist independently.  Though, there has been so much consolidation in the industry that few studios that existed in 1999 still exist as independents today.