| noname2200 said: Starting with the final paragraph first, you're correct to a large extent. I'd counter though that it's not without reason that nearly every PC developer save for Blizzard has made a point of porting their games over to consoles now, and the vast majority of those developers have the console version as the bigger moneymaker. That rapid exodus tells me the PC gaming market wasn't exactly healthy at the time, certainly not for the AAA games, or it would not have been evacuated so rapidly. I also question the assertion that the PC gamer is the most diverse, unless you're using the term in a completely different manner than I am. I've been heavily into console and PC gaming from an early age. Console gaming is largely a treehouse made up of little boys and young men; PC gaming was composed of an even smaller subset of the console gaming market, namely those old enough and saavy enough to navigate the additional hurdles of PC gaming. I certainly can't remember any girls playing PC games when I was growing up, and even now all the ones I know of who played PC games were concentrated on Facebook and Flash games. Telling a girl that I liked PC games certainly tended to prevent me from getting laid. The PC gamer was also relatively insecure, if the magazine articles were anything to go by: I lost track of how many "PC gaming will win the console wars!!!" articles I ran across in prior days.* It may have gotten remarkably smoother and easier these past two generations, but PC gaming's still a far cry from plug and play. Perhaps you were referring not so much to diversity of gamers, but variety of game types? If so, perhaps you have a point: I concede there are more indie games on the PC than on any console, although I don't have sufficient data in front of me to judge how relevant, market-wise, this amounts to. I suspect it isn't much: "indie" is strongly tied to "small" in popular opinion for a reason. Or were you instead including mobile gaming and tablets in this category? If so, you'd have a point, as both ARE essentially PCs, albeit so radically different in approach and design from the traditional desktop that it almost feels like cheating to lump them together.
But my larger point is this: I can see no reason why the vast majority of today's gamers, if deprived of the conveniences of console gaming, would morph into PC gamers. Because we have reams of data showing that, if gaming decides to put up too many barriers to enjoyment, most folks just walk away and take up one of the thousand other entertain options available. And if ever there was a poster child for putting up too many barriers to enjoyment, it would be traditional PC gaming. Sure, maybe that's starting to change with the advent of the tablet, but those are relatively recent, and their offerings are noticeably different than the AAA games you ID'd. If console gaming wasn't there to support the PC developer, PC gaming would be quite different today. Not necessarily smaller: the clowns saying PC gaming was dying were obviously foolish from the get go. But the market would look different. So...yes, I am assuming the bulk of console gamers would have stopped gaming instead of buying PCs. With ample historical data to support that conclusion.
*Ironically, I maintain PC gaming is closer to winning now than ever before, mainly because so many of its mainstays have set strong roots in the console scene. Take out Nintendo, and a lot of the best-sellers last generation were made by former PC-developers. |
I see your point loud and clear...but I politely disagree with it. :)
Back in the day when SNES and Genesis were the norm and PC gaming was a mess, no one in the right mind would jump over to PC gaming if you took away their consoles. Today however these next gen consoles are as close to PCs as it gets in terms of features, interface and functionality. One could easily find a 500 dollar prebuilt CyperPower PC and buy it instead of Xbox 1 or PS4 and plug that in to their TV and call it a day.
Honestly if it wasn't for Nintendo, I'd consider concoles to be dead. The other 2 players are already selling people PC's, its just that consumers havent realized it yet. 3 years from now with SteamBoxes, Windows 8 gaming and Android gaming streamlined, there will be very little difference between an X1 or a Windows 8 PCs when it comes to gaming.
And in terms of AAA gaming, I would say history spoke loud and clear. You are right that sometime in 2006-7 game devs started focusing on consoles and made PC ports of games that were sub par to what was expected, if at all. Games like Crysis 2, Resident Evil 5 and many other console ports were shat on by the PC community. Devs have since reconsidered this console first strategy and we have had some proper PC ports of games that would never even come to PC's before hand. Castlevania LOS for example or MGS Revengeance...these games would have never made it to PC 5 years ago. And as far as PC devs, they smartened up and gave us proper PC titles like Crysis 3 and Mass effect 3 while also giving a slightly watered down ports to consoles.
