ZenfoldorVGI said:
Naz, you know I respect you, so when I say this, know that I've thought it through very well. I believe things like this, are a major reason PC gaming is in decline, and I predict that it will stay in decline until it is nearly obsolete. I love PC gaming, however, the only games I can see reaching mainstream success and being worth the usually high cost of graphic intensive production are MMORPG's, and there really is only one game in that genre at this point. 1. Pirating 2. System requirements 3. Annoying things like this Online games like WoW basically don't have any of those problems. You need an account to play WoW, the game is free basically, but you have to buy an account and a gamecode to initially activate it. WoW can be played on virtually any computer. Wow authenticates everytime you log on, and it's not a hastle. Single player games are just meat on the spit for opportunistic hackers to crack and download on IRC. I mean, I can pull any game I want, for free, off IRC right now, but I won't because I have morals. Nobody else does that I know, and I know a lot of people. Crytek, the first name is the epic CPU-centric FPS, dropping PC exclusivity due to piracy and poor game sales of Crysis, that's major. Epic games, and many others. Also, my computer is pretty good, but it couldn't play Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, or Crysis. I just built it about 3 years ago and I don't have the kind of money I'd need to upgrade it. Even me, the target audience for computer gaming, find it hard to play games on the PC anymore. The PC will certainly never catch the casual market with hardcore games like Crysis. That group forming up trying to save and revive PC gaming is the last glimmer of light in the twilight of a fading empire. Can Spore bring the casuals back to the valley, and with them the light of hope? Can Foldor continue to wax poetic about the PC gaming industry? Only time will tell. What say you? |
Ugh, I wasn't even going to respond to this level of ignorance, but it's too annoying to leave sitting there. First, I hate when people arbitrarily space out everything in their posts. It makes it impossible to read. Second, respect has to be earned, and posts like this are nowhere near helping you earn mine.
First of all, PC gaming is not in a decline. Not even close. There are many men far more knowledgeable than you who agree with me.
Did you ever notice the only people complaining about PC piracy are those who don't have their games on Steam? Kinda funny how that works. Epic hasn't bitched about it once since they joined. Of course that could also be because UT3's console sales were pathetic compared to the PC sales. In fact, they even mentioned in an interview on Gametrailers that they'd seen amazing success on Steam.
Crysis sold 1 million units in 3 months on PC as a super-high system requirements game. This is without digital distribution. That's far faster than any other game that's pushed tech has sold in the past. Which is kinda sad, because Crysis is a pretty shitty game, but that's beside the point.
NPD reported there were about 268 million games sold in 2007. About 36 million were PC games. 154 million were consoles. Let's just divide that number into fourths for the PS2, Wii, PS3, and 360. That's 38.5 million per console.
PC games, which are signifficnatly cheaper to develop than HD console games, sold almost the same amount in retail alone as each console would have individually. This isn't counting the hugely successful digital distrubtion market. Steam has more than 15 million active subscribers. People who log in often.
Many companies who don't have Steam sell their games over their websites or over other digital services like Gametap. Sins of a Solar Empire did amazing just from website sales according to their devs. Call of Duty 4 has topped sales on Steam almost every day since its release. Not to mention publishers make an estimated 2-3 times the amount per unit sold on Steam versus retail.
All this, and the US isn't even the PC's strongest market. It's nowhere near as big as Korea and Europe. Tell people in Korea that the PC market is dying and they'll just laugh at you and go play Starcraft. Oh, and you said small-name games don't have success? Take a look at audiosurf, Sam & Max, Popcap games, and the thousands of indie projects out there.
Now that we've talked about sales, let's talk about the gamers themselves. Xbox Live is the biggest place for online gaming right? Hah! Xbox Live has had 10 people even connect to it in its lifetime. Maybe 1/3 of those actually pay for a gold account to play online. Steam has more than 15 million active subscribers. Steam is by its very nature a totally free online gaming service, and it's just one in a dozen! There is Gametap, X-Fire, Gas Powered Games, EANation, Battle.net, many others for individual games, and that's not even counting 20 million plus active MMORPG accounts.
Online gaming is miniscule on consoles. No, I should say it's inconsequential compared to the PC market. PC is the place for online gaming, for competitive gaming, for FPS and RTS gaming, for indie games, and for anyone willing to use Steam to get their game out there. A well-built PC can outlast a console generation with nothing but a new graphics card every couple years. A smart PC gamer waits till a new generation starts (or a year after) to upgrade his rig.
Then you say PC gaming has no casuals. Have you never heard of Popcap games? They shipped 5 million copies of Bejeweled without a single unit showing up on NPD. The Sims? Peggle? Casual gaming thrives on PCs because they don't have high system reqs.
PC gaming provides more services, has more online gamers, and has equal sales to individual console sales. All of this with cheaper games, better (and free) online services, and digital distribution services that make XBL, PSN, and WiiWare look like jokes. It is a haven for hardcore and casual gamers, and it is a market that only grows as digital distribution and internet connectivity becomes stronger.
Dying? Please, don't spread that ignorant bs on these forums.
