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PCs Losing Out as a Gaming Platform?
Snibor Eoj writes "The Boston Globe Online has an article by Hiawatha Bray discussing the state of gaming on PCs and consoles. He points out that PC users now suffer the same fate as Mac users have for years, that of waiting for a great game that's already out on another platform. Consoles continue to gain market share, and software companies are noticing that and writing more and earlier for consoles than for PCs."
Despite claims by PC fans of what their $400 accelerator cards can do, most console games look much better than PC games for the simple reason that the console hardware is a known quantity and can therefore be optimized for.
You also don't have to deal with installation issues, device driver conflicts, patches, replacing your $100 soundcard because it causes Neverwinter Nights to crash for no apparent reason, and so forth. Plus all modern consoles have great controllers, whereas PC games can't assume they have access to anything but a keyboard and mouse.
Seriously, what was anyone expecting?
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Somewhere along the way, the number of triangles and polygons determined what kind of game you were going to make. PCs have been gaming lackeys since. Too bad. I really think a creative, resourceful effort could make a buck or two producing games for mid to low end PCs, but then again I'm a hopeless idealist.
For the most part I'm content to use my PC as my major gaming device, either with native games or through emulation. However... there are occasions when a developer releases a console game that just absolutely blows me away.
Recently this happened with Rez, the immersive musical shooter from Sega. Every gamer should own a PS2 and a copy of Rez. Rez is very hard to describe, but it is a beautiful, enchanting experience, one you will never forget. It is a fundamentally different game from what we're used to seeing, especially on the PS2, whose largest genres are extreme sports games, Bandicoot/Jak & Daxter style platformers, big-boobs-and-guns games (think Tomb Raider or Resident Evil), and Square-style RPG's.
It's things like that that make console gaming a worthwhile endeavor. Not to denigrate the PC, which was host to Doom, the first game to ever truly send chills up my spine. But... innovative gaming comes from unexpected places.
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I'm told that South Korea is almost all PC-based gaming, because of both the institution of PC cafes that act as a nexus of social life (in fact, I think I read that on /.) as well the fact that consoles are associated with the hated Japan.
If the consoles take over the game market from Windows, then there will be no real reason for new users to use Windows over Linux.
Of course there will be. Joe Consumer buys a Playstation instead of a PC because it's less work to configure and because there's more software available for it -- the exact same reason why he'll buy a Windows OS instead of Linux.
Linux would already have a stronghold in the market if all anyone wanted to do with a PC was surf the 'Net, rip MP3s and send e-mail. But eventually, sooner or later, everyone wants to install Quicken or Deer Hunter, or buy a webcam which says right on the box that WinXP drivers are included.
Mod me as a troll, but it's still true. The very things that are moving game developers from PCs to consoles have always kept software and hardware developers from focusing on the Linux market.
Of course there are more games on consoles than on PCs: the market for console games is much bigger, it's easier to target a game for a console and there's a less piracy going on.
However it doesn't make sense to say that because there are more games being done for consoles therefore the PC as a gaming platform is obsolete.
Console games are more action driven and can be consumed in short sessions: such as racing, fighting, or platform games.
PC games are geared towards longer sessions and complex interaction: such as simulation, strategy or online games.
It's apples and oranges really...
It's going to be interesting to see how consoles perform online, but my guess is that to significantly take online gaming out of the hands of the PC, consoles will have to absorb some of the PC attributes. They've already started with the network adapter and the HD but eventually they'll have to go all the way to the keyboard. Unless some kind of revolutionnary input method comes along first but I don't think that's going to happen.
Anyway, PC games will be there as long as the PC itself.
Let's not forget that from a developper standpoint, the console is to the PC what proprietary software is to Free Software...
But in the end, there's no reason why both plateform couldn't co-exist peacefully.
And you know what? That's exactly what's going to happen...
No kidding. With quotes like this, too: "'There's still plenty of good revenue and good growth in PCs. If anybody wants to quit making PC games, Electronic Arts is more than happy to take the business from them.' So says Jeff Brown, spokesman for Electronic Arts, the world's largest maker of computer games."
/. plummets to the insightfulness of your
And now we get a bunch of fucking posts about how PC gaming isn't dying, the article is all wrong. No, it is dying, and here's why, I can get a console for $200, video cards are $200, console games are better, PC games suck, Donkey Kong sucks, you suck!
I know, I know. I should just pretend this story doesn't exist, and not read any of the horribly inane comments. But it's like watching a fucking train wreck. Come witness, as the level of discourse on
That reminds me of a couple very valid gripes about consoles:
gripe1:
no fan mods to console games (quake would have been nowhere NOWHERE near as impressive if people couldn't make their own levels)
gripe2:
GTA3 (for example) was a great game! it's made an insane amount of money, so they're coming out with "GTA: Vice City", set in the '80's. Neat, right? Yeah. But get this: if it had been a PC game Vice City would be a $20 expansion pack, not a $59.99 (presumably) full-fledged game that is nothing but the exact same game but with new missions and new textures.