Why Consoles Overwhelm PC Games At Retail

An anonymous reader writes "With the GameCube at $99 and PlayStation 2 sales still huge, people are starting to really notice the shrinkage of PC games at retail. Why? What does the future hold? An article at JoeUser.com asks that question and looks at what is likely to happen to PC games as consoles slowly take over most of the retail space for games." This piece, written by Brad Wardell, creator of Galactic Civilizations, argues: "The issue isn't whether the PC game market will die. It won't. The issue is whether PC games will be able to keep up with console games from a production values point of view."

Comments

No pc innovation

[Apreche]

What it all comes down to is the lack of innovation in pc game genres. Some genres of game do well for the pc. Usually things like rts, fps, simulation. Anything with a complex interface. Anything that absolutely requires a mouse and keyboard. Anything that requires networking. These are the games that are good on the pc. The rest of the games are good on the console. Platformers. Fighting games. Space Shooters. Some genres do well on both, puzzle games like Tetris for example.

The major pc game genres have had a serious lack of innovation as of late. The RTS and the FPS have both been stagnant. Look at the newest fps. Tell me what new major fundamental innovation in gameplay has changed since Half-Life? Why is Counter-Strike still #1? Because no new game has done anything new and amazing to beat it out gameplay wise. Before pc games will become popular again the genres which sell big on the pc must have major gameplay innovations.

Look at the console. Games like metroid prime, gta, etc. etc. All of these games represent huge fundamental advances in gameplay within the genre. People aren't going to buy the same game 10 different times just because you upped the graphics or changed the theme. Once you've played one stock space shooter you've played them all. Unless someone releases something like Ikaruga with it's color changing awesomeness that makes the genre fun again.

If you want people to buy your game you must innovate. There has to be a gameplay element that is new and awesome that the genre needs. I think there is much hope in Doom3 and Half-Life2 to breathe new life into the fps. Natural Selection has done it and it's popularity is soaring.

Re:welcome the return to normalcy

[Hedonist123]

While they may belong on the PC, many many people are still more likely to buy them on consoles, simply because they don't like the effort involved in putting a game on a computer. Driver updates, patches, most people don't ilke dealing with that. They just want to put a game in and play the game. That's why consoles are always going to be at the forefront of pop culture gaming. Us computer nerds are just a fairly large minority. Now, back to a little Day of Defeat (mods, the reason computer games really stay popular).

hed.

Console games rock. Change is good.

[crazyphilman]

Hey, things change all the time. I've got a Playstation and an XBox, and I love both of them. I'm having an absolutely kick-ass time playing FPS games on both consoles, and I finished Aliens Vs. Predator Extinction on the XBox a while ago. More FPS and RTS games are coming out all the time.

Another issue: buy a console and you don't have to upgrade for years. Possibly a lot of years. Offloading the most strenuous software you'll ever use from your PC to a console means your PC might NEVER need to be upgraded. It saves money over time, more than you might think.

Here's one for the Linux crowd: buy a console and it won't matter that you can't find many games for Linux. You'll be free to choose the O/S of your choice for your PC, freeing you to really leverage the machine's power, because you'll still be able to game to your heart's content. No dual-booting necessary.

Anyway, you see where I'm coming from. I love PC games, don't get me wrong, but I think consoles are winning because they're more convenient, cheaper long-term, and of high enough quality that the switch is painless.

Just a few thoughts...

Re:PCs Have Always had more Flexibility

[DS-1107]

If the devs build the game to support more ways to play it then one (besides making a new character) it is fully possible on a console. Besides few games gets an active mod community, and even then most of the mods are crap, or just not good enough to warrant most peoples time where you have full games to play.

but see - there is also a trick to this, make a game one can play forever, and why would one want to buy a new one? like a selfgenerating book wont sell more then once per customer a game with endless possibilities will be the end of new games.

Now all this is more or less worthless knowlage - as depending on how you play your games and what games you play replayability will be diffrent from other people. for example I, knowing something about myself I draw upon this knowlage for this example, enjoy short and hard games, say the old school of shmups*, when played more then once - I would never play NWN more then once, or say FFX whatever - they tell a story and told once I often grow bored - you might enjoy playing NWN in diffrent ways, with diffrent mods - but D&D for me holds for some session and no more - while IKARUGA or TYRIAN holds forever, unless I beat the world and I wont (as I'm fairly bad at shmups).

you claim PC games lets people replay the games, and for me that doesn't work - I know there are mods for say JAGGED ALLIANCE 2, but I've tried them and they are not fun enough (sorry JA2 modders), and the NWN mods I tried that did tell a story all sucked (and I'm sure the rest of the world loved them - but that doesn't help me). Games like Counter Strike and online gaming is not for everyone (myself included) and those mods only give so much.

...and it all ends up pointing the same way - console games are winning and will continue to win the battle of media against the PC - even if you can mod it or not. The only games I still play on the PC are Turnbased strategy games, and they are on consoles as well (and fun, and large) - and besides there is more then enough games out there for me to play forever, without stoping, and who needs mods then? alas those that lacks the cash to buy more then one game per year (and does not crack or hack) might, but again are not the gamemakers more intrested in surviving (getting cash) then making you have a great time forever?

the end line for me is that mods are fun, I'm even helping some people with graphics etc - and it is a pro for the PC and a con for the console - but if you think that it will win the battle for the PCs benifit think again.

PS: I own a PC for gaming, a GC, a GBA SP, a PS2 and I'm gettign the later modded for imports from JAP and US. Playing F-Zero, Ikaruga, Psyvaria, Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, Soul Calibur 2, Viewtiful joe, Dark Cloud 2, Final Fantasy TA, Super mario kart dubbel dash!!, Zelda: A link to the past, Castlevania: Circle of the moon, Castlevania: Harmony of dissonance, Guilty Gear X and for the PC Jagged Alliance 2 and Silent Storm, and I might pick up Civ 2 or Civ 3 again.

that is all for now, getting 2 more games next week - the list might show you that A. most games I play doesn't need modding (the action titles besides Viewtiful joe and Castlevania) are all either party or hi-score fun - all lasting for a good old time - and the other you can make what you want off, and B takes so long time to play through once that once you are through you are tired of the mechanics playing the game that you want something fresh and new, not just an other mod. --- * shoot em up - but as in 2d scrolling

Plug and play? Only for a console.

[GTarrant]

As someone who has worked doing technical support for PC games (and still does), I can state that in my experience, the vast majority of problems that the "average" user experiences are things that are insanely annoying. I'd say a great percentage of problems are: 1. A person's video card drivers are hopelessly out of date and the old ones don't work with the game. It doesn't help that new drivers come out every few weeks - the average user NEVER thinks that they would need to go search for drivers all the time. After all, things like DirectX always come with their game CDs, so they don't have to "Go to some site" to get it. But drivers never are included on anything. 2. Newer games are actually being much more restrictive on what they support. Despite the existence of DirectX which was supposed to make it so you could have "almost any card", a lot of recent games support ATI, NVIDIA, and little else. I don't know how often I've seen someone say "I bought this computer a week ago and it won't run this game, and I have to buy a new piece of hardware?" Add to these things the fact that a lot of games nowadays just don't work out of the box and need to be patched ad infinitum, CD keys which may be necessary but cause more trouble for average players than most people think, the dearth of true innovation lately, etc. No wonder consoles continue to lead! Buy game, place game in console, turn on. No directories, configuration, anything.