Bill Roper Predicts Major PC Shift

Bill Roper, at Game Convention in Leipzig, Germany, stated in his keynote address that PC Gaming is on the verge of a major shift. From the GI.biz article: "I'm going to get on my PC soapbox for a few minutes...PC games are on the verge of a major market shift, as PC developers and publishers start to move from selling CDs of single-player games to retail outlets, to selling online games to those with broadband connections. We're already seeing primitive multi-platform games on the PC... Players want to get online and play."

Comments

False

[Moraelin]

Again, just because that's what _you_ like, doesn't mean that's what everyone else plays. At the moment _far_ more people play SP games than all online games combined.

There's a lot more to gaming than fps, rts and mmo, you know. And not everyone plays for a challenge. In fact, your average "casual gamer" just wants to have a relaxing evening, not compete head on with immature 12 year olds and be told that he's "owned" or whatever. And they're an increasingly large part of the market.

Some of us, for example, play for a good (semi)interactive story, which is something that MMOs and online fps/rts are _awful_ at. I won't even try to be diplomatic about it: they do a piss-poor job of telling any kind of story to start with, and adding other players in the mix only makes it worse. It's hard to actually suspend disbelief in a medieval story, when people around you talk about the Spice Girls or whatever other stuff.

The thing about internet play being the future, and SP going the way of the dodo, is being waved around for about a decade now, and still shows no sign of becoming more than wishful thinking.

Which it is. It's the publishers wishing everyone started paying $15 a month, instead of just a one-time $30. (That is, if they don't wait and get it from the bargain bin for $10.) The whole talk isn't because everyone wants to play a MMO, but because publishers want you to pay for a MMO.

When EQ hit 400,000 subscribers paying a total of $4,000,000 a month, everyone started wanting that kind of a money printing license too. It's not that it ever was more than a _minority_ of gamers, it's that it's a very profitable minority. They keep giving you money every month.

MMOs vs the regular game market, is like owning a goose that lays golden eggs vs having 100 regular geese. With the latter you still sell more eggs (game copies), with the former you have higher profits. So everyone and their grandma wants to get a slice of that market. That's all.