PC Gaming Declared Not Dead Again

We've reported once or twice on stories declaring the end of or salvation for PC Gaming. Today, Next Generation weights in on the latter, declaring PC Gaming is Not Dead Yet. From the article: "Relying on NPD's number blinds one to the ongoing evolution of PC game distribution. The key insight, as summarized in a new report from IM Consulting (the market-intelligence unit at Ignited Minds), is that 'the PC game software market is much more robust than a cursory glance at the data suggests...(our analysis) becomes a call to publishers to recognize that the PC market can be a very lucrative and profitable place to publish, if the games are done properly in the right genres.'" Ie: Make the right casual game or a hit MMOG and you can print money.

Comments

I don't get it.

[joemawlma]

I'm really not understanding why anyone has ever thought PC gaming will die. The simple fact remains that with PC gaming you don't usually have to buy a new $500 system to play that new game you so desperately want to play. You can simply turn down your graphic settings and enjoy it like everyone else with lower realism and performance. And only sometimes will you need to buy a new video card or some extra RAM (usually for much cheaper than a whole new gaming system)

Just because PC gaming isn't quite as mainstream popular as buying that new XBOX360 or PS3, doesn't mean there isn't still a HUGE market for people who enjoy using a keyboard and mouse to steer their car and blow away the enemy.

And with more and more in-game advertisements on billboards and street corner shops, the industry should continue to have plenty on funding to give us the excellent gameplay and storylines we all enjoy.

PC gaming isn't going anywhere.

Re:I don't get it.

[blincoln]

The simple fact remains that with PC gaming you don't usually have to buy a new $500 system to play that new game you so desperately want to play.

I've always had to.

Case in point - right now I have an Athlon 1700+-based system I build a few years ago (my PS2 would have been a year old at the time). I really want to play Oblivion when it comes out, but my GeForce4 burned itself up last year and I've been running an old Voodoo 5000.

I have to buy a new video card, because the Voodoo is ancient and doesn't support DX9. So that's $150-$200. However, the Athlon 1700+ is pretty long in the tooth and won't play the game properly, so I have to replace that too ($150). Which means replacing the motherboard ($100) (which would be necessary anyway since my current one doesn't have a PCI-E slot), which means replacing the RAM ($100). While I can keep my case, PSU, keyboard, mouse, monitors, hard drive, CD/DVD drives, and sound card, I'm still looking at at least $500.

I'm sure there will always be a profitable niche market for certain genres on the PC - FPS (particularly online), MMOG, and RTS. But what I think the article means is that less popular genres like adventure are effectively dead there. The console market has many more customers, so if your title sells to 1% of console gamers it's much more profitable than 1% of PC gamers.

Of course, casual PC games (like Popcap) are going to be a good way to make cash too. But less mainstream games (e.g. Legacy of Kain) don't sell enough copies on the PC to break even, let alone make money. On consoles, they do very well, partly because there are so many more potential buyers.

Also, I think publishers tend to favour consoles because it means they can eliminate their tech support department. If anything goes wrong with a console game, it's either a defective console or a defective disk. No patches, no troubleshooting drivers, etc.

Re:I don't get it.

[Guspaz]

The problem with your entire argument is that Microsoft is taking the opposite stance. Bill Gates has said that he has neglected PC gaming and intends to change that. Microsoft's XNA (Microsoft's game development platform used first in the XBOX360) is designed to make it easier to promote cross-platform games that are easy to port to PC or vice versa.

PC sales aren't slumping either. They're growing. Laptops are starting to take over more and more of the market, and gaming capabilities in laptops are becomming increasingly important.

In short, I don't think you've thought this through.

Re:I don't get it.

[geminidomino]

The simple fact remains that with PC gaming you don't usually have to buy a new $500 system to play that new game you so desperately want to play.

No, just a $400 video card that doesn't have the lifespan of the average console.

That's why I don't understand why it HASN'T died. People balk at paying $3-400 for a new console, then readily upgrade their video card every 2-4 years for similar price. Then you've got the matters of hardware/driver compatibility issues, planned obsolesence(sp?) making games unplayable on later OSes (Good luck getting, say, Xwing Vs Tie Fighter or FF8 PC to play on WinXP for example).

That's pretty much why I stopped bothering keeping a windows partition around for gaming. It just stopped being worth it to me.

So it comes from both sides, I guess.

Re:I don't get it.

[gr18563]

This is true. I own a PS2, NSDS, and a high end computer. I prefer the fighting, adventure, sports genres on console but you cannot beat pc for FPS. Im just too used to using the mouse/keyboard combo for killn.

I have to disagree about the patching though. THey still have tech support for console games. Who would you call if your disc was bad? But on the flip side if there was a fundemantal flaw in the code somewhere that made the game crash if you did this, this and this all together then they could release a patch on the pc but they would have to recall and send out all new discs to the console game owners. This is the main reason I prefer PC gaming to console gaming, atleast when it comes to fps, mmos, and rts.

Who ARE these people?

[WidescreenFreak]

My question is: who the hell keeps predicting that PC gaming is going to die anyway? PC gaming rakes in hundreds of millions of dollars (if not billions) per year. Titles like the Splinter Cell and Half-Life series continue to sell bazillions of copies when they come out. Of course, can anyone say World of Warcraft?

You know, at least OS/2 did finally die, but that's only because of the arrogance and stupidity of IBM. In this case, I have to say that those who continually talk about PC gaming dying (A) are only implementing wishful thinking or (B) totally clueless on the current state of PC gaming.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to look at my Battlefield 2 stats -- another PC game that has just sold ridiculously low amounts of copies. {/sarcasm}

I want to declare something too!

[RootsLINUX]

Okay then, I officially declare: mankind not dead yet . Can I be hired as a magazine journalist now?

I think I know why.

[hal2814]

I think I know why people are claiming that PC Gaming is dying. The old stongholds of PC game sales are constantly reducing shelf space for PC games in order to accomodate console games. Anyone remember back when Software Etc was a computer store with a small console game section (that usually only included fringe software line Lynx and SMS carts)? Now it's a console store with a shelf devoted to PC gaming. PC games are getting less shelf space in environments they used to own. That doesn't mean PC gaming is dying. It just means lots of advertising and massive amounts of shelf space aren't necessary to entice PC gamers. That one shelf of PC games that's left now at EB has about as many games as EB has ever had for the PC, only in a smaller footprint.

Re:I think I know why.

[Evangelion]

The main reason this happens it that

a) EB & Co. make so much more on preowned sales than new sales, that they do everything they can to give the preowned games shelf space.

b) You can't sell preowned PC Games with any kind of success.

c) Every console game they sell is a potential preowned game in the future.

Therefore, EB & Co. aren't going to be pushing PC games nearly as much as console games (and even those, they give the better shelf space to the preowned section when compared to the new section).

Re:Console gaming is dying.

[tulak_horde]

Consoles no longer have any hope of matching a PC's performance, at least not getting dramatically more expensive. Couple of problems here. I have 19" monitor and 25" tv. I should get a 25" monitor? Not likely. There's also the matter of affording a top end video card which is necessary for some PC games and certainly if you want those impressive graphics. Almost puts you over the top by itself over the price of the new consoles. That doesn't include that new processor you're going to want to make that machine really hum. A lot of people spend $1000 or more on a gaming rig these days. If you go cheap, you'll not only get less impressive effects, but you're also more likely to have hardware difficulties which brings about the final problem. If you're going to be a serious PC gamer, you better know about hardware. Nothing can be worse than a $650 or so computer not running a $20 game because this card or that chipset is not compatible. Then you patch, then you patch on top of that patch. PC gaming can be sheer madness and really only for real geeks.