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.

[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.

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).

Console gaming is dying.

[MaWeiTao]

This is ridiculous. These so-called experts are full of it. If anything, it's console gaming that's starting on it's path to extinction. First of all, those systems are slowly turning into PCs. Secondly, they have this desire to appeal to non-gamers, which is a market for more accessable via PCs. A non-gamer is far more likely to spend $40-$50 on a PC game than they ever would be to spend $200+ and another $50-$60 for the game. Third, computers are far more pervasive than consoles and I don't see that every changing.

In fact, the main reason consoles have been sustainable thus far is because of all the effort the Japanese gaming industry has put into them. The glory days of consoles are fading. The PC has demonstrated itself a viable platform for gaming long ago. Consoles no longer have any hope of matching a PC's performance, at least not getting dramatically more expensive.

I predict what we will see at some point is a real computing appliance, something with a simplified interface, but powerful enough that the average user can do everything he or she needs, and without needing to deal with the nuisance of installations and whatnot. They can pretty much drop in whatever media the computer uses and game just as easily as they would browse the internet.

The only form of console gaming I expect to persist is portable gaming, and we'll see what form that takes as phones, PDAs and laptops slowly evolve. I don't even see how this is something that can be argued; what doubt is there that PC gaming is thriving? Didn't WoW just hit 5 million subscribers worldwide?