Let’s talk about death.
It’s a term banded around rather casually on the internet, especially with reference to parts of the games industry. One moment it’s the death of a series, another genre or even consoles and platforms. If the many voices of the internet are to be believed, gaming currently sits upon the foundation of a massive graveyard of those that have fallen previously. PC Gaming is often claimed by many ridiculous voices to be dying, its oncoming rigor mortis apparently accelerated by any number of factors. If it’s not the shrinking shelf space, it’s the lack of physical boxed products. If it’s not the dodgy console ports it’s the lacklustre retail sales. Reason after reason seems to come up, giving these voices extra ammunition to throw into their pessimistic argument. From an outsider’s perspective, it looks pretty bleak. But – and you may say this lead in is rather obvious – it’s not. And I don’t think the PC has the problem of facing death. If anything, the problem is simply one of perception.
First off, console ports. While it’s true the platform has seen its share of very dodgy ports – step forward Resident Evil 4 and Grand Theft Auto 4 among others – in recent times these conversions have managed to get better and better. For the most part, these kinds of ports have proven that, when it comes to certain aspects like price, they could be considered the best version of the game available. An oft cited argument is the requirement of a control pad in order to enjoy a ported game properly, but surely this isn’t so much of a weakness but a testament to the platform’s diversity and ability to be able to offer such variation?
Whereas the shelf space issue seems pretty serious, looking at the available titles on the download market from places such as Impulse, Steam and D2D reveals a range of titles old and new. Quite remarkably, none of the consoles offer true backward compatibility as far back as the PC does, with community made projects such as DOSBox allowing players to experience content from before some of them were even born. And of course, claims of the death of certain genres such as Adventure are constantly proven highly exaggerated by developers both commercial and indie releasing games that both fit and transcend into new genres entirely.
The PC port of GTA 4 was arguably the better version. Cheaper too.
As Citizen Game sees something of a rebirth, so too should our perceptions as gamers. Of course the platform isn’t anywhere near dead or dying, but perhaps the root of the problem is the lack of any sort of icon of leadership or identity. Nintendo, for example, is a very well defined brand – backed up by the likes of Mario and Zelda and a plethora of family games. It has the biggest selling console for a reason, marketing itself as broadly and appealing to as many as possible with family friendly icons. Iconography for both Microsoft and Sony are fairly similar to one another, with a very macho and futuristic aura around some of their mascots (hello Marcus Fenix and Solid Snake) to snare male teens and a marketing approach that tries to sell their respective consoles as all encompassing entertainment solutions.
The PC on the other hand has none of these things, which I think is both to its credit and its detriment. A few years ago we may have been defined by our strategy titles, our many MMO’s or at a stretch even by Gordon Freeman. But in the last few years PC gaming has simply grown more diverse, more varied and much, much harder to encapsulate as a piece of marketing. The thing about PC Gaming is that it’s strong as ever – if anything we as players might have to work harder to get those not in the know to take notice of the strengths of our platform. It’s the only platform that offers equal footing to both the small indie developers and the big commercial ones without having to go through some sort of external verification. It’s the only platform on which the products truly live or die based on the strength of the communities and people involved, and none of the advances in consoles today would have been possible without the PC to show them how to do it properly in the first place.
It’s all a matter of perception. What’s yours?
Ben Borthwick
@ Dan
We should have a piece discussing that very topic in the next few days. Hold your bile until then.
Speaking of which, what are people’s opinion on the whole Modern Warfare 2, no modding/dedicated server thing? I personally think it’s bullshit that they want to change dedicated servers. Honestly, who the hell can not navigate a server list, let alone a PC gamer who can actually play that game on their rig?
As someone who until recently owned a very basic PC and who has upgraded to a pretty powerful machine PC gaming is far from dead, although I’ve played Counter-Strike for years the freedom to essential play anything without being restrained by the limitations of my machine has led to me playing everything from Crysis, TF2 and L4D, to other new genre’s I have until now not experienced, RTS games like Dawn of War and Company of Heroes are all uniquely PC centric experiences that are completely new to me. My experience with PC games is still brief, so for me – PC gaming is alive and kicking.
Oh, and World of Warcraft.
lol developers like money too you know, its not just the money grubbing publishers lol
“The bottom line is developers dont really care about PC’s as much as they do consoles”
I think you ment
“The bottom line is publishers dont really make as much money from PC’s as they do from consoles”
Lol ok, Im not completly dissregarding the pc, everyone owns one, it really should be the number one platform. Like I said in my first post I think pc gaming needs to evolve and find it’s niche. Games need to be scaleable the way wow is. I’ve not seen a pc that won’t play wow in years, you can even install it on a mac with the same disc
at the minuet they are treating the pc like a console, but fewer and fewer people are buying super powerful pimped out rigs, and everyone just buys cheap lapops.
Quake live and battlefeild heroes are huge steps forward
Yes I am making a massive generalisation, there are obviously devs that care, but they are a dying breed.
And consoles inovations are mainly in the way devs make games, and the way they streamline ur experience. I’m mainly talking about the 360 here, the ps3 is a bit of a mess tbh
“The bottom line is developers dont really care about PC’s as much as they do”
That’s a sweeping generalization. Just as some development studios focus specifically on the console market, there are those that do the same for the PC market.
“Well what has the PC done in way of innovation in recent years?”
Aside from the obvious and incessent pushing of the graphical envelope, the PC provides a testing ground for indie developers; spawning such innovative classics as “World of Goo”, “Audiosurf” and “Darwinia”.
Indeed, the most successful attempts to inspire innovation in the field of video game development are neccesarily rooted in the PC platform. If innovation comes to the consoles, it’s through the PC.
@James
I’m intrigued to see what you’d put forward as “innovation” from the consoles. Also, don’t undersell the platform. We still get dodgy ports, and the growth of matchmaking in some ports (Looking at you, RFG) is annoying. Let’s not forget dodgy ports plague the consoles as well – take a look at the PS3 version of Ghostbusters, for an example.
And I’d hardly argue that all PC devs are hungering for console work. Whether a game is multiplatform or not is by and large irrelevant – the only thing that matters is that the PC versions are treated as PC games instead of console ports. The Orange Box, World of Goo, Borderlands, Dragon Age being a few examples off the top of my head of games which have in no way been “Dumbed down” by their multiplatform nature.
@WelshWizard Well what has the PC done in way of innovation in recent years? The bottom line is developers dont really care about PC’s as much as they do consoles. Without developers u dont really have much
@WelshWizard
I have to agree that consoles are much better now, probably due to the past strength of PC’s. However DLC is but an expensive version of the Modding & Patch community on PC’s. Footy game updates, extra levels, new models and entirely new games were the staple of PC games for the past decade. We now live in a world where paying for digital avatar clothing is the norm.
Great read, I do think PC gaming is changing rather than dying. PC’s will continue to be around for the multitude of applications they support, but as a gaming machine, thier influence has certainly taken a blow. A new genertion of gamers are growing up playing console & handheld games, and less PC games.
First off, I can’t see any way in which the PC as a format is trying to mimic console trends. You’ll have to elaborate there, James.
In fact, if anything, I find the situation to be the reverse – quite to the advantage of the consoles.
What do I mean?
I mean the sudden genre diversification of the current generation of consoles. I think Halo wars is the only RTS with a console exclusive release that I can remember. Add to that the release of Civilization: Revolution on the consoles and it becomes clear that they’re starting to gain a foothold in genres where the PC previously reigned supreme.
But the area in which consoles have really benefited from mimicking the PC as a format is in DLC and game updates. Up until very recently, the online console experience was restricted to just playing multiplayer. Now, game updates are frequently released on Xbox Live; my 360 copy of pro evo is updated almost quarterly giving me the newest player rosters, while my copy of COD:WAW has had a multitude of updates since release.
No, it is the conolse that is (successfully) mimicking PC trends.
The PC already has its niche; as the platform on the bleeding edge of technological development; as the arena of the indie developer; as the cauldron of innnovation that consoles will never be. Games like Total War will never come to the consoles because of their ambition, nor will games like Crysis or ArmA be released as anything other than distant ports on consoles. The PC pushes the envelope, while the console imitates two years later. That will never change.
I think the PC in its current format is on its last legs. It needs to evolve, and find its niche. The current approach of trying to mimic console trends isn’t working, and developers just aren’t putting there hearts into it .
PC’s are a hassle, they take effort to maintain, they need upgrades, and for what? Ports of games that come out months after console owners have had them
I remember the PC version of GTA4 to be pretty unstable and slow. Guess they must have patched it.
It’s hard to say that PC gaming is dead, I love gaming on my PC. Lets just say that it’s pining for the Fjords