Quote:
Originally Posted by mookiemookie
How many years have people been saying this?   Guild Wars 2, Shogun: TW, Mount and Blade With Fire ans Steel, Witcher 2, Heroes of Might and Magic 4, Sims Medieval, MS Flight, Red Orchestra Heroes of Stalingrad, Diablo 3, Minecraft...
I'd say PC gaming is as healthy as it's ever been. |
Nah...
Most Major PC games now are multi format titles not made exclusivly for PC, but also for Xbox 360 and or PS (like the ones you mention above) this hase several side effects on PC gaming
First off it becomes harder to convince someone to spend $300 on a high end graphics card every 2-3 years, when the same amount will buy them a console that will last 5 years+
Secondly Publishers always want a game to appeal to the casual crowd since they make up the majority of gamers and as such have deeper pockets collectively speaking
So the games tend to become easier and shorter.
Today, games marketing is all about the family crowding round the Tv with a console and 4 controllers. As a result, hardcore PC genres like Sims and RTS are not as popular and profitable as they once were.
And thats just the tip of the iceburg, aslo off the top of my head-
1) Piracy puts developers off while DRM puts consumers off.
2) Consoles have improved both technically and Logistically - the Visuals are now on par and Online gaming is no longer limited to the PC, something that was its major selling point back in the day.
3) Console games pretty much work right off the bat, no need to worry about hardware requirments, patches and driver updates etc. Plus I've yet to hear of an Xbox game that CTD's
It MUST be easier for Developers also, they only gotta worry about testing on one hardware configuration - rather than half a zillion possible combinations.
4) MS and Sony enforce somewhat tighter regulations on the Quality of software released on their systems. Every third party release has to be submitted to and then QA'd by them, so anything too buggy or unfinished gets sent back.
I dont think there are any such relgulation in the place for the PC since its a pretty open market.
5) lasty have you tried to sell any unwanted PC games latley? noticed how they seem to be near worthless in value, (even if they are less than one year old?)
Like wise you may have noticed that the PC games section in the high street retailer is either restricted to about 2 shelves or non-existant.
Down to Piracy maybe?
............
Im not pro-console (I dont even have one) I'm just saying that as a games platform the PC has lost its edge and now resides as the bottom of the ---- pile for the majority of publishers.
But hey ho, thats life
