"http://www.joeuser.com/index.asp?AID=1644"http://www.joeuser.com/index.
asp?AID=1644
"I'm playing Knights of the Old Republic on the PC right now and it's
painfully obviously that it was designed with a console in mind based on
the annoying controls and inventory system. And the game suffers for it.
The issue isn't whether the PC game market will die. It won't. The issue
is whether PC games will be able to keep up with console games from a
production values point of view. The answer to that is sadly...no with a
few exceptions. So let me illustrate this with a report from the year
2007. "
"What this means though, from a retail point of view, is that when you
go into the store to buy a game, it will be totally dominated by console
games with a tiny area for PC games that will have (Wait for it) some
sort of RTS, the first person shooter, the MMORPG, and a few other
popular PC games that are either cross platform or fall into some unique
category.
This, of course, is what PC advocates fear. But I'm afraid it's
inevitable. It's not that the PC market is dying. It's not and it's
annoying when people try to argue that. The problem is that retailers
can make more money on console games than PC games because console games
have been growing in sales much faster than PC games have. "
"And they already outsell most PC games. So what are the reasons for
this? Why not just keep using a PC for games? Why are developers moving
to consoles?
1. PCs are still relatively painful to use. The typical Windows
user's computer barely boots. Come on, you know what I'm talking about.
Many of you reading this are someone's "computer bitch" who goes over to
their friends and neighbors houses to "fix" their computers. You get
over there and find that 50+ spyware, DDOS clients, and other crap are
being loaded on start-up. That Internet Explorer is so full of spam
toolbars that you can barely see the page and the desktop is covered
with icons. And then you get the game and have to install it. My
Knights of the Old Republic took 30 minutes to install on my brand new
Dell 2.8 GHz machine. Compare that with just putting in a CD and having
it work.
2. Copy Protection. Someone on Quarter To Three actually had a good
solution to this. But it's not generally utilized. Forcing people to
have the CD in the drive negates the one major advantage PC games have -
that you install them on the hard drive. If I'm on-line, I shouldn't
have to have the CD in the drive. Just have it contact some master
server to "activate" it automatically. If they aren't on the net then
sure, have the CD be in the drive. But this way at least those in the
majority would never have to mess with copy protection in any real way.
I wouldn't mind having to have the CD in the drive if I wasn't forced to
install some 1 gig game to my hard disk before playing it.
3. PERSONAL computers vs. PUBLIC televisions. My Game Cube can be
played by my 3 year old son without any intervention from me. My 6 year
old regularly plays Zelda on his own. But do I want these guys on my
computer with their sticky hands? No way. And most people can't afford
to have a "kid's computer" nor would they understand the logic of having
one.
4. Cost. The Game Cube is $99. A decent gaming rig is going to set
you back $1000. Sure, you can do more with the computer but so what? If
you're not doing games, a 5 year old PC will do most of the work that
normal people do with a computer. This is almost certainly the biggest
reason why consoles have gotten such huge numbers. How can you argue
against $99 for a console that comes with games on it? "
-Gel
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