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In which the middle-aged Peacenik mouths off about War Drones--and all the other things that make him cranky. Pnorny!
Mr Mahatma--who is a Mr in real life--lives in the valleys of Southern California with his wife, a herd of Dears, and an impressive collection of books. He is reachable at: littlemrmahatma@yahoo.com
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| Demise of Commercial PC Gaming |
| 09.21.04 (5:36 am) [edit] |
Commercial PC gaming has been dying a long, slow death but it's becoming more noticeable at the gaming stores. What were once walls of PC games have shrunk to shelves of meager items as console games have taken over. Worse, consoles themselves may be declining as DVDs compete for eyeballs and newer consoles force shorter shelf lives of older versions. But, first, let's examine PC games. Here's why I think they're slowly dying.
Too many demos, seriously. I know of at least four computer games magazines that have demo discs each month, plus even more online. Why buy games when you can play demos? Sure, maybe you'll buy a game after a demo, maybe...but then another magazine comes in the mail. Compared to the Playstation 2 (PS2) which has, as far as I know, one magazine with demos and you can't download PS2 demos off the net (yet).
PC gaming is more expensive to get into despite the general software savings. Sure, you can get in the game for about $1,000 but really to get the killer graphics and sound you're looking more at $1,500 and higher. PC games usually start at $40 and quickly drop in price (except for the big ticket items). Compare this to the PS2 or X-Box which costs around $180 to get in. The games usually start at $50 and maybe drop to $20 if enough units are sold but when you factor in how much you save on the hardware you're looking at a lot of games.
Cost of development for the PC is higher because of...
Lack of hardware standards. Consoles don't change every six months like PC hardware, hence it's easier and cheaper to develop for a PS2 or an X-Box.
Freeware. Lots of it for the PC on sites such as Game Hippo. Why buy games when there's plenty good stuff for free? Not to mention abandonware, mods, and even warez which can keep a gamer busy for years.
What will thoroughly kill Commercial PC Gaming?
Lower priced console games. If instead of the standard $50 for a PS2 game we see games coming in at $30 or $20 at the start (*cough* ESPN Football 2005 *cough*), that will be a major nail in the PC Gaming coffin.
Console hard drives and backup software. The X-Box has started this trend. PC gamers enjoyed being able to install a game to a hard drive and "patching" it so that a CD is not longer required, or being able to easily fiddle with the save files, or create mods. When consoles fully incorporate hard drives for this and Tivo-like abilities, how can the PC compete as an entertainment center? But consoles will need to release tools - compilers, editors, and all the other fun hackyhacky stuff.
What I see in the future is that Consoles will focus on gaming and entertainment while PCs will focus on business. Think about it. You have your killer stereo / DVD home entertainment system. Would you rather hook up your PS2 or X-Box and play games or hook up your PC and do finances? In fact, I predict that PCs will shift away from gaming, size down to laptops, and focus on convenient data - work, personal finance and whatnot. Consoles will tie into your entertainment center and will be your personal tivo, your online game center, your DVD resource, and so on. Microsoft, I think, is aware of this and has a headstart over the Playstation what with the internal hard drive of the X-Box but the Playstation 3 should take care of that.
Next 5 years should be interesting. What can hurt the consoles is if they caught up in a new versions race every year, like what is happening between Radeon and ATI in PC graphics boards. There needs to be time for the software to catch up to and fully exploit the hardware. If any console forgets backwards compatibility - game over. With this, say farewell to the Nintendo Gamecube and maybe even the GameBoy. I don't see either knocking off the Playstation, the PSP, or the X-Box. The DS version of the Gameboy is cute but the PSP looks like it can do a bit more and if they tie it in to the Playstation monster, that'll be a tough combo. You'll have a direct path from Kidz playing on the PSP and graduating as Teenz to the Playstation.
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posted by: arhiderrr (reply)
post date: 02.28.09 (8:18 am)
Nice article
posted by: arhiderrr (reply)
post date: 02.28.09 (5:12 pm)
Nice article
posted by: arhiderrr (reply)
post date: 03.01.09 (12:59 am)
Nice article
posted by: arhiderrr (reply)
post date: 03.01.09 (8:53 am)
Nice article
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