Just a little random thought I’ve had recently, just as I was remembering about how PC games use to be in big cardboard boxes, 10 times the size of its contents, and of course always in front of you as you went inside the shop door…
…Now not so much, I walk into ‘Game Station’ and struggle to find the 2 small shelving units of PC games, with not even a hint of any actual good games I’d part my cash for, and when I turn round to leave – I’m confronted with rows upon rows of console games, as far as the eye can see.
In a recent survey, people who rated top 10 games of all time, none of them were after 2008, and one was even 10 years old. What does this tell you? They are wrong? No, not really, PC game developers seem to be disappearing, and the quality of games seems to be heading in a devastatingly strong negative correlation.
Developers who once created pc games are turning to consoles, probably because of priacy, and because console games are most likely cheaper to create, and publishers are 2 a penny, but they are turning there backs on the true power of PC games, we all know hardware completely surpasses that of a console, and are clearly capable of doing much more than dragging empty selection boxes on the desktop or playing time sucking flash games.
Piracy
A lot of developers are blaming piracy, however I don’t buy it personally. They are quick to jump the gun and blame pirates, ARR! – However, they do not factor in actually how piracy probably equates to large proportion of sales. Generally, and almost always, pirated games do not work online, and usually this is a huge element gamers enjoy. Piracy is a try before you buy for a lot of gamers, if they like it, they lust for more, and lust for competition online, this means sales.
As for direct cost of these millions to the industry. Excuse me, it’s digital, they aren’t loosing a penny, it’s not costing them a penny either. If the pirates were riding into the game stores on plastic pretend pirate boards wielding novelty swords and eye patches from the local fetish / fancy dress shop, I would understand this point – but this is not happening yet, so I don’t buy it.
What’s Left?
1 Major genre of gaming is keeping PC gaming alive, although I personally loathe it. Massively multi-player online role playing games (MMORPG’s). With its millions of players on the likes of EVE online, and World of Warcraft. These games are keep PC games alive – although I hate to admit it. Other than that, publishers are turning more and more towards Steam as a major publishing platform, personally I welcome it, as again, it keeps this platform alive – but Give it a year or two, and they will almost disappear from the retail shops….forever.
