Are computer (PC) games dying?

Cafe Society
1

(possibly long and rambling)

I went to Best Buy yesterday, thinking about getting a new PC game to carry me through to whenever Master of Orion 3 is coming out. Imagine my dismay when I see less shelving for PC games, with more Playstation/X-box games crowding onto the PC game shelf.

It used to be that PC games commanded 3+ full shelves, both sides, at Best Buy - now they cannot even fill up a single shelf. I remember 4+ years ago when the Christmas edition of Computer Gaming World (or PC Gamer) was over 400 pages in size… this years PC Gamer barely broke 150. Many companies are now releasing their PC games as an afterthought to the consoles - I believe even Blizzard is releasing the new Starcraft game as a console only game! (NOOOOOO!!!)

My story is probably very typical of the average PC gamer - I’m 35 and have been playing computer (well, microprocessor-based) games since my first Sears Pong box back in 1975. Atari, Colecovision, Mattel handhelds, I’ve played them all. I got my first PC back in 1990, bought Civilization, and never looked back. But now I have kids, career, family, and very little free time to spend at the computer - and when I do, I usually end up on the net. I just don’t play the things like I used to, and when I do I find that going back to Civ2 or Starcraft or SimCity 3k more than suffices to cover my gaming desires. This past year I bought 2 (ONLY 2) games - Civ 3, and Unreal Tournament 2003, whereas in past years I have bought maybe 20-30 games.

I also find the games derivative. The two games I bought this year were sequels, the game I’m looking forward to (MOO3) is the third iteration of that game, and RPG’s, no matter how pretty they are (NWN, Morrowind), are still just RPG’s. (And who has 100+ hours to dedicate to a single game anyway)? I’m looking at the December issue of PC Gamer and out of 4 “scoops”, all of them are sequels, 13 out of 20 reviews were for sequels and expansion packs (and this is for the CHRISTMAS issue!!! You’d think there’d be a hell of a lot more than 20 games to be reviewed!) In other words, a full 65% of the games being developed are dependent upon old coding and already developed “rules.” And what good ideas there are breaks down under faulty coding or lack of playtesting (Black and White, anyone?)

So, are PC games dying? I agree that the market was pretty bloated around 1995-1998, but I’m seeing signs of true stagnation in the PC game market and I was wondering what your all’s opinion was? I read somewhere that PC game sales actually fell for the first time since the early 1990’s, fell by more than 12%. Are we becoming a niche market?

2

I wouldn’t say it’s dying. (Watch what happens when Doom 3 comes out. :)) The PC just has stronger competition now.

Consoles are taking their share of the market, but when push comes to shove, a fully decked out PC will run games better than any console system out there.

But there lies the inherent problem. (Or saviour for console systems, as it were.) A fully decked out PC costs much more than the latest console system, so some folks will jump at the cheapest option. That and console systems are starting to be taken seriously and not just looked at as a kids toy.

In summery, I’d just say that console systems are very strong competition for PC games, but I think it will all balance out in the end.

3

Also the boxes for PC games are about half the size they were a year ago. That will account for a big decrease in the shelf space.

4

This is just my longwinded way of saying I agree with Kwyjibo and Max Carnage. I don’t know if PC games are dying so much as console games are getting stronger. The consoles themselves have gotten so powerful that they can handle a lot of the stuff that only PC’s could. And there are fewer – or at least, different – compatibility headaches when working with consoles than with PC’s.

As for PC games’ becoming a niche market, I’d have to say yes, I think that’s the way it’s headed. Some games – like SimCity and other strategy games – just can’t run on a console because there’s not enough memory to hold the entire game state. But even in the next generation of game machines, which’ll have more memory, some types of games just don’t work well on console machines. RTS’s in particular are near-impossible to play without a mouse.

But I don’t think PC gaming is ever going to go away completely; I just predict the focus will switch even more heavily towards consoles and the PC will mostly get niche games and ports of console titles (like GTA III, and Final Fantasy). All the big companies seem to be positioning themselves for all-in-one “entertainment boxes” instead of dedicated video machines, and they’re trying to get PC’s to go that way too – witness all of Windows XP’s multimedia “enhancements” and the design of the Sony VAIO that you can fold up to act just as a stereo, for some reason. So it looks to me like the eventual goal is not for consoles to kill the PC, but to assimilate it.

5

God forbit assimilation. I like computers much more than consoles and would hope that wouldn’t happen. Strangely enough, i have had consoles all my life, starting with the first nintendo and moving up. But what consoles don’t have, is upgradability. Hear me out. Eventually you have to buy new consoles and then buy new games, so eventually you end up just wishing you had used the computer. And i think that Kwyjibo just mentioned something like this, in fewer words. Darn…

6

I dont think it is dying or will ever die. Right now, it looks like things are in a slump for PC games. With a few exceptions, there hasn’t been too much of interest this year. I’ve noticed alot of good console games coming out that will not be available on the PC, which sucks. Im sure its only temporary tho, PC are more powerful in the long run and a tv screen cant compare to the resolution of a computer monitor… at least for now.

7

One thing to remember is PC sales are stagnant. My computer is over 4 years old, but I’m not thinking of buying a new one. Many people are in the same position.

New games have to be compatible with all these “old” computers, or it will seriously cut into sales. This causes the game market to stagnate.

In a few years, when the PC market picks up again, this will improve. Once large numbers of people have a Pentium 4 machine with several tetrabytes of memory really exciting new games can be developed. But for right now game developers are limited.

8

I do agree that PC games will never die as long as there are PC’s. I guess what I’m really bemoaning is the fact that PC games are no longer the standard, the electronic gaming industry leaders in design, innovation, and playability. Sure, console games might have always sold more than PC games, but for about a decade PC games were king - and being a PC gamer, I grew used to such affairs. Now, like a 30-year GM man in 1986 who grew complacent with American industrial dominance, I find my team immersed in mediocrity and repetition, while the other guys seem to be having all the fun and making all the money.

I’m missing the 90’s more and more. :frowning:

Good point, lesa!

9

Here’s my take on it:

Consoles and PCs meet at the middle

Consoles are becoming more and more like PCs, more and more options are being constantly added to the consoles. USB ports, internet connection, DVD, music, etc.

PCs are becoming more and more modularized ala PCs. USB ports, easier to setup, the average PC is much more straightforward and cheaper. The everyday uses of a PC are much better defined to the point where the desktop metaphor/environment is turning into something more controlled and easy to understand. Something akin to how, say, the X-box might have you access your stuff. A menu with options: music, games, images, videos, internet, etc might become the wave of the future for OS’s (its how I have my desktop setup, and I love it).

In 10 years, it wouldnt suprise me that what you can do on a PC you can do on a console. The distinction will become meaningless.

PC monitors are superior to TVs

PC monitors can acheive much higher resolution over the space given. UNtil HDTV becomes viable, which IMO may come when the PC/console distinction becomes meaningless, PC monitors will dominate the extreme high end of graphics.

The PC genres will not die

Even if the days of PC gaming die, the genres of strategy, FPS, RTS, PC’s specific flavor of RPG (fallout, baldur’s gate) will continue to thrive somewhere. If this means a translation to consoles that is acceptable by the strategy fans, then so be it. If I like the translation (or development for) Ill use it. Granted, I dont think I could avoid using the keyboard, but I can get a kb for the x-box at least.

The real question

PC gamers demand much more replayability out of their purchase than console gamers. I will buy no more than 6 games a year. These games will often be what I see my friends playing a lot. Diablo 2, Civ 3, Half-Life, really involved RPGs, the Sims, all these games have really really long lives on our PCs compared to say a game from the FF series or Castlevania. If the PC-console distinction becomes meaningless, or PC games become linked to consoles - will they maintain their replayability?

Well I think that console games have already increased their replayability somewhat. FPS such as goldeneye lead the way. Perfect Dark was very very replayable, with very challenging challenges to get all the games weapons. New games provide many different challenges to unlock extra, nifty cool things such as extra skins, levels, etc.

Unfortunately, however, I dont think that replayability is in the interest of the market in general. If the standard environment of the PC-console is not desktop, but is more controlled, it might become impossible to mod games. OTOH the game developer’s themselves have a vested interest in their games. So what you get, and maybe what you have in the PC world, is a prisoner’s paradox of sorts. The developers of HL love the fact that people still play their game, 5 years after its release. They dont care that you dont play Deus Ex because your never off your HL fein. These developers also know that the hordes of eager fans will fork over a $30+ charge expansion pacts (see Sims).

10

Its unfortunate, but many of the times much of the graphical sophistication you could get out of a decked out system isnt their because to reach a larger market, PC developers must develop to the ‘lowest’ common denominator system while consoles know they are getting a cookie cutter system and can maxamize that system’s potential.

11

I think the more important factor is the “distance” of the average PC from the average console. So you are correct in saying, as long as decked out PC sales dont rise, consoles will stay on top. Aside from games, however, there dont seem to be any wiz-bang applications that prompt users to buy new PCs. The internet works just as well on a decked out comp w/ a 56k modem as my 550 P3 at home… same with email and word processing and instant messenging. If I wasnt into games, I’d have no reason to crave a new PC.

12

I agree with you while bemoaning the fact at the same time.

I think developers are becoming a little too obsessed with the eye candy they can squeeze out these days and aren’t being concerned enough with gameplay. (And here I kinda actually go back to addressing the OP.)

Personally, the games I play/long over the most are old (mostly) 2D “clunkers” - Sims, Diablo II, GTA 1/2, Civ 2/3, Starcraft, Worms, X-Com, Populous - while the only truly innovative graphic intensive games from the last few years were Max Payne and Black and White.

What I’m getting at, albeit slowly, is that the PC gaming industry seems to be slowing down somewhat because of its obsession with taking advantage of all the fancy-schmancy 3D technologies, which take longer and cost more to develop. Thus development cycles get longer, and only games that are “guaranteed” to make money get developed, and such guarantees only come from looking at what is selling now, which means more “clones” (I’m thinking FPSes, mostly).

And while this tech whoredom is a bad thing (hell, I need something to stress my GeForce 4), I’d like to see more endlessly playable “classics” to add to my list above.

13

Not just PC’s, by a long shot. The console companies keep pushing developers to make games flashier and flashier in order to help sell their consoles. Because they have final control on what gets released for their system (unlike the more open PC market), they can reject a game if it’s not sparkly enough. You end up with bigger and bigger teams, which means bigger and bigger investments, which means the industry becomes more like Hollywood – big on spectacle and wary of innovation, because the publishers want a guaranteed return on their investment.

And the thing is, the fans are mostly at fault. All the gaming review sites will go on bemoaning how games just aren’t as deep as they used to be, and good gameplay is the most important thing. But what’s the first thing you read in any review? How the graphics “aren’t that great.” So it’s not as if you’re ever going to be able to take the infocom approach, ignoring the presentation and just focusing on an engrossing game; you have to have a big enough team to devote to the graphics AND the gameplay. Back to the OP, this is the case across the industry, another indication of how PCs and consoles are merging.

14

Yeah, the computer market is growing. Ads for pc games, in my area of the woods, were never put on trailers for movies. Recently I’ve seen a couple.

I personally don’t like consols, they’re expensive and hardwired.

15

Ah, but they do. The PS2 plays every PS1 game, and I’ll bet good money that Sony makes the PS3 play PS2 games. And the Game Boy Advance plays Game Boy and Game Boy Color games as well.

And clayton, consoles expensive? Any of the major game consoles (even counting the add-ons like games and a memory card) cost less than a high-end video card–and the console won’t be obsolete in 9 months. Consoles (well successful ones anyway)usually last 5 years.

16

[hijack] What would be really interesting is to see if the release of Doom III has any effect on PC sales. I know I’m aiming my new computer purchase to around that time…if only the wife will cede to my wishes :slight_smile: [/hijack]

17

Sorry to hijack, but I love this. I can’t believe that I went along with all that wasted material and space for so many years. I won’t buy a game that comes in the old packaging anymore.

18

Funny, I’ve actually bought more PC games in the past two years than I had in a long time. I’m pretty excited about the state of games, to be honest.

For a few years there, if you weren’t into first-person shooters or real-time strategy, you were out of luck. That’s ALL anyone was interested in coming out with.

I’m into RPGs mostly, and I don’t like console ones (that’s putting it mildly, to be honest). I have a PS2 and have only bought one game for it in the past year. I haven’t even turned it on in months, other than to play DVDs.

For me, the drought is over. Baldur’s Gate I and II, Icewind Dale I and II, Wizardry 8, Dungeon Siege, Neverwinter Nights, Morrowind, Diablo 2, Divine Divinity, Arcanum - these are all games I bought and enjoyed recently, and more like them are expected out soon.

I suppose it depends on what you’re looking for. Consoles have almost nothing I’m interested in. Right now I’ve got three PC games I havened even started yet because I’m still playing other ones.

19

Consoles go in cycles.

A while back, when the Playstation was still news, when Mario 3D was still hot stuff, when people were still talking about the Dreamcast like it meant something… people were asking “Is PC gaming dead?”

No. But console gaming is, frankly, more profitable. However, consoles run in cycles.

In a year or two, as these systems age, I very much think PC games will be on the rise again.

Furthermore, the current generation of consoles is more like what PCs can do than ever, with truly insane graphics and online capabilities. It’s going to look grim, sure… but the PC will still be there. Hell, you can’t balance your checkbook on the Xbox, for potato’s sake!

And as long as the PC is there, the PC game will never die.

20

Oh, I don’t know. The PC has something that consoles don’t really have–independent developers. There’s a lot of fresh blood out there making devilishly addictive shareware games. You don’t really see that on the console. I’d say the PC market is only in something of a creative slump. You see that a lot when you get “technology bloat” (too much new technology, too little time for it to assimilate). As developers get a handle on the new technology (and the buying public has time to bitch about the lack of variety) better games will come out.