The twist is that this triumph for the glorious PC master race (with their mantra, “you can build a perfectly good gaming PC for less than the cost of a console”, which makes me wonder how they’d react if somebody went into a thread about buying an appliances, suggesting everybody build their own stove) is that the driver is FTP games, a business model that some consider questionable.
As the author of one of those threads I guess I should respond
Building your own PC is vastly more practical a suggestion than building your own stove.
FTP gaming is a bane on PC gaming, certainly. One problem with PC gaming you didnt mention is pirating. FTP is a way to get money on the PC games, that would appear more reliable than the old model of simply selling a game outright (and have it pirated).
Of course it is. It’s making a poopton of money and is the sole reason for this sort of sea change, especially when you consider that this is, apparently, well on its way to being the bestselling console generation ever.
I’m guessing the F2P driver is multiplayer games? Unlike mobile devices with their bajillion in-app purchases, I can’t think of a popular single player PC game that uses a cash store model. All the big ones are multi: DOTA 2, Team Fortress 2, numerous MMORPGs, etc.
Consoles are fine if you want an appliance with very little setup, startup time, support needs or configurability. If your mode is to turn on the big screen and flop on the couch, a console is probably a better fit. But as a PC gamer with 25+ years of the infinite “tunability” and complex control possibilities of a PC, um, console… I find console games maddeningly simplistic. I love everything about the new Batman series, but I have yet to finish the first one because the console control system makes me feel more like I’m playing whack-a-mole than a game with any nuances or skill needed. (Contrast City of Heroes, for which I wrote several lengthy guides to extensive keyboard remapping, macro writing and intuitive control of the very complex archetypes like healer and mastermind.)
I think the demise of PC gaming continues to be premature, and will continue to be wrong. For every gamer who wants to flop down with a five-button controller and an on switch, there will be at least one who wants something more - starting with more options.
But I think the biggest advantage PC games have is that a PC is not a luxury item. Most people nowadays need a PC for practical, utilitarian reasons: Word processing, e-mail, etc. If you already have the PC anyway, then you can start gaming on it for merely the cost of the game, which can be very low (single-digit dollars or even free). A console, though, is a device that costs a couple of hundred bucks for nothing but leisure purposes (some have DVD players or the like built in, but that’s still a luxury more than a necessity). Once you have the console, individual games might be cheap (not sure about this), but there’s still that first step of buying the console.
Games tend to be priced the same across all platforms. The other advantage of PC is that it tends to get all the games, sooner or later, which helps cross the platform-exclusivity barrier.
There’s not a linked article but I would guess that “PC” refers to games running on a Windows, Linux and perhaps Mac platform. Android and iOS games wouldn’t count. I suppose Microsoft has its mobile version of Windows but I doubt that’s swaying the numbers even if it’s included.
I am assuming that games like FarmVille are being counted, in which case, how do they differentiate between the PC players and the tablet/smartphone players?
DFC Intelligence has been releasing dubious statistics about the state of PC gaming for a decade now. I wouldn’t take anything they say too seriously. I do concede that LoL successfully managed to monetize the largest video game in the world, so maybe it’s legit.
Yeah, I’d question what they’re counting as “PC” games. I mean, tablets and smartphones have really put major dents in the traditional desktop/laptop markets, and Apple has won major inroads into the standard “PC” market as well.
I seriously doubt that games on Windows/Intel platform PCs are beating out the PS4/PS3 and Xbox One/360 combo. That just doesn’t track with reality- everything I’ve read has said that the PC market is undergoing a contraction at the expense of tablets and various mobile devices.
Off the cuff, I would include Apple computers (desk/lap tops) with PC’s. There’s not really much in the way of Mac exclusives but rather Mac owners usually wait on a port of Windows titles. Likewise, the two share the same franchises that are “PC exclusive” such as Civilization or Total War but aren’t found on consoles and share the same Steam platform as well.
As alluded to by Palooka, the story is based on an April 2014 report by DFC Intelligence. I’m not sure how accurate DFC is, but this article hints that they may not have made a strict division between lap/desktop and handheld devices:
Also, sorry all about the confusing FTP initialism. I try to avoid them.
