Friday Roundtable: Is the PC Still a Viable Platform? : Videogame ...

Posted by Declan Burrowes on Friday, September 30, 2011 ? 5 Comments?

Mas?ter vs Apprentice

If you go back far enough, the pri?mor?dial ori?gins of gam?ing can be traced to the com?puter main?frames of mid-twentieth cen?tury com?puter sci?ence fac?ul?ties, where aspir?ing engi?neers built vir?tual sim?u?la?tions of noughts-and-crosses, math puz?zles and, even?tu?ally, elab?o?rate space bat?tles to put their ever-advancing machines to the test. Of course, these weren?t videogames in the con?ven?tional sense ? the Mag?navox Odyssey beat unwieldy home com?put?ing to that punch in 1972 ? but it is abun?dantly clear that PC gamers can trace their impres?sive her?itage a long way back. As gam?ing on per?sonal com?put?ers became more fea?si?ble in the ?80s and exploded in the ?90s, the mouse and key?board was seen by dis?cern?ing gamers as the home for any seri?ous hobby enthusiasts.

Then, broad?band hap?pened. Though obvi?ously mas?sively ben?e?fi?cial for PC gamers in terms of mul?ti?player ser?vices and dig?i?tal dis?tri?b?u?tion, this inter?net rev?o?lu?tion pro?vided the same poten?tial prof?its to con?soles. With these afore?men?tioned advan?tages no longer exclu?sive to the PC, a new com?pe?ti?tion has emerged, one that is cer?tainly set to heat up in com?ing years, with the likes of Xbox Live and PSN offer?ing their own online mar?ket?places, indie arcades, F2P games and reli?able mul?ti?player are?nas. Despite PC gaming?s con?sis?tently strong sales, Steam-powered retail rev?o?lu?tion and marathon out?pac?ing of con?soles tech?no?log?i?cally, is the plat?form still as viable as it was, espe?cially with larger, wealth?ier stu?dios prov?ing more wary of piracy than ever and con?tent to focus their AAA titles on Messrs Xbox 360 and PlaySta?tion?3?

In this week?s her?culean Fri?day Round?table, Declan, Armand, Tom and Chad share their thoughts.

* ?*?* ?*

Declan:

I think we would be a lit?tle silly to label the PC a ?dying? plat?form, as has been the habit of some indus?try pun?dits and enthu?si?asts over the last decade; indeed, the fact that this cyn?i?cal out?look has per?sisted for so long seems to me, para?dox?i?cally, an indi?ca?tion of the tenac?ity and con?tin?ued suc?cess of the com?puter as a gam?ing sys?tem. I do think, how?ever, that the PC as a ?main?stream? plat?form is not as viable as it once?was.

Deus Ex: Human Rev?o?lu?tion: tech?no?log?i?cally lim?ited because of consoles?

Once upon a time, the PC was the puls?ing nerve-centre of seri?ous gam?ing. How?ever, the rise of the sixth gen?er?a?tion of con?soles ? the PlaySta?tion 2 and co. ? and to a greater extent, the multi-utility sev?enth gen?er?a?tion ? Xbox 360, PlaySta?tion 3, Wii ?? began an eclipse, and in my mind, this will only con?tinue. Let?s face it: con?soles are more acces?si?ble. ?Though their innards lag ? and always will lag ? behind the over?clocked cogs of any half-decent gam?ing PC, to the aver?age con?sumer, putting a disc into a tray and play?ing on a tele?vi?sion whilst sit?ting on a com?fort?able couch is always going to prove more invit?ing, espe?cially for fam?i?lies; for those more inter?ested in delv?ing fur?ther into the gam?ing expe?ri?ence, there is now a marked increase in mul?ti?me?dia inte?gra?tion (inter?net brows?ing, TV-on-demand etc), down?load?able con?tent and online dig?i?tal dis?tri?b?u?tion to match the likes of Steam. While con?soles will con?tinue to be out?ma?neu?vred tech?no?log?i?cally, the Big Three are cer?tainly catch?ing onto what really works on the PC by mar?ket?ing con?soles as ?enter?tain?ment hubs?, and I can imag?ine this trend will only con?tinue and be per?fected when their suc?ces?sor sys?tems come hurtling over the hori?zon in the next cou?ple of?years.

To top that off, inno?va?tion in com?mer?cial PC gam?ing has largely dis?ap?peared. While the indie scene flour?ishes on its own level, as a whole, the PC has been forced to adapt to a world of cross-platform titles. The likes of Deus Ex, Bat?tle?field and The Elder Scrolls once defined the PC as the home of core gam?ing, but nowa?days, their con?sole coun?ter?parts receive more atten?tion, inter?nally and exter?nally. (And that?s if they make it that far with?out being delayed or can?celled.) Though presently I do most of my gam?ing on the 360, I truly lament the PC?s glory days of the ?90s and early??00s.

To reit?er?ate, I cer?tainly don?t think PC gam?ing is dead, and to an extent, it is still viable: I do, how?ever, believe that, as a whole,? the PC as a main?stream plat?form has been mar?gin?alised as devel?op?ers and pub?lish?ers alike look to ever-adapting con?soles for a quick, reli?able buck. Steam can only do so?much.

Armand:

I just can?t agree with Declan about the state of PC gam?ing. As a plat?form, PCs have been see?ing tremen?dous growth and suc?cess in the last few years. Accord?ing to the PCGA ?the global PC games mar?ket con?tin?ues to show sur?pris?ingly strong?growth in 2010, reach?ing a record $16.2 bil?lion. This rep?re?sented over?all growth of 20% over?2009. No geo?graph?i?cal mar?ket seg?ments tracked showed a decline in 2010 in over?all PC game?rev?enue.? With record sales and con?tin?ued growth world?wide, not only is the PC not in any way declin?ing, but has never seen more suc?cess in its entire history.

Addi?tion?ally, if you look at gam?ing in a larger sense and include sales in social media-based gam?ing, PCs are actu?ally out?selling con?soles in game rev?enue by a whop?ping $3.5 bil?lion (rev?enues from 2010)

Old-school RPG Cthulhu Saves the World failed to sell on?XBLA.

By other esti?mates, PCs ?cur?rently rake in 42.5% of all global video game soft?ware sales.? And whereas con?sole game rev?enue has seen a decline from the pre?vi?ous year (about $500,000), the PC has seen a sig?nif?i?cant increase in that same period to the tune of $2.5 bil?lion.

The indie mar?ket on the PC, the source of most gam?ing?inno?va?tion?today, greatly out?paces the con?sole indie scene. Sales-wise, Steam is much bet?ter at push?ing indies. Recently, we saw that Cthulhu Saves the World and Breath of Death VII?made more in less than a week on Steam than they did in more than a year on XBLA, a fact the devs proudly announced on their site. That sort of sales dif?fer?ence is just plain staggering.

If big devel?op?ers claim they don?t want to develop for the PC, it?s because they fear pirat?ing, which they say is worse on the PC than on the con?soles. But dig?i?tal?dis?trib?u?tors?like Steam have shown that if you pro?vide gamers with the right price point and the?con?ve?nience?Steam allows, you can turn a pirate into a cus?tomer. It may be no sur?prise then that Valve?s lat?est game Por?tal 2 actu?ally sold more on the PC than the con?sole ver?sions. The?devel?op?ers?who fear the PC pirate, and pull such?rep?re?hen?si?ble?moves as ?always-online DRM? and late releases on the PC (two meth?ods used to com?bat piracy) are sim?ply miss?ing the big?ger pic?ture. Just as they have largely failed to address the grow?ing suc?cess of mobile gam?ing, they are miss?ing the point on the?PC.

Tom:

I have to say that I?ve never really enjoyed gam?ing on a PC. I think it?s clunky and awk?ward ? prob?a?bly because I?m young enough that a con?sole has always been the gam?ing sys?tem avail?able to me. In fact, among the group of gamers that I would call friends, and among most of the other gamers I know, not one of them uses their PC for any game beyond World of War?craft (and that?s only one person).

Per?son?ally, from my expe?ri?ences, I don?t think it?s as pop?u?lar as it once was, no mat?ter how many sta?tis?tics and facts may be thrown at me. 42.5% is a large monop?oly of the mar?ket, that can?not be denied, but I lit?er?ally have no idea how that is even pos?si?ble, con?sid?er?ing the pop?u?lar?ity of con?soles in today?s mar?ket. Whilst every?body I know owns a PC, the amount of them that use it for gam?ing is quite min?i?mal. On the other hand, I know a lot of peo?ple who own a con?sole ? far more than 60%. In my mind, the facts sim?ply don?t add up. I?m not say?ing any of this because I dis?like PC gam?ing ? if the facts made sense to me, I?d will?ingly accept them, but they?don?t.

A lot of the things I hear about PC gam?ing are bad, espe?cially online. There are always news pieces being bounced around the web involv?ing another PC port being delayed or even can?celled, and I can only ask why that is: it could be that, to devel?op?ers, the PC is not the go-to plat?form anymore.

Declan:

I think my argu?ment has been mis?in?ter?preted some?what. I am not say?ing that the PC is a dying plat?form ? var?i?ous sta?tis?tics show this is absolutely not the case. I am, how?ever, express?ing my opin?ion that, as a major com?mer?cial plat?form, the PC sim?ply isn?t the main?stream pow?er?house of inno?va?tion that it once was. While indie titles are doing incred?i?bly well on Steam, aside from con?stant for?ays into the massively-multiplayer gen?res, larger devel?op?ers aren?t exper?i?ment?ing on the PC any?more, and dig?i?tal mar?ket?places won?t change this.

Bethesda?s own Todd Howard com?mented that Skyrim is ?less of a leap for?ward? than Obliv?ion thanks to dated con?sole?tech.

With AAA titles, PC gamers must be con?tent to accept com?pro?mise as games are increas?ingly geared towards the con?sole mar?ket. Take Obliv?ion?s clunky con?sole UI and Bethesda?s clear pref?er?ence for Skyrim on Xbox 360 and PlaySta?tion 3; Cry?sis 2 and the lat?est Unreal Tour?na?ment suf?fered sim?i?larly; last year, the PC ver?sion of Alan Wake was can?celled because the pub?lisher didn?t think it was fea?si?ble; Fable II went MIA; the likes of Assassin?s Creed,?Fable III and Mass Effect were delayed by months; a shoddy port of Halo 2 released years after the Xbox ver?sion and the third game will pre?sum?ably never see the light of day; Gears of War 2 never got a PC release. This is by no means a thor?ough list, either. Some years ago, PC behe?moths like Call of Duty, Bat?tle?field and The Elder Scrolls were devel?oped for com?puter gamers first and con?sole gamers sec?ond, if at all; today, the reverse is?true.

On Armand?s sources, call me a scep?tic, but I?m a tad wary of sta?tis?tics funded by the stridently-named PC Gam?ing Alliance and dou?bly wary of pro?jec?tions into the future. It is mis?lead?ing. Though I do not doubt the growth of the PC mar?ket, we have absolutely no way of know?ing how well the Wii U will per?form upon its release next year, nor can we pre?dict the fea?tures and sales of Microsoft and Sony?s next con?soles. Accord?ing to the PCGA?s find?ings ? via market-research firm DFC Intel?li?gence ? a third of this $16.8bn rev?enue in the PC sec?tor stemmed from the emerg?ing mar?ket of China, where most PC gam?ing is based on microtransaction-fueled MMOs and, in par?tic?u?lar, social games; the aver?age salary is not kind to full-price retail titles, let alone con?soles. But if we?re really going to include the likes of CityVille and The Sims Social, then, of course, the PC will con?tinue to dom?i?nate by sheer vol?ume of num?bers, espe?cially as devel?op?ing coun?tries con?nect to the web en?masse.

Unlike Tom, at my core, I am a PC gamer. If I had the funds to splurge on a high-end desk?top setup, I would do it tomor?row. I much pre?fer play?ing with a mouse and a key?board, I like being close to a high-def screen and com?put?ers as plat?forms are infi?nitely more flex?i?ble. Dig?i?tal mar?ket?places like Steam have truly shaken up the way we access and enjoy our games, and that is fan?tas?tic. But you?d be myopic to think that, in a world of always-on inter?net, current-gen con?soles man?u?fac?tur?ers would leave the PC to reap the rewards of dig?i?tal dis?tri?b?u?tion, indie arcades, F2P games and mul?ti?me?dia inte?gra?tion with?out com?pe?ti?tion. While some fea?tures might be embry?onic now ? and why wouldn?t they be? ? I will eat my hat if they aren?t mas?sively improved, major selling-points for the next consoles.

World of Goo was over?whelm?ingly pirated upon its release.

Finally, I think Armand?s point on piracy is moot: Though dig?i?tal dis?trib?u?tors are cer?tainly mak?ing things bet?ter, devel?op?ers and pub?lish?ers alike have every rea?son to fear tor?renters, and that comes with the PC being, well, the PC. Of course, DRM is extreme stuff and as was said, it crim?i?nalises an entire demo?graphic. But for every suc?cess story ? like Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World ? there is a coun?ter?point: when indie game World of Goo was released with?out DRM, it was pirated by 90% of PC gamers; the stu?dio barely recouped its losses via Wii?Ware. For larger com?pa?nies reliant on numer?ous investors, the risk can prove too?high.

Armand:

World of Goo?s fail?ure?occurred?prior to the pop?u?lar?ity of Steam, and rev?enues from Steam sales increased after 2009. Should the game have been released today, those num?bers would be very dif?fer?ent. Again, stat?ing how things were?as opposed to how they are now doesn?t say much about the cur?rent?scene.

Declan:

Ulti?mately, it?s impos?si?ble to say what those num?bers would be with?out reli?able, con?crete piracy fig?ures. World of Goo was released towards the end of Octo?ber 2008 on Steam. Steam hit 13 mil?lion users in 2007 and 25 mil?lion users in 2009 and has grown from strength to strength since its (rather rocky) incep?tion in 2003. I don?t think the near whole?sale pirat?ing of a game can be chalked down to Steam being less pop?u?lar or prof?itable. How is that relevant?

In the end, it is this fear of unchecked piracy which does put off larger devel?op?ers and pub?lish?ers from releas?ing AAA PC ver?sions unre?stricted, on-time or at all, hence the often out?ra?geous anti-piracy mea?sures. As I said, when a com?pany is reliant on tens of mil?lions of dol?lars of investors? money, you can bet that they?ll attempt all means nec?es?sary to secure their prod?uct from unlaw?ful access. But of course, Steam really has helped in its pro?vi?sion of a sin?gu?lar go-to mar?ket?place, and I envis?age its suc?cess con?tin?u?ing, but not with?out increased com?pe?ti?tion from the likes of Ori?gin and con?sole equivalents.

Armand:

The devel?oper ?did?state that sales of the game over Steam have increased in 2009.?

You keep men?tion?ing the lack of?inno?va?tion?on the PC side (some?thing I do not agree with in the least), but I have to won?der just how the con?soles have been?inno?vat?ing. Their biggest?con?tri?bu?tion?to inno?v?a?tive new game?play has been in motion con?trols, which despite hav?ing some value, don?t really do much to bring gam?ing for?ward as a medium. Are there any actual exam?ples of?inno?va?tion?on the consoles?

Dig?i?tal ver?sions of The Witcher 2 were released with?out anti-piracy DRM.

Piracy is also ram?pant on the con?soles. Just check out any Craigslist site for con?soles, and you will find them rife with cheap hacks. The constant,?inconvenient?updates to the sys?tem most PS3 own?ers have to put up with are Sony?s?fee?ble?attempts to com?bat piracy there as well. Piracy is a weak excuse used by those who don?t know how to com?bat it. The Witcher 2 was released entirely free of DRM online, and despite being?imme?di?ately?avail?able to pirates, sold a whop?ping mil?lion copies on the PC in the first half of 2011. Piracy will never go away, but put out a qual?ity prod?uct with?out piss?ing on your cus?tomers, and you can still make a nice return on?it.

And Tom, your opin?ion?being what it is, seems to have very lit?tle to do with actual facts. If we are to just use?anec?do?tal?evi?dence, then I can hap?pily say all my gamer friends play on the PC, so obvi?ously every?one plays on the PC. Of course, that argu?ment doesn?t hold any weight.

Tom:

Whilst yes, my ?evi?dence? for the decline of PC gam?ing is cer?tainly anec?do?tal, it doesn?t make it less valid ? as Dec said, the PC Gam?ing Alliance facts leave me feel?ing wary for obvi?ous reasons.

Being under twenty, my gen?er?a?tion is the next wave of gamers enter?ing the mar?ket. From what I?ve seen, in my age range, the PC is not a pop?u?lar console.?Because gam?ing has seen a much wider mar?ket in the last few years, it means that the amount of gamers from my gen?er?a?tion that keep play?ing until they are 30 and beyond is a lot greater than the amount of 30+ gamers that are out there today. Again, this is of course spec?u?la?tion, but it make sense ? more and more peo?ple are gam?ing, and more and more peo?ple are con?tin?u?ing to game through?out their lives. Because most of the young peo?ple these days don?t game on PCs, it means that inevitably, the plat?form may die down (but not out) in the next decade.

How?ever, to agree with you, Armand, I must say that other than motion sen?sor tech?nol?ogy (which at its cur?rent level is a joke) there is lit?tle inno?va?tion in con?soles. What con?soles are doing is striv?ing to live up to the specs of a high-end PC; they want to improve their graph?ics, RAM, disc space and many other things that are nor?mally cus?tomis?able with a?PC.

To sum?marise, based on what I see in the gam?ing world around me, the PC is still a pop?u?lar and def?i?nitely viable gam?ing plat?form, but come twenty years, it?s not going to be as promi?nent as it is?today.

Armand:

I find it most inter?est?ing that though the Kinect was devel?oped for the 360, the real inno?va?tion and exper?i?men?ta?tion came from the PC users who cracked it and did far more inter?est?ing things with the device than Microsoft was able to?do.

As for where the gam?ing world will be in twenty years, I don?t think there is a sin?gle per?son alive who could pre?dict that. If indus?try ana?lysts are to be believed, it will be all about the ?apps? on hand?helds. Again, though I think it?s telling that whereas the con?soles haven?t been able to adapt to these new forms of gam?ing, which are bound to evolve and improve shortly, the PC scene with social net?work sites and Flash browser gam?ing sites has already adapted (if not pre?empted) the style of gam?ing, and been highly suc?cess?ful and?profitable.

Minecraft: so pop?u?lar, it was released on the Xpe?ria Play and is headed for iOS devices and the?360.

On the ?younger gen?er?a?tion? argu?ment, I would only need to point toward Minecraft, a game that has been wildly suc?cess?ful (even by major devel?oper stan?dards) not on the dol?lars of old fogies such as myself, but with much younger gamers than either of us, all play?ing on the PC. Again, you can?not look at your own cir?cle of friends and use that as a met?ric for a world?wide population.

Speak?ing of world?wide pop?u?la?tions by the way, the suc?cess of the PC is in large part due to the East?ern world, where it is a far more pop?u?lar gam?ing plat?form, and where con?soles like the 360 can?t even crack the mar?ket. Sure, we can keep argu?ing from a very West?ern per?spec?tive, but as the East?ern economies con?tinue to grow, they are only going to spend more on their favorite platform.

Chad:

You guys are giv?ing me a lot to wade into. Since many points have already been made, I?ll try to shovel my own on?top.

I want to point out one very impor?tant dif?fer?ence between PC and con?sole games, and that?s the ?shelf life? of a game on either sys?tem. A con?sole game will typ?i?cally have a surge of pop?u?lar?ity as it?s released, and per?haps inter?mit?tently as DLC, Game of the Year or ?Great?est Hits? ver?sions are released. A num?ber of PC games, on the other hand, develop rather large mod?ding com?mu?ni?ties ? in some cases, such as Nev?er?win?ter Nights, this was actu?ally the big rea?son I bought the game. The included cam?paign was good, noth?ing too spe?cial, but there turned out to be some awe?some user-made mod?ules. And these com?mu?ni?ties have some long lives; there are still peo?ple pump?ing out new lev?els for Doom. I think this is seen as a bad thing for the big companies.

EA and Activi?sion want to pro?duce hit after hit. They want every new release to be sell?ing big num?bers and peak prof?its ? they?re busi?nesses and that?s fine. I think they detect a cer?tain threat level with mods though. When you have peo?ple still mod?i?fy?ing and enjoy?ing an old prod?uct, those peo?ple might wait until the lat?est and great?est goes down in price. And the big boys think that?s bad.

I also want to bring up a point Jim Ster?ling noted in a Jimqui?si?tion on the Escapist a few weeks back ? while PC games are capa?ble of being on the bleed?ing edge graph?i?cally and son?i?cally, there are tons of games out there that don?t require a top-of-the-line rig. Heck, two of what are prob?a?bly the most suc?cess?ful games of all time, World of War?craft and The Sims, looked dated as hell the day they released. This didn?t stop peo?ple from play?ing them, and in fact I think the abil?ity to run on aver?age sys?tems has con?tributed a lot to Blizzard?s suc?cess (the other part is obvi?ously some sort of Satanic pact).

If your heli?copter can do this, you?re prob?a?bly not play?ing a flight sim.

It?s also worth not?ing: some kinds of games just don?t work on con?soles. I mean: how many 360 or PS3 own?ers have played a man?age?ment sim, wargame or real-time strat?egy game on their sys?tem? The sticks are too slug?gish and impre?cise for that kind of gam?ing. For that mat?ter, look at how many online pub?li?ca?tions list the arcade-game-with-a-flight-theme series?Ace Com?bat as a flight sim?u?la?tor. And yes, despite the rather lim?ited sweep of the aver?age con?sole gamer?s genre radar, all of these niche gen?res are still thriv?ing. While we?ll prob?a?bly never see any?thing as high pro?file as Fal?con 4.0 and Bat?tle?ground 6 were in the ?90s, we still have the Dig?i?tal Com?bat Sim?u?la?tor and Com?bat Mis?sion series.

The PC has been the prov?ing ground for most of the inno?va?tions that became com?mon?place in con?soles. Hard dri?ves, opti?cal disc media, 3D accel?er?a?tion, high-res mon?i?tors?and online play were all com?mon?place parts of the PC gamer?s bag of tricks before they were added into con?soles. The first-person shooter and west?ern RPG are both rel?a?tively new to con?soles (can you think of a con?sole FPS before 2000 that wasn?t Gold?en?Eye?). It?s the PC that brings most of the inno?va?tions. Con?soles have to wait until their next cycle to play catch-up.

* ?*?* ?*

Share Your Thoughts:?BnB writ?ers have shared their thoughts, and now it?s your turn. What do you think? In your opin?ion, is the PC a more viable plat?form than ever, or will it ? if it is not already ? be out?matched by con?soles in the com?ing?years?

The table is?yours.

Source: http://bnbgaming.com/2011/09/30/friday-roundtable-is-the-pc-still-a-viable-platform/

adventure time weather atlanta fandango ups movie times medina desktop backgrounds