Developers say PC Games are in a Vegetative State

{sidebar id=1}"PC gaming isn't dead, it's just in a partially vegetative state,” says John Abercrombie at a PAX developer panel.  “Publishers are honestly making 10% to 15% of their revenue from PC gaming…,” he continued.  “Consoles are the way to go [there], because that's where the money is"

According to the article from Shack News, PC gaming is only good for niche markets, like World of Warcraft.  Of course, what else do you think about when you think PC gaming other than WoW.  But surely we can’t blame all the problems of PC gaming on the juggernaut, can we?

"If everybody would stop pirating, if everybody would stop doing DRM, it would be a much happier world, wouldn't it?” Abercrombie asks facetiously. “We'd have a lot more PC games sold and a lot more happier customers.”

Yes, pirates, if you would stop stealing video games they would make more.  Unfortunately, that may not be entirely true.  The negativity coming from these developers about PC gaming was astounding.  Reason after reason was given for why PC games are just not worth it over console gaming.

As a disabled gamer, that is certainly alarming news. For most of us motion impaired gamers, PC gaming is 10 times easier than console gaming.  There are more peripherals, accessibility tools, and more workarounds for gaming on the PC than consoles.  Sure, some of us can build rigs but for the most of us, building switch rigs to make a console accessible is expensive, complicated, or both.

In an era of digital downloads, one would think PC gaming would be more popular than ever.

"Why don't the publishers target that [digital] market? They don't see the financial rewards there…” said Joe Kreiner, a developer for Terminal Reality.  However, Valve has done a phenomenal job selling directly to PC gamers.  “They are watching closely,” said Kreiner.

But the problem is that there are multiple places to download games, each with their own set of standards. This makes developers spend additional time and money ensuring each game can be distributed through each system.  Right now, the main option is Steam, which has its detachers.

Naysayers argue that you are merely renting your game from Steam, since you don't actually own a copy of the game. And it's true to a certain extent, if the company ever goes under, you could potentially lose all of the games you have already purchased. Nevertheless, Steam is an excellent way for publishers to reach us, the consumer, directly by selling their games cheaper than if they include tangible goods.

"It's a Betamax versus VHS sort of problem, but, fortunately, right now, there's no VHS,” says Abercrombie.  “Down the road, we may see true competitors do a platform like Steam that actually gives [Steam] a run for its money, and that will improve our product as well."

Although, for disabled gamers, digital products are normally a God send. For those who are bedbound, homebound, or just have difficulty leaving a facility or area, the ability to purchase what you want, when you want it is essential.  Yes, there are some risks, but if you don't have access to somebody who can/will get you the exact game of your choosing, services like Steam are exceptional.

If you only knew the amount of times I asked someone to purchase a certain game before downloadable services existed, only to get the wrong title…

Fortunately, it's not all negative.  Kreiner believes we will see an eventual upswing in PC gaming.  "If that console cycle goes too long, you could really see this big resurgence in the PC as far as game developers who really want to target the visual high-end. We'll see," said the hopeful developer.

"At some point, there's going to have to be a fundamental paradigm shift in how we interface with the PC. The screen's just not going to do it anymore,” he continued. “Where we go down that rabbit hole, I don't know, but at some point, that's got to change."

Indeed, innovations like the iPad continue to come out year after year and all the while it feels like more of the same.  Sooner or later, gaming has to go to the next level.  The next Doom, Ever quest, Halo, or even World of Warcraft needs to come along and push hardware to the limit.  These developers believe the next five years will be filled with more of the same, but I hope for something different.

I really don't want to see World of Warcraft 2, Halo 7, or FF628.  Instead, I want to be impressed with something new to report about in PC gaming; no more sequels or prequels, something brand new.  Let’s hope 2015 brings something else than the next evolution of the iPod.

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0 #6 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Developers say PC Games are in a Vegetative State — RenderB 2010-04-15 18:29

Oh yes, on the piracy figures: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/15/gao_spanks_piracy_exaggerators/

What makes a big diff is how a company treats their customers and pricing etc. Telltale comes to mind as doing a decent job.

 

 

0 #5 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Developers say PC Games are in a Vegetative State — Mark 2010-04-13 08:50

Fixed! Thanks!

 

 

0 #4 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Developers say PC Games are in a Vegetative State — Mikey 2010-04-13 08:41

The link to Steam is incorrect. It should be http://www.steampowered.com/

 

 

0 #3 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Developers say PC Games are in a Vegetative State — jbannick 2010-04-13 00:10

Our experience agrees with the article and comments above.

One note, indie games that are marketed specifically as accessible seem to be less pirated than mainstream games. Don't know why. You just hear less about that as a problem.

Personally, I HATE DRM, of any kind.

John Bannick
CTO
7-128 Software

 

 

0 #2 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Developers say PC Games are in a Vegetative State — Lifshitz 2010-04-12 10:57

Perhaps with OnLive and Gaikai coming, the market will change. They are a perfect way to fight piracy, and that might make the PC a viable platform once again.

 

 

0 #1 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Developers say PC Games are in a Vegetative State — RenderB 2010-04-10 09:26

One point is that pc gamers in general are more demanding than their console counterparts. We are less inclined to put up with bugs, bad drm or dlc. If needs be modders will fix it themselves. Oblivion, fallout 3, Dragon Age, Gothic 3 and others are all examples of games that got made so much better by the community.

Look at the xbox 360, pay for the conosle, pay more for the game, pay for xbox live gold, dlc and there is a chance to also shift avatar items/themes etc.
That is a scheme most palyers |I know would not buy into on pc.

The piracy argument has been done to death and stopped impressing ages ago. That one has been debunked. Especially since most current consoles can be soft modded without any real skill.

A lot of the guff coming out lately is not worth owning. I have an extensive game colelction, and there is a clear relation between year and number of games. It peaks in the mid to late 90's and slowly decreases.
I cannot wait to get a talkie version of monkey island 2, based on the sales for the first CE i'm not alone in this.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The focus has shifted. if it is all about making money without any fire. Mega budgets and making everything as bland as possible. Games cannot be long, hard, complex etc because some group somewhere does not like that. (Why is Enterprise coming to mind?)

I do not do steam, for the reasons you mentioned. There is one more and that is price. Digital is cheaper than retail yet now the downloads cost more. I looked at Dragon age, ME2 and C&C4 at release. In all cases the retail CE was cheaper than normal digital copy. Sorry but that does nto fly. You make less costs but charge more. I know why EA would want to do it, still a bad joke.
I can have the full game in my house tomorrow with the same number of clicks. Why on earth would I pay extra and own nothing?

P.S Sorry but the ipad is as new as the ipod was. It's a rehash of existing tech. I had a tablet pc with win9x ages ago. It lacks the multi tasking and freedom of that machine. It does not have the power saving or other features that makes epaper so interesting. Frankly it can do hardly anything I cannot already do on my ds with some homebrew. One of the first things I did was hunt down a card so I could put my ebooks on it. And it actually looks more like a book with a page on each screen. (Don't even get me started on magnification)

 

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