Why Consoles Overwhelm PC Games At Retail 139
An anonymous reader writes "With the GameCube at $99 and PlayStation 2 sales still huge, people are
starting to really notice the shrinkage of PC games at retail. Why? What does
the future hold? An article at JoeUser.com asks that question and looks at what is likely to
happen to PC games as consoles slowly take over most of the retail space for
games." This piece, written by Brad Wardell, creator of Galactic Civilizations, argues: "The issue isn't whether the PC game market will die. It won't. The issue is whether PC games will be able to keep up with console games from a production values point of view."
welcome the return to normalcy (Score:2, Insightful)
Consoles overwhelm (Score:2, Insightful)
No pc innovation (Score:4, Insightful)
The major pc game genres have had a serious lack of innovation as of late. The RTS and the FPS have both been stagnant. Look at the newest fps. Tell me what new major fundamental innovation in gameplay has changed since Half-Life? Why is Counter-Strike still #1? Because no new game has done anything new and amazing to beat it out gameplay wise. Before pc games will become popular again the genres which sell big on the pc must have major gameplay innovations.
Look at the console. Games like metroid prime, gta, etc. etc. All of these games represent huge fundamental advances in gameplay within the genre. People aren't going to buy the same game 10 different times just because you upped the graphics or changed the theme. Once you've played one stock space shooter you've played them all. Unless someone releases something like Ikaruga with it's color changing awesomeness that makes the genre fun again.
If you want people to buy your game you must innovate. There has to be a gameplay element that is new and awesome that the genre needs. I think there is much hope in Doom3 and Half-Life2 to breathe new life into the fps. Natural Selection has done it and it's popularity is soaring.
Re:Consoles overwhelm (Score:1, Insightful)
eh? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:welcome the return to normalcy (Score:5, Insightful)
hed.
PC games still take more retail space (Score:2, Insightful)
Console games rock. Change is good. (Score:4, Insightful)
Another issue: buy a console and you don't have to upgrade for years. Possibly a lot of years. Offloading the most strenuous software you'll ever use from your PC to a console means your PC might NEVER need to be upgraded. It saves money over time, more than you might think.
Here's one for the Linux crowd: buy a console and it won't matter that you can't find many games for Linux. You'll be free to choose the O/S of your choice for your PC, freeing you to really leverage the machine's power, because you'll still be able to game to your heart's content. No dual-booting necessary.
Anyway, you see where I'm coming from. I love PC games, don't get me wrong, but I think consoles are winning because they're more convenient, cheaper long-term, and of high enough quality that the switch is painless.
Just a few thoughts...
Re:welcome the return to normalcy (Score:2, Insightful)
Clarification needed. Do you mean "most" as in "51% - 99% of the entire universe of games" or "most" as in "all the games I like." I suspect the latter.
Re:PCs Have Always had more Flexibility (Score:3, Insightful)
but see - there is also a trick to this, make a game one can play forever, and why would one want to buy a new one? like a selfgenerating book wont sell more then once per customer a game with endless possibilities will be the end of new games.
Now all this is more or less worthless knowlage - as depending on how you play your games and what games you play replayability will be diffrent from other people. for example I, knowing something about myself I draw upon this knowlage for this example, enjoy short and hard games, say the old school of shmups*, when played more then once - I would never play NWN more then once, or say FFX whatever - they tell a story and told once I often grow bored - you might enjoy playing NWN in diffrent ways, with diffrent mods - but D&D for me holds for some session and no more - while IKARUGA or TYRIAN holds forever, unless I beat the world and I wont (as I'm fairly bad at shmups).
you claim PC games lets people replay the games, and for me that doesn't work - I know there are mods for say JAGGED ALLIANCE 2, but I've tried them and they are not fun enough (sorry JA2 modders), and the NWN mods I tried that did tell a story all sucked (and I'm sure the rest of the world loved them - but that doesn't help me). Games like Counter Strike and online gaming is not for everyone (myself included) and those mods only give so much.
the end line for me is that mods are fun, I'm even helping some people with graphics etc - and it is a pro for the PC and a con for the console - but if you think that it will win the battle for the PCs benifit think again.
PS: I own a PC for gaming, a GC, a GBA SP, a PS2 and I'm gettign the later modded for imports from JAP and US. Playing F-Zero, Ikaruga, Psyvaria, Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution, Soul Calibur 2, Viewtiful joe, Dark Cloud 2, Final Fantasy TA, Super mario kart dubbel dash!!, Zelda: A link to the past, Castlevania: Circle of the moon, Castlevania: Harmony of dissonance, Guilty Gear X and for the PC Jagged Alliance 2 and Silent Storm, and I might pick up Civ 2 or Civ 3 again.
that is all for now, getting 2 more games next week - the list might show you that A. most games I play doesn't need modding (the action titles besides Viewtiful joe and Castlevania) are all either party or hi-score fun - all lasting for a good old time - and the other you can make what you want off, and B takes so long time to play through once that once you are through you are tired of the mechanics playing the game that you want something fresh and new, not just an other mod. --- * shoot em up - but as in 2d scrolling
I Was a PC Game Junkie... (Score:3, Insightful)
Why?
1. PC games are a hassle: We all know the story: patches, patches, patches. The fact is that it's just hard to develop a game for countless hardware configurations that you can't possibly all test.
2. Consoles are closing the gap: The bleeding edge of PC gaming will always be technologically superior. However, while the difference between an average "gaming PC" and a console used to be unthinkably night-and-day, it's just not as big of a gap anymore.
3. Decline of PC-centric genres: If you're over 20, you probably remember when everyone used to play military sims on their PCs. You know, Falcon 3.0 and M1 Tank Platoon and such. Lots of Microprose stuff. Well that genre is all but dead now (ironically, now when we have the technology to do it justice). Real Time Strategy games are getting hopelessly vanilla - we need another game on the order of Total Annihilation to kickstart the genre. The point-and-click adventure genre, much like the military sim genre, has been relegated to a small niche audience, despite recent gems like The Longest Journey and Syberia (and even Grim Fandango a few years ago, which got lots of critical attention but did not garner the kind of sales it needed). Probably the only real PC-centric genre that still stands strong is the first person shooter. And even there, the Halos and SOCOMs of the console world are helping to close that gap (though the fragheads will always, of course, desire the fast-twitch gameplay of a mouse-driven FPS).
4. Cost: Competition is driving hardware prices down, down, down. New game prices have stayed put for years now (not even adjusting for inflation), and in fact have gotten cheaper in many cases (not only the Greatest Hits/Platinum/Player's Choice serieses, but games aren't ever hitting the $70 price point that I paid for Street Fighter II and Chrono Trigger back in the SNES days. Also, even non-discounted games get marked down very often these days, after being on the shelves for 3 months or so). PC games have gotten cheaper too, although often in a forced, "this damn thing isn't selling" kind of way. And while gaming PCs can be had cheaper than before, it still falls well short of the inexpensive nature of consoles.
Personally, I would love nothing more than to see a PC gaming return to glory. I loved the genres that have now all but died out. I love the limitless potential of PC gaming. But developers must find a way to make things more stable, and must be less demanding in hardware requirements. Ever notice how a small sequel (like a new entry in the Madden series or something) will have very modest improvements in video/sound/etc, but often significantly higher hardware requirements? Not acceptable.
My DirectX story (Score:3, Insightful)
That's when I noticed that you could buy a A$2,500 PC or a A$350 console to play pretty much the same games. I bought a PSX and didn't return to PC gaming for roughly five years. And if Neverwinter Nights had been released on network-enabled consoles rather than PC I might still not have returned to PC gaming.
Re:Consoles hit the mass market better than the PC (Score:1, Insightful)
I see nothing about the PC that makes its games more serious, except for the genres that are still stuck on it: MMORPGs, strategy, and FPS (as the article points out). All of those games are huge, especially in Korea. So I suppose you could say PCs are therefore more serious.
Aside from those genres, the only other thing serious about the PC is the money you have to put into it. I bought my computer three years ago I think, then upgraded the video card early this year for $100 (Radeon 8500 LE). But next year I'll need to do an upgrade that I expect will cost $600 or so. Averaged with my inital costs, maybe I can say it is $800/4-years for PC? The console would probably be $250/3-years. And hopefully in the next couple of years, they'll add some genres with ladders, and even maybe modding eventually (I doubt it, though).
Re:I Was a PC Game Junkie... (Score:3, Insightful)
Funny sidenote, if you still have your chrono trigger, it's aged well. It runs about $30 used.. and that's if you don't want the box.
if you have the original box, the game is about $70.
There is no market for used PC games.. but the market for used console games is huge.
Re:The PC and console market self eliminated me (Score:3, Insightful)
Also: the SNES came out (States'-side) in 1991, and had a fairly consistent flow of games until 1998; that's nearly a decade of game production, hardly a 2-year setup. Even if you waited until 1996 to buy a SNES, you still had 7 years worth of games to buy and play. I'm sorry to hear that you were pissed, but the SNES was by no means a rip-off.
As far as the cost of games goes: it's surprising to me that you're buying old laptops on ebay and not looking for games there, as well; I just picked up Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance for $10, shipped, and have had similar experiences in the past. I rarely buy "first run" games, because there's rarely a reason to put down $50+ for a game. Older consoles -- like the PS1, SNES, and NES -- have games available for them in the $5-$10 range.
If you really want to get into a roleplaying game, go buy a console. Chances are there will be games available for a long, long time -- if you bought a PS2, for example, you have almost every Final Fantasy at your disposal, as well as a great number of other RPG titles. Even if Sony stopped making games tomorrow, you wouldn't be out of luck for getting entertainment from your $150 box.
Plug and play? Only for a console. (Score:3, Insightful)
I suppose (Score:3, Insightful)
if the majority of games are on consoles, I can just get one and be relieved of the last reason to have Windoze running on anything (obviously, that console would not be an X-Box then). If games move away from the PC, there is truly no reason to use MS products. I guess Sony is doing us all a favor (us all = people who believe in freedom).
Now, if we could just stop MS from suing mod chip makers, all would be golden.
MS = MacroSlavery
Re:Funny thing, that (Score:2, Insightful)
I think its only a matter of time before consoles start to meld into every other piece of technology in your house. We'll start to see (more) keyboards and mice... web browsers and OS'. Consoles will attempt to emulate every conceivable function of the PC, and in doing so the two will merge and inherit eachothers pros and cons. And by then we'll see all other aspects of media (TV, music, etc) loaded onto more dynamic hardware that can interface with your PC. And after that its only a matter of time before your whole friggin house is wired together. And probably your car, clothes, and damned near everything you own. It'll all blend together in some strange mix of functionality and connectivity.
It'll all come together in the end. People will still need their preconfigured hardware, their idiot boxes, and their tech support. Games will thrive no matter what we use to play them.
And the us
'Why Consoles Overwhelm PC Games At Retail' (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Console games rock. Change is good. (Score:2, Insightful)
I have a PS2, and the only use I have out of it is to play FFX. What an expensive game, but imo, it was worth it. Now that FFX-2 is out, the cost of playing FFX suddenly fell by about half.
Just a note: I played FF9 on the PC with ePSXe. Why should I live with *less* features with a console?
It's all quite simple (Score:3, Insightful)
2) They never fucking work - they don't work on Linux, almost none work on Mac (at EB, only the Blizzard stuff is Macompatible) and fuck, the ones designed for Windows need some pretty fucking specific hardware to work properly.
3) It's too fucking expensive - if I buy a new video card every odd-numbered year and a new processor or ram alternating even-numbered years, I'm spending a shitload but if I buy an XBox one year, a PS2 the next, and get a Gamecube for Christmas or something, I've spent less than the cost of a gaming PC. In fact, I've spent less than the cost of a shitty PC that won't do a fucking thing.
So instead of spending $2500 on a gaming PC with everything, I can spend $730 on every console there is. The GBA I can take with me, the XBox I can play online, and that leaves me with $1700 for games, or a new TV, or extra controllers to play two-player, something you can't do on a PC (unless your roommate wants to drop another $2500).
That $730 will last you 4-5 years on average (or, in the case of the Playstation, 8+ years), while the PC will have to be upgraded constantly, with video cards that cost the same as a new console every two years at least, or video cards that cost the same as two consoles if you want to go hardcore and get the best graphics. On consoles, one purchase is all it takes, and you'll have the best graphics for a long time.
--Dan