Video Game Trends In 2008 81
Gamasutra is running a feature looking at some of the most important trends that have cropped up or become popular over last year in the gaming industry. Gamers' outrage over the DRM controversy built up a great deal of steam over the past year, and will likely remain strong in 2009. This year also saw downloadable content being used for new and varied purposes, and many developers are banking more heavily on user-generated content, as in LittleBigPlanet. They point out the increase in retro and neo-retro gaming after the success of Mega Man 9 and anticipation for the new Bionic Commando. What trends do you expect to see more of in the next year?
Re:Eh (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:netcraft confirms it: (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, those 11 million WoW players don't count. In THE YEAR 2009!!!1 they'll all use WINE to play WoW in Ubuntu :rollseyes:
The Orange Box sold very well [ign.com] on the PC, according to Valve's Doug Lombardi, surpassing 360 sales. I'm sure Valve wishes they never wasted money on that whole Steam thing; it's clearly going nowhere...
And I'm sure StarCraft II and Diablo 3 will flop. Blizzard may as well throw in the towel.
Someone better tell Stardock that making PC games is a bad idea.
I also heard that Dawn of War II and Empire Total War are being canceled and removed from Steam in anticipation of the great Linux migration of '09.
FYI: PC games would cease being made if they were unprofitable.
But I agree: idiotic DRM needs to go and publishers need to stop blaming piracy for their inability to make good games. I own a 360, Wii, and gaming PC (that dual-boots Ubuntu) and have plenty of great games for each platform. You're missing out if you write-off PC gaming.
Re:netcraft confirms it: (Score:4, Insightful)
But PC gaming is dieing because of factors like DRM schemes
Yeah, that sucks. That's why I support games like Sins of a Solar Empire, which don't do that BS. Insane requirements and costs: maybe if you want.
insane requirements and costs
Uh, if you have a compulsive need to run games at maximum settings, maybe. I get by just fine on hardware that isn't bleeding-edge, you can too.
laptop popularity
Huh? What exactly does this have to do with gaming, especially considering desktops still far outnumber laptops?
and Vista.
Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and throw down the BS flag here. Your intentions may be good, but you are at the least woefully misinformed. I game on Vista, and it's fine. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or has been lied to.
Trends 2009 (Score:5, Insightful)
More DRM, more publishers strong arming the used games market.
More angry comsumers switching to consoles as a result.
Online registrations for console games because they are sold used more than PC games.
More buggy releases for consoles, justified with downloadable content (patches) once you have registered online (see above sentence).
Once consoles really catch on, they will experience the same hardships as PC gaming.
Re:netcraft confirms it: (Score:4, Insightful)
PC gaming is dieing because of factors like DRM schemes
You have this point exactly backwards. Game developers are moving to consoles precisely because those consoles offer stronger DRM.
Consoles are designed to prohibit the user from running any code not signed by Sony or MS. That's more onerous DRM than anything which exists in PC-space. Publishers perceive this as a strength, because it makes console games more complicated to "pirate."
If anything, gamers and publishers are running toward DRM schemes, not away from them.
Re:netcraft confirms it: (Score:3, Insightful)
insane requirements and costs
Uh, if you have a compulsive need to run games at maximum settings, maybe. I get by just fine on hardware that isn't bleeding-edge, you can too.
My laptop was 2k dollars 3 years ago. It barely runs Team Fortress 2 at all.
laptop popularity
Huh? What exactly does this have to do with gaming, especially considering desktops still far outnumber laptops?
Laptops outsell desktops, and are generally incapable of proper gaming. See my exmple above. The gaming companies seem to be targeting future theoretical desktops with amazing graphics cards, but lots of people are buying laptops which simply can't run most games at a descent framerate, and upgrading the video card is not an option.
and Vista.
Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and throw down the BS flag here. Your intentions may be good, but you are at the least woefully misinformed. I game on Vista, and it's fine. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or has been lied to.
I game on Vista too. The problem isn't that games run 25% slower on Vista, the problem is the perception that games run slower on Vista. Why would you create an optimized gaming rig on anything other than XP? That perception just isn't good for pushing the future of gaming.
Re:netcraft confirms it: (Score:2, Insightful)
"Linux for the PC" - Yep...2009...the year of Linux on the desktop. Indeedy.
In other words, the same as was predicted for 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, ...? ;)
Re:netcraft confirms it: (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't believe the GP was complaining about how DRM doesn't work on the PC but rather that it is invasive and alienates users in a way that console DRM does not.