What your local Gamestop PC section will soon look like...
I am a PC gaming snob. Well, I was anyway, until I started this writing gig. Obviously, the site focuses on consoles more than the PC side of the house because they are more accessible to the casual user.
Yes, hardcore Halo fanboy, I called you casual. You can’t really be considered hardcore until you’re dropping a grand on an annual video card upgrade to play the latest PC offerings at their maxed out settings. Not to say that I can do that any more because I am…how you say…married…and a great number of dollars out of my paycheck now fund my wife’s desire to buy out the nearest Pottery Barn.
So when someone recently on a forum post asking for suggestions about the website wanted to know why we don’t review or talk about computer games much, I felt it was in my power to do something about it. I’ve got the resources and the motivation, and I enjoy going off the beaten path. I mean, do you really want to hear yet another Prototype vs. Infamous comparison?
That’s when I ran head long into a brick wall. Follow along with me after the jump to see what the problem was!
I hopped on to Gamespot to see what the latest and greatest coming out for PC was, and found that the situation was quite dire. While the silly little consoles usually had a decent crop of exclusive titles every season, I noticed that the number of PC exclusive titles had dropped dramatically.
So let’s see what’s due out this week for the PC:
Trine: which looks brilliant, but guess what? It’s on the PSN for half the price. WTF.
Tales of Monkey Island: awesome, Guybrush Threepwood (if I remember his name correctly) is back! Oh, wait, that’s for the Wii as well.
The Bioshock/Elder Scrolls Bundle: great gaming value, but again, on PS3 and 360, oh, and “Hello, 2007″.
The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime: Oh, goodie. A PC exclusive title.
See where I’m going here? PC gaming exclusivity is getting killed by developers trying to make up the money they are hemorrhaging from gaming piracy. When you’ve got the developers of Crysis for the PC stating that 90% of the players on their multiplayer servers are playing on pirated copies, the system starts to break down. And let’s not forget the nightmare that was the Demigod launch on Stardock in May that felt the weight of 100,000 pirated copies on launch date crushing the 18,000 legitimate copies trying desperately to get into multiplayer.
We’re only a few years away from PC games no longer being shelved at retailers and you’ll see everything being downloaded Direct2Drive with subscription basis of some sort to crack down on the pirating. That’s one of the major reasons Starcraft 2 is doing away with LAN play and using their somewhat frustrating Battle.net service is to keep online play with legit copies. Of course, they’re not taking into account 2nd and 3rd world countries who’s broadband service isn’t up to snuff with what we’re accustomed to in developed countries, and it’s those people who are going to suffer.
So outside of your big MMORPGs and subscription based games, PC exclusive games are going the way of the dodo. I’m not sure why I feel a small twinge of regret at the fact I will no longer need to keep my machine in perfect condition to run any game. I guess it’s that small feeling that the upper class get when there are no more seats in first class, and they are forced to sit in coach next to the screaming two year old and the 400 pound woman who probably should have bought two seats. How repulsively bourgeois.
Meanwhile, the growing possibility of only having to buy a console once every 3-5 years (of course depending on production quality) for a fraction of the price should have me dancing in the aisles.
There’s just a small level of elitism that has been ground into me since I blew my first paycheck on a gaming rig to play the original Fallout and then didn’t have enough $$ for rent.
I’m going to miss those days. <Sniff>.
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Who buys pc games at the store anymore? It’s much easier to buy it through steam, and safer for publishers because of steams DRM.
Exactly.
So many people are pirating PC media it seems. What incentives do developers have anymore to create games exclusively for the PC? The consoles, while not as powerful, are much more user friendly as well as cheaper. It is also easier to develop for, as everyone has the same exact specs while PCs come in crazy amounts of variety.
SHanghaiSix, I know you love you PC and it’s still a great platform. Heck, I consider myself more of a PC gamer too. However, consoles are where it is now. And really, there is very little difference anymore between consoles and PCs except for input method. I still prefer my first person shooters with a mouse and keyboard, but a controller is more than adequate.
Yeah, the gap is slowly closing between the “elitist” PC gamer and the “common” console gamer. I’ve actually found my time here at Sarcastic Gamer quite fun, as I’ve gotten to dust off my consoles and really put them through their paces. It’s so nice not having to worry about system requirements; just pop it in and go!
>90% of the players on their multiplayer servers are playing on pirated copies
I call bullshit. Was Crysis pirated to hell and back? Yes. Can you play on legit servers with pirated copies? No, unless the developer is retarded. For almost every game with a multiplayer component, to play online your CD-key is sent to a master server with a complete list of valid CD-keys. If your key is a duplicate or not on the list, it doesn’t allow you to join an official server. Ergo, pirated copies cannot play on an official server, the ones Crytek would actually track. While it IS possible top play pirated games online via Hamachi or private servers, which don’t require CD-keys, those are not servers which Crytek would be monitoring. What you have there is either a horrible misquote or a Crytek spokesman dumbing down his response.
But to just blame piracy for weakening PC gaming is stupid. I blame lazy developers. Most developers, if they do make a PC version, crap out a console port not at all suited for the PC graphically and gameplay-wise. Like Prototype, which practically required a gamepad because the developers could not be arsed to create a control scheme that worked with the mouse and keyboard, in addition to not including high-resolution textures for the PC version. Or we get games like Gears of War or Burnout Paradise, which come out a year late, with little to no advantages over the console version that everyone has already beaten and forgotten. And then when it of course sells like crap because everyone has either played the console version or doesn’t want to put up with year-old games, the devs cop out blame piracy, which is beyond a doubt the only reason why the game failed. Right CliffyB?
/walloftext
/walloftext strikes for 352 pts of damage
seriously though mr. wow, it still goes back to the cash, from both the consumer and the devolper. If the consumer can bittorrent the game for free vs TRYING to find the game at a brick and morter store, bittorrent wins. Im sure some devs have used the piracy excuse too often for their failures in PC gaming, but it is an issue that hasn’t been corrected, and is losing studios money. Plain and simple, cut and dry.
I agree to a point that piracy screws developers…
But one of the two above me has a point, Crysis for instance, we all know you need a pretty good computer to be able to play that game. Sales may have not been good for the game, but is it because of piracy? or mainly because not everyone has a great video card that can run the game. Also, why just make it for the computer when you could make it for consoles as well? Im guessing its the graphical power that it uses that made it hard for developers to port it.
So, no console version, need expensive (or somewhat expensive) hardware to play, and piracy. Piracy i bet hurt them, but the other two point are probably just as bad. Plus, you cant play online w/o a CD key which was already stated in other comments.
Demigod? I hear the game got raped of its servers because of piracy. Which is odd because if 9/10 pc games ive played require a valid cd key to play online since it verifies it before you connect to its servers, why didnt they do the same with this game? Plus, say hackers found a way around this…to do it is more trouble then its worth.
Another example..Gears of war. The comments above said it, the pc port came out a long time after the xbox 360 version with levels that didnt make buying it again worth it. cliffy B declaring to never do it again because of piracy. Was anyone gonna buy this game anyway? was the extra short levels of the game worth the money to buy it? After what, a year or so later?
-sigh-..pc gaming…my rig is pretty good just wish they made better shooters for the pc :/.
blame pirates? maybe, but it sounds like the dev’s just need someone to blame…
ENOUGH RTS GAMESSS (too). i feel like thats the main market for pc gaming..
Pirates, expensive computer requirements, the Bossanova, who cares? Bottom line, PC gaming is in trouble. But “Ha, ha, ha” does bring up the good point that some developers may be using it as a crutch.
goodbye pc games :/