04.05.2009 5:06 pm
What is the future of PC gaming?
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
So, what’s next for computer-based gaming? Is it dying like newspapers, as some think? Or is there more to the medium than most people grasp?
A growing contingent of console lovers think the industry may shift away from it entirely, driven in part by the console’s simplicity and widening appeal. PC gamers, on the other hand, aren’t ready to power down just yet.
One of the better analyses of the issue appears now over at TechRadar.com, in a piece called, “Why the future looks bright for PC gaming.” Take a look and then tell us here at Game Guy what you think? Did the TechRadar piece perhaps change your perceptions?
I think the real hit to PC gaming lies in the hardware itself. PC Games have to constantly improve their graphics and presentation quality or be left behind. This requires people to make investments in new hardware a lot more often than they have to with a console. I bought a decently fast PC with many top of the line components about 5 months before I bought my 360, and yet I can no longer play new PC games on it anymore. I mean, we are talking only about 3 years ago. I don’t have the kind of money to keep laying down for new hardware. I think if the PC game makers really want to expand their market, they have to make their games available to the majority of PC users, not just the hardcore users with new equipment which is pretty much the case now. Yeah, you’re going to take a hit to graphics, but I think they’d get more units out the door. I know of quite a few people who pirate PC games just to see if they will work on their computer before they buy it.
I think another larger problem is all of the DRM on PC Games these days. Limited installs and online authentication is not how you treat customers who legitimately buy your software. Often times it seems that people who pirate the games install and get them up and running easier than users who buy it in store. In this case, trying to fight the piracy is just hurting business. Sometimes I think they should just go back to the old Lucasarts “look up the code on page 39 of your instruction manual”.
I think to really stop PC Gaming piracy you have to switch to digital distribution. I know I’ve complained about it before in previous comments on blogs, but in PC Gaming it’s different because you really can’t resell those games to any stores, just other people. And in a game like WoW all of your accounts are tied to the particular CDs/CD Key so you’re probably never going to resell it. It still has the “taking up space” on your hard drive problem, but you can always re-download it. It seems like the pirates know how to handle games on CDs, and maybe it would just take them a little longer to figure out digital distribution. Also, when it’s easier to get the game legitimately than pirating it, people will do so.