Are consoles PC’s worst enemy?
PC gaming reached its peak back in 1999 following the release of Half-Life. The game actually sold around 2.5 million copies, boosting the overall sales of PC games at US$ 1.9 billion just for the American market alone. Unfortunately for the business, everything followed a downhill trend after that. Last year, records show that revenues connected to PC gaming barely broke the one billion mark.
Now, the big question is why. Is it a case of the PC being overshadowed by consoles? Admittedly, even we here at QJ just opened a PC blog as opposed to the long running sections for PSP, Xbox 360, PS3 and even the new Wii. So what really happened? Amusingly, it can be traced back to the day Microsoft challenged the gaming world with its Xbox.
Before you get jumpy, we very well know that there are other factors as well such as piracy. To be quite precise, it could even be PC Gaming’s worst enemy given the fact that protection for PC games are much easier to bypass as compared to any console. Next is the rise of handhelds DS and PSP. Of course, it is reckless to combine sales of all console platforms then compare it with PC gaming sales. But the point is, there has been a most noticeable decline.
Going back now to Microsoft, the corporation needless to say, takes care of both the Xbox consoles and operating system Windows. Over the last few years, Microsoft has been focusing on console-related services with nothing new for gaming on the Windows platform. Of course there is Vista, but aren’t young people more interested with its connectivity with the X360 over its own merits?
Also, there is no denying that console games are more versatile, most especially now with the industry triumvirate (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) all out for backwards compatibility. Gamers can still play their age-old titles with the new consoles without any complication. Plug and play, or so they say. On the other hand, PC games need installations, setting configurations, patches and the long list of to-do-first goes on.
And so in the end, the song “Video Killed the Radio Star” comes to mind:
Rewritten by machine and new technology,
and now I understand the problems you can see (Oh, oh!)
Consoles killed the PC Game star.
Actually, we don’t think it would come to that. While we’re seeing it now in a rather low point of its career, PC gaming will bounce back. It will evolve, metamorphose and become attractive and lucrative once more. Linux when it entered the scene, shook Windows to its very foundation. Hmm, now Linux Games definitely sounds good…
Via Playfuls
PC gaming reached its peak back in 1999 following the release of Half-Life. The game actually sold around 2.5 million copies, boosting the overall sales of PC games at US$ 1.9 billion just for the American market alone. Unfortunately for the business, everything followed a downhill trend after that. Last year, records show that revenues connected to PC gaming barely broke the one billion mark.
Now, the big question is why. Is it a case of the PC being overshadowed by consoles? Admittedly, even we here at QJ just opened a PC blog as opposed to the long running sections for PSP, Xbox 360, PS3 and even the new Wii. So what really happened? Amusingly, it can be traced back to the day Microsoft challenged the gaming world with its Xbox.
Before you get jumpy, we very well know that there are other factors as well such as piracy. To be quite precise, it could even be PC Gaming’s worst enemy given the fact that protection for PC games are much easier to bypass as compared to any console. Next is the rise of handhelds DS and PSP. Of course, it is reckless to combine sales of all console platforms then compare it with PC gaming sales. But the point is, there has been a most noticeable decline.
Going back now to Microsoft, the corporation needless to say, takes care of both the Xbox consoles and operating system Windows. Over the last few years, Microsoft has been focusing on console-related services with nothing new for gaming on the Windows platform. Of course there is Vista, but aren’t young people more interested with its connectivity with the X360 over its own merits?
Also, there is no denying that console games are more versatile, most especially now with the industry triumvirate (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) all out for backwards compatibility. Gamers can still play their age-old titles with the new consoles without any complication. Plug and play, or so they say. On the other hand, PC games need installations, setting configurations, patches and the long list of to-do-first goes on.
And so in the end, the song “Video Killed the Radio Star” comes to mind:
Rewritten by machine and new technology,
and now I understand the problems you can see (Oh, oh!)
Consoles killed the PC Game star.
Actually, we don’t think it would come to that. While we’re seeing it now in a rather low point of its career, PC gaming will bounce back. It will evolve, metamorphose and become attractive and lucrative once more. Linux when it entered the scene, shook Windows to its very foundation. Hmm, now Linux Games definitely sounds good…
Via Playfuls
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