The Transformation of PC Gaming

PC Gaming is dead.

It is a phrase as old as it is meaningless, and one that has been trotted out time and time again to be beat into a bloody pulp, re-stuffed, and re-cycled.

I have played PC games since I was about twelve years old. My first PC was a 200mhz Sony Viao with God-only-knows what video cards – it cost about three thousand dollars and was absolutely top of the line for the time. One of the first PC games I remember playing was Mechwarrior 2, and I for a time I was intensely into Interstate ‘76, which I played under the moniker Funkyspeed. I haven’t been playing PC games since their invention – I’m not quite old enough to have cut my teeth on DOS games – but I have been playing them for longer than most – about ten years, which is nearly half the time I’ve been alive (I am twenty-three right now).

During all that time, this phrase has been in existence. And before that, too – people were saying it when the SNES came out. Yet it has never come true.

But that does not mean that it could not come true. An aura of pessimism has come over PC gaming recently, and it has refused to lift. Instead, it has only become more potent. PC Gaming Sales for 2007 were down over the year before, continuing a slide (relative to consoles) that began to 2004. Meanwhile, Console gaming sales have soared. This is bad enough, but is made worse – for the ‘hardcore’ PC gamer – when you see exactly where those PC game sales were located. By far the highest seller was Blizzard’s World of Warcraft expansion, the Buring Crusade, which sold 2 and a quarter million. Behind that was World of Warcraft’s base software, which almost broke a million. Five of the top-ten spots are occupied by ‘Sims’ titles.

But the real punch in the teeth are the sales figures of Command and Conquer 3 and Call of Duty 4, both of which sold in the mid-300,000 range. By comparison, the console version of Call of Duty 4 sold over three million copies for console, and Command and Conquer 3’s Xbox debut appears to have sold slightly more than its PC variant.

Those are staggering figures. Equally staggering is the insane debut of Halo, which sold more copies than all but The Burning Crusade in [i] the first day of its release [/i].

This is not to say that PC games are unprofitable as a rule, but then, that hardly matters. It is clear that with those sort of sales figures, the days of PC-exclusive big-budget titles are probably over, at least temporarily. Games are a business, after all, and big companies with the big budgets need to pull off Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, or Mass Effect have stock-holders that expect returns. No, not just returns - they expect the most profit that is possible from their investment. It is clear that consoles are now the most profitable platforms to develop for, and they also take care of nagging issues like piracy.

How this came to pass is obvious enough. PC gaming has always been an industry where software companies lead the pack. The hardware has typically been built to catch up with the requirements of the software, as has been shown by top-of-the-line titles like Morrowwind and Crysis, which at the time of their debut could not be comfortably run on anything but the most expensive equipment available. This is in contrast to the console industry, where hardware has always dictated what games are capable of.

As a result, the console industry has been capable of a coordination that the PC gaming industry has never been able to compete with. The Xbox 360 only came out with the powerful hardware that it did because Microsoft was willing to eat a loss on every single console they sold. Obviously, the software developers for the PC cannot subsidize the hardware in this fashion. PC gamers have to pay full cost for what they purchase.

When faced with the choice of laying down 250 dollars for a decent 8800 GT, or laying down 250 dollars for a Wii, the decision is obvious. But the situation is worse than that, because most people do not feel comfortable installing their own video card, even if the process is relatively simple – therefor, the choice is not between a 250 dollar video card or a 250-500 dollar console, but rather between a 1,200 dollar + gaming PC or a 250-500 dollar console. Even assuming that the consumer does not already own a PC capable of common tasks like word processing or web surfing, the Gaming PC is still a poor choice, since a desktop capable of these basic tasks can easily be purchased for 400 dollars.

It is clear, then, that the PC is no longer the platform of choice for those seeking to play big-budget, graphically intense titles, and that it probably will not be the platform of choice for at least several more years. But does that mean PC gaming is dead?

Not exactly. The calls of “PC Gaming is dead” have always focused on ‘serious’ games – which, as I’ve already implied, are usually big-budget and graphically intense titles. The Sims is doing very well for itself. So is World of Warcraft. But the fact that these games are selling so well is seen as a sort of negative, because these are not the sort of games that serious main-stream game-players play (MMO players are serious, but serious MMO players are not ‘main-stream’ in that they tend to ONLY play their MMO of choice). The Sims is what your mother plays. It isn’t hip. It isn’t cool. Its for an entirely different demographic.

That is part the transformation.

Classically, PC gaming has been almost feudalistic, with players pledging allegiance to certain games, operating systems, and video card manufactures. The barrier of entry had always been very high, because playing games required a new player to first buy the appropriate hardware, then install the game, then download any patches (and figure out how the change the gameplay), then work out possible bugs, and then figure out if they want to play the regular version or hook on some mods. The lack of flexibility that many PC gamers consider to be the weakness of Consoles is in fact the Console’s greatest strength. Consoles are simple. They’re easy. You buy it, you put in the game, and you’re good-to-go. If there are patches, they’re added and and installed automatically. Game-crashing bugs and hardware conflicts are nearly non-existent. Everyone has the same game and the same maps.

Blizzard has known that making a game difficult to play is a very bad thing, and its why they’re consistently so successful. Their games, while not exactly low-budget, are made to be run on hardware several years old, and are relatively free of game-ending bugs. Blizzard's games are easy to learn, yet have complexity that more serious players can appreciate. Their patchers don’t require much thought and those games that allow customization (I’m thinking Starcraft custom maps) are structured in such a way that customizations can be shared quickly and easily. They do not promote elitism; Blizzard wants EVERYONE to play.

Blizzard used to be unique in that approach. But I doubt they’ll be alone much longer. The Sims have been successful because it copied the gameplay part of that approach – its a very easy game to get into, and can run on older systems without problem. Valve has been trying a different approach by using Steam, which has been built in such a way that modding and add-ons by players are still common, but are controlled and distributed in one easy format (no more README.txt).

So part of the transformation is a popular one, in which the 9-to-5er with three kids can now sit down and play a PC game without feeling like they’re wasting time.

But that isn’t the only element; the transformation is also an underground one. Beyond the realm of the slick, easy-to-learn main-stream games like Starcraft, World of Warcraft, and The Sims, there are countless underground relics. Many of these are not particularly successful, but some are: take Stardock, for example, which earned fame for creating the Galactic Civilizations series. Jump into their latest version, entitled Galactic Civilizations 2: Dark Avatar, and its clear that there was a budget to be met. The graphics won’t knock your socks off, the interface is useful but particularly pretty, and the sounds are strictly budget-bin. But the gameplay kicks ass. And its very, very complex.

Galactic Civilizations 2 was created on a budget of just over one million dollars, in only 18 months. No one knows exactly how many units it has sold so far, but we do know that Stardock was proudly able to cite as being on the top-seller lists at Walmart and Amazon for several weeks after its release, and that Stardock developers commented several times that sales had well exceed expectations (I would expect so – the only firm figure I could find was 50,000 in the first two weeks, which means it sold better during its debut than the latest Unreal game).

Stardock also offers its own digital download program, where players can download various games, including the newely released Sins of a Solar Empire, which was developed by Ironclad Games and published by Stardock. Another low-budget title (though this one took quite a bit of time to put togather), Sins of a Solar Empire is currently listed as the third-highest PC game for sales. That puts it above Crysis, Bioshock, and The Orange Box.

So no, PC Gaming isn’t dead. But it is transforming. It is transforming because it the PC gaming industry has to deal with the basic fact that it is not economical to build a PC gaming machine. PC gaming of the next few years will have to forget about the strength of the hardware and instead play up the PC’s other strength – the fact that millions and millions of households have one, just waiting to be loaded up with some fun software.

PC Gaming is no longer the platform of choice for Call of Duty 5 or Unreal Tournament 2009 – but it is also becoming easier for games with mass appeal, and games with low-budget, brilliant gameplay, to take the spotlight. Thats not a bad trade. The only death to be found here is the death of the PC gaming elitist – the kind of player who likes the fact most people cannot or will not spend as much money on a gaming PC, who enjoys restricting gameplay to only a select group, and who believes games are only truly complete with their mod of choice.

And to that player, I say, farewell.