The End of PC Gaming: Part II
Why won't the media let this go? It's no secret pc gaming will continue to lose ground as the cost of building /maintaining / updating pcs skyrockets.

Not going to happen

We've all heard the news by now, gaming on the PC is dead; the console has won.

This declaration has left a few people, including myself, scratching our heads.

Mark Rein from Epic Games, who was in charge of the development team on Unreal Engine 3, as well as being responsible for the creation of titles like Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War has pointed out the cost problems of developing DX10 games. The price of a higher end DX10 compatible PC graphics card does not compare favourably to the price of a console, in some extreme cases you will pay double the amount for a graphics card than you would for a console. More to the point, a console is ready to be plugged into a TV and played, whereas you have just gotten started on building a gaming PC by purchasing a graphics card, there is still much work to be done and money to be spent.

id Software has declared the same outcome. The PC will become second fiddle to the console; their programmers will focus on developing games primarily for the console and then port them to the PC (maybe). They are so convinced that this is the way to go that they have attached Xbox 360 controllers to every single PC at id, to get their programmers in the console mindset. This move reflects their new philosophy; where once they focused on pushing graphics cards to the utmost limit, now they will focus on gameplay, and ensuring the games will run on any system, not just high end systems.

The Good(?), The Bad and The Ugly

It's hard to spot the good in this move, unless you own a store that sells games. Less PC games is certainly not a benefit to the PC gamer, nor is it likely to improve console gaming to any great extent, except to speed up the release dates for sequels and provide more retail shelf space. Console gamers don't demand groundbreaking new experiences in gaming as vocally as PC gamers, unless you are talking about certain, very specific new features. The console experience benefits more from being able to pick up a game and master the basics in a very short amount of time, allowing the player to get to the meat of the game, usually the fancy graphics and powerful bosses. There are certainly exceptions, mostly published by SquareSoft or EA Sports, that can require more from the casual gamer than your average console game, with either a lot that needs to be learned before you are proficient at the game, or with a huge memorable story line.

It seems unlikely that id Software or Epic are planning to devote most of their development teams energies to that type of game, when many console gamers would be happier with a Gears of War sequel. The PC gamer enjoys having a huge learning curve as long as the game is immersive enough. When the rewards are there, either through the storyline or the sheer joy of the challenge presented in taking over a city, country, planet or universe, a PC gamer will quite happily invest serious amounts of time to be able to complete the game. In certain games there is no set ending to your play, the games leaves you in an open environment once the main storyline has been completed where you are free to do whatever you wish. Many PC gamers thrive on the complexity that goes against the basic premise used when programming a top selling console game.

Read all about it here, courtesy of PCper.com

Eric