The Future of PC Gaming

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19113
from Stardock Forums

Earlier today I stumbled across a web interview with Chris Beatrice of Titled Mill (Children of the Nile, Caesar, SimCity Societies, etc.) that included his thoughts on the future of the PC gaming industry.  While I think the whole interview is worth a read (see the link), I've copied some of the more pertinent quotes below:

"Fighting for shelf space in tiny boutiques is absolutely not the way PC games are going to hit their sweet spot - imagine if that single shelf of best sellers at the airport magazine stand was the only book store in town! Thankfully, there are many different ways to distribute games independently now. "

"The PC has so many advantages as a gaming platform, but big budget polygon-crunching games that can only be played by a select few, with the skills and gaming system capable of doing so, do not capitalize on what makes the PC unique and wonderful for games. So I’ll come out and admit it -- we’re going to turn things down a notch in terms of budget and technology, and turn things up four or five notches in terms of originality, gameplay, fun, and connection to the people we all serve, namely, the gaming consumer. "

"My feeling is the PC gaming industry shot itself in the foot by trying to be something it’s not.   The PC as a gaming platform and its audience has some interesting and unique characteristics (just as consoles do) and the trick is to capitalize on those, and to seek out and work with other groups that also get that - since this platform and overall 'crowd' is who we are, what we love, and what we’re good at.

People want to play all sorts of games. Far, far more people own PCs than any other gaming platform, and most people are not so impressed by killer graphics technology when there’s no underlying gameplay. That characterizes us and many others as developers as well - we want to make all different kinds of games, we want to innovate, we want to focus on the game in there, not what it looks like.

We’d rather make five games in a year than one game every five years. Of course we still want our games to look great, but let’s be honest, the last five to eight years or so have really shown the diminishing returns in chasing the screenshot, if you know what I mean.

In PC games there’s a ton of opportunity, potential for originality and innovation. And I think there’s also plenty of money in the "middle" - that is, in games that sell 30,000 to 300,000 copies, rather than millions."
12,516 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Cool. I think the nintendo wii is an excellent example of how this is true. People didn't want to sell their house to buy a playstation 3 (even though it was the cheapest blue-ray player on the market) when they could spend less than half the price and get a nintendo wii. Naturally, nintendo did not let it slip that the additional controllers would cost a fortune :)
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
If this represents the current thinking of most PC Game developers, then there is hope for the PC as a gaming platform!
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I agree with him. I think the PC games industry is going to have to go down this road in future.

However, I'm not sure I can forgive Titled Mill for 'SimCity Societies'. Oh man, what did they do to SimCity! Butchers! I hope that's not what he means by 'Originality'.

He missed a couple of things though:

MMOs. Love them or hate them, they're suited to a PC better than a console. They're a money spinner too, what with these 'Micro-Transactions' (buying stuff in-game), subscription fees too. It seems like a pretty good business model to me.

Interface. Some games I dont think would work on a console, I can't imagine playing a Grand Strategy or RTS on a gamepad. Mouse & keyboard has advantages. I hope i'll be proven wrong though, I'd love to see an inovative way of interacting with a games platform. I think Nintendo had a good idea with the Wii, but there is still a way to go I think.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
id argue that the PC can have both and sustain both....the big budget titles like crysis (yes it didnt sell 20 million but it made a profit), the generally superior versions of console games like assasins creed and of course what the above dev mentions.
i think his path is certainly one path to take....and im interested to see what they can come up with. but the PC is a very broad platform....his path is not the only path. however with the increased costs of taking advantage of the latest and greatest PC tech..u can bet that a console version of that game will be quite likely. thats the trade off.