There was a time when personal computers were the tools of choice for hard-core gamers. But four years ago, on the brink of the release of the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, analysts were proclaiming the death of PC gaming.
These new consoles – well, Sony's PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox – were more powerful than the computers at the time, and were integrating with home entertainment systems to provide high definition experiences beyond just gaming. Nintendo, meanwhile, offered a completely new approach to gaming with its Wiimote controllers.
And this year, Electronic Arts decided to kill the PC versions of many of its popular sports titles, including Madden NFL 09, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and NBA Live. LucasArts is releasing The Force Unleashed, its new Star Wars title, on every platform except PC.
Even developers who built their companies by producing games for computers are now turning to console development.
Crytek's Stan Huebler has indicated that his company, which stunned the industry with its PC-processing intensive Crysis, won't be making any more PC exclusive titles, and id Software's John Carmack told Tom's Hardware Guide that one reason his company, the creator of Doom and Quake, is developing games for consoles is because “the sales numbers on the PC are not what they used to be and are not what they are on the consoles.”
The reason for that, says Rahul Sood, founder of the specialty computer manufacturer VoodooPC and now chief technology officer for Hewlett Packard's global gaming business, is that the distribution model for PC games is changing.
“It's going online,” he says. “There's a much higher distribution of PC games online than there ever was before, and it's growing.”
The PC Gaming Alliance, an industry group that counts AMD, Intel, and nVidia among its members, released a report in August stating that PC gaming was worth $10.7-billion (U.S.) in 2007, but only 30 per cent of that figure was accounted for by retail. Online revenue was worth double that of retail sales.
Capturing some of that market is one reason that Dragon Age, by Edmonton-based BioWare, is getting a PC release.
“The traditional tracking methods don't really reflect all the revenue that's coming into the market,” says Ray Muzyka, general manager of BioWare and a vice-president of Electronic Arts. “EA and BioWare are looking for new models.”
“The market is changing and it's up to us to respond,” Mr. Muzyka says, citing internal research suggesting that more than 260 million PCs worldwide have been used to play games. That's an install base that dwarfs all the consoles added together.
Mr. Muzyka explains that the PC platform is the “natural place” for Dragon Age, a game he calls the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate, a PC game released by BioWare in 1998. PC fans, he says, “are an important audience for us.”
Indeed, recent growth in PC gaming suggests that its death may have been pronounced too soon.
“Video games are a cyclical industry,” says Ryan Bidan, games product manager for Microsoft Canada. Mr. Bidan says that in an era of new consoles, game makers need to focus additional resources on figuring out how to create games for the new hardware, but once development efficiencies have been established, those resources can be diverted back to creating titles for PC.
At this year's E3 trade show in July, there were more games than ever tagged with “PC” and “Games for Windows” logos. EA has the likes of Dead Space, Left 4 Dead, Mirror's Edge, and Rage all pending on PC, Ubisoft is supporting the platform with Far Cry 2 and Prince of Persia, while Bethesda's Fallout 3 and Activision's Guitar Hero World Tour are also arriving for the home computer. Grand Theft Auto IV hits the PC in November, and BioWare's forthcoming Dragon Age is starting out as a PC exclusive.
