Not accomodating for a wider range of users is part of the problem leading to poor PC game sales
Them console gamers are uppity with them new fangled hardware, stealing the spotlight from PC gaming! Yet according to Relic Entertainment's senior producer Tim Holman, part of the blame for PC game sales that come up short compared to those for console software should go to the developers themselves. Relic (based here in Vancouver, as it so happens) are the folks behind the Homeworld, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War, and the Company of Heroes series.
Modern PC setups are wide and varied thanks to their components, yet Holman explains the trouble with the PC gaming industry is their focus on the high-end enthusiast market as the only way forward. Meanwhile, the most successful PC games (including World of Warcraft and The Sims) don't even require the latest and greatest hardware to run well. Not accomodating for a broader range of setups will be detrimental to PC gaming in more ways than one:
"I think one of the things that hurt PC gaming is PC developers. If you make a game with such high-end requirements that only people with a $6,000 PC can play it at a decent framerate, of course your sales are going to drop. And of course people are going to pirate your game more, because they don't want to invest in your game first. They want to try it first for free [to see if it's compatible with their hardware]."I think PC developers shoot themselves in the foot to a large degree. A lot of companies are guilty of that."
Holman is cluing us in on one of the dirtier secrets of the enthusiast PC hardware market; manufacturers are counting on you to upgrade your hardware to play select games the way they're meant to be played. That works well enough for those who count themselves as enthusiasts and early adopters of components, but this group just isn't big enough nowadays.
All that said, Holman disagrees that PC gaming is "dying". While not everyone out there has a rig worthy of playing the latest PC games, it's still unlikely a majority of those with PCs can't play any of the mass-market titles.
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Up until I was pretty much 25, it seemed my computer always just made the minimum requirements.
Crysis was the complete worse recent example of this. Only like 1 in 1000 computers could play that game properly.
Any way pc gaming is fine it will never die. Here is a list of games coming to the pc.
http://adrianwerner.wordpress.com/
I would say that pc gaming has alot of low end games and not enough high end games. Crysis sold well over 1.6 mill very rarely does a pc game sell so well unless it was a g reallygood game. look at spore it sold over 2 mill.
I personaly think that there are some game devs and people out there that wants to destory the pc gaming.
lets look at epic game attacking pc gaming over the years
http://pc.ign.com/articles/858/858259p1.html
http://www.aeropause.com/2007/12/unreal-tournament-iii-for-the-pc-sinks-while-crysis-aims-high/
now think about id software,ubisoft,lucas arts,fable game dev, crytek!!!
Anyhow, developers are in a double bind. They need to appeal to as broad a range of audience as possible for their game, as well as following the graphical curve. Games can end up ignored by a lot of people, simply because they don't look quite as good as a similar type of title, even if that was deliberate (in the sense of making the game available to those that can't play the better looking, similar title).
Now, games these days have different settings for different types of hardware, but it only allows so much...And usually the lowest settings are utter crap compared to the high end settings. You wouldn't feel like you're playing a modern game, so much as you're playing a dated game. Or you'd just feel like you bought a game, only to be able to access a fraction of what it is capable, and feel annoyed by that...
Console gaming eliminates those problems. People don't have to worry about the trouble associated with PC gaming . That's what makes it more attractive to non-hardware enthusiasts...
Basically, developers can only afford to trade so much of one important aspect of modern gaming, for another important (business) aspect.
Niche titles though, would be different. WoW has high popularity as an online game, and since it is a MMORPG, instead of a standard RPG, it can get away with lower requirements, since it appeals to a particular group. Though they might have to change a bit in the future, on account of the number of competing MMORPGs (especially the free to play online ones).
As for PC gaming, its definitely frustrating. And one of the most painful things is spending on hardware then finding out that it doesn't cut it any more. I don't think it will change anytime soon though to be honest. My hardware is moving towards the bottom of the requirement's list fast, and I upgraded only a few months ago.
That and the fact your numbers don't make any sense. Why output the game in 1024x600, then redraw it. Rather than just put it out in 1920x1080? I mean, it makes no sense.
I've never heard about this though, I'm just saying that's why they would do it.
1. They are not sure if their machine can even play it. In other words, the games system requirements might be to high to play well (a descent framerate) or even at all. How much would it suck to know you paid $50 for a game that does not even run on a machine you paid over $800 for?
2. They don't know if they will like it. Simply put, do to piracy and the fact that some games can run without a disc, it is not logical to let people rent PC games like you could a console game. Similar to the above statement, how much would it suck to by a game for $50 dollars and waste over 1 hour installing it just to find out that you do not like the game.While both consoles and PC games have demos (and believe me, I LOVE the idea of demos just as much as the next guy), demos do not tell you how long a game will last before you get bored of it or beat the game (maybe that really fun game has a 10 hour campaign and no multiplayer)
3. Its easy and free. This is, of course, the biggest insentive to pirate anything, including games. Their are tons of websites supporting pirating and tons of other ways of doing it besides online, compared the the relatively few (if any) ways of pirating for consoles.In addition, with other issues such as DRM not allowing some PC gamers to even access the game, piracy looks like (to some people) the only way to get a hold of a PC game.
These people shied away from PC exclusive gaming, and had a good reason to- money. Like it or not, video game companies are businesses to, and are always looking for ways to profit more than they already are. This could be anything from making a really good game (and they do do it for the fans, but also for the money) or widening their market to include the console market, or possibly walking away from PC gaming and developing for consoles.
While it probably wont "die" anytime soon, there is always the possibility. The thing PC gaming needs to do to stay "alive" is to start to get back some more exclusive games, and rather than work to constantly make more expensive hardware, make less expensive forms of existing hardware so that people who don't want to spend $1500 dollars to play certain pc games wont have too, and the price of a PC will be closer to the price of a console. Also, while you can not rent pc games, what valve did with Team Fortress 2 is genius- make the full game available for one weekend. This essentially acts as a free rental for two days. If more developers did this and the other things I listed above, PC gaming would have significantly more appeal than it does now.
Having said that, I think PC games should at least perform well and look as good on an $800 PC as a console port does at the same relative resolution.
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