More id on PC Gaming [Mar 20, 2008, 08:33 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
GamesIndustry.biz has more quotes on the state of PC gaming, this time from
Steve Nix, id Software Director of Business Development. Nix feels some of the
hardcore PC gaming audience is shifting to consoles, something id cannot
ignore:
"There are plenty of people who are diehard mouse and keyboard guys that may never go to console, and also right now, if you have the highest of high-end PCs, you're generally going to get a better visual experience," Nix said. "There's no console out there that's as powerful as a God machine right now, with a Quad-Core and a GeForce 8800 - it's very hard for any console to compete with that."
"So you still have PC players, and some players are just console guys, but have players moved over? Absolutely. We love PC gaming, and we continue to support PC gaming - but you can't ignore the market realities and the size of the console market these days."
I keep wondering, is it really that the PC market is shrinking or is it just that the console market is exploding? I'd actually be willing to bet that the PC market is even bigger than it was five years ago, just nowhere near how much bigger the console market has become.
I'd be happy to switch over to consoles, and I've been playing exclusively PC games since 1990, but only if the sort of games I'm interested in were developed for them. The problem is that I tend to prefer niche games and it costs too much to develop for consoles.
My favorite game right now (Evochron) was developed by one guy in his spare time. That would never happen on a console. It seems like unless you can sell a couple hundred-thousand copies minimum, there is no point in developing console games.
One of the ironic things about this is that we were having the same argument in the early nineties when the "16-bit" consoles were released and it was id with Wolf3D that showed action games could be better on the PC. It was also id, with their early support of 3D-accelerators with glQuake, that showed 3D games were better on the PC than the next generation of consoles.
Now, we've got WoW that's showing how much better PC games are for online play with MMOGs, but I ****** hate role playing games.
I'd be happy to switch over to consoles, and I've been playing exclusively PC games since 1990, but only if the sort of games I'm interested in were developed for them. The problem is that I tend to prefer niche games and it costs too much to develop for consoles.
My favorite game right now (Evochron) was developed by one guy in his spare time. That would never happen on a console. It seems like unless you can sell a couple hundred-thousand copies minimum, there is no point in developing console games.
One of the ironic things about this is that we were having the same argument in the early nineties when the "16-bit" consoles were released and it was id with Wolf3D that showed action games could be better on the PC. It was also id, with their early support of 3D-accelerators with glQuake, that showed 3D games were better on the PC than the next generation of consoles.
Now, we've got WoW that's showing how much better PC games are for online play with MMOGs, but I ****** hate role playing games.
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