Are PC’s the gaming revolution?
Phil Cameron posted a really nice opinion piece on Gamasutra called ’The PC As Champion of the Game Revolution‘. In it, he opines that the PC is really where gaming began and where it continues to evolve – especially due to the nature to support indie development. Here are his salient points:
- Input devices – the PC supports keyboards as well as other types of controllers. But, its the unique nature of the keyboard vs. consoles / DSes / iPhones that make a big difference.
- The community – developers can leverage the Internet and gaming communities to learn and hone their craft.
- PC gamers – as supported by the subscriber base of PC games such as World of Warcraft, there is still a sizable audience of gamers.
While I think his points are interesting, I think he is confusing device (i.e., the PC) with connectivity.
Today’s PC is built with the idea of connectivity in mind. After all, the major uses of home computers is using email, browsing the web and using it for basic productivity software. When you play games, it’s natural that you are going to use all the infrastructure of the Internet and the communication it allows. Additionally, developers can leverage this same connectivity and community structure to help learn how to develop, how to test their ideas, etc.
Consoles were traditionally created to focus on the social living room instead of the virtual living room. Instead of having just 1 keyboard, they have 4 (or more!) controllers – allowing players in the same room to play together. But, times have changed – now virtually all consoles are connected to the Internet, allowing virtual living room play, access to broad communities and, yes, support for major indie games (see XBox Live Arcade).
Do I think PC gaming is dying? Eventually – yes. Laptops are being replaced with netbooks, and MacBooks can now be used to play juts about any PC game. The idea of spending $3,000 for a gaming machine just doesn’t make sense any more – and developers / publishers are going to try and make their game play on as many devices as possible. Physical stores such as GameStop just about require publishers of PC games to also have console versions of their games available as well.
The next revolution in gaming is connectivity – and while PC’s will certainly be part of that, it will ultimately be pushed by the consoles – and most likely Microsoft in the near term.
