Letters To The Editor: Submit A Letter
View All Letters 
| 01.04.2007A nitpickers response to Why bother with episodic games?
He said:
"There are over 230 million PCs in use in the United States alone, and PCs are present in 78% of homes according to the Computer Industry Almanac. There are 100 million video game consoles in U.S. households according to The NPD group, with a penetration of 40%. So the PC is, bar none, the most pervasive system on which to play games."
Then he goes on to say how it makes the least money, well duh! PC's aren't just for games! It's no small wonder the size of the market is enormous. You can't guarantee that most people that use a PC are "Gamers" in the traditional sense of the term.
Next he forgets the history of the upgrade wars in the PC industry... The insane video card and CPU wars that gave birth to the most powerful hardware ever created for consoles, this Generations consoles (Wii, PS3, Xbox360) all have graphics hardware developed for PC gaming in them. The whole reason console games look as good as the do is because of the "golden age" of PC gaming, around the time of 3Dfx and early Nvidia.
The gaming demographic has huge crossover between game consoles and PC, that is also not mentioned. Gamers are CROSS PLATFORM, they are not proprietary gamers, they only have so much funds to spend on the different platforms they own.
He also forgets how enticing it must be for developers to make something on the level of success as World of Warcraft, that is millions of players... paying monthly fee's to play what is basically a single player game with other people against the computer.
The truth is PC game sales are low because crappy PC games are being released. It's FPS after FPS, or sequel after sequel.
Game developers and hardware manufacturers (This means ALL hardware manufacturers, Nintendo, ATI, Nvidia, etc) are the ones who are driving gamings costs up. Gamers didn't get up and rebel one day and say "I need to upgrade my console or my video card because the graphics suck and I wont buy any more games". Companies did that.
Companies have enormous power to shape and influence the market, they control what hardware is released. The truth is the hardware market is what drives game development costs through the roof, not gamers. And I'm sick and tired of hearing whining developers and their companies complain about the gaming market, when they created the situation they are currently in. Developers should have rebelled against the release of the PS3, Xbox 360 and the Wii... was there really any need to INCREASE development costs again for developers for marginal improvement in graphics?
They (the industry) are ones filled with technolust and trying to push expensive technology and high-tech visuals on the market. Not the consumer.
I'd really like to see an article on how the hardware industry is to blame for game development costs rather then the end users of console and computer games. They don't decide anything but whether or not to buy a game based on how fun it is and how much they enjoy it.-Zack Langleuf
|
|
|
|
|
Letters to the Editor
