id Software: PC Gaming "Not Dead, But Different"

Tom Goldman

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Aug 17, 2009
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id Software: PC Gaming "Not Dead, But Different"



Id Software believes that the reason everybody thinks PC gaming is dying is simply because it's changing.

PC gaming isn't dead, and isn't going to die, so why does the topic keep coming up? Id Software's Todd Hollenshead and Tim Willits offer their views on the subject, saying that the PC market is definitely different than it used to be, but that's not because it's going under.

Hollenshead, id studio president, aligns any slowdown in PC sales to that of the release of new consoles. He told IGN [http://pc.ign.com/articles/111/1112513p1.html]: "Because of the great games you have coming out on the consoles, and for a period of time, the consoles were pretty competitive technically with the PC, [PC] has receded in prominence. Hollenshead believes: "These things happen over time and every time consoles come out, people proclaim the death of PC and then it may struggle for awhile and have its issues, but it tends to be resilient."

"It's probably getting back to the point right now where technically on the PCs you're going to be able to start doing more and more things that you can't do on the consoles," he said. And without new consoles anywhere on the horizon, this may give the PC a chance to get further ahead technically. Hollenshead admits that retail isn't the same way it used to be for PC games, saying it's in "third place" behind the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but doesn't think that means "it's doomed to continue to recede or can't come back."

Id Creative Director Tim Willits thinks the PC market is "definitely changing," and that the "biggest struggle ... is that piracy is out of control." Willits sees PC gaming going towards "client architectures and cloud gaming" and "games that are more social" as the industry moves to combat piracy. "Look at Facebook," he says. "There are more people playing that silly Farmville than play Call of Duty [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Black-Ops-Pc/dp/B003JVF728/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1281906872&sr=8-5]." Hollenshead seems to agree with Willits' final statement: "PC gaming is not dead, but it is a bit different than it was in the past."

Compare PC gaming to the other industries. Just because Blockbuster isn't there anymore doesn't mean nobody rents or watches movies. Just because nobody goes to arcades anymore doesn't mean the entire videogame industry is dying. As id points out, the market has changed, and the PC side of it is different now. Everybody is either just buying the new World of Warcraft expansion every two years (or StarCraft [http://www.amazon.com/Starcraft-II-Wings-Liberty-Pc/dp/B000ZKA0J6/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1281906795&sr=1-1] every ten), playing Farmville, or buying games on Steam. Not really, but pretty much, right?

Source: IGN [http://pc.ign.com/articles/111/1112513p1.html]

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Jul 22, 2009
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Hooray for sensible people! :D

Farmville needs to die sometime... oh well.

Back to Dawn Of War 2 ;D

Time for some crazy retro quoting...

dradiscontact said:
Steam has pretty much completely changed my buying habits when it comes to PC games. And for other people too, I'm sure. It's had a big impact on PC gaming. But GFWL? The only way GFWL has affected PC gaming is by making it look bad. Seriously, I don't know anyone who has ever had anything good to say about it.
I think GFWL is a potentially excellent service. It is not as popular as Steam and far behind on it's need for updates to incorporate more systems and possibilities but when it works it hosts a variety of excellent Live and non-Live games and I use it regularly.

In fact the only reason I boot up Steam at the moment is because Dawn Of War 2 uses both... and I'd much rather only boot up GFWL.

Also... looks like you got quite a few quotes for that post ;D not quite as unpopular as you thought?
 

Sixties Spidey

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Jan 24, 2008
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There's a difference. Facebook and Farmville are a lot more accessible than buying an FPS like Call of Duty. There's a reason why Farmville and WoW are so popular. (Read: Piss Easy GrindFest.) To me, the PC is changing slowly but surely into a console. Say what you want, but look at Steam and GFWL and how that's affecting PC gaming.

He's mentioning piracy and how that's out of control, but I don't think that's a good excuse at all. Buying games for the PC is a lot easier than buying games for the console. Steam is inexpensive and convenient. Retail isn't. Is it a wonder why people pirate?
 

steamweedlegoblin

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buy teh haloz said:
To me, the PC is changing slowly but surely into a console. Say what you want, but look at Steam and GFWL and how that's affecting PC gaming.
Steam has pretty much completely changed my buying habits when it comes to PC games. And for other people too, I'm sure. It's had a big impact on PC gaming. But GFWL? The only way GFWL has affected PC gaming is by making it look bad. Seriously, I don't know anyone who has ever had anything good to say about it.
 

-Torchedini-

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Dec 28, 2009
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Jup steam. And recently discoverd gamersgate. Got some awesome old games there.
And gamersgate does have a summersale now. Money's flying out the window right now ;)
 

-Torchedini-

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dradiscontact said:
buy teh haloz said:
To me, the PC is changing slowly but surely into a console. Say what you want, but look at Steam and GFWL and how that's affecting PC gaming.
Steam has pretty much completely changed my buying habits when it comes to PC games. And for other people too, I'm sure. It's had a big impact on PC gaming. But GFWL? The only way GFWL has affected PC gaming is by making it look bad. Seriously, I don't know anyone who has ever had anything good to say about it.
Well. I used it with Burnout:Ultimate carnage. It works well enough. But then again you need games. And microsoft cant push it so everybody's using it. So it will never work like on the xbox. And the xbox version of live is just great. Servers are much better then on psn and so on.
 

lijenstina

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Because of the huge loses that both Microsoft and Sony had in the first couple of years of consoles life span by selling the hardware bellow the cost of production to saturate (dumping) the market and at the same time locking Studios with console only exclusives - PC gaming is in decline for a couple of years until console hardware starts seriously to suck again.

I think this is a better wording.
 

Worgen

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Apr 1, 2009
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Whatever, just wash your hands.
dradiscontact said:
buy teh haloz said:
To me, the PC is changing slowly but surely into a console. Say what you want, but look at Steam and GFWL and how that's affecting PC gaming.
Steam has pretty much completely changed my buying habits when it comes to PC games. And for other people too, I'm sure. It's had a big impact on PC gaming. But GFWL? The only way GFWL has affected PC gaming is by making it look bad. Seriously, I don't know anyone who has ever had anything good to say about it.
sometimes with gfwl you can get achievements with pc games, thats really the only good thing you can say about it
 

Sixties Spidey

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Jan 24, 2008
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dradiscontact said:
buy teh haloz said:
To me, the PC is changing slowly but surely into a console. Say what you want, but look at Steam and GFWL and how that's affecting PC gaming.
Steam has pretty much completely changed my buying habits when it comes to PC games. And for other people too, I'm sure. It's had a big impact on PC gaming. But GFWL? The only way GFWL has affected PC gaming is by making it look bad. Seriously, I don't know anyone who has ever had anything good to say about it.
When the original Xbox Live service was discontinued, many of my friends migrated to the PC version of Halo 2. Considering they all have Xbox Live Gold accounts, yeah, I appreciate that the 360 Live and Windows Live services are compatible with each other. It's more of a personal opinion kinda basis for that argument, but it's still nonetheless useful for people with access to a Gold Account and a decent running PC who want to jump right in to PC gaming.
 

zehydra

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Oct 25, 2009
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PC gaming will die the day the PC's die. And that, my friends, will be a sad day.
 

MGlBlaze

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Oct 28, 2009
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Horray for sensible people!

PC gaming may not be changing in ways we all like sometimes, but things will settle down eventually. For a while, anyway. Change will always come and go here and there.

We do need to put our feet down on some things, though. Ubisoft got the message eventually, after all.
 

Tinneh

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Oct 10, 2009
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Worgen said:
dradiscontact said:
buy teh haloz said:
To me, the PC is changing slowly but surely into a console. Say what you want, but look at Steam and GFWL and how that's affecting PC gaming.
Steam has pretty much completely changed my buying habits when it comes to PC games. And for other people too, I'm sure. It's had a big impact on PC gaming. But GFWL? The only way GFWL has affected PC gaming is by making it look bad. Seriously, I don't know anyone who has ever had anything good to say about it.
sometimes with gfwl you can get achievements with pc games, thats really the only good thing you can say about it
That doesn't even work half the time. I want my Fallout 3 achievements!
 

lijenstina

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Jun 18, 2008
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Developers will crawl back to the PC's turf after scratching their heads in wonder - how anyone could possibly make a game using just 512 mb of RAM :p
 

Snotnarok

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Nov 17, 2008
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PC gaming is evolving, not going away. Developers are trying to figure out how to make games on the platform without it getting 90% pirated.

Hell with games like Starcraft 2 and such being put out how is this even a subject? You think they'll put Starcraft 2 out for 64 and it'd be as good? (Ba-dum-tish) No it wouldn't.
 

samsonguy920

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Mar 24, 2009
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Nice to see one well known company still has faith in the PC market. I eagerly await their work on their new engine, as well as Doom 4. And Rage. And anything Bethesda makes with it.
 

Blue Musician

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Mar 23, 2010
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buy teh haloz said:
To me, the PC is changing slowly but surely into a console.
Er, I would say consoles are getting more like a PC actually.

OT: While it's interesting, I wonder when iD will make a good PC game since Doom 3, Quake 4 and Wolfenstein weren't good games on the PC and I do not think Rage will change my opinion.