It's almost as though...decreasing the selection in gaming decreases the demand.WaysideMaze said:
What a shocking development!
In all seriousness, this is to be expected when publishers have tried as hard as they could to force as much of the AAA gaming market to comply with the console model...then the consoles become outdated and the hardware market saturated.
Worse for them: the Big Three continue to pussyfoot around making half-hearted commitments (if any) to supporting/creating new hardware.
Result: A decline in sales.
"Maybe PC can save us!"
I don't think it will.
Not unless the AAA Publishers start announcing more PC games that aren't ports.
If they had such intentions I suspect they would have announced them at E3.
PC will continue to "tread water" as it has for ~7 years now; but I concede that it stands to become more relevant if either Sony or Microsoft doesn't announce a new console.
"But Steam--!"
Even Steam is (in part) subject to this since a significant number of their AAA offerings are still just ports. Steam has stability due to the booming Indie Game scene and PC's small trove of niche' markets (RTS), but said scene isn't on the level of the entirety of AAA gaming.
Not yet.
"But Diablo 3--!"
One game does not solve the problem of Diversity in Offerings, and that is what is causing sales to slump. You will see a spike in sales from D3, but the long-term problem will remain in spite of D3's success.
(and this assumes D3 continues to be as successful as it was on launch; which for once, might actually be questionable due to the negative backlash I see online.
For once, I have to question if said backlash represents a larger proportion of the "Vocal Minority" than I've come to expect. If nothing else, it's hard to ignore overt action like South Korea completely shitting on Blizzard for D3's poor service.)
Come back a year later; everything may look much brighter for the Publishers assuming...
1)..Sony or Microsoft announce the ACTUAL next-gen consoles (and let Nintendo continue acting as gaming's equivalent of Fisher Price)
2)..That more of said publishers haven't merged or otherwise gone out of business.
I don't think it will.
Not unless the AAA Publishers start announcing more PC games that aren't ports.
If they had such intentions I suspect they would have announced them at E3.
PC will continue to "tread water" as it has for ~7 years now; but I concede that it stands to become more relevant if either Sony or Microsoft doesn't announce a new console.
"But Steam--!"
Even Steam is (in part) subject to this since a significant number of their AAA offerings are still just ports. Steam has stability due to the booming Indie Game scene and PC's small trove of niche' markets (RTS), but said scene isn't on the level of the entirety of AAA gaming.
Not yet.
"But Diablo 3--!"
One game does not solve the problem of Diversity in Offerings, and that is what is causing sales to slump. You will see a spike in sales from D3, but the long-term problem will remain in spite of D3's success.
(and this assumes D3 continues to be as successful as it was on launch; which for once, might actually be questionable due to the negative backlash I see online.
For once, I have to question if said backlash represents a larger proportion of the "Vocal Minority" than I've come to expect. If nothing else, it's hard to ignore overt action like South Korea completely shitting on Blizzard for D3's poor service.)
Come back a year later; everything may look much brighter for the Publishers assuming...
1)..Sony or Microsoft announce the ACTUAL next-gen consoles (and let Nintendo continue acting as gaming's equivalent of Fisher Price)
2)..That more of said publishers haven't merged or otherwise gone out of business.
ASIDE:
Nope. This is the only post I'm making.
I filled out the captcha and it still slings this shit at me. Annoying.
