(Disclaimer: I am a die hard PC gamer)
So there is a big fuss recently about "consolitis". I found this argument quite often:
"People need to understand that games development is a business and for any business to survive it needs to sell to as many people as possible."
Seems correct, right? Wrong. Why BMW, Mercedes, Porsche survive so good without selling to as many people as possible? I mean, they obviously cater to a different crowd than, say, Toyota or Honda, but they are still doing quite well.
So why there is only "consolitis", no "Hondalitis", etc? Well, the problem is, it is an industrial norm that PC games and console games sell for the same price (bar $10 MS/Sony royalties). Developers/publishers make same amount of money from PC games and console games. But developing for PC obviously is more costly (both financially and intellectually), because of high demand from PC gamers, complexities and graphic etc.
PC gamers all advocate that gaming on PC is a premium experience (relative to console). So let's charge premium price for a premium experience. Charge more for high quality PC exclusives. Like BMW and Mercedes charge more for their cars than Toyota and Honda's.
Before you call me an idiot, I tell there are already developers out their doing that. See: Blizzard. Blizzard deliver high quality PC exclusives. But they always charge "outrageous" price for their games. Long before even video games on consoles were $50, they charge #60 for their games (Diablo 2, Warcraft 3 for sure; I heard they also charge $60 for Starcraft back then). Even today, the MSRP of Diablo 2 + XPack is still $40. An almost 10 year old game! But if I hadn't bought it, I would buy it in a heartbeat.
OK, that's just my 2 cents.
So there is a big fuss recently about "consolitis". I found this argument quite often:
"People need to understand that games development is a business and for any business to survive it needs to sell to as many people as possible."
Seems correct, right? Wrong. Why BMW, Mercedes, Porsche survive so good without selling to as many people as possible? I mean, they obviously cater to a different crowd than, say, Toyota or Honda, but they are still doing quite well.
So why there is only "consolitis", no "Hondalitis", etc? Well, the problem is, it is an industrial norm that PC games and console games sell for the same price (bar $10 MS/Sony royalties). Developers/publishers make same amount of money from PC games and console games. But developing for PC obviously is more costly (both financially and intellectually), because of high demand from PC gamers, complexities and graphic etc.
PC gamers all advocate that gaming on PC is a premium experience (relative to console). So let's charge premium price for a premium experience. Charge more for high quality PC exclusives. Like BMW and Mercedes charge more for their cars than Toyota and Honda's.
Before you call me an idiot, I tell there are already developers out their doing that. See: Blizzard. Blizzard deliver high quality PC exclusives. But they always charge "outrageous" price for their games. Long before even video games on consoles were $50, they charge #60 for their games (Diablo 2, Warcraft 3 for sure; I heard they also charge $60 for Starcraft back then). Even today, the MSRP of Diablo 2 + XPack is still $40. An almost 10 year old game! But if I hadn't bought it, I would buy it in a heartbeat.
OK, that's just my 2 cents.