I really couldn't agree with this article more.
FloodOne said:
I have a decent gaming PC, and it's filled with plenty of great titles. But the PC market doesn't supply me with some of my favorite genres, i.e. JRPGs, fighting games, hack and slash and sports titles.
Sure, I can play some great WRPGs and some stellar FPS titles, but that's not enough for me, and I cannot subsist solely on indie titles. These days, you sound like too much of a bitter old man for me to take seriously anymore.
It's of note that there's no reason they COULDN'T supply those games you like to the PC, or Mac or even a Linux operating system. They just don't, or won't. They'll make excuses, of course, but all those excuses fall flat in the face of the success of enough PC titles small to ungodly large that it's pointless to try and say, "we can't/won't because _____" because they've all been disproven by this point.
No, the controls aren't an argument either. The PC is capable of handling any form of control you like. They make a Wii-mote work on the BC. Gamepads work on the PC. I've seen people get dual screen games working on the PC. The PC is capable of handling all the controls, visuals, mechanics and more there's no question, and there's no question of the success of many PC titles. There's no reason not to, they just won't, and don't buy their, "But it'll get pirated" nonsense, because if Valve, Blizzard and others have proven anything to us over the years, it's that all the pirating in the world can't stop a smart developer from making a killing in the PC market. It's not just large developers either, plenty of large developers do have successful presence in the PC market, but countless medium to small to independent studious also have found great success on the PC platform. It's not a question anymore, it's a definite fact. PC gaming is not, nor was it ever, dying - it's stronger than ever.
kiri2tsubasa said:
Speak for your self. My PC keeps crashing and blue screening when I play games. So, yeah, consoles are my method of gaming that works 100% of the time.
Sounds like a personal issue. Windows, Linux and Mac OS all are at points where they're wholly stable for even the most casual of users, regardless of which one, two or three of three you might want to go with. Having worked in tech support long enough to know it all too well, anything I see a person with problems with their PC or Mac or whatever these days, it's almost always a problem on the user's end. There are exceptions, mind you, but they're so rare as to render you, 'keeps crashing a blue screening' nonsense laughable. Especially the bluescreen part, if you don't know why then your windows OS is old enough to make your commentary even more laughable.
UrinalDook said:
Remember when everyone laughed off the Xbox as an ugly box that would prove to be yet another misguided Microsoft blunder? Remember when, hidden in a series of largely unknown launch titles, there were a handful of images and scant details of 'yet another' FPS that happened to be called Halo?
I remember it very well. I also remember that the Original Xbox never made back its money, and that as successful as the 360 seemed at first its hardware issues kept it from ever being first to the extent that PS3 now has more sales in the latest numbers I've read, you know, the PC3 that everyone considered last for most of this generation. There's something to be said for staying power, and the 360 has proven that it doesn't have it. The original Xbox was a brick, it was ugly and though it had arguably the most power of its generation it did the worst.
Power means nothing, and when your first console didn't make its money back, and you're already putting out the 360, I see problems. When the 360 can't manage to outlast the disaster that was the PS3 (seriously, the PS3 was behind this entire generation, the fact that it's suddenly outpacing the 360 is disturbing because that usually doesn't happen - the last two generations have showed me firmly that the guy in last usually stays in last), I see problems. When your employees don't see the big deal about always online consoles, I see a problem. When Halo is no longer in the hands of Bungie, and the new studio handling Halo has proven themselves incompetent, and Bungie have gone multiplatform with their new game, I see a problem.