5th September 2010, 4:06 PM
True, but even so it's true that there is less variety of genres in high-budget PC games than there are on consoles. It's something I've been complaining about for years, comparing the variety of '90s PC games to the serious lack of variety (genrewise) that we have today.
Still, within each of those genres there is massive depth and variety, and the genres PCs still have they do very, very well. I would say that Weltall is definitely wrong when he says that "a person who, forced to choose one and forsake the other, chooses the PC over consoles had better really like a certain, narrow group of genres." The genres on the PC are very far from narrow.
Yes, AAA PC gaming is in horrible shape compared to where it was, and the North American PC-specific gaming development industry is pretty much gone, MMO developers (and Blizzard) aside. But games from Europe have been improving in quality; few of them are well known here, but in genres like strategy games, the amount of variety today is almost good as it ever has been, the games are just coming from different places (and are usually digital-download-centric now, retail PC is dead in North America... I think that's a huge problem, but that's a different issue).
So yeah, I definitely think that PC gaming is a lot down from where it was in the '90s, but its inherent advantages mean that it never completely goes away, and lots of games are still coming out on the PC, mostly MMOs, European games, and console ports, yes, but that's a lot of variety there.
Oh yeah, and indie stuff, which the PC still definitely dominates. Steam has been an incredible boost to indie developers... I don't like Steam very much, but it has been very good for them, which is great.
Still, within each of those genres there is massive depth and variety, and the genres PCs still have they do very, very well. I would say that Weltall is definitely wrong when he says that "a person who, forced to choose one and forsake the other, chooses the PC over consoles had better really like a certain, narrow group of genres." The genres on the PC are very far from narrow.
Yes, AAA PC gaming is in horrible shape compared to where it was, and the North American PC-specific gaming development industry is pretty much gone, MMO developers (and Blizzard) aside. But games from Europe have been improving in quality; few of them are well known here, but in genres like strategy games, the amount of variety today is almost good as it ever has been, the games are just coming from different places (and are usually digital-download-centric now, retail PC is dead in North America... I think that's a huge problem, but that's a different issue).
So yeah, I definitely think that PC gaming is a lot down from where it was in the '90s, but its inherent advantages mean that it never completely goes away, and lots of games are still coming out on the PC, mostly MMOs, European games, and console ports, yes, but that's a lot of variety there.
Oh yeah, and indie stuff, which the PC still definitely dominates. Steam has been an incredible boost to indie developers... I don't like Steam very much, but it has been very good for them, which is great.