Has the breath of titles, and maybe more importantly the genres of games with significant representation on the PC platform, shrunk over recent years? Certainly. The processing power and hype around next-gen consoles, the unstoppable popularity of the Wii and the hefty system requirements of modern, high-end PC games have combined to make this a foregone conclusion. But if you think that PC games are destined to soon reside next to the sad little stack of titles known as Mac games, think again. The one constant in a technology-based industry is evolution, and that’s just what this is. As I look around my basement at the three PCs in plain view, I’m pretty certain that there will always be more PCs and PC owners than gaming consoles and console owners (full disclosure: there are plenty of game consoles down here as well), so the base for PC gaming is assured as far as I’m concerned and for now that base is simply trending more towards online-centric game genres and casual gaming, and this isn’t a bad place at all to be at all.
What seems like a lifetime ago (’96-’97), I worked for a PC gaming platform called the Total Entertainment Network. Launched a few years before the PS2 would carve out the modern console market as we know it, TEN was one of the first high-profile PC gaming platforms on the Web. Juiced with venture capital, in its first year or so, it offered free low-latency/high bandwidth multiplayer Windows NT-based PC gaming, featuring titles like Dark Sun Online, Quake 2, Duke Nukem, Diablo, Masters of Orion II, NASCAR Online, C&C: Red Alert and yes, Warcraft. All players needed were the games and patience, since you were almost certainly playing on dial-up. The fun didn’t last though, as funding dwindled and the service adopted a pay to play model. It didn’t take dial-up customers long to get fed up with paying to be slaughtered by lamers on ISDN and T1 connections. This coupled with the rise of free developer-built and maintained gaming platforms like Battle.net soon sealed the deal. The point of this stroll down memory lane is that the current PC game industry needs to look back at its own history. In the TEN example, online play thrived when a free platform for play was available. Ten years later the powers that be and those that want to be powers in the PC MMO market should realize that what should be free are the games; digital downloads, free with the purchase of a time card, etc... WOW has proven that a good game--at least within the MMO realm--will keep players paying monthly subscription fees for months and even years to come, so why scare players off with an initial price tag and in the process encumber an already challenged industry sector?
Bringing EA back into the mix I, have my doubts whether this argument has occurred to them--too much money and consolidation there--even though with their upcoming Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, they have what could be shaping up to be a bonafide WOW challenger. They clearly see that the landscape has changed and as such have decided to leave favorites like Madden to the consoles, but I think that they are focused on the console, not the PC, which is odd since they also have and will continue to milk the profitable Sims franchise. Ironically, EA ended up buying the defunct Total Entertainment Network, which after it gave up on its initial online model changed its name to pogo.com and went on to be a profitable casual game destination. In an age of consolidation companies can almost always be counted on to go for the quick buck instead of playing for the the long haul. If EA won't take the plunge maybe Acti-Blizz will, especially with Lich King, Starcraft II and eventually a new version of Diablo on the horizon. They've got a good thing going though as long as
--Hobson's Choice
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