PC Games, a Dying Breed? - Blame the Pirates!
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I’m sure if you ask any of the companies involved, they will point the finger at the pirates and people that download games illegally. There are plenty of people that have the hardware to run the games and have the desire to play the games, but instead of running to the store to get them, they run to the Internet and download the full game for free. This has had an impact on PC games' sales in recent years. Different groups claim different amounts of piracy, so the real numbers are hard to figure out.
This doesn’t affect console games as much. First off, there isn’t a real way to compress the game like you could with a PC game. You have to download the full DVD or Blu-Ray ISO, which is over 4 GB for a DVD and even more for a Blu-Ray. This is quite a chunk of bandwidth and it takes time to download. The other main reason is that you simply can’t throw a burned copy of a game into your console, or launch a patch like you can on a PC; you have to physically mod your console or hack the firmware, which requires a lot more knowledge to do and risks breaking your console. Microsoft has found a way to figure out who is running a hacked Xbox and bans them from Xbox Live. So a hacked console equals no online gaming.
We can contribute a chunk of the blame to the pirates that download the game illegally. It’s hard to determine the exact number of illegal game copies are floating around, but it doesn’t affect console gaming nearly as much as it affects the PC gaming markets.
PC Gaming Alliance
To try and help combat this decline in PC gaming, a new group called the PC Gaming Alliance was formed. Their goal is to try and revive the PC gaming industry. It’s made up of the people you would expect to find in such a group: the PC hardware manufacturers -- Intel, AMD, nVidia and ATI, as well as other companies. Interestingly enough, Microsoft is also on the list as a partner. Even thought they are also in the console market, Windows is the OS most commonly used by gamers. The group's goal is to promote and advertise PC games, which hopefully will give the PC market a kick in the butt.
Conclusion
The PC gaming market is in a decline. It doesn’t look like this is just a little dip from which it will recover in due time. It has been in a major decline since consoles started picking up steam. We can’t single out a specific reason why the PC game market is declining, but there are a few factors that are contributing to it. The demand for console games has pushed PC games into a small market share. The PC is frequently overlooked in favor of the games that can be sold for consoles.
Computer manufacturers, such as HP and Dell, aren’t helping any by using three-generation-old hardware in new computers. Also, software piracy has become so easy that many people are simply spending a night downloading the software to get games. A new organization called the PC Gaming Alliance has been formed to help promote PC games. Hopefully it will get the market back to where it will once again become a profitable market for developers.
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