Remember the days when you walked into a Gaming store and more then half was dedicated to PC Games? Recall also a time when this was the only point of reference you had of how much a game cost and also the fact that there was a lot of people buying games this way back then? Have you now noticed how few stores there is (I have a grand total of two) that sell games as well as how small the PC Gaming section is? Do we blame the internet as it is easy to compare prices and get better deals? Do we blame the pirates for making people stop developing PC Games? Finally do we blame the fact there is many consoles out now that are talking up the floor space.
Retail vs. Online Model
If you are a PC Gamer, chances are you are in front of the computer already looking for games but unless you keep track of the latest games, you may not know all the games that are out there. Armed with Google searching, you can find the very cheapest deal possible for the game you require. Who in there right mind would spend £35 on a game when if you looked around (even on the same store website as retail) you can get the game for half that price?
Retail store though do have there uses – I can go in the store and browse (the very small) collection of PC games on offer and may spot many bargains that I would just not see on-line. The other aspect is finding games that I have personally never heard of such as NecroVision for example. I must admit it is quite a lure to pick up two top quality games for £15 and these also might include the special edition versions as well. Quite often though, I walk away without buying anything and this is more the course for many people I see entering and leaving the shop. I would rather take a note of some of the games, go back home and get a demo and see what it is like before I may go back and part company with my money.
Console Madness
The other aspect of a store is that they have to stock XBOX, XBOX360, PS3, PS2, Wii and every other console known to man game out there. For the most part console games cost more and thus are bringing more profit, the other aspect is that most of the population will just buy a game and will have no idea about this “chipping” thing or downloading games. This is another reason why retail store dedicate the smallest amount of space possible for PC Games.
Piracy
Torrents and NewsGroups provide the means for many people to get the game they want free of charge. They cannot normally play on-line and quite often then not, the keygen / patch will have a trojan in there for the ride but it saved you a chunk of money and allows you to ‘try’ the game all the way through right? The less people that are buying games, the less the publishers will bother and turn to console instead. The guy in the store (GAME-UK) actually give that as a valid reason why there is so few PC games in the store though I personally did not agree with this.
If the game is single player only, I *may* buy it but only after playing a demo and how much it costs. I refuse to pay £35 for any game, no matter how good it is. £25 is closer to my mark but 4 games will get rid of £100 out of my wallet – that’s a lot of money people. Once I have finished the single player – the game sits on a shelf. Multi player is where it is at, this allows me to carry on playing the game LONG after it is finished, I still play for example Call of Duty United Offensive on-line and this is where they can score as you need a CD Key that works and is valid other wise you do not get on-line.
My Own thoughts
We see ever increasing graphics cards and if people were not buying them (as they do not play games) then you would soon see this. If you visit many of the on-line lobbies of even very old games, you see not only a lot of servers but a lot of people playing. I personally have never enjoyed controlling a game via a controller, I play mainly FPS and RTS – so Keyboard / Mouse is where I am at. Many people have made a point of saying gaming is for children but they then change there tune when they happily play FIFA on there XBOX. Maybe these people would enjoy gaming of they in fact gave it a try, there is many types of games out there and not everyone enjoys the same type of game. Getting shot every few seconds on a FPS is a sure fire way to put a person off the game for sure. I will still visit the retail stores, I will still buy PC Games and I have no mad rush to buy a console any time soon.
