People ask me often why I game with consoles more often than PC. Graphics on a PC look better, gameplay is more sophisticated, the mouse is a better controller than a joypad in First-Person shooters, etc. While I like my PC for its availability of Realtime Strategy games and nicer graphics, I am really fond of consoles for the ease of operation and maintenance (none). Stuff just works.
I think this article is spot on about why consoles are winning the gaming wars. And also about piracy and the true pirates.
PC Games need to deliver the goods to compete!
Don't blame pirates for PC game sales decline
Excerpt:
This article from "Elf-Inside" about his experiences with games and with Stardock really underscores where the PC game industry needs to go. He has a really good analogy:
"When I buy a pizza, I expect to get a pizza. I expect it with the toppings I order, and I expect it to be delivered promptly. By calling Domino's or Papa John's, I've contractually agreed to pay for a pizza when it arrives. But if the deliverman shows up 2 hours late, with cold pizza, with Anchovies instead of Peperoni, then, no, I'm not going to pay for that. The problem with typical game publishers, is they expect you to eat that pizza, and be happy for it. You paid for hot pepperoni, and got cold anchovies, but you have no recourse."
Which is so true. It is also one of the reasons why I think the console market is really starting to eat the PC's lunch. I've been outright hostile to consoles for years but even I find myself starting to buy console games. Why? Because they work out of the box. I don't have to "Wait for the first patch" to play the games.
And PC games have a perfect storm of bad habits:
-First, I am expected to devote hundreds of megabytes to them. Okay, I can live with that.
-But then they expect me to keep the CD in the drive.
-And then I usually have to keep track of a little tiny paper serial number (usually taped to the back of the CD jacket).
-And all that so that I can play a game that needs a couple of patches to play.
And when the PC sales go down, what's the reported reason? Piracy of course. Yea, it's piracy. Sure. In my experience of writing games, it's not pirates ripping us off of our hard earned money, it's been publishers.
