The PC Gap

So a couple of days ago I went into my local EB games to pick up a used copy of ICO and maybe Shadow of the Titans. Now while its rare I go specifically for acquiring console games, I did check out the PC game rack. The first and perhaps most significant thing I noticed was the amount of shelf space devoted to PC games shrunk. Alot. Like, by a half.

I think that's a pretty succinct statement on the state of PC gaming right there.

We have new consoles gearing up over the next year, so alot of the developers have been frantically developer console games. Sure, some of them fully intend to deploy ports to PC, but it wasn't so long ago that it was the other way around.

PC gamers are getting the hand-me-downs now. Which completely changes the dynamics of game play.

Now a port from a PC to console meant that the console got fewer features, primarily because of hardware limitation. You don't have a full keyboard to play with, just a controller with a limited number of functions. Graphics are hardwired, so your resolutions would below PC standard (although in some it's hard to tell if they did it right). Space was limited to one cartridge or CD.

So PC ports were essentially stripped down, bare bones version of the games.

Now it's going the other way, we have PC games that looks and play like console games, with everything that entails.

Now don't get me wrong, there are alot of platform to PC games I love, two that come to mind are Psychonauts and Beyond Good and Evil. Great games. Fantastic games. Er, I had a point here.

Oh yeah! Okay, as a PC gamer I'm looking for something with a little more depth than your average platformer game. I have a keyboard and kick-ass graphics card. I have gigs of hardrive space. C'mon developers of the world, use 'em up! Whatever happened to combat flight simulators that simulated flight?

Okay back to my original point, shrinking PC game space. First, everyone jumped on the MMO band wagon. So every shop was forced to make an MMO by their parent companies smelling huge profits (and no clue on cost) So right there, no single player RPG for you! And like I said, those who aren't building the next big thing in the MMO space are building the next big gun for the next gen console wars.

And PC gamers? Well we have MMOs. And no new games, really. Thus the shrinking shelf-space for PC games.

But I think this will (eventually, certainly not right now) be a good thing.

I've often commented (ie complained) about Big Business taking over the game space, with all the mediocrity that entails.

So what if all the big boys focus solely on the consoles? We have a gap. A gap to be filled by the indie developers. So (hopefully) we get games built for PC gamers, by PC gamers, that use the potential of the PC.

It'll be 1984, all over again.

And maybe this time I can get in on it. Here's hoping anyway.