Where is the PC Games......

Well, it seems Console games are taking pole position. Was shopping for a PC title today in Peterborough, which has 2 branches of HMV (a large music/entertainment media retailer in the UK)

The smaller branch of HMV, which is right in the centre of Peterborough does not stock ANY PC Games, much to my surprise.

Yes, I think console games seem to be marketed somewhat better these days and possibly this is resulting in mainline shops opting to provide shelve space for console games above PC titles.

I am a fan of both PC Games and Console games, would the PC benefit from more games being accessible and marketed as such by PC Games being advertised as being USB Gamepad compatible?

Or does the fact that a fair percentage that use computers at work all day would rather relax on a games console in their living room rather than on a PC in the dining room/bedroom/elsewhere in the house?

Or does the amount of games available for download on the PC for very reasonable amounts offer better value for money without the hassle of finding the products in the shops?

Well, the internet has come a long way since the days of hiding a phone extension under the carpet from the living room, through the hall, up the stairs, along the landing to a quiet corner of the spare bedroom and attached to a super fast dial-up modem! :)

Now, its accessible anywhere in the home, from the study, to the garden and even in the john.

The thing is, PC's have nigh-on always had that sorta connectivity, and as such, distribution of software has slowly and surely geared itself to that, more so as the network speeded up.

So I'd say the apparent trend is based on this.

Now though, consoles makers have spotted the potential of the internet, not only through online gameplay, but online services and products (Wii's Shopping Channel being one of them)... Just look at the current genre of consoles and nigh-on all of them allow the console to connect to the internet.

This trend will continue obviously, and as such, in a few generations time we'll probably see less and less hard-copies version of games, up to a point that the old ROM drive will be as useful as a floppy drive!

Dabz

I haven't been to a game or music store in about 2 years. The local Fry's electronics has 100+ feet of shelf space for PC games though, and the mac section is comparable to one of the consoles.

I think maybe computer gamers are a different demographic than console gamers, at fry's you have a much broader range of ages and types of people and more likely to have people with $ to spend.

Main reason I don't bother going to game stores since they just seem to be full of kids that I typically don't feel I have anything in common with socially or on the gaming front.

Reason that there aren't more PC games is probably partly down to publishers making a lot more money out of consoles, they are cheaper, less hassle and the games tend to be simpler than what PC's traditionally were, though that has changed with the majority of PC games just being console ports.

@Dabhand:

point well made. Was in a gaming shop for the trawl for my game of choice, noticed the lost and damned expansion pack on sale for about 13 quid. Am sure you can download it (yep for a console of all things - and the XBox 360 does not need that expensive wireless thingy - just buy a stock ethernet LAN lead for a fraction of the cost to your netgear router - if you're lucky enough to have a wireless router with those old 'wired' connections. Wired will always be faster than wireless anyhow jeez - i digress)for 8 and a half squid.

@AdrianT I am intrigued by your references to Fry's, which in the UK kind of relates to chips, 100 feet of PC Games, is this link the same place:

http://www.frys.com/

I know this issue has been beat to death, but I may as well bring it up again.

I don't buy PC games anymore because of the DRM. I just flat out got tired of it, and will only buy games that are known to be DRM free. I'm not talking about needing the CD in to play, or a simple keycode here.

Besides that, Console games can be played by simply dropping the disc in and playing. Why can't they make a PC game that can play off the disc instead of requiring a 10 GB install?

It also doesn't help that I don't keep my hardware up to the latest standards all the time, so it may often be 3-5 years before I even have a machine capable of playing any given game.

@Pongo

I so empathise, or is it empathize? Anyways, its the same old discussion I suppose, but it does grate me that you need a bottomless pit of dosh to enable your PC to run the latest version of resource needy software.

But I've an XBox 360 these days on a lurvly HD telly. The only thing that has got me back to PC Gaming recently is NWN2.

Fry's is a chain of huge electronics stores where you can buy most things at sometimes better than internet prices. the stores are huge, up to 180,000 square feet. Kind of like costco but with only electronic stuff. You know when you are in one by the dozens of motherboards hanging on the walls, see the pic below.

Where I live there are a number of 'dedicated games shops' not far away, and although they mainly have console games they still have a number of PC games.

As to be expected they have games that have just been released (no use to myself though as most of them require internet connections these days just to install) and they also have many games that are over 2-3 years old that are in those 'budget packs'. However there are many games from between the era of the 'budget packs' and the 'released last week' titles that are just missing. It is as if once a game is over a couple of months old they simply remove it from the shelf unless it is in a 'budget pack' which is mildly annoying.

Furthermore - if you look in any of our department stores that stock 'home entertainment' electronic goods they usually have either console games only, or if they have any PC games at all they are usually in a single rack on the shelves with mainly young children's games of those 'really budget packs' with "1000+ puzzle games" or "300+ arcade games" - which are usuallu shareware versions as well!

Hey cool, that's the ASUS motherboard I have.

Yep, thats true... Currently, its madness, but in the same turn, the PC will always be top-dog when it comes to pixel pumping tech... Because the generation shift in terms of technology happens in months, where as a console, that cannot really happen, simply because console customers... ie you and me, expect our consoles to be supported by game publishers and manufacturers for at least 2-3 years.

If people bought a Wii when it first got released, then Nintendo release a new version with more power, but in turn, new game releases played less well on the original... They'd be uproar (Just look what happened to the PS3 and the backwards compatibility shenanigans)

I respect console game devs in a sense that they have a specific piece of hardware to support, and over the years... They will try and squeeze as much juice out of it as they can, where as in PC AAA game world, they just ask you to pump up your rig, or turn settings off/down

Which is no good really is it... To be fair!

Dabz

Both are correct: empathize = US, empathise = UK

(there's quite a few words that end in 'ze' in American English that have 'se' in British English)

I agree with you about some consoles really managing to squeeze every last bit of performance out of what they've got - the original XBox for example - Star Wars Battlefront 2 has an amazingly accurate world to navigate through. The kids have rather taken to it after the XBox360 was given 'a rest' last weekend.