PC gaming has a problem

[Drain Bamage]

Gaming nowadays is centered around online multiplayer

Check stats and the most popular games are WOW, Overwatch, Dota 2, PUBG, etc etc...

So developers are only caring about online games

Problem is on PC unless the game "catches on" early like Ark or PUBG it will be dead very quickly (see Lawbreakers, Squad, Dirty Bomb etc...)

So we are left with poorly ported console games if you want single player, or invest in an EA game and hope it isnt dead a month after release

 

[Madmick]

Gaming centering around competitive online MP isn't specific to a PC, so I don't know why you're singling out PC gaming.

I'm also not sure how this is a problem. If anything, it's a problem for the consoles, but not PC. Why? Well, because PCs aren't limited to the lifespan of the console. What am I talking about? League of Legends released in 2009. It has added and sophisticated content since that release, but 8 years later, a game launched in 2009 has over 100 million active players monthly. Yes, it's incredibly difficult to both win and then hold that inertia, but for those games that do, the spoils are far more lasting, and this success isn't singular to major corporations.

Why? Because people love the hell out of playing that game. Gamers need to realize they have to stop thinking about games like that, and eSports are ushering in that realization. Games are like sports. Mechanics are the heart and soul of a game (not a story). Does basketball go out of style every week at the gym? Do you get upset that the guys playing soccer won't give up such an old and tired game? Of course not. The fundamentals of the game-- like chess-- are timeless, and part of that timelessness is the fact that only playing other humans is a challenge that never gets stale or repetitive. Competition never goes out of style.

What online MP game released on any console in 2009 is still being played today? Minecraft? Not on consoles, it sure wasn't. Look who's getting ported, now.

Your OP comes off as a familiar gripe from gamers who don't like that the internet revolutionized the gaming landscape forever, and allowed the shift away from Single Player gaming. It's never going back to what it used to be. What gamers need to understand about that is that the only reason gaming used to be that way was because it couldn't be what is has become due to the hardware network limitations of the time. It was a kid kicking a soccer ball against a wall in his one-room apartment. Did you really believe that would ever sustain itself as the predominant form of entertainment after you've taken that kid out to a bustling tournament pitch?

Developers care about the same thing now they cared about then: money. Profit. That's why businesses exist, after all. They're going to go where the money is. Always have.

• League of Legends = 200m+ accounts, 110m monthly players
• World of Tanks = 140m+ accounts
  
• Blizzard (Battle.net) = 46m active monthly subscribers (up to 10m paying $15/mo)
• Steam = 67m active monthly gamers, 33m active daily players [not all online, but on any given day 9-10 out of the Top 10 games being played are online games]
• Minecraft = 126m+ total accounts, 25m PC/Mac copies sold

Meanwhile, Sony's entire PSN has just over 70m monthly active users, and Microsoft's entire XBL has 53m. So you're going to have your work cut out for you explaining to developers and coders how numbers like the above are a "problem". I haven't even touched upon the Asian internet cafe market games which offer similar numbers for their most popular MP games:

Spoiler: 20 Most Played Games on PC (US & EU), July 2017

Newzoo Top 20 Most Played Core PC Games, July 2017 (US & EU)

1. League of Legends
2. Minecraft
3. Hearthstone
4. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
5. PlayerUnknown's Battleground
6. World of Warcraft
7. Overwatch
8. World of Tanks
9. Rocket League
10. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Multiplayer
11. Grand Theft Auto V
12. Diablo III
13. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege
14. Garry's Mod
15. Dota 2
16. Ark: Survival Evolved
17. ARMA 3
18. Rust
19. Warface
20. Heroes of the Storm

 

[Towelie by TKO]

The gaming landscape has changed. Competitive online multiplayer is where the money is, and it's only going to go further in that direction. The story-driven single player games that succeed in times like this are games with exceptionally fun mechanics, like Doom 2016, or unique game mechanics, like Portal. There will be a few exceptions of games where the story in and of itself is good enough to get popular, like The Last of Us, but those will be few and far between in the future.

 

[Drain Bamage]

so I don't know why you're singling out PC gaming

Because games die too fast on PC

On console you can find any game online has plenty of people playing

I'm not complaining that online gaming is the focus

I am complaining about it seems nigh on impossible for new games to get any traction on the PC gaming scene

Unless your game is made by Blizzard or is an Early Access survival game nobody seems to give a shit, and I think that is weak

Look at a game like Lawbreakers, CliffyB first online fps game since Unreal Tournament and its already dead on PC because everybody including grandma are playing Overwatch

 

[itrainUFC]

Because games die too fast on PC

On console you can find any game online has plenty of people playing

I'm not complaining that online gaming is the focus

I am complaining about it seems nigh on impossible for new games to get any traction on the PC gaming scene

Unless your game is made by Blizzard or is an Early Access survival game nobody seems to give a shit, and I think that is weak

Look at a game like Lawbreakers, CliffyB first online fps game since Unreal Tournament and its already dead on PC because everybody including grandma are playing Overwatch

valid response but unfornately that is what sells and that is what people prefer.

 

[TeTe]

The gaming landscape has changed. Competitive online multiplayer is where the money is, and it's only going to go further in that direction. The story-driven single player games that succeed in times like this are games with exceptionally fun mechanics, like Doom 2016, or unique game mechanics, like Portal. There will be a few exceptions of games where the story in and of itself is good enough to get popular, like The Last of Us, but those will be few and far between in the future.

They'll just make single player have the option for co-op or online play. Games like Fallout, GTA, RDR, Far Cry, Dying Light aren't going anywhere. The single player is popular and the online is as well, but they'll never phase out the SP aspect.

 

[jefferz]

Because games die too fast on PC

On console you can find any game online has plenty of people playing

I'm not complaining that online gaming is the focus

I am complaining about it seems nigh on impossible for new games to get any traction on the PC gaming scene

Unless your game is made by Blizzard or is an Early Access survival game nobody seems to give a shit, and I think that is weak

Look at a game like Lawbreakers, CliffyB first online fps game since Unreal Tournament and its already dead on PC because everybody including grandma are playing Overwatch

Team Fortress 2 still averages 50k players daily and it came out in 2007.
http://steamcharts.com/app/440

 

[KaNesDeath]

Gaming nowadays is centered around online multiplayer

Youre misinterpreting this current cycle of popular game title releases.

Lawbreakers were one year behind a AAA company who released the same game. Who patched out the release version flaws within two months. By mid-July of 2016 any game developer working on a similar title were fucked. This is something the Early Access games cant afford to do after their release. Thats why a game like Dayz was overtaken by Rust, then eventually Ark. Who's genre is painfully suffering a slow death by losing players among unfinished titles from under funded/skilled game developers.

When it comes to multiplayer being the most popular. Ernest Hemingway said it best "There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter."

 

[My Spot]

TS sounds like a console peasant.

 

[RoryFan]

Good. Single player games are for scrubs.

 

[Scerpi]

The only problem PC gaming has is that there are too many games!!

Such a great problem to have for us PC gamers.

 

[ThulsaDooom]

You have 30 some odd years of games to play. Multiplayer games are always going to be popular because people are competitive and enjoy gaming with their friends. It also helps that LOL, DOTA, PUBG are all very cheap and you don't need a Does it run max Crysis hur dur to run them.

 

[Madmick]

Because games die too fast on PC

Unless they succeed in which case they vastly outlive any Console brethren. That was my earlier point. How old is WoW now? World of Tanks? Minecraft? Garry's Mod? Hearthstone? Dota 2? CS:GO? Did you not look at my Spoiler above with the most played (not highest grossing) games for July 2017?

The Console's most played lists are a daycare center measured next to that.

Look, CS:GO is basically an update/extension of the original CS for more modern hardware. In essence, that game has functioned as the quintessential competitive shooter, now, for roughly 18 years. Why? Because Gabe Newell is highly particular about doing computer shit the right way. He's obsessed with this idea that if you build something truly worth playing, then like in the Field of Dreams...they will come. They won't stop coming.

On console you can find any game online has plenty of people playing

I'm not complaining that online gaming is the focus

I am complaining about it seems nigh on impossible for new games to get any traction on the PC gaming scene

Unless your game is made by Blizzard or is an Early Access survival game nobody seems to give a shit, and I think that is weak

Look at a game like Lawbreakers, CliffyB first online fps game since Unreal Tournament and its already dead on PC because everybody including grandma are playing Overwatch

Overwatch is hugely popular on consoles, too. The consoles just have a far more limited competitive field, but I'm sure Overwatch cannibalized a lot of smaller player bases on Console shooters, too. Generally speaking, I would agree this aspect results in a more challenging environment for PC developers. There's an advantage to funneling all of your users onto the exact same hardware and OS, and then marrying that to a more limited pool of software.

Perhaps this less competitive field creates more parity between games, or increases the longevity of the less successful games (with a player minimum that is viably playable and fun).

Nevertheless, that isn't entailed, so I won't take that for granted. This more acute challenge to PC developers, simply because they are more legion, doesn't mean the PC gaming environment sees fewer games with healthy player populations than on the Consoles. Think of it like wealth. Even if there is less equality in the field, which we're already not taking for granted, you must also consider the absolute scope of the field. If you aggregated all the successful smaller games on PC I think you'd find the opposite is true.

When you invoke Overwatch, you're talking about FPS-style games, and that genre is more popular-- relatively speaking-- on Consoles than it is on PC. So when Overwatch takes a bite out of FPS competition on PC it feels like more of an earthquake than on Consoles where it merely tremors.

Widen your view. Your insinuation that only the major corporations succeed is directly contradicted by my jpeg in my first post showing the most profitable PC games in the world. It's just nonsense. Let's revisit it, shall we?



Developer / Publisher

PC

1. Riot Games / Riot Games
2. Smilegate / Smilegate
   
3. Netease / Netease
4. Neople / Neople
   
5. Valve Corporation / Valve Corporation
   
6. Blizzard Entertainment / Blizzard Entertainment
7. Bluehole Studios / Microsoft
   
8. Wargaming Minsk / Wargaming
9. Roblox Corporation / Roblox Corporation
10. Blizzard Entertainment / Blizzard Entertainment

Console

1. Rockstar North / Rockstar Games
2. EA Canada & EA Bucharest / EA Sports
3. EA DICE / EA
4. NetherRealm Studios / Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment
5. Ubisoft Paris / Ubisoft
6. Treyarch / Activision
7. Blizzard Entertainment / Blizzard Entertainment
8. Bandai Namco Studios / Bandai Namco Entertainment
9. Vicarious Visions / Activision
10. Infinity Ward / Activision

Uhhh...yeah.

PC is home and friendly to the indie developer. Always has been. The Consoles are the empire of the corporations. Indie developers don't stand a chance of winning this big on that platform. You've got this ass backwards.

For example, Riot Games is a big corporation...now. Because of that one game. Do you believe that Roblox was some giant corporation before...Roblox? A bunch of these studios built their fortune on their one game: an entrepreneurial enterprise of their own-- not from some major corporate backing.

Let's also not forget that while Valve is a huge and wealth corporation today...that's not where it started. It was the little engine that could against the mighty corporate machine of Microsoft who was hostile to them at every turn. They flourished in spite of that. Hell, Dota 2 grew out of a community-driven mod. You perceive this as corporate whiteboard stuff?

 

[My Spot]

The only problem PC gaming has is that there are too many games!!

Such a great problem to have for us PC gamers.

And we're not stuck playing first person shooters with a controller like poor people.

 

[Roca]

And we're not stuck playing first person shooters with a controller like poor people.

I've recently hopped back onto PC and I suck at playing with K&M now, controllers felt so natural. I know I'll grow back into K&M and then I'll wonder how I ever played with a controller but for now it's tough.

 

[method115]

And we're not stuck playing first person shooters with a controller like poor people.

Eh I prefer the controller so much more comfortable. Hate having to use a KB & Mouse when I'm trying to lay down on my couch.

 

[Cygnus A]

Maybe you should restate the problem: There are so many good games, that player base will suffer on some of them regardless of them being good or not.

 

[My Spot]

Eh I prefer the controller so much more comfortable. Hate having to use a KB & Mouse when I'm trying to lay down on my couch.

Sounds like you need a better setup.

 

[method115]

Sounds like you need a better setup.

I've tried all kinds of setup and lap desk stuff it's just not nearly as comfortable. Believe I tried hard to get back into PC gaming. Built a PC then sold it, then built a new one a year later to try again.

 

[My Spot]

I've tried all kinds of setup and lap desk stuff it's just not nearly as comfortable. Believe I tried hard to get back into PC gaming. Built a PC then sold it, then built a new one a year later to try again.

It's more than comfortable if you spend money.