Many stalwart PC gamers tell me that PC gaming is not dying. kspiess, Neoseeker's Video Card editor argues that the death of PC gaming is highly exaggerated. But the reality is the very industry itself is doing no favours to PC gaming.
Take EB Games for example, the major gaming retail chain here in the Vancouver area. During Christmas I visited 3 different EB Games stores around town to find that they have all removed PC Games from their wall displays. A few years ago PC games accounted for perhaps 20% of EB wall space, and more importantly, the New Releases were placed at the FRONT of the store (near the entrance). Now at best I will find PC titles arranged haphazardly on a small display shelf near the rear of the store. All the titles are arranged spine out, they don't even spare much space to show off the front of the cases which is how all the major titles get their attention when placed on shelfspace.
At Future Shop (a Best Buy owned big box retailer) some of the stores have the same problem. The PC titles are tucked away and best sellers are not even kept in stock! New titles that aren't best sellers are often missing too.
I went to look for the following titles at local game stores:
- Left 4 Dead
- Prince of Persia
And I found NO readily available copies.
Recently
NPD data showed a decline of PC games sales through the Holiday 2008 season. Well no wonder! With PC titles tucked away, poorly displayed, improperly advertised, and poorly stocked WHAT do they expect!?
pc gaming related
Gamestop owns EB as well and are in the process of converting all the stores (you can tell by taking the path and switching the domain on the sites ). I also never see PC titles at the front, aside from when Wrath of the lich King launched.
I got Left 4 Dead the day after release at my local Best Buy and they had about 4 copies left of 30 and have a cover faced system where new titles are shown and older ones are spine out.
I do agree though that the majority of people ignore the PC as a true gaming system although it is the purest one that works.
Did you manage to pick up PoP at all?
world of goo is an incredibly cool and underrated game
Do not confuse Steam's DRM with their other convenience features. The "never lose a CD-Key" and installation without a CD features of Steam could exist even if they removed DRM altogether (because they can verify account details at time of install).
Steam's DRM does a call home check on startup and possibly during gameplay. If the developer of the game so chooses they can lock down gameplay for users without an active internet. I'm guessing the developer can also disable the Steam DRM if they so wish (is that what you said they did for Prince of Persia, chautemoc?)
I'm not against the Steam DRM, I don't mind tbh for most cases. But we did have this one problem where we tried to setup Left 4 Dead at our Neoseeker Xmas staff party and we couldn't play the darn thing because we had no net connection in that room, and between the staff we own MANY copies of the game (I own 2 off the shelf copies). So when the actual retail DVD/CD in the drive is not sufficient to play the game some people get a bit miffed .
I think digital distribution is affecting retailers as far as PC games go, so maybe that explains why you couldn't find any copies. Perhaps they didn't order many to begin with, sold out, and decided there was no point in ordering any more?
I'd love to see NPD track digital retail as well.
Same with FarCry 2.
Nagare, I quite loved it from what I've gotten to play. Especially for $30, it's well worth it.
I wasn't crazy about it really until I actually played it, then it was mesmerizing.