Our industry is dying. We all know that the so-called “Next Generation” consoles drive our beloved PCs out of the market. I could list the reasons why this is happening...I could even record why it should not be happening, but to those interested in reading this, I know you’re already intimately familiar with our predicament. It has crept upon us. Honestly, some great PC games have been released over the past couple of years that have satisfied my gaming needs, but a few days ago, I had a rude awakening into this new world of “console-only” games that have unleashed a beast inside of me.
As a side note, I should say that I don’t have any problem with the Xbox360, the PS2, or the Wii other than the fact that they are killing the industry that I love…the industry that I grew up with. Anyways, back to my rude awakening. Many of you have heard about LucasArt’s new title, “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed,” which will be released this fall. Many of you have also heard that it will not be released for the PC. Not now, not ever. Judging from the trailers and new technology that has gone into this game, it looks like it would be addictingly fun and could even be my favorite of the year. However, according to the game producers, the PC market is not stable enough for this title. In other words, there aren’t enough people out there with computers that would be able to handle the game. (Ironically enough, it is being released on the Nintendo DS and the Wii, neither of which are high-performance gaming systems.)
What has happened? I played Star Wars games on the PC for over ten years when the X-Wing series and “Rogue Squadron” were coming out. And now LucasArts won’t even port their major release to the PC for their most loyal fans? The situation is bad and is on course to get much worse. After all, this is just one of the many games that have already been excluded from the PC. So, is it time for PC gaming to become extinct? Should we relinquish our fully customizable gaming platforms and surrender to the standardized systems that corporate stooges accept? I say NO!!!
But what will it take to survive in this industry? How can we regain our prowess in the world of video games? We have to be smart. We can no longer rely on our superior numbers to guarantee acknowledgment and preferential treatment in the biz, so we must rely on our superior brainpower to win this war (That’s right, console fans…I said it…we’re smarter than you). We can no longer rely on unorganized petitions that half of us won’t even see. What Should We Do?!?!
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We must get organized. We must understand that we are an extremely marketable, niche group of people catered to by game development companies. Let’s face it: computer games are generally pretty nerdy…I’m guessing there’s not one of us who couldn’t set up a simple website if need be, not one of us who isn’t doing some serious online surfing every day, not one of us who wouldn’t love to work for Tom’s Hardware full-time, and the list goes on. Yes, there are only a few hundred thousand of us, and compared to the millions of console gamers out there, it’s pretty hard for us to get attention these days. But we are all interested in Computer hardware and games, and as a unified community, we could become mighty again. Remember, 500,000 games times $40 equals $ 20 million, which is plenty to make some pretty awesome games.
So here are some ideas for what the computer gaming industry needs:
- A database of all the world’s computer games and their systems.
- A well-maintained forum to discuss important events and plans.
- Elected leaders to attack those who deny us.
- A website devoted to keeping PC gamers informed on industry news.
- Polls to decide which games we will support and which we will protest.
- A group of ninjas to kill console games………….. maybe not that one…..but maybe.
