Civilization 5 and StarCraft 2 Save PC Gaming From Extinction
Cloudy days have befallen the PC as a gaming platform. Yet it wasn’t so long ago when things were different; A-list games were released for the PC on what seemed to be a monthly basis — consoles were second class. But now the world has their Xbox 360s, PS3s, PSPs, Wiis, and DSs. Subsequently, the PC had lost its touch with the gaming community and was in dire need of help. Could it be saved?
Bland, mediocre, unimaginative, stagnant — these are all words that could have been used to describe the PC gaming industry as it stood in the past few years. Ironically, the same technology that helped create a massive community of PC gamers is the same technology that has caused almost everyone to forget about it. The game console had taken over.
Left Behind
The power of game consoles is growing along with the amount of gamers who are switching to them. They offer all-in-one solutions to gaming: it’s a box, a controller, and a disc. It is simple. It is what the consumers want these days. As a result, everyone receives the same experience, and no one has to complain about incompatible hardware, piracy (well, it’s still a bit of a problem), and lack of multiplayer unification. Also, we can’t forget about those gamer trophies!
The growth of the Internet has also proven to be detrimental to the PC gaming industry as well. With troves of free games readily available, today’s younger generations have now turned to the likes of Facebook, Miniclip, and various other free-to-play games and websites. Farmville, anyone? And it makes sense; why would today’s youth pay for complex and expensive games (and with what money?) when they could enjoy simple and free ones instead? (Note: the entire game industry, not just PC gaming, is suffering from these trends.)
Another issue is that purchasing the latest and greatest desktop hardware isn’t as big of a deal as it once was. Times have changed: we all live in an ultra-mobile world, where technology has to keep up with our lifestyle. It’s very difficult to imagine the average consumer going out of their way to upgrade their PC just to play Crysis, let alone purchasing a beefed-up PC rig for bragging rights. Sure, the tech geeks of the world are into it, but the typical consumer doesn’t have a clue.
It gets worse, unfortunately. The only A-list title I can remember being released for the PC platform in the past two years is The Sims 3, which, after a quick search on Google, was released in June of ’09. So, in the past 15 months, I could only recall a single memorable A-list title that was (almost) exclusive to the PC. Oh wait… even The Sims series has games developed for most console and mobile platforms. D’oh!
Of course, the PC has had a few great titles over the past few years, but the problem is that many of them were afterthoughts/ports of console versions. Many were ports from the console to the PC. Few were developed in conjunction with the console. And only a handful were developed exclusively with the PC in mind. But, as we know, the PC and console are two completely different beasts. A game for a console might have to be heavily modified or completely rewritten for a platform like the PC (the keyboard and game controller are, in a word, different). With that in mind, it’s clear that developing and publishing an A-list title exclusively for the PC is a very brave action, indeed.
But, still, it wasn’t enough to restore PC gaming to its former greatness. Those creative and innovative titles that once came so regularly and such astounding quality had all but disappeared.
Fortunately, for those in an a niche that had all but been forgotten, help was on the way. But the surprising part was that it was more than anyone could have bargained for.
Help Has Arrived
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is the successor to one of the most memorable PC titles ever developed: StarCraft. Rushing Zerg bases until mere hours before school started in 1999 was a common theme for me (this game also caused me to receive a ‘D’ in a middle school science class, but I don’t regret it). How great it is that the sequel can continue the degradation of student’s grades. It had big expectations to live up to.
Surprisingly, in only two months after being released into the wild, StarCraft II has managed to rack up well over three-million sales, a number that is guaranteed to increase. It has been receiving rave reviews and currently has an astounding 93 (out of 100) rating on Metacritic. It’s been described as “perfect” and “amazing” and even “revolutionary.” In other words, it not only lived up to expectation, but it exceeded them, which couldn’t have come at a better time.
Not to be outdone, Civilization — which is yet another series that kept me up late at night and is nearly 20 years old (almost as old as I am) — also received an overhaul in the form of Civilization V. While the Civ series has never been known for the in-your-face-heart-racing-adrenaline-pumping action that StarCraft procured, it offers gamers an incredibly rich, in-depth empire-building simulation that would make any Grandmaster chess player wet their pants. Players take turns making economic, diplomatic, and strategic decisions all for the sake of creating the ultimate civilization.
Civ 5 — while only being released on September 21, 2010 — has an impressive score of 91 on Metacritic. The latest in the series is noted as being the best experience yet for those who are unfamiliar and veterans to the series. While it does have a few bugs in the system, they will surely be ironed out as time goes on. But it’s great to see that Sid Meier’s Civilization has performed so well; civilization, as we know it, will not come to an end, after all.
It can’t be stressed enough how much PC gaming really needed these two titles deliver, and certainly have delivered beyond expectation.
Never Forget
Together, they have managed to reinvigorate the PC gaming industry. They could open the doors for the bigger development studios to revisit the once-forgotten PC. They could drive more sales to digital distribution services like GamersGate, Direct2Drive, and Steam. They could give indie developers hope that their efforts will still have potential to grow. They could spur on sales of the latest and greatest PC hardware. Essentially, the effects are far reaching and could be felt throughout the entire tech industry.
But, while StarCraft II and Civilization V have all the attention now, you can bet that the industry will also have its eyes on Portal 2 and Crysis 2 in the future, which are expected in early 2011 (granted, these titles will also be released on console platforms, but they are known primarily for their success on the PC). They will continue where SC2 and Civ 5 have left off. So things are looking up, after all.
But this article wasn’t written to simply highlight two great games. It wasn’t written to analyze an industry on the edge. No. Instead, it was written to pay homage to one special group that had long been forgotten: PC gamers. This is a bunch who has always remained loyal to the PC platform; they have no reason to complain. They have no reason to start a typical console war, arguing whether or not the PS3 stands a chance or if the Wii is a kids toy. In fact, they have all the reasons in the world to celebrate — because, at least for this one moment, they can be assured that they now have greatest gaming platform of all.
This is for the players who spend countless hours sniping foes on dedicated servers. This is for the players who get engrossed over a game where the main point is to shoot portals at walls. The is for the players who can’t resist stop pressing that “turn” button just one more time. This is for the players who can’t stop the endless battles with alien intergalactic empires. This is for all of them.
Remember this moment! Remember how great it is that we PC gamers have this moment to ourselves. This is the moment when we can remember what felt like like to be in the golden era of PC gaming. It’s a great feeling; it’s one that I hope never ends.
I read somewhere that video games sales in general were down… not just PC games. The reasoning that the author gave was that people are playing games longer, because the games hold their interest longer.
Poor analysis. You’re placing artificial limits on your argument to make the argument, which is disingenuous. IF we remove games developed in tandem with consoles, AND massively multi-player games AND ‘light’ games on Facebook (which are mostly played on the….? That’s right! PC) AND we focus on retail sales and not online sales AND we focus only upon games in the last 2 years, your argument holds water. Remove any of those pillars and it just falls down on it’s face.
Perhaps you need to review your Monty Python, sir.
Lousy article.
First of all, AAA titles do not an industry make. It’s like saying cinematography is dead except Hollywood because there are no blockbusters outside Hollywood. Not to mention AAAs are profit driven, and you simply cannot beat profit-generating power of consoles. They were made for profit in mind. Civ 5 has all previous Civs to compare to (because even Civ I still works on the PC). Consoles don’t have that problem – just make a rehash of some title from consoles generation old and you’re golden (to be honest, FPS do the same thing on PC).
Skipping MMOs is a serious mistake. They are real money-generating giants. You can safely expect next generation of consoles would be made with this in mind. Every publishing company would exchange title sales with subscription model in a heartbeat. And subscription is here to stay – it’s stable and predictable, so you know how much you can spend on development and marketing without much risk (every company’s dream). Micropayments will not replace subscription as they are unpredictable – i would expect marketing manouver of saying “no subscription” but making the game almost unplayable without tons of micropayments, which equates to subscription.
Third, did you looked at the modding scene? It’s brewing and there’s not even a similar thing for consoles. I understand that it does not hit your definition of industry (ie not making money). But the quality of some mods is on par with titles they mod, some even surpass it (Third Age for TW: Medieval 2 comes to mind).
And finally, flash games scene – the last refuge of originality in the whole gaming industry. Only portable consoles come anywhere near it (low development costs), and that near is still miles away.
To summarize, PC gaming is in absolutely no need of saving – it’s never been stronger. Just remove your profit-AAAs-blockbuster-filtering spectacles and you’ll see.
I don’t see pc gaming dying anytime soon! A lot of countries still favor pc gaming rather than console gaming esp here in asia where console systems are too expensive for us. I own a ps2 and ps3 but still nothing beats a good fps, rts, or even mmo games via the pc and playing it with your friends through lan or net. And what about mods? Mods gives you freedom that you will be able to stretch boundaries of games. These are still the things that a console system lacks.
Left 4 Dead? Left 4 Dead 2?
There are several games out on PC that were ported to the consoles and not the other way around and franchises forged in the PC world, making a few bucks on the console side however the experience of any FPS is horrible on a console compared to that of a PC.
There is no way you can state that Civ 5 and Star Craft 2 are saving PC gaming. Unlike console games, PC gaming has drawing cards like World of Warcraft to suck people in. The get sucked into a game, a situation may come up where its down for a bit, patches or whatever, and those users start talking on Vent or Team speak to their fellow gamers, and talk about other games, and then the next thing you know they have Steam installed and are buying games that they would have perhaps possibly bought on their console, on their pc.
It’s ludicrous to me that you can sum up pc gaming over the last 3 years to these 2 titles, which both are RTS and only draw a certain style of gamer to them. I personally despise RTS’s, as I do not have the temperament for the trade, however, I do love FPS’s and that’s why I am a pc gamer.
No console can give me the experience, freedom and fun i get from PC games, and as you stated, mutliplayer, apart from paying for Xbox live in its limited title support, and Sony’s horrible setup, is not that great in the console market, and in this world hell bent on social engineering and interaction, its becoming a must.
I hear what your saying, these titles do add a boost the PC appeal, but they in no way shape or form are saving the pc industry. The PC industry will not die due to the freedom one has in the environment alone.