PC gaming is DEAD! AGAIN!

PC Gaming has been dead for about as long as I can remember. It is always bowing and walking out backwards, as consoles take the throne, as the next generation of super gaming platforms that cannot be beaten. This trend can be seen in games stores where the PC games section keeps getting smaller to make way for whatever shiny new console has just hit the streets. I can imagine some angry games store manager tearing down a rack of PC games and screaming out “We’re not selling any computer games!” So what is it that is causing this regression in PC game sales?

One of the factors in the ‘demise’ of PC gaming is the continuing rise of Internet cafes that are popping up all over the place. These are the modern versions of video arcades in the past. Inside these dens you will find approximately fifty computers, about that many angry gamers, and the smell of decaying meat and fast food remnants. Fights almost break out on a regular basis when someone gets a case of nerd rage. However there is something significant about the games in these places. The people playing them most likely did not buy them from a store. Internet café computers are traditionally loaded to the brim with games to the point where they don’t work properly. Where they get these games and how they license them is uncertain to me, but I am sure they don’t go to the local games store and buy fifty copies.

It seems the crafty foxes at corporate gaming have figured things out and have now come up with a new way of selling games. I will use the example of Heroes of Newerth. So assuming you don’t have a computer and your at the Internet café you go to play the game, except when you get to the main menu, you have to login the play the game. All you have to do is go to www.heroesofnewerth.com, click “Purchase Your Heroes of Newerth Account Now” fill in the details and give them your credit card number and your done. And if you are at home and you want to play, the game can be downloaded off the website. This game isn’t even available at the shops, so according to retail statistics, it doesn’t exist, and PC gaming is still dead. Not only do third party software sales not show up on retail store statistics, but also sales from the online retail giants such as Steam are never published publicly and also do not show up in retail statistics.

The last reason is that there are millions of PC gamers who are so consumed in the World of Warcraft that they don’t buy any other PC games.

I am sure there are many more reasons than this, most of which are perhaps more relevant, but I am certain that PC gaming isn’t dead. Most of my friends and I play PC games and there are still more than enough decent games being released to keep us entertained.