TribalWorks

An interesting article suggesting that an earlier prediction that PC gaming would die soon after the release of the Xbox 360 and PS3 is wrong. Certainly some developers have chosen to scrap the PC versions of games.

And this year, Electronic Arts decided to kill the PC versions of many of its popular sports titles, including Madden NFL 09, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and NBA Live. LucasArts is releasing The Force Unleashed, its new Star Wars title, on every platform except PC.

Even developers who built their companies by producing games for computers are now turning to console development.

Crytek’s Stan Huebler has indicated that his company, which stunned the industry with its PC-processing intensive Crysis, won’t be making any more PC exclusive titles, and id Software’s John Carmack told Tom’s Hardware Guide that one reason his company, the creator of Doom and Quake, is developing games for consoles is because “the sales numbers on the PC are not what they used to be and are not what they are on the consoles.”

However, the PC market seems to be going online both in terms of distribution and a richer multi-player experience.

The reason for that, says Rahul Sood, founder of the specialty computer manufacturer VoodooPC and now chief technology officer for Hewlett Packard’s global gaming business, is that the distribution model for PC games is changing.

“It’s going online,” he says. “There’s a much higher distribution of PC games online than there ever was before, and it’s growing.”

The console and PC markets are separating; it seems that a consumer tribe around PC games may solidify.  Though most people own a PC or laptop at home, few possess the latest systems capable of running today’s games.  Thus, in the coming months and years it would not surprise me to see a more us vs. them attitude form among PC gamers.

Key questions to consider:

• Will we see game developers continue to gravitate to either consoles or PC?  Or will the sway between the two areas as the article suggests?
• How many people are die-hard console owners, die-hard PC gamers and how many are both?

Let the games begin…