The Decline of PC Gaming (as we know it) Part II
When it came to PC hardware, early and through the mid 90’s we saw a variety of specialized audio cards aimed at the PC Gaming market. Saying choice was chaotic was a bit of an understatement. Not all games supported the two competing standards. Divisions like this would cross over to the early 3D cards.
3DFX (daughter cards) started the wave that eventually grew into a crowded market. Which 3D cards would the developers/publishers support? Seeing 3D card adverts claiming support for more titles was in fact a reality.
By the time 3D accelerators, (as they were called) entered the market, PC gaming was already a very strong industry. Companies like id, 3Drealms, Lucas Games, Microprose, Sierra, and Origin and others had created PC game genres unique to PC gaming. It was probably arguable then, that PC gaming was the reason for sales of high end PC hardware.
PC Game Hardware Standards
Even though DOS was a formidable operating system to work with, the games market continued to grow. By late 1995 Microsofts introduction of Windows 95 elevated PC gaming making it an even more viable platform. Windows 95 was far from perfect but the multimedia PC promise of years early was actually tangible now. The days of null modem multiplayer were numbered. The PC was now networkable. Although people were already playing games online, true Internet and just as important PC LAN gaming were born.
Upon Microsofts release of Windows 98, the hardware market only intensified around PC hardware and peripherals which now included VR helmets. Looking back, many may not have thought then, but that was the golden age of PC gaming. It was still rough around the edges, but looking back, it was difficult to consider a decline. For me I can say 1999 was a pinnacle point. Developers were already at or getting to the peak of growth.
PC Games Market Matures - 2000 and Forward
It’s hard to put a date on it, but 2000 and (related or not) the .com bubble burst signaled a downturn in the PC game industry. The demise or relevance reduction of once stayed PC developers/publishers was slowly under way. As had been predicted years earlier, budgets and expectations for PC game titles were rising, and the number of delays and buggy releases weren’t helping the cause.
2000 saw the shipping of the oft delayed over-hyped game Daikatana produced by flamboyant ex id star John Romero. It’s epic fail became made Romero the poster child of developer excess. It was just one of side notes that coincided with reality checks and leveling off in an industry that just five years earlier was shooting past the moon.
The venerable id Software released it’s Return to castle Wolfenstein in 2001. Its was id’s first game to offer multi-class multiplayer. But for the first time id produced a game that wasn’t garnering the PC game press or fan following it was so accustomed to.
id Still had their place in engine licenses although that to would eventually slow and cede the lead to Epic Games.
The tide was turning in many ways. 2001 would see the introduction of Windows XP. Reviled at first it would become more solid and suitable game platform. Then came the demise of 3dfx in 2002. A company that started 3D gaming was no more.
Newcomers Impress
PC game developers from around the world were now producing AAA titles. Impressive PC game engines were no longer the soul domain of US companies. Croteam produced Serious Sam (an impressive homage to Doom) in 2001. Battlefiled 1942 (2002) developed by newcomers Digital Illusions. Painkiller by DreamCatcher Interactive in 2002 and Far Cry by Crytek in 2004.
It was clear that the talent and capacity for game development was global. What’s not often mentioned is the economics of overseas talent at the time. But just as id and Epic had grown from start ups to great success, so did the international talent. PC games would soon be an inefficient way to produce profits and grow a company.
The aforementioned developers would eventually find their fiscal gains better served on other platforms. By mid 2004 - 2005 developers had migrated their efforts to more secure hardware that was introduced in 2001 - XBox.
XBOX
Microsoft released the XBox onto the world in November of 2001. For PC Gamers it was something relatively off the radar. Consoles by and large were not comparable to PC game play. Dismissed by PC purists as a dumbing down for kids offering a poor control scheme, therefore not a proper gaming alternative.
Microsoft had created hardware that allowed PC game developers to transition to a controlled gaming platform. For the first time consoles consoles approached the visuals comparable to the PC platform of the day. Halo which was originaly set to be a PC game became an XBox exclusive.
id’s Doom 3 was released in 2004. By this time Ids fortunes had definitely changed. Their days of engine licensing diminished by Epic, the PC gaming public was not enough to support their projected investment. Todd Hollenshead id’s CEO is quick to denounce PC piracy. id has Doom 3 ported over the XBox in April of 2005.
Around 2004 Lucasarts had made a shift to console first development.
Console first development means the developer would spec their games to existing consoles and then port them over to the PC. Lucasarts days of primary PC game development ended with Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003). The Battlefront series on the PC had all the earmarks of porting. Poor networking, dated models/graphics, very small maps and minimal user adjustable options. Modding was all but out of the question.
What had started out as an almost under the radar for PC gaming, would eventually chip away and undermine its user base. By the time the XBox 360 was released on November 2005, the tide though slow, had already turned.
A point that is arguable was the First Person Shooter (FPS) which was conceived on the PC and thought only playable only on a PC. What was once the domain of PC’s was breached. Pundits for console development had their way. The complications and costs of PC development were increasingly hard to ignore.
Microsofts “Games for Windows” is less than a half hearted effort that falls under the march of XBox strategy and marketing.
Piracy
From 2002 and on, PC game piracy was getting more and more attention from developers and publishers. PC game sales vs. Internet downloads was a hot button topic. It’s not that piracy was new, it had been around as long as PC gaming. The clear problems were that the development costs were no longer covered by sales. Companies that had started and expanded in PC games in the 90’s were no longer generating the sales needed to support new titles.
The Internet which opened opportunities to modern PC gaming was now accused of undermining it.
