I started writing about technology back in the mid-1990s, writing some of the first hardware reviews for gamers in the old Computer Gaming World. Over the years, one of the constants in the game business is the constant tussle between console gaming and PC gaming.
Consoles have an edge for several reasons. Marketing support and developer assistance from the console companies is one. But the big deal is the known, consistent platform. When a game console ships, it’s good for at least five years. It’s possible that the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 will last longer than five years. Having a consistent platform makes issue like debugging easier from the developer perspective. From the gamer perspective, persistent platform problems (eg, graphics and sound drivers) are not an issue.
PCs have had the edge in overall bleeding edge performance. At some point in the console life cycle, PC games often look substantially better in the eye candy department, and developers can do more stuff with a PC than they can with a console.
That dynamic seems to be shifting.
The edge PCs had in terms of superior capability as seen by users seems to be slowly changing. That’s not to say that current generation graphics hardware isn’t better. There’s no question a Radeon HD 4890 or GeForce 285 GTX offers graphics performance and feature sets well beyond what consoles can deliver. However, developers don’t seem to want to put the effort into making their games look better.
Some of this is because all games are multiplatform now, so a developer will want to maintain a consistent asset pipeline. Another factor is the increasing fragmentation of the PC gaming market. I’m firmly believe that PC gaming will fluorish, but it will consist of many forms: MMOs, web-only games, classic PC games and so on. But AAA titles now need to be multiplatform to maximize success. Toss in the fact that a game on a modern console (with the possible exception of the Wii, which has different strengths) can look very good, indeed. The incentive to make your PC game look hugely better is diminished.
That means the GPU makers are between a rock and a hard place. In some sense, AMD got it right — built GPUs that are “good enough” and affordable. Nvidia’s 285 GTX is more a classic “big iron” GPU, which is expensive to build. (Full disclosure: my primary desktop system has a factory overclocked eVGA 285 GTX.) If PC game devs no longer want to put the effort into building the next super-duper DX11 game, why would anyone buy a DX11 graphics card?
I’m sure the marketing and tech guys at Nvidia and AMD (oh, and Intel, of course), are thinking long and hard about this conundrum. While GPU computing will help sell more GPUs, it still won’t solve the problem of giving developers incentives to make PC games that look better and play better than console games — which is what I’d like to see.
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Loyd Case says:
July 28, 2009 at 5:32 pm (UTC -7 )
Thanks for the referral!
trip1ex says:
July 30, 2009 at 10:07 pm (UTC -7 )
I think Nvidia and ATI just shot themselves in the foot with their price fixing, announcing products as available months before anyone can actually walk in the store and buy one and with their driver hassles. If they wanted to get consumers into pc gaming they couldn’t have picked a worse course to follow.
MS has a monopoly of course and never had much incentive to make Windows as good of a gaming platform as it could be. Matter of fact they may be responsible for killing off Windows as a gaming platform.
Pcgaming started going downhill around the same time the Xbox was released. Why would MS want to promote Windows as a gaming platform when they could sell you an Xbox in addition to Windows? Also MS got pc developers on board to make games for the Xbox and in turn those developers pc projects have gradually been killed off or become so-so console ports.
The last monopoly, Intel, woke up after AMD gave them a jolt 3 or 4 years ago, but I can only see their cpus getting lamer now that AMD is a no factor again. I’m not sure how AMD keeps kicking despite losing a ton of money every year.
Combine that with the noise and power needed by pcs today and the cutting edge game is done. Also a factor is that graphics are getting “good enough.” Not that they can’t be better, but the improvements will become more incremental and more costly. And I think the developer who puts more effort into others areas of the game like making a game fun and polishing up the gameplay will win. (Any wonder that Blizzard or Valve or Nintendo rake in a ton of money? Gameplay first.)
Rob Zacny says:
August 3, 2009 at 3:28 am (UTC -7 )
This is an anomalous moment in gaming, which is why I suspect we’ll see this stagnant period start to end in the next two or three years.
Every side of the industry (publishing, development, and tech) has its attention divided in a way it hasn’t been before. Publishing and technology interests want to find the next peripheral that will be the equivalent of the “Guitar Hero” controllers or the “Wii Fit” balance board. Meanwhile, the hardware manufacturers are less interested in building more powerful machines than they are in chasing after Nintendo’s lead in motion control. Graphics clearly haven’t been the system-seller this generation. Finally, publishers and developers are split between AAA, multi-platform blockbusters and low-cost, high-return casual games. That latter objective often includes figuring out how to make a game use the Wiimote. Of course, developers who do work on AAA blockbusters know that it’s a crowded field and even a success is only going to sell a predictable number of copies across PC, PS3, and 360. There is a point at which it stops making sense to invest more time and energy in graphics, and we’ve reached it. Temporarily.
Three things will break the logjam. First, the console manufacturers are going to stay too long at the fair, technologically speaking. A high end PC has no problem with any of today’s multi-platform AAAs. As PC prices fall, as they always do, more and more power will be available to bargain and mid-range PC owners. Suddenly the consoles will be looking at competition from their customers’ laptops. All it will take is a few PC titles that put console offerings to shame, and it will time for the console manufacturers to get serious about graphics again.
(Remember, most PC gamers didn’t get into PC gaming intentionally. They had a PC, then they discovered the gaming was fantastic. That could happen again.)
Second, a lot of the effort being used on motion control and peripherals right now will turn out to have been wasted on dubious gimmickry. There are surely peripherals and motion control schemes under development that will prove to be Edsels. There is nothing like high-profile commercial humiliation to promote a “back to the basics” approach.
Third, as gaming’s audience and revenues continue to grow, the incentive to try for a blockbuster will increase, which will eventually lead to more money and time being made available for flashy graphics. You need something to jump off the back of the box, and there’s really no substitute for a sharp screenshot.
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