90% of Computer games will eventually be MMO's

[Mr. Lennon]

Pirating is down right killing PC gaming right now. PC gaming already makes up for a small percentage of the gaming industry due to the cost of a PC and its learning curve. Developers seem that they do not want to give up on the platform, but at the end of the day it comes down to profit...which consoles excel at creating.

I guarantee in the next 5-10 years we will not only see the prices of PC games become equal to consoles, but we will also see a rise in the amount of MMO's. A successful MMO is a cash cow. Though that success is hard to obtain, companies will start taking their time and in turn will release quality MMO's.

You might start seeing regular multiplayer games offer subscriptions for more content.....or just to even access the servers. A company like EA could disable people from creating their own servers and just open up hundreds of their own.

As for single player games...they are easily the most pirated. You will likely see a decrease in the amount of single player games released on the PC...most will go to the consoles.

 

[NinjaCat]

Well I don't think that's entirely the case. While it is hard to stop pirating on single-player games, multi-player games should be still profitable. With a MMO, it takes a lot of money to even develop it, and something like an MMO, it needs to be great from the start or else it will never be a major hit because well people just compare it to wow. A MMO could still be profitable, but it takes a lot of effort to keep subscribers. Something like a FPS game that is multi-player, if it's good, then people will buy it. Pirating a multi-player shooter is just not the same comparing it to the retail version. There's much less people and less servers and well the servers do need to be paid for...With this economy now, people have less money and well for me, I'll wait for the game to lower in price to buy it and even then the game has to be good. People will buy good games, but then there's also the price factor, whether people will want to buy the game full price. Something like Left 4 Dead, Valve made much more money during that 1/2 price sale than them selling it for $50.

 

[shortylickens]

The last thread we had like this got locked. Matter of fact it was last night. Pretty much everything you said in the first paragraph has absolutely no proof.

But I do agree MMO's will be the standard of the future. I have also suggested more than a few times that PC Gaming be like broadcast television. That would make marketing and income a whole different ball game.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: Zeppelin2282
Pirating is down right killing PC gaming right now. PC gaming already makes up for a small percentage of the gaming industry due to the cost of a PC and its learning curve. Developers seem that they do not want to give up on the platform, but at the end of the day it comes down to profit...which consoles excel at creating.

I guarantee in the next 5-10 years we will not only see the prices of PC games become equal to consoles, but we will also see a rise in the amount of MMO's. A successful MMO is a cash cow. Though that success is hard to obtain, companies will start taking their time and in turn will release quality MMO's.

You might start seeing regular multiplayer games offer subscriptions for more content.....or just to even access the servers. A company like EA could disable people from creating their own servers and just open up hundreds of their own.

As for single player games...they are easily the most pirated. You will likely see a decrease in the amount of single player games released on the PC...most will go to the consoles.

Provide evidence that piracy equates to lost sales.

Apart from that, I think you appraisal is more or less correct.

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: Red Irish

Originally posted by: Zeppelin2282
Pirating is down right killing PC gaming right now. PC gaming already makes up for a small percentage of the gaming industry due to the cost of a PC and its learning curve. Developers seem that they do not want to give up on the platform, but at the end of the day it comes down to profit...which consoles excel at creating.

I guarantee in the next 5-10 years we will not only see the prices of PC games become equal to consoles, but we will also see a rise in the amount of MMO's. A successful MMO is a cash cow. Though that success is hard to obtain, companies will start taking their time and in turn will release quality MMO's.

You might start seeing regular multiplayer games offer subscriptions for more content.....or just to even access the servers. A company like EA could disable people from creating their own servers and just open up hundreds of their own.

As for single player games...they are easily the most pirated. You will likely see a decrease in the amount of single player games released on the PC...most will go to the consoles.

Provide evidence that piracy equates to lost sales.

Apart from that, I think you appraisal is more or less correct.

No, no no no no no! Dont do that. I got into the exact same argument last night and the mods locked the thread.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2322486&enterthread=y

The dumbass down at the bottom was the one who really made me mad. He assumed that 90% of us were pirates. I think publishers assume the same thing too.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Good games still sell. Bad games companies blame it on "piracy" to their higher ups. /thread

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: shortylickens

Originally posted by: Red Irish

Originally posted by: Zeppelin2282
Pirating is down right killing PC gaming right now. PC gaming already makes up for a small percentage of the gaming industry due to the cost of a PC and its learning curve. Developers seem that they do not want to give up on the platform, but at the end of the day it comes down to profit...which consoles excel at creating.

I guarantee in the next 5-10 years we will not only see the prices of PC games become equal to consoles, but we will also see a rise in the amount of MMO's. A successful MMO is a cash cow. Though that success is hard to obtain, companies will start taking their time and in turn will release quality MMO's.

You might start seeing regular multiplayer games offer subscriptions for more content.....or just to even access the servers. A company like EA could disable people from creating their own servers and just open up hundreds of their own.

As for single player games...they are easily the most pirated. You will likely see a decrease in the amount of single player games released on the PC...most will go to the consoles.

Provide evidence that piracy equates to lost sales.

Apart from that, I think you appraisal is more or less correct.

No, no no no no no! Dont do that. I got into the exact same argument last night and the mods locked the thread.
http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2322486&enterthread=y

The dumbass down at the bottom was the one who really made me mad. He assumed that 90% of us were pirates. I think publishers assume the same thing too.

I think publishers know better but piracy provides the demon they require in order to justify price jumps and the use of DRM, which are both focused exclusively on more profit. As Ayashi points out, piracy also provides a great scapegoat for poor sales.

How many blank video cassettes and music tapes did Sony sell? Now they are concerned about author's rights? Ironic, isn't it?

Moreover the term piracy has gradually expanded to take in more and more people: correct me if I'm wrong, but in the US it is now illegal to bypass the copy protection on software or media that you have purchased in order to make a backup copy.

I know they want me to game on a console.

 

[ViviTheMage]

love me a good MMO...I do not foresee as many single player RPG's.

 

[Rakewell]

It'll be just like the reality show craze. At first, they were incredibly popular, and then people got sick of them.

Besides, MMOs require investments of time and capital. If you flood the market with them, they will do poorly; how many people will pay monthly fees for more than 2 or 3 MMOs and actually play them?

Casual gamers will play single player games more than they will MMOs.

I'm a casual gamer who got into WoW for a weekend. I had to stop because I did not have the time to invest in a quality character.

 

[wanderer27]

If that's case (90% MMO's), I won't be buying any new games.

I'm sure there are other that feel the same, that means the PC game producers will basically just nuke their sales.

I just don't have the time to invest in online gaming or the desire to be held prisoner by a game (or lose out on "goodies").

I'm definitely not going to pay a subscription to play a game (no WOW, EVE, etc. etc. for me). It's either a one time payment, or you're just renting the game.

 

[nakedfrog]

No way. There will always be interest in single player games, thus there will always be a market for single player games, and someone will serve that market because there's money to be made. I have no interest in MMOs. I tried SW: Galaxies, Guild Wars, and DDO, and they were alright. I didn't even pay for GW, I knew someone that had an extra account he let me use, and I still lost interest pretty quickly. I might pick up DDO again when it goes free to play, but I don't know for sure.
Story-driven narrative is king. I want to play at my convenience, not the convenience of others. I want to be able to PAUSE.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
No way. There will always be interest in single player games, thus there will always be a market for single player games, and someone will serve that market because there's money to be made. I have no interest in MMOs. I tried SW: Galaxies, Guild Wars, and DDO, and they were alright. I didn't even pay for GW, I knew someone that had an extra account he let me use, and I still lost interest pretty quickly. I might pick up DDO again when it goes free to play, but I don't know for sure.
Story-driven narrative is king. I want to play at my convenience, not the convenience of others. I want to be able to PAUSE.

What I find amazing is that a great game like Sins of a Solar Empire that does offer online multiplayer has a player based that is compose of about 99.5% single player sissies who are too chicken to come online and play against real human opponents that don't have their hands tied behind their backs like the AI does.

 

[acheron]

Originally posted by: WhipperSnapper

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
No way. There will always be interest in single player games, thus there will always be a market for single player games, and someone will serve that market because there's money to be made. I have no interest in MMOs. I tried SW: Galaxies, Guild Wars, and DDO, and they were alright. I didn't even pay for GW, I knew someone that had an extra account he let me use, and I still lost interest pretty quickly. I might pick up DDO again when it goes free to play, but I don't know for sure.
Story-driven narrative is king. I want to play at my convenience, not the convenience of others. I want to be able to PAUSE.

What I find amazing is that a great game like Sins of a Solar Empire that does offer online multiplayer has a player based that is compose of about 99.5% single player sissies who are too chicken to come online and play against real human opponents that don't have their hands tied behind their backs like the AI does.

Indeed. With how pleasant you obviously are to interact with, I can't believe people don't want to play with you!

 

[Rakewell]

Originally posted by: WhipperSnapper

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
No way. There will always be interest in single player games, thus there will always be a market for single player games, and someone will serve that market because there's money to be made. I have no interest in MMOs. I tried SW: Galaxies, Guild Wars, and DDO, and they were alright. I didn't even pay for GW, I knew someone that had an extra account he let me use, and I still lost interest pretty quickly. I might pick up DDO again when it goes free to play, but I don't know for sure.
Story-driven narrative is king. I want to play at my convenience, not the convenience of others. I want to be able to PAUSE.

What I find amazing is that a great game like Sins of a Solar Empire that does offer online multiplayer has a player based that is compose of about 99.5% single player sissies who are too chicken to come online and play against real human opponents that don't have their hands tied behind their backs like the AI does.

There's nothing "sissy" about not wanting to play against human players online.

I don't want to have to spend the time to master a game so I can get online and compete against some goddamned 14 year old from the Ukraine who has already logged 62 hours on the game in the past week alone.

The point of a game, for me, is to enjoy myself, relax, and spend my limited free time in leisure. Life is already hard. I got enough of a learning curve to master in my own life with my job/family.

An MMO or any other online competitive game would suck for me. I don't have the time to put into it.

This does not make me, or nakedfrog a "sissy".

 

[Dumac]

Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
Good games still sell. Bad games companies blame it on "piracy" to their higher ups. /thread

No, good games don't always sell. See Chinatown wars...

Anyway, I don't think 90% of computers games will be MMOs, but games may try to start incorporating more online components as a method of DRM.

 

[spittledip]

I would just as soon see PC gaming fail then have all or most become MMOs.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

this is a stupid topic.

 

[minmaster]

what OP said is what basically happened in korea. their gaming industry has moved to subscription based or free game with micro transactions.

 

[sticks435]

I agree with nakedfrog and Rakewell. I hardly ever do multiplayer, and if I do, it's with friends with everyone else on mute. I just don't have the damned time, patience or attitude to put up with mostly little kids who think they are better than everyone else because they are good at multiplayer.

 

[Mr. Lennon]

Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
Good games still sell. Bad games companies blame it on "piracy" to their higher ups. /thread

Did you check how much COD4 was pirated? That was a good game.

Also, I'm not saying single player games will disappear off the face of the earth...just more and more of them will go to console rather than PC.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Originally posted by: Zeppelin2282

Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
Good games still sell. Bad games companies blame it on "piracy" to their higher ups. /thread

Did you check how much COD4 was pirated? That was a good game.

I never said good games weren't pirated.

 

[BladeVenom]

Microsoft, not piracy is the biggest enemy of PC gaming. Half of gamers don't want to play MMO's, so they won't take over the industry.

 

[pmv]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
The last thread we had like this got locked. Matter of fact it was last night. Pretty much everything you said in the first paragraph has absolutely no proof.

But I do agree MMO's will be the standard of the future. I have also suggested more than a few times that PC Gaming be like broadcast television. That would make marketing and income a whole different ball game.

I guess that would mean it could eventually by paid for by advertising, like non-subscription TV.

Billboards in-game, and every time you get fragged you have to sit through an advert (variable length so you daren't just go for a coffee but have to watch it in case you respawn and get killed again in your absence). Could be rendered in the game-engine I guess.

 

[Modelworks]

MMO games are making the same mistake Atari did. Atari in the 1980's had a flood of games come on the market, so many that nobody could buy them all. The same thing is occurring with MMO. Every day there is at least one new one popping up. There are just not enough people to support all of these titles. So what happens is some go to one, some to another and instead of having a few successful games, you get a bunch of failures. Console developers learned from the past and are controlling what titles get released and when they are released. The same thing the movie industry does. There is a reason why they don't release movies like Transformers and Star Trek on the same day, you don't want the competition. That is one of the things that hurt pc games in the past and pushed some developers to consoles. Titles that would have been major sellers were eclipsed by other titles. Now with the slow rate of pc games release it isn't an issue though.

I think the future of pc gaming is going to continue to be a niche audience with the majority of games on consoles. People like the convenience of being able to put in a dvd and play and not have to know anything but to play the game. No drivers, hardware, OS, memory. Like many pc gamers have said many times over the years "I just want to play the damn game !"

 

[DannyLove]

ummmmm we're seeing a lot of MMO's out there already...
A lot of crap ones too, hoping to make that "quick buck"