PC Games are not dying, but the business has changed a lot due to the vast increase in costs to develop a solid video game that will sell.
This is the deal. I looked into buying a franchise for a store that sells video games much like Gamestop and the like. The truth is that the majority of the profits made by these stores comes from the sale of used video games. It makes sense too. You go trade in your used games for something like $5 in store value and the store turns around and sells it for $30-$40. These are big time profits and you can't do that with PC games. However, stores like Best Buy do not sell used games. You will also notice that they sell many more PC games than stores like Gamestop. It's simply the nature of their business and it works.
This is why the big new thing if you want to make money in the PC Gaming industry is to come out with games which really hook people and you continue to develop expansions to sell and sequels. This is also why the MMO market is currently the "In thing" when it comes to PC game development. Those monthy fees are like the gift that keeps on giving to these companies provided that they release new content and don't let the game flop due to economy inflation or whatever the case may be.
Now, that is the business side. For the gamer consumer, it pretty simple. You got your hard core gamers and your casuals. The hard core gamers are going to pay for those expensive computers and consoles. No need to worry about that as a business. What you do need to worry about are the quality of the games. Hard core gamers can be difficult to please, but if you come out with a really good game then they will buy the console/computer that the game can be played on. It has always worked that way. It is all about the games.
For the casual gamer it is different. They are often entertained by the simpler games as well as the really involved ones, but they are only willing to spend so much of their hard earned cash to play them. This has led to much success with the Wii amongst many other reasons.
The bottom line overall is that as long as a gaming platform, whether it be a PC or console, has great games that people have a lot of fun playing on them then they will be bought. Neither are going anywhere.
This is the deal. I looked into buying a franchise for a store that sells video games much like Gamestop and the like. The truth is that the majority of the profits made by these stores comes from the sale of used video games. It makes sense too. You go trade in your used games for something like $5 in store value and the store turns around and sells it for $30-$40. These are big time profits and you can't do that with PC games. However, stores like Best Buy do not sell used games. You will also notice that they sell many more PC games than stores like Gamestop. It's simply the nature of their business and it works.
This is why the big new thing if you want to make money in the PC Gaming industry is to come out with games which really hook people and you continue to develop expansions to sell and sequels. This is also why the MMO market is currently the "In thing" when it comes to PC game development. Those monthy fees are like the gift that keeps on giving to these companies provided that they release new content and don't let the game flop due to economy inflation or whatever the case may be.
Now, that is the business side. For the gamer consumer, it pretty simple. You got your hard core gamers and your casuals. The hard core gamers are going to pay for those expensive computers and consoles. No need to worry about that as a business. What you do need to worry about are the quality of the games. Hard core gamers can be difficult to please, but if you come out with a really good game then they will buy the console/computer that the game can be played on. It has always worked that way. It is all about the games.
For the casual gamer it is different. They are often entertained by the simpler games as well as the really involved ones, but they are only willing to spend so much of their hard earned cash to play them. This has led to much success with the Wii amongst many other reasons.
The bottom line overall is that as long as a gaming platform, whether it be a PC or console, has great games that people have a lot of fun playing on them then they will be bought. Neither are going anywhere.
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