Written by Raven Smith
With the release of the Xbox One and Play Station 4 last fall, many gamers expected to see a revival in the gaming industry. New consoles mean newer games and a push to produce a diverse game library for each console to make it more marketable. More than six months later, however, and we’re still waiting. Though we have seen the release of several new IPs like “Titanfall” and “Ryse: Son of Rome,” most of the current games are reiterations of and sequels to existing series; “Infamous: Second Son” and “Assassin’s Creed” to name a few. In short, six months later and both consoles are somewhat lacking in the game department, and this leads people to look elsewhere for their gaming experience.
When the console market was new, many people claimed it was the end of PC-based games. However, as time as progressed, we’ve seen that PCs have aged much better than consoles.
PC gaming has several advantages over consoles. Their parts are easy to replace and update. Graphics cards, processors and hard drives can all be easily replaced if there is a crash or simply to support higher quality graphics. Many Xbox owners who’ve experienced the dreaded red-ring on their Xbox can’t fix the problem and are forced to trash the system.
PCs have also gained a new advantage in the market. With Steam and Origin digital distributions, players can download games straight to their desktop. Indie games can now publish directly through Steam, cutting out the need for a publisher which many AAA game studios rely on. Though Steam does take a small cut, most indie developers earn back their cost of production within the first week. With massive deals on indie games in Humble Bundle sales, many new players can build up a large game library quickly.
Indie games aren’t the only draw for the PC gaming market, however. Console games are usually also released on PC, but the console versions aren’t update-friendly. Games released years past can get graphic updates and new content unavailable for consoles. PCs also allow for a new experience when playing older games, such as “Skyrim” and “Dragon Age,” with mods–or modified game content. Designers and players can upload these mods through Steam Workshops for other players to use. One such mod involves replacing Alduin, the main antagonist dragon in “Skyrim,” with Thomas the Tank Engine—much more terrifying.
PC gaming is also more of a social gaming experience. With server hosting, it’s much easier to hook up with a large group of friends who are also online and play games together. Many gamers prefer this over the clunky online interfaces of the Xbox One and PS4.
For years, people have said that PC gaming is dying. Yet every year, the PC market still comes back strong. Now with the newest generation of consoles being released, the gaming community is ironically starting to shift away from console-based gaming. Consoles lack the customizability and freedom PCs can offer. This past year has been the strongest year in PC game sales, and it’s a trend that could spell the end of console-based gaming.