Sleeping Giant

New awareness, new games stir revival of PC gaming

Brian D. Crecente, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 16, 2006 at midnight

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Three months after its heralded introduction of the Xbox 360, Microsoft is prepping to launch another gaming platform: the computer.

With computer game sales in a tailspin and a new generation of sleek, graphics-spewing consoles hitting store shelves, the software giant is promising to not only pull the computer out of its slump, but to deliver a PC gaming renaissance.

"I want to apologize for the dereliction of duty to our company's No. 1 platform, the PC, in terms of gaming," Microsoft Vice President Peter Moore said during a speech on the changing world of PC games last week. "We've been a little distracted for the past few years. Mea culpa, we've been busy."

And the neglect shows.

Last year, computer game sales dropped 14 percent from the year before, the worst dip in a five-year decline. Retail stores have taken note, relegating the PC games - once fodder for front window displays - into back corners and little space.

"PC gaming used to take up the entire store," said Ken Levine, president and creative director for Irrational Games. "Now PC gaming get's a tiny little shelf. Literally you have a fraction of the shelf space."

So which is it for the future of PC gaming? Is it a dinosaur marching toward the tar pits or a sleeping giant ready to wake and reclaim its past glory?

The industry's top advocates say there are plenty of problems keeping PC gaming down - but just as much potential that portend its inevitable rebirth.

Some of the PC gaming's hurdles include:

• Piracy. Gamers are downloading the product rather than buying it.

• Stagnancy. Developers keep cranking out sequels when they should be innovating.

Some of PC gaming's promise includes:

• Power. PCs boast more technological muscle and - unlike a console - can regularly be upgraded.

• Microsoft. The software behemoth is throwing its weight behind PC gaming and contends a new operating system due out at the end of the year will help push the platform to new heights.

Tackling PC problems

"I don't believe PC gaming is going to die, but it is bleeding right now," said Tim Willits, lead designer and co-owner of id Software, makers of such PC powerhouse games as Quake and Doom.

He points to piracy as a chief culprit in the sales drop. He says developers need to first find ways to make people pay.

"What developers and publishers need to do is come up with distribution plans and new copy protection plans," he said. "When you see a game that requires you to be online to play, people can't steal that game."

That's the plan for id's upcoming title Enemy Territory Quake Wars.

"One of the things we've done is make it an online game that requires you talk to a master server and have a unique keycode," he said.

The industry needs to make such anti-piracy procedures mainstream if PC gaming is to survive, Willits said.

Others believe the innovation shouldn't stop there. PC games have, in many ways, become formulaic.

"Publishers need to take more chances," said Robert "Apache" Howarth, editor of gaming site Voodoo Extreme. "PC gamers are sick and tired of color-by-numbers designed World War II games, generic real-time strategy titles and massively multiplayer tripe.

"PC gaming in general is in a rut."

Moore echoed that sentiment during his speech last week at the Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain summit.

"We are becoming like TV and film in that we are sticking to a formula," he said. "We are a superior medium, and we should take the next step to rekindling originality."

"I am very concerned that we are too reliant on sequels, formulaic gameplay, and licenses from outside our medium."

Despite the hurdles facing the PC gaming industry, few think that gaming on the computer will become a thing of the past.

"It's like saying people are going to stop browsing on the Internet," said Mark Rein, vice president and co-founder of Epic Games. "It's idiotic."

PC's technical advantage

Willits argues that no matter how fast and high tech a console starts out, it will eventually become outdated. Unlike with PCs, you can't upgrade a console.

"PC technology moves faster than the consoles. Consoles have a three- to five-year life span," Willits said. "You can get new video cards every few months, so the PC will always be more powerful and it has better connections to the Internet."

Rein points to the object of his latest PC passion, a limited edition computer from Dell called the XPF600 Renegade.

"Michael Dell said that it has four times the power of next-gen consoles," he said. "There is so much power in that PC and there is so much potential.

"But just think: a year from now that will be your average PC and think of what you will be able to buy then.

"It's just ludicrous to say PC gaming is on the way out when PC gaming hardware is just exploding."

And when the newest PC hardware hits, game developers can start taking advantage of it immediately.

"Six months from now when the next uber awesome graphics card comes out we can take advantage of that right away," said Scott Brown, president of Louisville-based NetDevil. "PC games can always evolve."

Microsoft's new PC priority

Microsoft contends the PC gaming evolution will get a big boost from Vista, its latest Windows operating system is due out later this year. The company says it will streamline computer gaming for both developers and gamers.

"In the past we haven't done a lot to foster the (PC gaming) ecosystem, we've just allowed it to exist," said Chris Donahue, director of developer relations for Windows graphics and gaming. "With Vista we are going to do specific marketing and retail stuff."

Recently, Moore, who is responsible for the Xbox division, took control of Windows gaming as well. And with Moore's involvement comes a much greater emphasis on the PC platform, Donahue said.

"When Vista launches at the end of this year we will be treating it like a gaming platform," he said. "We are really going to blow this out."

Microsoft's push for its new operating system and PC gaming in general will include an attempt to standardize some of the aspects of the industry. From game packaging to online play and installation, the hope is that PC gaming will adapt some of the better traits of its console competition.

The Vista system will also streamline the way games are presented on your computer.

A built-in "games explorer" will organize the games on your computer and provide details for each game.

"When you install World of Warcraft you will automatically get a lovely high-res box art image," Donahue said. "When you click on the icon it gives you the name of the publisher, developer, even links to support for the game and other stuff the developer can populate in the window."

Developers are already singing the new operating system's praises.

Epic Game's Rein says Vista will make it much easier for developers to squeeze every bit of power out of a computer.

"It will get us much closer to the hardware," he said. "Right now you can get a lot more work out of an Xbox than you could get out of a PC."

Rein, whose Epic Games is developing titles for both consoles and PCs, says that in many ways the two markets compliment one another.

"The good thing about next-gen consoles is that they are such powerful machines and that will translate into better games on the PC," he said.

That's because many developers create games that can play on all platforms, PC and console, and often they have to limit their titles to the lowest common denominator - usually the console. As the consoles elevate their power, the games can catch up.

"I think we are going to see a resurgence of PC gaming," he said.

Time for an upswing

Rein sees the past five years as a normal dip in what he believes is PC gaming's typically cyclical nature.

"It will come and go and come and go," he said. "Everyone likes to be nostalgic, but the truth is the games we are making today are just so much more immersive."

And computer games certainly offer a more immersive experience than consoles, said Richard Garriott, executive producer for NCsoft, who sees the PC as the platform for the sophisticated gamer.

"The depth of interaction is much more diverse and sophisticated, it has more components to draw on," he said. "In-depth games, where you want a deeper relationship with other people, will not be most common or prevalent or successful on consoles."

And Rein says there's far more innovation yet to come.

"The idea that there are no mountains left to conquer is absolutely ludicrous," he said. "People have no clue how much further we can go."

Garriott concedes consoles will also continue to grow to meet the sophisticated gamer's needs - but the PC will retain an indisputable edge.

"I can imagine a time when consoles have all of the abilities of a PC," he says. "But everyone on the planet owns a PC, and that's not going to change."

crecenteb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2811

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