PC and Console Games and Gamers
IGN has recently published this year’s edition of the Readers’ Choice Top 100 Games of All Time and it once again showed the same differences between PC and console games and gamers, differences which unjustly put PC games at a disadvantage, which in turn puts PC gamers at a disadvantage as well.
The top included 26 PC games, including here any game which was listed as having a PC version. Eight of those games, including the top four, didn’t have the PC version listed on their page in the top itself. That might mean that the user ratings for that version weren’t taken into account for some reason, therefore making their presence in a hypothetical “Readers’ Choice Top 100 PC Games of All Time” questionable. But I’ll just ignore that fact for now and say that there are 26 PC games in that top 100. I’d have preferred them to be around a third instead of a quarter, but that is still a reasonable number.
The problems appear when you analyze further. The Legend of Zelda and Mario seem deadlocked in the battle for the best series of games of all time, each appearing eight times in the top (though Zelda has the first and fourth places while no Mario game made it into the top ten), while Metroid, with six appearances, is a relatively distant third. All of these are strictly console games! What’s worse, even though two PC games did make it into the top ten, they are both PC ports of console games, released two years after the initial release date, and neither of them has the PC version listed on their page in the top anyway. (As I said before, the top four PC games are not listed as such, though at least the third one, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, 12th overall, is an actual PC game and not a delayed port.) The highest ranked game which has the PC version listed is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, 18th overall, and it is followed by yet another PlayStation port, Final Fantasy VII, 30th overall.
Since this top is created by users, it indicates that gamers prefer console games. However, it seems it’s not just the regular gamers. Console games tend to get better scores in official reviews too, even the console version of a game often gets a better score than the PC version of that same game, and I’m not talking about delayed ports here. I’m trying to determine why that happens…
Of course this is not something I’ve just noticed now, so I already have an opinion. I think there are three main causes for this: the hardware, the gamers and capitalism. Let me explain a little about each.
PCs are constantly evolving. The best thing right now will be mediocre next year and obsolete a couple of years after that. That makes it very hard to create games that take advantage of the latest developments, but also to enjoy the full potential of recently released games. Developers have to choose between creating games that work on weaker systems, which will disappoint all those who want “eye candy”, and taking advantage of the latest technology, which will make the game unplayable for all those who have weaker systems. They often choose the third option, especially when it comes to graphics, which is to make the game “scalable”, therefore taking advantage of the latest developments but allowing those who own weaker systems to turn off those features in order to still be able to play. When you also add the fact that, due to the desire to keep up with the latest technology, developers change parts of the code during the production process, it becomes clear that PC games require more time, money and skill to produce than console games. They are also far more likely to contain bugs. On the other hand, since console hardware is pretty fixed, it’s much easier to work with it and take advantage of all it has to offer, without compromises. But the hardware also plays a part in how gamers view the games. It’s impossible to take full advantage of the constantly evolving PC hardware, so gamers who focus on the technical aspects (which are the vast majority, actually) are unlikely to be completely satisfied with a PC game. Plus that there is the little issue of the controls. Console gamers expect relatively simple and perhaps even limited controls, but PCs have keyboard, mouse and potentially other peripherals as well. That makes PC gamers expect the controls to be nothing less than perfect, and we all know perfection is unattainable.
From this we can conclude that console games and PC games are likely to be judged differently even by the same person, with the expectations for the PC version being higher. We also conclude that PC games are harder to make. Since a person’s satisfaction is determined by how closely facts meet their expectations, PC games are likely to be less satisfying even if they turn out well, which is less likely to happen…
Next come the gamers themselves. I stick to my opinion that PC gamers are more demanding of quality and complexity than console gamers. A large number of console gamers would just be happy with something fun to waste their time on. That means that console gamers are by default more likely to enjoy a game and therefore rate it very highly. Most do not analyze it too carefully, and they have lower demands even when they do. On the other hand, many PC gamers want a lot and are more thorough, making them more likely to notice even small flaws and give lower ratings because of them.
So, up to this point, we can conclude that the games which are easier and cheaper to make, and also less likely to contain bugs, reach a less demanding (and likely also larger) audience, while those which are harder and more expensive to make, and also more likely to contain bugs because of it, reach a more demanding (and likely also smaller) audience.
That takes us to capitalism. Some developers might still make games simply because they want to, they enjoy it and want that to show, but the publishers certainly don’t care about that. They are only interested in profits, sticking firmly to the old business adage of producing as cheaply as possible as many things as you can possibly sell for as much as possible. That makes them focus on the console market, and the developers are forced to follow suit because they have unfortunately grown dependent on them. The reasoning is quite simple, good console games can be produced cheaper and faster than good PC games and they are likely to sell more copies at a higher price. (Personally, I don’t really get why do console gamers let publishers get away with selling console games for so much, but I guess that’s their problem. I guess a good part of it has to do with them being less demanding and, I don’t fear saying it, even less intelligent than PC gamers.) That means they can produce more for less and sell more for more, fulfilling all parts of the adage I mentioned above. Not to mention the whole piracy issue, which I won’t get into again. All of that makes them pay more attention to console games, making them more likely to actually be better than PC games.
Putting it all together leads to a very disheartening conclusion for PC gamers. Less demanding buyers are more likely to be satisfied with their purchase. If they are happy with their purchase, they are more likely to make another. That means higher profits for the publishers from console games, which in turn makes them focus on those, especially since they’re cheaper and easier to make, increasing both their quantity and their quality. Higher quality certainly means even higher sales, but higher quantity means more choice, which usually makes more people want to see what it’s about and therefore also potentially increasing sales. This creates an upward spiral for console games. On the other hand, more demanding buyers are less likely to be satisfied with their purchase. If they are unhappy with their purchase, they are less likely to make another. That means lower profits for the publishers from PC games, which in turn makes them turn away from those, especially since they’re more expensive and harder to make, decreasing both their quantity and their quality, which obviously means even lower sales. This creates a downward spiral for PC games.
The way out? Since the constant development and versatility are exactly the traits that make PCs what they are, those can’t be changed. Consoles could also start receiving upgrades, but that is undesirable because it would cause problems for everybody. That means the hardware problem can’t be solved. But it doesn’t need to be solved…
If the gamers would change, the problem would be partially solved. Of course, PC gamers could become less demanding, but that would be undesirable. Instead, console gamers should become more demanding and discriminating, and also stop putting up with the outrageous prices the publishers sell console games for. That would make publishers stop focusing on them at the expense of PC games so much, but, unless the balance would end up being tilted the other way, it could actually increase the quality of console games even further as well. After all, offering low quality products to discriminating customers is a quick way to bankruptcy, so they will avoid doing that.
Of course, the best way to change this situation is eliminating capitalism. If profits wouldn’t be a priority anymore, good PC games would be as likely to be produced as good console games. Without marketing and financial constraints, those who truly enjoy making games and have the skills for it would be far more likely to create good games, regardless of platform, so everybody would benefit. Yes, this would require nothing short of changing society as a whole, but most good things require that…
