But an answer has risen in recent years: PC gaming isn't dead, rather it's evolving; changing. Not the most dramatic of answers, if it can even be classified as an answer at all. Nevertheless, some of the staunchest PC supporters in the industry have acknowledged that in order to avoid a self-fulfilled prophecy of the demise of PC gaming, change must take place.
So, where does the change start? Should retailers immediately make more effort to push PC games? Should publishers invest more in online-centric PC services? Should PC game developers make online-only titles? All of those things may help in the long run, and are currently taking place to varying degrees, but Unangst believes the root of change must take hold in peoples' perception of the state of PC gaming.
"There's no one single roadblock [to PC gaming's success]," he says. "The roadblock, if any, is the perception that there is a roadblock in PC gaming. There is a mistaken perception that PC gaming is dying. And I think that anyone who believes that is simply mistaken, and hasn't looked at the numbers. I think we've seen some small declines in areas like US retail. But we've seen retail growth in every other region in the world, and we've seen online sales exponentially increase, whether it's services, subscriptions or digital distribution. We're growing faster."
moscallout"Anyone who believes that PC gaming is dying is simply mistaken, and hasn't looked at the numbers."/moscalloutIn his defense against PC game detractors, Unangst adds, "If anything, there's the need for a reality check on what's happening on the PC, and the activity, innovation and excitement that's happening there. That's the biggest roadblock."
Unangst is unrelenting in his view that PC gaming overall is a healthy business, even in the face of piracy, strong competition from consoles and virtually flat US retail sales for PC games. When looking at US NPD data, the casual observer may wonder if Unangst has donned a pair of rose-colored glasses.
For instance, 2007's top-selling PC games chart for the US is strikingly similar to 2006's: The Sims and World of Warcraft titles dominated the list yet again. That's great for Blizzard and EA, but it's not a great indicator of the diverse range of titles available for PC. For 2007, the best-selling PC games that weren't from Blizzard or EA Maxis started at the number five slot with Activision's Call of Duty 4, a game that had sold 383,000 units during the year. Not terrible, considering the game was released in November, but compared to Call of Duty 4 for Xbox 360, an SKU that sold 7 million units in about the same time frame, the PC version's figures pale in comparison--somewhat disconcerting considering the franchise's roots in PC gaming.
Unangst argues that even in light of NPD's sales figures (which show that PC game software made up 14 percent of US retail sales last year), PC gaming is absolutely healthy. "I wouldn't say that PC retail is suffering in the US. It's still nearly a billion-dollar business. So for it to go from slightly over a billion to $910.7 million is not a precipitous decline. It's something we're keeping our eye on, but for someone to say that a billion-dollar business is suffering, well, I think it's in pretty good shape."