Network now...FEATURE
PC Gaming’s ’08 News-Makers
Our selection of the ten most significant PC-related news pieces of 2008 show that, despite the shortcomings of the format – from piracy to DRM to the format’s oft-perceived frailty – a number of publishers stood to make a lot of money from their PC game enterprises.
Even though Carmack, Yerli and others are taking an astute multi-platform approach to their output, the four pillars of PC gaming – Games For Windows, online web casuals, subscription MMOs and, of course, Steam – continue to grow as each month goes by. 
PC Gaming Alliance Founded
February 20
As it happened
The PC Gaming Alliance is the only organisation in the world that isn’t afraid to tell the hard truth; that the PC market is doing just super. Although the PCGA’s press releases are likely to make a sceptic out of even the most naive onlooker, its mission to “drive worldwide growth of PC gaming” is a thoroughly positive one. A united front is a luxury given to consoles at birth; it’s only fair that PC market has it own..jpg)
PC Health Debate Rages on, and on, and on
from March 4
As it Happened (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
“The ground truth is just that the sales numbers on the PC are not what they used to be and are not what they are on the consoles,” said id Software’s John Carmack back in August, speaking in regards to his company’s decision to refocus its development decisions onto console gaming. And while Carmack in no way suggested id Software was going to end its push on the PC, such a rethink on the platform in general – from a company so synonymous with WASD shindigs – left many concerned.
But for every news piece and column on the fading PC market, there was reports and statistics suggesting that mouse and keyboard gaming is stronger than ever. In November a JPR study made a somewhat mishandled claim that the PC market is bigger than the console’s (calculated by adding up combined revenues for both markets yet ignoring the money generated from the two most popular consoles of this generation in the PSP and DS). A separate study from the PCGA claimed that the PC market was worth $10.7 billon in 2007.
2008 saw a string of industry figures defend and praise PC gaming. Both Valve’s Gabe Newell and Games for Windows boss Kevin Unangst have stated that “perception” is the only problem PC gaming has, while in June Microsoft’s corporate VP John Schappert issued an open letter stating that Games For Windows will fuel a “PC renaissance”.
Piracy Talks, Developer Walks
from April 30
As it happened (2)
The headache of the PC platform showed no signs of soothing in 2008, with Crytek president Cevat Yerli announcing that the problem of piracy had become so widespread that his studio would no longer develop PC exclusives. “PC gamers that pirate games inherently destroy the platform,” he said at the time.
Later in the year, a study conducted by TorrentFreak showed that Crytek’s widely revered Crysis had been illegally downloaded some 940,000 times in 2008. As devastating a loss that the figure suggests, it is dwarfed by the estimates that EA’s Spore had been illegally downloaded a staggering 1,700,000 times. 
Google Opens Lively, Closes Lively
from July 8
As it happened (2)
You know your company must be fairly gargantuan when its brand name becomes a verb. But Google’s Lively, a 3D virtual world where users could create and decorate their own spaces, didn’t quite replicate the success of the Internet Search Engine Leviathan. A mere four months after Google launched the service, Lively was pronounced as good as dead, with its creators stating the app will not be available for use by the end of 2008. .jpg)
Star Wars: The Old Republic Announced
from July 17
As it happened (2, 3, Edge Interview)
As soon as Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was officially unveiled, EA’s strategy to bring major returns on its $860 million purchase of Bioware was made abundantly clear. Nothing has more potential to dislodge Blizzard’s monopoly on the MMO market than the concoction of a veteran publisher, a respected development outfit, and a franchise phenomenon..jpg)
Casual King Laughs at Hardcore Games
August 19
As it happened
As the development costs of the biggest games of the year can usually be measured in multiples of five million, PopCap made one of the strongest cases yet for casual gaming as the company stated that over 350 million copies of its Bejeweled series has been downloaded from the web.
Popcap’s three Bejeweled games sell from around $10 to $15 each, while PC and browser iterations have driven the total multiplatform growth of the game to more than one billion downloads. The company also stated that it is acquiring "tens of millions" of dollars in online advertising through its free-but-limited online version of the game.
Certain publishers must wince at the mere mention of Bejeweled, especially as PopCap co-founder Jason Kapalka stated that he tried to sell the rights of the game to “more than one industry giant back in the early days of our company” for as little as $60,000. The franchise has since generated above $300 million in consumer spending.
I've been a PC gamer since the 486 and mucking about with dos files. It seems to me that the PC brand is dying as a platform for games. Blizzard appear to be propping up the system with WoW, take that game away and there is not a lot left. All Blizzard games can be played on a Mac, the PC exclusive titles are pretty much dead. How many players of WoW play on a HD-TV? Not that many I imagine. Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Oblivion, Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4 are great games that just look better bigger. Piracy of Crysis is an example in how to lose money. Making games is a business venture first and foremost, piracy is a massive problem for the PC. Consoles have the problem to a very limited extent and it is getting more difficult to find mod chips etc especially since all 3 of the new platforms; Wii, Xbox 260 and PS3 have internet connectivity.
I have given away my gaming PC and bought a desktop one which I am writing this on now. I am probably going to buy a Wii (and probably a PS3 too) because exclusive titles is a big draw for me. As someone who has played WoW since launch, has more than 10 level 70's including a death knight and enjoyed PC gaming for the last decade or so, that says a lot about how I feel the direction of PC gaming has gone and will go.
I'm definitely a PC gamer, and I agree that you typically see younger children and teens playing on consoles where adults and up can often be found gaming on the PC.
To be fair, it must be incredibly challenging to try and sandwich many different HUD's into an easily accessible console controller. In fact, I haven't seen it done to my satisfaction to date. That simple fact, in and of itself, can affect how simple an interface a designer feels the need to create.
The PC tends to offer infinitely more interface options with a keyboard. And frankly, strategy games, in depth sims and builders, and MMOs are generally my favorite types of games - very little of which can actually be found on consoles.
PC gamers have turned bonkers these days. Need reasons?
* PC gamers call games casual, although players can go 'Game Over' in these games faster than in any so called hardcore game.
* PC gamers will also try to call games "not hardcore" if the time requirements are less than "your entire existence". Just because a game can be played in 10 minutes does not have to make it less complicated. Especially puzzle games are anything but casual.
* PC gamers complain about console simplicity, yet they flock to MMOs which will base the result of combat on numbers people grind, without any display of skill whatsoever.
* Being hardcore on the PC has turned into playing only a single game day in day out. Team based shooters and MMOs dominate the scene. Good luck trying to sell them Crysis, when they still won't move from Counter Strike 1.6 to CS-Source.
* Has anybody ever looked at http://store.steampowered.com/stats/ on wondered about the statistic of 1.5M people logging onto Steam, but only 300.000 of them actually playing a game? Or why the newly hyped games (L4D, TF2) have nowhere near the number of players compared to CS?
PC publishers have turned bonkers too:
* They advertised Crysis mainly on the fact how it will not run your computer.
* They still develop games mostly for the next generation of video cards instead of making good use of installed technology. Then they are surprised how many people are excited about games on Source, a five year old engine, or at how many people play the "low-fi" WoW. Well, at least these games actually run on a computer.
* They released Spore mainly as a tool to create avatars and buildings, with almost no emphasis on the game reflected in advertising.
* They antagonize their customers with non-working DRM.
* They whine about bad PC sales, yet the PC has one of the worst line-ups of all platforms. Aside from WoW, the PC platform has no exclusive with any cultural relevance. It used to have Quake and CS and others, but they are not being developed right now.
* Have I mentioned EA's reasoning that a hardcore shooter will suddenly appeal to non-hardcore shooter fans by giving it Bugs Bunny graphics?
Can you imagine one side of this insanity trying to sell the other a game?
PC gaming is not dead, but it should.
Who wants to play games on a desktop computer? How can I play games sitting confortably on my couch when I have a keyboard and a mouse?
The thought of having to boot and logon to windows to play a game is enough to get me far away from PC gamming.
Only kids and teens play PC games. Those that aren't in this category are playing MMO.
When those MMO reach consoles, thos players will make the swicth sooner or later.
laptop gaming is best out there, by far. As you get older, the Laptop becomes not only a business and life tool, but a gaming machine all in one. There's a whole new crop of gaming capable laptops coming from Gateway right now that are amazing, nevermind what Asus is doing too and many others. In fact, I'm on one right now, that cost about $1100, 17" Screen and it comes with a 8800GTS mobile GPU...runs everything out there well above my console counterparts, and works amazingly well for everything else a PC does.
It is about perception. People that don't know wtf they're talking about and are negative about anything besides Console gaming have absolutely no clue how easy and rewarding it is to game on a PC. I still love having a Desktop PC as well, for the Home Office, to compliment my static consoles that are stuck at home on my 50". There's something to be said about portability, and laptop gaming as well as portable gaming like the DS and PSP which rock, is going to be the future, as if it isn't heading that way already.
Many companies are waking up and offering GPU's that aren't integrated and still cheap to sell to the mainstream. This is the important thing. Dell's new lineup will offer much cheaper laptops that are gaming capable and offer far more than what a single console can offer. This isn't to take away from consoles , I love 'em , but the PC is still king in my eyes.
Yep, you definitely aren't a PC gamer.
Teens and kids tend to be console gamers. Adults are the ones playing PC games. This is largely the case because PCs have a learning curve whereas consoles are designed with user friendliness in mind.
The result is that PC games can afford to be designed for the more intelligent gamer. The PC is still the dominant platform for shooters, RPGs and strategy, all genres of which are far more complex and contain deeper gameplay than console counterparts. These games profit significantly from the keyboard and mouse interface over the simplistic controllers of consoles, and allow for more open-ended opportunities from developers, as well as source tools for modders to toy with. What's more, the PC platform is always on the edge of technology, both in terms of graphical power and more recently in digital distribution and other advances afforded by the open platform.
MMOs will never make it to consoles. They are simply too complex. Sony tried with EQ and failed. Consolifying a MMO will result in an inferior game, just as Bethesda's games have deevolved in quality since its pre-Oblivion titles.
As long as there are mature gamers who want more from their games, the PC platform will always live. It also helps that the PC has significantly greater market penetration than consoles -- there probably really is a PC in every household.
I don't want to say consoles suck compared to PC, though. I love my console, if only for the Rock Band goodness it offers me. 3rd person action games and more arcade/action oriented RPGs also fair better on that platform.
It will always be ridiculous to say one or the other is better or dead. They each have their strenghts.
Back to the topic on hand, though: Lively? Never even heard of it. Good job, Google!
Well yeah if you have some lame Wal-Mart purchased PC.
That's the problem, most people don't realise PC gaming is quite nice but it does require a decent investment and the lame PCs that most people will buy won't cut it.
The only upside to console gaming is that all the hardware is the same.
PC gaming can be done on the sofa, in the loo or on the bus even. On top of that you can customize your games a hell of a lot more, do the internet, movie/music better than consoles.
Don't get me wrong, I love my consoles and started out on consoles in the early 80's but PC gaming is great, really great. But it's been killed by shit hardware like Intel video cards or even Nvidia cards that use shared memory and on top of that the pre-built PCs will all that pre-installed BS kill performance even more.
The urge to get everyone owning a PC by driving prices down has killed PC gaming. Had companies lowered prices by building more rather than removing quality then PC gaming would still be doing well.
How did Stardock's PC Gamer's Bill of Rights not make the list here?
That was just as important as any other DRM and PC gaming related story.
We think you're right, Zachary. In fact, we've updated the article to address your observation. Nice going.
Glad to see the update. Thanks.