I wrote Is Pc Gaming Dead 2 years ago, Now I recap.
I actually got tons of hate-mail from pc gamers. There was a ton of messages from console gamers saying stuff like “go buy a ps3/360 you cheap %%^#). but to get hate mail from pc gamers on a subject that bothers me. To get called a scare monger or fear monger or a poor writer with scare tactics. It threw me for a curve. So for two years I stayed off the topic. Now the consoles are a few years old. No news on a new Xbox or the next playstation. I do feel like I am cheating because this is a bad time to do an assessment. Then again, people are fanboys of stuff for a good long while. I am certain the fanboyism has petered out now that pc gamers have slapped the console kiddies down with “Nice out dated machinery, still calling it next gen?”
Okay lol that was so wrong of me. but it was right. Very right.
Ok to the work at hand.
I took a trip to the local gamestop to see if I could find a fun new game for my pc. I mean I did just upgrade my video card to dual Nvida gts 250 cards toting 1g memory, and I just upgraded my processor from a dual core 2.9g cpu to a tri core 3.0g processor. and I added two gigs memory to my motherboard. So you can see I am ready to game a bit. I get into the game store and look what I found.
Game stop Pc gaming
Pc gaming went from a small shelf, down to one of the outer edges of a small shelf. A small 4 foot shelf end-cap. so I was was shocked. all of the games so old and outdated, I tried to laugh at it but it came out distorted. It was disturbing. I was outraged. I walked to the cashier and said ” What the %^^&%^ is this %^$%^” or something really close. The cashier pointed at the pieces of paper hanging over the side.
It was three pages I think, front to back listed with hundreds of pc games they have in the back. I was excited. I bought some games from the list and left there happy. Then I got all the way home and realized ‘dude, we are pc gamers, not paper gamers.” They could just go ahead and remove that whole dang rack and that notebook on the side and just put us a computer there to select our purchase from. i could go for that.
a week or so later, I was shopping in Walmart for some screws or something. It was late and no hardware stores were open. So wally world was all I had. After I finally found something that might work, I walked to the electronics department so I can look at the fading pc games there and sulk at the three shelves of 9.99 games and a few two year old games. The pc games were gone. I mean completely and entirely gone from the spot they have slowly dwindled down to. They were gone. I broke out my cellphone to take a picture. I back up and bumped into some guy. I turned to apoligize. As i turned I winced because of the huge long glass cabinet of console games. My eyes moved from the furthest end. Nintendo stuff had to have had 300 different games. Counting hand helds and stuff. Then the next case xbox. Well over 100 games. Then playstation 200 or so. Then….. wait…. What????? IT’S A HUGE RACK OF PC GAMES AT THE END OF THE LINE. MORE PC GAMES THAN ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Walmart Pc Gaming
The Humble Walmart has more pc games than Gamestop of Spring (on 45 and cypresswood).
so what the heck happened? is pc game dying? Is it on it’s last breath? Is it getting it’s second wind? It looks like pc gaming is coming to the forefront again. Quietly making it’s march forward.
What i am worried about is that most pc gamers are let down enough, they have been buying online only. so they may never even notice that this is going on. and by the time they find out about it, the games will be pulled off the shelf because it was a failed attempt.
Or someone will get the news out as well as they can that pc gaming is not dead or dying, we just have to find it and make sure the guy who sales knows he has what we want and that we will be there for him to profit from.
******Update*****
Well I talked to Gamestop.
Got the answer we needed to hear.
GAMEstop (lol their name says it all.)
Gamestop is reducing their pc games because gamestop tends to sell used games. Pc games, even though they do not get pirated any more or any less than Xbox and Playstation games, they have great deals of protection methods on them that prevent the RE-SELL of Pc Games.
Since GAMEstop sells a lot of used games, and you can’t use cd keys like you used to by “unregistering a cdkey”. Games now come with a limited amount of installs.
The pc gaming industry is killing it’s self
