While it's true that PC games retail is generally weak - all of the money is in a select group of casual, Sims products and MMO's - your assessment of the console side is rather off. Attach rates vary by system, but it's well north of five games. You have to remember just like on the PC side, there is a robust online game delivery system for every console and most of the handhelds (and will be all of the handhelds very soon). Things like Steam on the PC side aren't even factored in to PC games sales, and that's a huge market. The x factor on the console side is of course the Wii, which has attracted an unprecedented casual (for lack of a better term) audience, who may in fact get "bored" of the whole videogame thing after the fresh initial thrill, lowering the attach rate. The other factor of course is that the Wii is home to arguably an overly high percentage of shovelware and mini-games because of the audience, who tends to eat up anything with a familiar license or branding. The PC, being an open platform, is a reflection of all sides, which is why it's equally full of shovelware, casualware and hardcore stuff.
I don't think anyone is calling Joe Average stupid, but the fact of the matter is is that the dominant platform is nearly always better for those who don't wish to get down to the nitty gritty details and putting lots of work into it, because the most stuff will be designed for it. In the case of PC's, that's dealing with Windows over Linux. I don't think there's any way to argue against that. The path of least resistance is where most people (myself included) prefer to go, and in the vast majority of cases that's with a Windows-based system. As a secondary system, really anything Web-enabled and able to install browser extensions is more than adequate, and that certainly includes anything running Linux. That's probably Linux's future and greatest strength, being in a mass of secondary and tertiary systems and products. Eventually the OS won't matter and the office suite won't matter, but that time is no time soon. Old paradigms die hard.
While it's true that PC games retail is generally weak - all of the money is in a select group of casual, Sims products and MMO's - your assessment of the console side is rather off. Attach rates vary by system, but it's well north of five games. You have to remember just like on the PC side, there is a robust online game delivery system for every console and most of the handhelds (and will be all of the handhelds very soon). Things like Steam on the PC side aren't even factored in to PC games sales, and that's a huge market. The x factor on the console side is of course the Wii, which has attracted an unprecedented casual (for lack of a better term) audience, who may in fact get "bored" of the whole videogame thing after the fresh initial thrill, lowering the attach rate. The other factor of course is that the Wii is home to arguably an overly high percentage of shovelware and mini-games because of the audience, who tends to eat up anything with a familiar license or branding. The PC, being an open platform, is a reflection of all sides, which is why it's equally full of shovelware, casualware and hardcore stuff.
I don't think anyone is calling Joe Average stupid, but the fact of the matter is is that the dominant platform is nearly always better for those who don't wish to get down to the nitty gritty details and putting lots of work into it, because the most stuff will be designed for it. In the case of PC's, that's dealing with Windows over Linux. I don't think there's any way to argue against that. The path of least resistance is where most people (myself included) prefer to go, and in the vast majority of cases that's with a Windows-based system. As a secondary system, really anything Web-enabled and able to install browser extensions is more than adequate, and that certainly includes anything running Linux. That's probably Linux's future and greatest strength, being in a mass of secondary and tertiary systems and products. Eventually the OS won't matter and the office suite won't matter, but that time is no time soon. Old paradigms die hard.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
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Bill Loguidice, Managing Director
Armchair Arcade, Inc.