Well, the day has finally arrived. StarCraft II launched at midnight (July 27, 2010) and hordes of gamers around the world celebrated. Regardless of what the game’s quality will actually be (though I’m expecting it to be awesome), StarCraft II will rain puppies, unicorns, and monetary happiness on Activision Blizzard. Financial analysts estimate that ActiBlizzard will sell about 7 million copies of StarCraft II during the current fiscal year. This translates to about $171 million in profit.
This brings up the question — will the game’s success spell a positive turn for PC gaming?
Let’s face it — PC games are turning (or have turned, depending on who you talk to) into a niche hobby. First of all, it’s simply a lot cheaper to game on a console. You’d need to spend at least a thousand dollars on a basic gaming PC, more if you want all the bells and whistles. Then, you’d have to spend another couple of hundred dollars every few years to upgrade various parts, just so you can play certain games. Compare this with spending a few hundred dollars one time for a console.
Second, PC gamers have to put up with often overzealous anti-piracy measures. Let’s not forget Ubisoft’s digital rights management system (DRM) that forces gamers to constantly be online while playing, even if they’re not in multiplayer. Not surprisingly, the DRM was quickly hacked.
Finally, while this can be considered a minor issue, it still counts. Console games can be rented, resold to a store like GameStop, and purchased as used. I have so many PC games on my shelf that I turned out not to like, but I’m stuck with them. I can’t sell them unless I use eBay. Conversely, because I have a Gamefly account, I never have to worry about wasting my money on a game I didn’t like. If I don’t like a game, I just send it back and get a new one. Those that I liked, I kept. And if someone buys me a game that I didn’t care for? Off to GameStop it goes.
But will StarCraft II make a difference? Will it turn gamers’ attention back to their PCs? After all, it seems to avoid the two major pitfalls of PC gaming. Blizzard tends to make their games not require a powerful gaming PC. Indeed, StarCraft II‘s required and recommended system specs are quite reasonable. And in terms of DRM, StarCraft II doesn’t require you to constantly be connected while you play.
However, I don’t think that StarCraft II will convince more people to turn to their PCs for games. Why? Because it’s an anomaly. After all, Blizzard doesn’t release its games on consoles. If you want to play StarCraft II, you need a computer. But if you want to play a game that’s also available on consoles, most likely you’ll play the console version. And while StarCraft II doesn’t have an overly strict DRM, other games still do.
I’m afraid that PC gaming will remain a niche hobby. Even casual games that started out on PC (e.g. many PopCap games) have made their way to handhelds and smart phones. Social games and MMORPGs seem to be the PC’s final frontier — no wait, that’s not true. Hello Final Fantasy XI and Farmville on the iPhone.
Ah well. PC gamers will always have Blizzard’s games. And don’t forget — Civilization V is right around the corner.
Site [StarCraft II]
This reminds me, I must still try and remember to go and buy Civilization V at some point, really wanting to check this out, loved the earlier versions.
PC gaming has an uphill struggle I reckon against the console gaming market and technology now with thousands of games being released across the popular platforms and as you mention in your article, no piracy/patches/upgrade issues throughout console gaming.