Play.tm/Weekly Blend interview Pete Hines

[Westbend]

unfortunately downloading really seems like it's killing PC gaming slowly. it's not only the downloaders fault though, it's the stupid damn marketing. same problem as in the music industry. they're losing sales because of downloads but instead of making it more fulfilling to buy games/cd's they're increasing prices and giving us more and more mainstreamed products.

In my opinion, whats killing the PC market (along with Music and Movie sales), is that they are still desperately clinging to an old market model of selling physical copies.
To beat piracy, (atleast in some degree) you have to have content available fast, easy, and cheap. Steam is a step in the right direction, although they price their games the same as actual physical copies.
I would not pirate movies, for example, if I could get ahold of the movie for 5$, a few days before it is released as a screener even, on a streamlined website with no fuss or muss and download it at my full download speed, and then have access to that movie a little like the games you buy on Steam.
Same formula should be applied to the music industry and games.
Get it out early, cheap, easy and fast.

Sure, alot of people wont be willing to spend money on anything, but I think it would cut down on piracy by a bit.
I dunno, I might just be whistling Dixie for all I know though.

Edit: Massive thread derailment I just realised. Sorry bout that.
Vatt it if its to much.

 

[aenemic]

unfortunately downloading really seems like it's killing PC gaming slowly. it's not only the downloaders fault though, it's the stupid damn marketing. same problem as in the music industry. they're losing sales because of downloads but instead of making it more fulfilling to buy games/cd's they're increasing prices and giving us more and more mainstreamed products.

Hyperbole. That shit belongs on blogs, seriously.

PC Gaming is stronger than ever. All of those "PCS R DYING GUISE" articles completely ignore all digital distribution and MMO sales. Did you know Blizzard made $1.2 billion (Yes, with a b) in 2007? That's one company in a sea of hundreds.

Yeah, PC gaming is totally dying . Quick, let's all sell our gaming rigs and buy consoles! Lots and lots of consoles!!!

don't give yourself a stroke dude. read my second post above.

 

[FeelTheRads]

unless everyone who downloads a game also buys it then it's a given.

Straw-man. Not every download is a lost sale. It's ridiculous to even consider that, but it seems all big companies think this is the case.

 

[aenemic]

unless everyone who downloads a game also buys it then it's a given.

Straw-man. Not every download is a lost sale. It's ridiculous to even consider that, but it seems all big companies think this is the case.

no, not every. but why do most people download games to begin with? because it's free so they don't have to buy them.

 

[Black]

Or in some cases for testing purposes (will it run on my pc, how good is it, etc.)

People are hardly making demo versions nowadays, it's ridiculous for them to even think that people will buy games just because profeshunal gaming journalists said it's cool.

 

[Slaughter Manslaught]

You guys hit most problems there.

Piracy is bad, sure, but look at Stardock: Not-MoM (no name given yet, heheheheh) is going to come soon, Galactic Civilizations 2 and expansions were great games with good sales, Stardock is doing great because they use a diferent model of industry: Less expenses, more catering to the fan-base, less hype, more game, no need for millions of sales because they don't have many expenses. Stardock is the complete oposite of EA and Bethesda. And they don't try useless DRM, which they already found out as nothing but a waste of time and money, because pirates crack everything in three days.

Steam is going the right way, too. Want to play online and have fun? Buy a original copy. Then you can have all the fun you want. Fast, cheap and non-physical is the way for the game industry.

Piracy is not the main problem. The main problem is people hanging on a old model of PC game industry. This is the age of internet, people.

 

[Ar.Pi]

unfortunately downloading really seems like it's killing PC gaming slowly. it's not only the downloaders fault though, it's the stupid damn marketing. same problem as in the music industry. they're losing sales because of downloads but instead of making it more fulfilling to buy games/cd's they're increasing prices and giving us more and more mainstreamed products.

In my opinion, whats killing the PC market (along with Music and Movie sales), is that they are still desperately clinging to an old market model of selling physical copies.
To beat piracy, (atleast in some degree) you have to have content available fast, easy, and cheap. Steam is a step in the right direction, although they price their games the same as actual physical copies.
I would not pirate movies, for example, if I could get ahold of the movie for 5$, a few days before it is released as a screener even, on a streamlined website with no fuss or muss and download it at my full download speed, and then have access to that movie a little like the games you buy on Steam.
Same formula should be applied to the music industry and games.
Get it out early, cheap, easy and fast.

Sure, alot of people wont be willing to spend money on anything, but I think it would cut down on piracy by a bit.
I dunno, I might just be whistling Dixie for all I know though.

Edit: Massive thread derailment I just realised. Sorry bout that.
Vatt it if its to much.

Do you mean release games online slightly prior they appear on shelves?

btw, i rather have a hard copy, and i think many others too.

Piracy is just used as an excuse to move to Consoles really or make multi-platform.

What was the last PC exclusive? (except MMO's and sims crap) Crysis? I thought they sold it pretty well, but they bitched so much just because it got pirated a lot. The more popular the game the more it will get pirated, if you can call Crysis a game, its more of a benchmark.

 

[Moester]

I think it'll be a mix. Even on 360, or PS3, there are a lot of people who used to be PC players in the 90s - maybe still are - but maybe they now play consoles and they're likely to play Fallout on these platforms. Rather than PC... that's their new platform of choice now.

...

The 90s were almost a decade ago now. I think it would be more accurate to say that most of the gamers who played back then don't play much if at all now. And I'm guessing they're still PCers. When you think of the key demo graphic for gamers is like late twenties and thirties, those people may have wives, kids, and more demanding jobs, I know that even as a I get a little older now I'm having less and less time for games.

Dude, I was a gamer in the 90's and so were mostof the people I consider friends. We're all pretty much still gamers, and even though we probably game less, we spend more on them than we did before. We all have cars, mortgages and kids...with a few exceptions who have porn collections and pot...but that is besides the point...

People in their late 20's to mid 30's are the biggest gamer market out there. Forget 15-20 year olds. 25-35 is where its at right now.

 

[goobyman]

He really reminds me of that god-awful CEO of Sony Entertainment (whatshisname).

I distinctively dislike people who make assumptions or - even worse - tell me what I do or like.

'platform of choice' my ass. I'd bet there's preciously few old school PC gamers who have consoles as their platform of choice now.

You know... as much as I would love to play this on my PC. I can't, or I'm not even going to try. I will be playing this on my Xbox360... I don't like the fact I probably won't be able to mod this, and as Hines is predicting, I will at some point, when I can get a new PC get a PC copy of the game.

 

[Moester]

He really reminds me of that god-awful CEO of Sony Entertainment (whatshisname).

I distinctively dislike people who make assumptions or - even worse - tell me what I do or like.

'platform of choice' my ass. I'd bet there's preciously few old school PC gamers who have consoles as their platform of choice now.

You know... as much as I would love to play this on my PC. I can't, or I'm not even going to try. I will be playing this on my Xbox360... I don't like the fact I probably won't be able to mod this, and as Hines is predicting, I will at some point, when I can get a new PC get a PC copy of the game.

I'll be doing the same. I just can't afford to buy a PC that can run this game anywhere near as well as my XBOX can. I'll probably wait a few years to get it, that way my PC will tear it up and I'll be able to get all the mods I want without having to wait for them.

I must have played Fallout 2 more in the last six months than I have at any other time since I originally got it.

 

[goobyman]

I think it'll be a mix. Even on 360, or PS3, there are a lot of people who used to be PC players in the 90s - maybe still are - but maybe they now play consoles and they're likely to play Fallout on these platforms. Rather than PC... that's their new platform of choice now.

...

The 90s were almost a decade ago now. I think it would be more accurate to say that most of the gamers who played back then don't play much if at all now. And I'm guessing they're still PCers. When you think of the key demo graphic for gamers is like late twenties and thirties, those people may have wives, kids, and more demanding jobs, I know that even as a I get a little older now I'm having less and less time for games.

Dude, I was a gamer in the 90's and so were mostof the people I consider friends. We're all pretty much still gamers, and even though we probably game less, we spend more on them than we did before. We all have cars, mortgages and kids...with a few exceptions who have porn collections and pot...but that is besides the point...

People in their late 20's to mid 30's are the biggest gamer market out there. Forget 15-20 year olds. 25-35 is where its at right now.

I have a mortgage, kids, and pot... so woot! I've been playing since the 80's!

 

[ArmorB]

I'm a fan of the hard copy as well. I like "owning" my stuff. I prefer to have the CD of music rather than simply downloading. Sure I could burn my MP3s to CD but you know what more and more of my burned music, 10 years later, is getting lost because the burned CDs are fading and becoming unplayable.

If the PC market has been failing for years and years now...how is it the developers still spend oodles, that's right oodles, of money in making games for, or ported for, PC?

Digital download is fine to a point, but when you buy something new from Steam and you have to wait 3 days for the server load to die down enough to get that last 3%...or if you wipe your system and want to reinstall your games and have to wait a day and a half for Steam to download ALL of your games, instead of spending 90 minutes to install from CD/DVD...

To each his own, but it's hard copies for me...

 

[EnglishMuffin]

I'm a fan of the hard copy as well. I like "owning" my stuff. I prefer to have the CD of music rather than simply downloading. Sure I could burn my MP3s to CD but you know what more and more of my burned music, 10 years later, is getting lost because the burned CDs are fading and becoming unplayable.

If the PC market has been failing for years and years now...how is it the developers still spend oodles, that's right oodles, of money in making games for, or ported for, PC?

Digital download is fine to a point, but when you buy something new from Steam and you have to wait 3 days for the server load to die down enough to get that last 3%...or if you wipe your system and want to reinstall your games and have to wait a day and a half for Steam to download ALL of your games, instead of spending 90 minutes to install from CD/DVD...

To each his own, but it's hard copies for me...

Well it depends for me. If the game comes with a really thick, well put together manual I would rather own a physical copy. However if it is a little 10 page piece of crap then I might as well just download the game off of steam.

 

[Alphadrop]

The reason PC games are dying now is simple. They no longer come in jewel cases so can't be racked up in a small space. Instead we get those crappy cases console games come which will only fit on bookshelves.

Sorry I just miss games coming in big cardboard boxes with a manual you could flatten a small child with.
Most of the people still playing Oblivion are PC players so I'm betting it's going to be strongest there. Even without the CS coming out.

 

[ArmorB]

The reason PC games are dying now is simple. They no longer come in jewel cases so can't be racked up in a small space. Instead we get those crappy cases console games come which will only fit on bookshelves.

Sorry I just miss games coming in big cardboard boxes with a manual you could flatten a small child with.
Most of the people still playing Oblivion are PC players so I'm betting it's going to be strongest there. Even without the CS coming out.

I agree that the PC distribution stuff used to be much better, but it still doesn't say that "I'd rather have nothing tangible." Now-a-days games mostly come in DVD case and stack nicely on the shelf, and 'some' games come with a good book. But I still like getting the map and the other pseudo swag that can only be gotten in CEs and what not. Plus for me some of it revolves around the fact that I only get a couple games a year and play the shit out of them. Where as I think the digital download market tends to buy lots of games annually and having a box for each just becomes a waste of space.

 

[Ar.Pi]

He really reminds me of that god-awful CEO of Sony Entertainment (whatshisname).

I distinctively dislike people who make assumptions or - even worse - tell me what I do or like.

'platform of choice' my ass. I'd bet there's preciously few old school PC gamers who have consoles as their platform of choice now.

You know... as much as I would love to play this on my PC. I can't, or I'm not even going to try. I will be playing this on my Xbox360... I don't like the fact I probably won't be able to mod this, and as Hines is predicting, I will at some point, when I can get a new PC get a PC copy of the game.

I'll be doing the same. I just can't afford to buy a PC that can run this game anywhere near as well as my XBOX can. I'll probably wait a few years to get it, that way my PC will tear it up and I'll be able to get all the mods I want without having to wait for them.

This is not valid anymore.

For 450$ you can buy a PC that will play this or any other game (save for Crysis) better than 360 & PS3 combined!

 

[ArmorB]

This is not valid anymore.

For 450$ you can buy a PC that will play this or any other game (save for Crysis) better than 360 & PS3 combined!

As a PC person I'd have to disagree to a point. Sure a $450 PC can play the games, but will not likely look or perform as good as a modern console.

 

[Brother None]

By modern console you mean modern console with HDTV? You're looking at a combined price-tag that is significantly above $450, y'know.

 

[EnglishMuffin]

The only time I have every liked Todd howard was when he said to the G4 tv guys that PC gaming was in fact not dead and if it were then people would not need to keep saying that it was every year. Although I would have said it much better, you can see what todd was saying in toddese.

 

[ArmorB]

By modern console you mean modern console with HDTV? You're looking at a combined price-tag that is significantly above $450, y'know.

Well then you have to argue on if the TV was for gaming or was there from the start. For instance I have a HDTV, but no console...All I was saying is that $450 of PC is not comparable to $450 of console when it comes to current gaming.