Rewind a year or two, and the very concept of the PC as a games machine appeared to be dead. Despite a vibrant indie gaming scene and a committed fanbase of hardcore enthusiasts, the games industry seemed to be giving up on the PC. Major console titles weren't getting PC releases, or were getting them a month or two after the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. The reluctance of publishers to invest in high-resolution assets meant that even leading PC games looked like little more than upscaled console versions, while the failure of Crysis as a commercial blockbuster had lead one of the PC's biggest cheerleaders – Crytek – to embrace the Xbox 360 and PS3. Retail sales were in the doldrums, and it was hard to tell whether download sales were picking up the slack. If PC gaming wasn't dying, it was certainly on its last legs.
Now, however, things look different. Recently the NPD group announced that while sales of video game consoles, games and accessories has gone down by 28 per cent between May 2011 and May 2012, sales of PC games had gone up by a staggering 230 per cent. Some of this could be put down to the enormous success of Diablo III – the first PC exclusive to top the charts since July 2010. However, in July Electronic Arts' CEO, John Riccitiello, stated that "the fastest growing platform in video games today is the PC." even if he went on to note that "it's growing through subscriptions, through micro transactions and through downloads" rather than through boxed copies being sold.
It seems that the PC is undergoing a renaissance as a games machine, but why? Well, it all comes down to a series of factors, all of which are combining to put the PC – however temporarily – back on top.
The Diablo III Effect
We can't underestimate the importance of Diablo III. Blizzard's threequel has sold over 10 million copies and is the fastest-selling PC game of all time. It's also the first really major, non MMORPG PC exclusive since the original Crysis; a game with the kind of cachet that attracts hardcore gamers, non gamers and even people who might not have touched a PC game in years to come back to the platform (we know it also plays on Macs, but let's not split hairs right now). Blizzard sensibly built it so that it would run well across a range of hardware – not just a modern, high-end PCs – which helped make it accessible to the widest possible audience. It's quite possible that Diablo III has made people think again about the PC as a games platform, and take a good look at upgrading systems, downloading titles and exploring what's out there once again. Guild Wars 2 is now, to some extent, repeating the same trick. The old wisdom that PC exclusives don't sell no longer applies.
The Steam/Origin Effect
Arguably, Steam and other services – in particular EA's Origin – are doing for the PC what the iTunes store did for the iPod; making it so convenient and affordable to buy PC games that the idea of buying a physical product for console use just seems backwards. Microsoft and Sony are catching up on the idea of selling Triple-A games direct through a download marketplace, but they're way behind progress on the PC. Steam has 35 million customers ready to download the latest titles while Origin has over 13 million, and sales and bundles make impulse purchases all the more tempting. Simply put, Steam and Origin have made the PC a cheaper and easier platform on which to buy games.
The Indie Scene
It's not that Sony and Microsoft haven't had their indie hits, but the PC is the birthplace and the home of the indie gaming scene, and it's still the platform at the centre of indie development, the indie community and the more indie-focussed elements of the gaming press. Sure, XBLA hosts three of the year's biggest indie hits in Minecraft XBLA, Trials Evolution and Fez, while iOS has a huge and extremely successful scene, but think of the breakout hits the PC has bought us in the last twelve months – Legend of Grimrock, Dungeons of Dredmore, Dear Esther, Thomas Was Alone, The Binding of Isaac – and then try and imagine how many of these would have appeared on any other platform.
New Business Models
Whether publishers like it or not, the games industry is changing, and the PC is at the bleeding edge of that transformation. The whole notion of 'Free 2 Play' and 'Freemium' games began on the PC, and the last few years have seen these new models grow from second-rate MMORPGs and strategy titles to encompass social gaming experiences The Sims Social, kid's favourites like Sony's Free Realms or the all-conquering Moshi Monsters, racing games like Need for Speed: World and shooters of the quality of Team Fortress 2 and Tribes: Ascend. What's more, we've seen previously underperforming titles, including Age of Conan, Dungeons and Dragons Online, DC Universe and Lord of the Rings Online flourish under the Free 2 Play model; a feat that Star Wars: The Old Republic presumably hopes to repeat.
Free 2 Play isn't always popular with hardcore gamers, who generally prefer a single upfront cost, but it makes the barrier of entry lower for more casual gamers, and this resonates at a time when £40 to £50 on a game is a big investment. And this is where things get interesting. When EA's John Ritticiello stated that the PC is the fastest growing platform in video games today, thanks to subscriptions, micro transactions and downloads, EA as a company took notice. And now other big developers are seeing too. This is why Crysis developer, Crytek is hinging its future plans on Free 2 Play and other big names will doubtless follow suit. This will take some adjustment. In Ritticielo's words, it's "the culture of building something like a broadway play where you go on every night instead of a canned television performance that's done once and it's done."
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