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The PC gaming market is actually bigger now than it was back then. The difference is that consoles didn't really start to become viable for the FPS genre until

by nerdix 3y ago

The PC gaming market is actually bigger now than it was back then. The difference is that consoles didn't really start to become viable for the FPS genre until the Xbox/PS2 generation (and even then it was really just Halo). So an FPS was PC exclusive by default with only the biggest games getting a clumsy console port or spinoff years later (like FarCry Instincts). Consoles became a first class citizen in the world of FPSes with the 360/PS3 generation in the mid-2000s. That's why FarCry 1 (2004) was a PC exclusive but FarCry 2 (2008) released on consoles and PC at the same time.

cubefox 3y ago
Competitive FPS games did even exist on the N64 (James Bond Golden Eye, Perfect Dark), and in the next generation they were very common and mostly had the modern two stick controls which is still used today. So I don't think that had anything to do with it. > The PC gaming market is actually bigger now than it was back then. This might be true, but I'm fairly certain that the market share of the PC platform has strongly decreased relative to the consoles. AAA games have largely shifted to consoles or console ports. The most plausible reason is that the desktop PC market has collapsed. The heyday of PC gaming was probably somewhere between Quake (1996) and Crysis (2007).
- nerdix 3y ago
  The "next generation" after N64 was Xbox/PS2. In my previous comment, I pointed out that FPSes on consoles became viable during that time. There were FPSes on consoles even prior to Golden Eye/Perfect Dark. For instance, there were SNES ports of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. They were just all pretty bad. Even the "good" ones like Golden Eye don't really hold up against the PC shooters of the time. Shooters didn't become a premiere genre for consoles until the 360/PS3 era. Like I said, as far as popularity went, there was Halo and MoH (to a way lesser degree) during the Xbox/PS2 days but not much else. And then all of a sudden, shooters became the hottest genre on consoles in the mid-late 00s. That's when CoD and Battlefield made the transition over to consoles in earnest. It's when Sony invested heavily (and ultimately failed) in creating a "Halo killer". It's when CoD went from a pretty successful PC franchise to consistently being the highest selling game year after year. As far as the PC gaming market goes. There was a dark age starting in the mid-00s. But PC gaming is very popular right now (we'll have to see what impact high GPU prices has on its future) . For instance, Activision makes more money from the PC platform than all consoles combined. https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-is-making-more-money-on-pc-than-consoles-for-the-first-time-and-the-gap-is-widening/ https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-is-making-more-money-on-p... PC has been Ubisoft's second largest platform (ahead of Xbox but behind PlayStation) since 2018 https://www.statista.com/statistics/269679/breakdown-of-ubisoft-sales-by-platform/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/269679/breakdown-of-ubis... No one in the industry ignores the PC market anymore. Everyone (except Nintendo) is releasing their games on PC now even companies that weren't traditionally in the PC gaming market like Japanese publishers. Genres that had a spotty history of PC support (Sports, JRPGs, Fighting games, etc) are seeing consistent PC releases. And even Sony conceded and started releasing their exclusives on PC (years later but it's still a dramatic shift from even a few years ago). As someone who was primarily a PC gamer in the 90s, I can tell you anecdotally that I know several people who were console gamers only 20+ years ago who are now PC gamers.
  - cubefox 3y ago
    By the time Far Cry, Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 came out, shooters were very common on consoles. There were many more console shooters apart from Halo. The fact that we see hardly any PC-exclusive AAA shooters anymore, but did back then, calls for an explanation. And it's not just shooters. In general there are few AAA games nowadays that are PC-exclusive or mainly targeted at PCs and only ported to consoles. The situation was very different in 2004.
scheeseman486 3y ago
FarCry Instincts was much better than FarCry, I'll fight ya!

by nerdix 3y ago

cubefox 3y ago

Competitive FPS games did even exist on the N64 (James Bond Golden Eye, Perfect Dark), and in the next generation they were very common and mostly had the modern two stick controls which is still used today. So I don't think that had anything to do with it. > The PC gaming market is actually bigger now than it was back then. This might be true, but I'm fairly certain that the market share of the PC platform has strongly decreased relative to the consoles. AAA games have largely shifted to consoles or console ports. The most plausible reason is that the desktop PC market has collapsed. The heyday of PC gaming was probably somewhere between Quake (1996) and Crysis (2007).

nerdix 3y ago
The "next generation" after N64 was Xbox/PS2. In my previous comment, I pointed out that FPSes on consoles became viable during that time. There were FPSes on consoles even prior to Golden Eye/Perfect Dark. For instance, there were SNES ports of Doom and Wolfenstein 3D. They were just all pretty bad. Even the "good" ones like Golden Eye don't really hold up against the PC shooters of the time. Shooters didn't become a premiere genre for consoles until the 360/PS3 era. Like I said, as far as popularity went, there was Halo and MoH (to a way lesser degree) during the Xbox/PS2 days but not much else. And then all of a sudden, shooters became the hottest genre on consoles in the mid-late 00s. That's when CoD and Battlefield made the transition over to consoles in earnest. It's when Sony invested heavily (and ultimately failed) in creating a "Halo killer". It's when CoD went from a pretty successful PC franchise to consistently being the highest selling game year after year. As far as the PC gaming market goes. There was a dark age starting in the mid-00s. But PC gaming is very popular right now (we'll have to see what impact high GPU prices has on its future) . For instance, Activision makes more money from the PC platform than all consoles combined. https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-is-making-more-money-on-pc-than-consoles-for-the-first-time-and-the-gap-is-widening/ https://www.pcgamer.com/activision-is-making-more-money-on-p... PC has been Ubisoft's second largest platform (ahead of Xbox but behind PlayStation) since 2018 https://www.statista.com/statistics/269679/breakdown-of-ubisoft-sales-by-platform/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/269679/breakdown-of-ubis... No one in the industry ignores the PC market anymore. Everyone (except Nintendo) is releasing their games on PC now even companies that weren't traditionally in the PC gaming market like Japanese publishers. Genres that had a spotty history of PC support (Sports, JRPGs, Fighting games, etc) are seeing consistent PC releases. And even Sony conceded and started releasing their exclusives on PC (years later but it's still a dramatic shift from even a few years ago). As someone who was primarily a PC gamer in the 90s, I can tell you anecdotally that I know several people who were console gamers only 20+ years ago who are now PC gamers.
- cubefox 3y ago
  By the time Far Cry, Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 came out, shooters were very common on consoles. There were many more console shooters apart from Halo. The fact that we see hardly any PC-exclusive AAA shooters anymore, but did back then, calls for an explanation. And it's not just shooters. In general there are few AAA games nowadays that are PC-exclusive or mainly targeted at PCs and only ported to consoles. The situation was very different in 2004.

scheeseman486 3y ago

FarCry Instincts was much better than FarCry, I'll fight ya!