
Newell reveals major PC flaw, the future business of games, and fear of Apple - evo_9
http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/147995-gabe-newell-reveals-major-pc-flaw-the-future-business-of-games-and-fear-of-apple
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tedunangst
I really hate free to play. Having tried a few games in this category, I
generally realized about ten minutes after installation I didn't download a
game, I downloaded a money funnel. A lot of my gaming these days is casual on
my phone, where this shit dominates the marketplace. I sincerely wish apple
would create a separate $5 max spend gaming category (even a lot of paid games
seem to make most of their profit from iap).

~~~
Goronmon
_Having tried a few games in this category, I generally realized about ten
minutes after installation I didn't download a game, I downloaded a money
funnel._

The snarky response to this would be to stop downloading bad games.

There are plenty of good F2P games out there. Planetside 2, League of Legends,
Path of Exile, etc. On mobile, there are games like Angry Birds that aren't
just a money funnel. But honestly, you're going to have a tough time on the
mobile space because IMO there just aren't that many games worth playing out
there.

~~~
jquery
Just out of curiosity, how much does it cost, in money or time, to get all the
heroes in League of Legends? It may be a good game, but it's also
_outrageously_ expensive. Unless you like playing a limited set of heroes.

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archagon
As a longtime gamer, I desparately fear the idea of a locked-down, touch-
based, and endlessly monetizable future for my favorite hobby. What if the PC
simply becomes unprofitable for major game releases because of the tablet
market, ARM, or whatever else? What if gamers get used to touch controls and
buttons become outmoded? What if the Facebook model of "social" games consumes
every other genre? I can only hope that Newell's get-out-of-jail-free card
will work as intended.

~~~
untog
I think the PC has already become unprofitable for many (Valve are one of the
exceptions, and they clearly see writing on the wall). There are very few PC
releases that aren't primarily console titles.

~~~
ameen
PC Gaming is alive and well. It's just that they don't spend millions on
marketing themselves. Minecraft, GoG, Diablo 3, WoW, LoL all are standing
examples that PC Gaming works.

~~~
georgemcbay
The average age of the games you listed is 4 years old. Is that really proof
of a market that is "alive and well"?

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chc
Going by release dates (which is how we normally gauge console games' ages),
League of Legends is about three years old, MineCraft is about a year and a
half old (a lot of people forget this because it had both an open alpha and
open beta, unlike any console game I know of) and Diablo 3 is not even one
year old yet. Their average age is less than two years unless you're counting
time in development, by which standard GTA V (due to release late this year)
is like three years old.

~~~
georgemcbay
You missed one (WoW; 2004).

~~~
chc
Whoops! Indeed I did. Sorry, I think my brain mentally blended it with the
other initialism in the list.

~~~
georgemcbay
To be fair, it throws the average way down and also it isn't entirely fair to
use the 2004 date since they have been releasing expansions throughout the
life of the game, but I still don't think the original list is a sign of a
healthy overall market for PC games (though it is proof that the right game
hitting the right market can still make a significant amount of money on the
PC).

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drucken
So much self-serving rhetoric.

How are "input methods" a major PC flaw? The platform is almost completely
open!

Even closed platforms use input methods that can often interroperate with PCs.
Or the input methods are independently available for the PC.

The only thing of interest in that speech would be just how much Newell is
struggling to hedge his bets, yet completely ignoring the elephants in the
room, e.g. his console competitors...

~~~
roc
> _"The platform is almost completely open!"_

That's kind of the problem. You can do anything, and plenty of people are. But
there's no platform 'boss' to lay down standards.

Aside from (fleeting) de-facto standards (particular flight sticks in years
past; the 360 gamepad today) input support on the PC is a pain point for devs.
Shoddy drivers, shoddy APIs, shoddy manufacturer support -- to say nothing of
the state of vision, voice and touch.

There's a reason PC games are treading water with support for little-to-
nothing beyond kb/m and dodgy/partial support for the 360 gamepad here and
there.

~~~
phaus
The keyboard / mouse combo is the ideal way to control many types of games.

Edit: I was addressing this comment, not claiming that the keyboard is
superior in all situations.

>There's a reason PC games are treading water with support for little-to-
nothing beyond kb/m and dodgy/partial support for the 360 gamepad here and
there.

~~~
archagon
Yes, and not so great for others. Have you tried playing Batman: Arkham Asylum
with a mouse/keyboard? Those combos are so much harder to pull off! What about
3D platformers, where analog movement is paramount? Racing games, where analog
steering and acceleration really help?

Nowadays, I find that I use my PC gamepad as often as my mouse/keyboard.

~~~
mitchty
Racing games are the perfect example of mouse/keyboard failure. As well as
flight simulators or simulations of any sort mostly.

It is OK for most games, but not ideal.

~~~
phaus
As I stated above, I agree that analog controllers are better than a M/K for
racing games.

As for flight simulators, I guess it depends on what you mean by a flight sim.
Old school flight sims are where I got my start in gaming, back in the early
to mid 90s when they at least tried to seem realistic. Lately, it seems that
most "flight sims" are arcade shooters with historically accurate aircraft
models.

If you are playing an arcade game, the console controllers are superior; if
you are playing an actual flight sim, console controllers and the mouse /
keyboard combo are absolutely terrible, with the mouse/keyboard getting a
slight edge due to the impossibility of implementing that many commands on a
console controller.

~~~
checker
Hopefully a direct thought/muscle tension interpreter will become feasible and
eliminate the need for this argument. It would also eliminate common cases of
RSI.

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ameen
Gabe Newell is only trying to realign himself. The Windows-download market is
getting crowded with better and more efficient service providers - GoG.com,
Humble Store, Desura, GMG, GG, Impulse, etc.

Valve will be beaten by both bigger and smaller competitors (Ouya, Apple,
Sony/MS), all thanks to Valve time.

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suresk
I'm primarily a PC gamer, although I certainly see the benefits consoles bring
to the table (cheaper, easier, much better for in-person multiplayer).

I'm really dreading the death of PC gaming for one reason - controls. For a
lot of game types, nothing comes close to the keyboard/mouse combo. For
example, how many good RTS games have shown up on consoles? That is largely
because of the input situation.

I really think there needs to be a rich, precise input device for consoles,
and I don't think things like Kinect, as cool as they are, are the answer.
When I see games like StarCraft, Company of Heroes, and World of Warcraft
ending up on consoles without being horribly dumbed-down, I'll feel a little
better.

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cduser
I did not watch the video, just read the article.

What is the "major PC flaw"? The input methods that did not evolve? Kinect
says hello! Apart from that, many gamers use controllers on PCs.

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zalzane
the problem is that not enough gamers use controllers on pc, and even then,
there is no standard dictating the layout of the controllers

~~~
ameen
There is a "standard" of sorts - The Xbox 360 controller for Windows. Almost
all games support this.

