The State of PC Gaming in 2018

[Julio Franco]

PC has never been a singular platform like, say, PlayStation or Xbox. Instead, it's a series of disparate landmasses sharing the same turbulent sea. PC gaming looks to become more fragmented than it's been in the past few years---for better and worse. More options means more chances for new ideas to flourish and, perhaps, for a new middle class of developers to emerge.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/1768-the-state-of-pc-gaming/

 

[TomSEA]

This article reminds me of the title of a Led Zeppelin tune: "The Song Remains the Same."

 

[Nobina]

Kotaku is garbage

 

[BSim500]

"Elsewhere, review bombs—now measurable thanks to charts implemented by Valve in late 2017—became the reaction du jour, with players brigading Steam games with negative reviews over everything from women in historical settings to price drops that happened too soon..."

...to badly made games to loot-boxes to micro-transactions to tiered pre-orders to dumbing down to consolization to mobilization to pay2win to over-sequelisation to Chinese censorship in releases outside of China to poor optimisation to performance crippling DRM to lazy coding of such an extent that simple things that 90's games got right like rebindable keys (that left-handers and disabled gamers rely on) are missing with many devs unresponsive or muttering variations of "don't know, don't care" in support forums when someone requests the feature be added. Apparently this is all now "hate" by the gamer against the developer?...

"Epic Games—creator of Fortnite, a game that is by some measures bigger than Steam—launched its own store, touting more money for developers (88 percent of revenue vs Steam’s 70 percent) and a less toxic, more controlled environment"

I don't think anyone's naive enough to not figure out the real reason behind "throwing the baby" (95% of the in depth well articulated negative reviews and bug discussions) "out with the bathwater" (5% of troll-like posts). It's the same reason why EA & Ubisoft doesn't want negative reviews on Origin / uPlay of their latest bug-infested titles whilst CDPR are happy to have them on GOG for Witcher 3 - they typically have far more "quality control issues" in their games but rather than admit that, are instead doing everything possible to reframe the embarrassment that comes with zero pre-release QA as "gamer hate"...

Let's be honest, game devs and journalists are regularly biased as hell the other way around, deeming ANY criticism "unfair" even when there's a clear and obvious justification . "As we wrote at the time" (expects Techspot article on Techspot site but sees "written by Kotaku") - That site very much has its own political biases too and certainly explains the article's angry tone at Steam not pursuing "full on political censorship"...

 

[Uncle Al]

Say what you will, the MOST successful game makers will find a way to cross every platform out here so they can make the maximum profit through maximum sales ....... dosen't take a genius to figure that one out!

 

[rrwards]

"Elsewhere, review bombs—now measurable thanks to charts implemented by Valve in late 2017—became the reaction du jour, with players brigading Steam games with negative reviews over everything from women in historical settings to price drops that happened too soon..."

...to badly made games to loot-boxes to micro-transactions to tiered pre-orders to dumbing down to consolization to mobilization to pay2win to over-sequelisation to Chinese censorship in releases outside of China to poor optimisation to performance crippling DRM to lazy coding of such an extent that simple things that 90's games got right like rebindable keys (that left-handers and disabled gamers rely on) are missing with many devs unresponsive or muttering variations of "don't know, don't care" in support forums when someone requests the feature be added. Apparently this is all now "hate" by the gamer against the developer?...

"Epic Games—creator of Fortnite, a game that is by some measures bigger than Steam—launched its own store, touting more money for developers (88 percent of revenue vs Steam’s 70 percent) and a less toxic, more controlled environment"

I don't think anyone's naive enough to not figure out the real reason behind "throwing the baby" (95% of the in depth well articulated negative reviews and bug discussions) "out with the bathwater" (5% of troll-like posts). It's the same reason why EA & Ubisoft doesn't want negative reviews on Origin / uPlay of their latest bug-infested titles whilst CDPR are happy to have them on GOG for Witcher 3 - they typically have far more "quality control issues" in their games but rather than admit that, are instead doing everything possible to reframe the embarrassment that comes with zero pre-release QA as "gamer hate"...

Let's be honest, game devs and journalists are regularly biased as hell the other way around, deeming ANY criticism "unfair" even when there's a clear and obvious justification . "As we wrote at the time" (expects Techspot article on Techspot site but sees "written by Kotaku") - That site very much has its own political biases too and certainly explains the article's angry tone at Steam not pursuing "full on political censorship"...

Thank you for saying it. I should have known that "written by Kotaku" means it focuses on "angry neckbeards hate women" and not the blatant cash grabs, buggy as heck games, and anti-consumer DRM and storefronts that have started plaguing the industry.

 

[Pastuch]

I think 2018 was the worst year of PC gaming ever. I can't think of a single game this year that wasn't a huge disappointment. I'm 37 years old now and finding something new, fresh and fun is damned near impossible. Maybe my gaming days are numbered...

Xcom 2's latest free update that lets you play through the story as Bradford and Shen was amazing. I wish there were more games like Xcom 2.

 

[amstech]

As I talk with more people that game on PC, few play the new titles when they come out. I thought it was just me being old and lame, but even going back to my early 20s (35 now) I never cared to play the latest shiny thing unless it was right up my alley, like a Half Life expansion or WoW expansion years ago when I was a WoW head.
Yes there are millions playing a certain online shooter, but also millions choosing not to engage until more time passes or the title becomes more affordable.

I find myself collecting a few games on Steam when the prices drop, then playing them when I am ready. As an example I finally picked up Far Cry Primal for cheap on Steam during the sales a few weeks back ....I know, its older, but new to me. I've only logged about 8-10 hours but I love this wild and untouched environment, works so good for a sandbox title. Having to pickup wood all the time to make arrows and kill animals/collect actual real resources to make bigger bags is great, (no generic market guy or NPC loaded with everything is a welcome change) I have auto aimed turned off so hitting eagles for a few feathers to make a bigger arrow back was quite the effort!
But overall PC gaming is something you let sit in the fryer then take out when its nice and greasy, I think console gamers, who are usually a little younger, tend to get the 'new great shiny game' when it releases more then a PC gamer, who might be happy playing a 10 year old MMO or revisiting Black Mesa.
Ohh btw I don't care what people say, so pumped to play Xen when it releases! I will go through the entire remake again when its finished, just because I love me some headcrabs.

 

[JaredTheDragon]

I think 2018 was the worst year of PC gaming ever. I can't think of a single game this year that wasn't a huge disappointment. I'm 37 years old now and finding something new, fresh and fun is damned near impossible. Maybe my gaming days are numbered...

So you missed Dead Cells? I mean they even referenced it in this article, and posted a screenshot. Maybe it's not your cup of tea, but it sure wasn't a "huge disappointment" by any stretch.

 

[EClyde]

Steam was slow to be PC? Good for them

 

[Xallisto]

"Valve refuses to acknowledge the political context in which Steam exists"

What a mad world we live in where a digital distributor of games is under pressure to declare it's political alignment. I'm sure Kotaku would love Steam to come out and declare itself a super left organization, that vets every user, every post, every game and every comment like it's the ****ing Ministry of Truth.

 

[Reehahs]

Not a single mention of GoG or Humble Bundle?

 

[Bubbajim]

Priced at $14.99 per month, Premier subscribers get access to a large catalogue of games for free ...

I hate phrases like this. No, you're not getting things for "free", you're getting them at no extra cost. That initial $14.99/month doesn't magically come back into your account.

 

[Lounds]

After playing with Nvidia's Geforce Now on the Shield TV I can honestly say that cloud gaming will be the future. a Netflix world of in and out gameplay instantly.

 

[dirtyferret]

Look on the bright side, valve finally released Half Life 3!

 

[Pastuch]

I think 2018 was the worst year of PC gaming ever. I can't think of a single game this year that wasn't a huge disappointment. I'm 37 years old now and finding something new, fresh and fun is damned near impossible. Maybe my gaming days are numbered...

So you missed Dead Cells? I mean they even referenced it in this article, and posted a screenshot. Maybe it's not your cup of tea, but it sure wasn't a "huge disappointment" by any stretch.

OMFG you are so right! Dead Cells is incredible! I have to admit I forgot how much I enjoyed Frost Punk. The music, mood, and deep sense of terror make that game a real treat.

Dead Cells is my 2018 game of the year.

 

[JaredTheDragon]

I have to admit I forgot how much I enjoyed Frost Punk. The music, mood, and deep sense of terror make that game a real treat.

Dead Cells is my 2018 game of the year.

I liked that one as well, very sinister! But I've definitely played more Dead Cells than anything else, which is silly because it's such a weird game for me, compared to my usual FPS, RPG, and RTS genre favorites. I think Ori really set the stage for Metroid-vanias to come back, since it gave us such a strong showing, and now we have lots of similar options to play with.