http://www.bit-tech.net/columns/2008/02 ... _falling/1
Small snippet from the end, thought it fitting to the new 'system killer' that is Assassin's Creed.
But none of these things have been a death knell. They've always existed - and for nearly as long as there have been PCs, there have been consoles. None of this has really changed anything. The continual evolution and multipurpose nature of the PC makes it always at the forefront, even if it's never at the top of the sales charts.
In fact, only one thing has changed - the industry itself. What used to be a myriad of independent developers, each working to create the next best mousetrap for mere survival and to eke out a decent living, has turned into a wasteland made up of a few giant conglomerates stomping on the users below in a struggle for who will dominate the whole market.
They snap up the little guys, put them into the machine, and spit out the post-processed Call of Duty 76 and Halo 19. Games get ported across eight (yes, eight!) different platforms in various shells, often cross-linked with other parts of the "entertainment industry." Shots will be fired, giants will fall and be assimilated to create a bigger, unified giant.
"It's almost as if the industry secretly wants the PC to fall..."
And when the final bogus study is released by the new Mega-IGN-Eurogamer-whatever conglomerate, we can see the CEO of the last media outlet standing tall in his suit, telling us to "Welcome our new benefactors. PC Gaming is dead."
But it's not PCs that will have died, and it's not consoles that will have won. Consoles are just the tool most convenient for the purpose - locked down systems that can prevent outside innovation without significant initial investment. It's gaming that will have died, and a single corporate monolith that won. The same rehashed game sold eight different ways - that will be consumer "choice."
At one point in our history, the sky did fall - bedroom developers making too many crappy, poorly thought out games brought the industry to its knees in the early 80s. This time, the opposite is true - too few developers making too few new games. However, there are a lot of poorly thought out releases...at least one thing is consistent.
And all the while, the industry can chuckle - releasing statistics to justify the move toward bigger corporate ideals, blaming piracy and technology while they buy up the next big thing before it can get released and seed another giant. There is but one goal - get bigger.
Get bigger, big enough to break the sky. Congratulations, monoliths. The most recent sales statistics say "you're winning."
