Game Stash: The Death of PC Gaming

There's not even room for the third-party contributions like VOIP, client-servers, mods, or content-sharing networks that have made so much of an impact on our industry. Instead, we're treated to publisher-run servers for our shooters, an endless succession of $5 content packs for our RPGs, and the death grip of persistent online profiles that, in Ubisoft's case at least, are required for games that don't even have a multiplayer component. Pardon me for saying it, but if the console market has anything worthwhile to offer the PC market, this sure isn't it.

For some of us, that's a small price that we're willing to pay in order to play games that aren't necessarily intended to be enjoyed by everyone. Some of my most favorite games are the most marginal in terms of appeal. But that's what makes them special to me. It's risky, particularly with the current costs of development, to build a business plan around the smaller audiences that tend to be associated with certain PC gaming genres, but if we only ever make games based on their potential to appeal to everyone, eventually we're all going to be playing exactly the same game.