On Stars and Speculation

At last. We thought this day would never come. A playable version of StarCraft 2 available for public consumption. Sure, it’s only a beta and it’s not public, but it’s playable. Of course I’m looking at this as a pure outsider; as a consumer, I have no interest. But as a gamer, I understand and respect that this is a really, really big deal. I also understand that games like these don’t come around every day, partly because developers like this are a rare breed. We can’t expect them to turn out something for fans every six months. High quality products take time to produce. Sure, waiting 12 years is a bit much, but for the die-hard fans and supporters, the wait is easily forgotten as soon as the game is in their hands or installed on their hard drives. But it seems like there are just a few games and subsequent companies that receive this kind of attention. It seems like there are only a few companies that essentially support the rest of the industry. Companies like Valve, Blizzard and PopCap garner a different kind of attention and admiration from media and fans alike. But can the PC gamer survive on Peggle and Zerg rushes alone?

Mouse? Check. Keyboard? Check. Jump?

My initial thought process coming into this post was that Valve and Blizzard are not enough to sustain the PC gaming industry. I kept thinking that all the time spent between major releases gave PopCap the opportunity to ascend to the top of the totem pole of PC developers. Further consideration has brought me to a different conclusion: it’s not a matter of one or the other. It’s their combined influence that is defining PC gaming. The difference in quality and overall support for these three companies compared to the rest of the competition is so great that their contributions are virtually ignored. Sure, I’m leaving out other noteworthy titles: the recent announcement of Civilzation V reminds us that there is still a strong following for that franchise. And of course there is a metric ton of expansion packs for the Sims franchise. But the successes for Valve are significantly more noteworthy than anything Firaxis puts on the shelves. I think it boils down to a degree of complacency. Developers do not want to challenge the top tier of games and become content with second, or third place. Others are satisfied with merely finishing the race. I’m not trying to discount the promise of Star Trek: Online or The Old Republic, but it feels like the shadows cast by Blizzard, Valve and PopCap are quite large. Maybe even too large for any other game to step out and have some well deserved light shined its way.

Taking a look at the numbers, Counter-Strike Source was released October 7, 2004, and aside from patches and user generated modifications to the game, there has yet to be any significant news for fans of that classic. The North American release date for Half-Life 2: Episode One was June 1, 2006. Episode Two was released October 10, 2007. As you all are painfully aware, there is no news on Episode Three.  Along with Episode Two,  Portal and Team Fortress 2 were released in 2007. Team Fortress 2 continues to receive updates for each of the playable character classes, a testament to Valve’s commitment to after-market support of their games. Most recently Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 were released in November of 2008 and 2009 respectively, despite various objections and apparent boycotts. Bottom line, while Valve might not be working on the game of your choice — specifically Half-Life 2: Episode 3 — at least they are delivering new content in some form on a regular basis. We can see where their money is being spent.

Now aside from the yearly World of Warcraft Expansion, what exactly has Blizzard been doing all this time? With the StarCraft 2 beta starting, we can officially end the 12-year timer that has been running since StarCraft had seen anything new. Diablo 3 is being developed, we know this, but assuming we knew there was more to the Diablo franchise after Diablo 2, nine years is a long time to wait. I’ve mentioned before that Blizzard has mastered the “it’s done when it’s done” philosophy and gamers have been satisfied with what little they are given. It’s an enviable position to be in. Of course Blizzard’s philosophy falls in line with those who believe that “good things come to those who wait.” If information is slowly trickled out to consumers at a semi-regular rate then anticipation can slowly build to a crescendo upon the full retail release. There are a lot of assumptions that go with that line of thinking. Chief among them is that the game is actually being developed with a specific launch date in mind. Considering how much money is generated on a monthly basis from World of Warcraft subscriptions, Blizzard has all the time in the world to keep working on their next projects without worrying about finances.

And while Valve continues to issue title updates and quick-turnaround sequels, and Blizzard continues to sandbag development on their titles, PopCap has been gaining notice among the all-important casual market. Sure, we will all pay attention to news about StarCraft 2 or Diablo 3 when we get a new bread crumb, but you and I know PopCap has another half dozen highly addictive games just waiting to sell like gangbusters. Just look at the successes of games like Peggle, Bejeweled, Plants vs. Zombies, Zuma among their impressive track record.

Can traditional PC gaming survive on the shoulders of the occasional Blizzard release? Is a yearly World of Warcraft update enough to satiate the appetite of the WASD-inclined? Every update to an existing Valve property is followed by echos of cries for Half Life 2: Episode 3. Will those cries ever be answered? The fabled PC-killer Crysis might have been a benchmark in 2007, but EA announced the sequel is coming to both PC and consoles a few weeks ago. I’m not sure if that is a vote of confidence for dual-analog controllers or a vote of non-confidence for the mouse and keyboard. I’m not here to proclaim that PC gaming is dead; I’ve never believed that nonsense. But I have a hard time believing that PC gaming can survive off the successes of these three companies alone. I hope that isn’t how this is supposed to be, but that’s how I am seeing things.

There will always be a niche market for the hardware fanatics and system tweakers. There will always be that group of people that love to push technology beyond the limits listed on the side of the box. But every day those numbers dwindle and matter less and less to developers. The financial incentive to cater to the extremes of PC gaming is no longer what it was. Blame the continued success of the home console market, blame software pirates, blame the economy, blame global warming, blame me. At a glance, the only PC gaming news that matters comes from Valve, Blizzard or PopCap. Is that because I’m not looking hard enough or because my traditional news sources don’t care about anything else?

Are the infrequent updates from Blizzard and after-market support from Valve enough to sustain the more intense PC gamer? Even if you factor in the market captured by PopCap, are these three developers enough to give the PC gaming industry a purpose while the rest of the competition figures out how to be more relevant? I know there’s more out there than StarCraft 2, so do you. But I think mainstream popularity of PC gaming is hindered by the successes of games like World of Warcraft and Bejeweled. If consumers are only paying attention to the “Big 3,” how can the PC gaming scene expand?

This post is hosted on Talking About Games.