PC Game Industry is dead on arrival

[Cleve Blakemore]

I was in Kids'r'Us today and they had reduced their PC game offering to a tiny smattering of dejected looking bargain ware stuffed away in an obscure corner over behind the squeeze-a-stench toys and alien goop.

Later I was at KMart and there was a PC Games Distributor who had been stripped naked, castrated and crucified spread-eagle to the wall above the CD players to set a good example for any wiseass who even considered trying to market a PC game in the multimedia section, even on consignment. It was all consoles and gameboy and it looked like business was good, too.

I really think this will be good for the shareware industry. I'm not being sarcastic - I'm predicting a refreshing, invigorating renaissance of low cost, digitally distributed PC games now that all these poseurs have finally either bankrupted or left the stadium. The field is open to play again. PC Games don't have to feature cutting edge graphics, have a staff of 100 or a budget of ten mil or sell minimum 500,000 copies anymore. That means the little guy is back in the picture and I think it will be good for everybody, even the lower end of the Bell Curve that grunts and hoots over the consoles.

:)

[benj]

No problems here! Why the hell would you buy a PC game at kids r us anyway? And Kmart? Ha.. that's laughable. Do those hicks even know what a computer is? I buy my PC games either online (go gamer), EB's or Best buy/ Circut City. And all of those places that I mentioned have an adequate supply of PC games.

Also.. I definitely disagree with you about going grassroots. In this day an age, if a PC game doesn't sell at least 200,000 copies it's a failure. And yes... (some) PC games do have to feature cutting edge graphics because that's what sells hardware. Doom 3, Dues Ex 2 and Half Life 2 will be games that are going to increase hardware sales this year. Mark my word.

[Jason Becker]

Another death of PC gaming thread...I think its been a whole 2 weeks since we've had one. :roll:

[Tyjenks]

I hate to be a dick, but Kids R Us has never carried games.

[DennyA]

Not to mention... Are there Kids R Us and K Mart stores in Australia?

C'mon, "Cleve," let's see some ID.

[Chris Nahr]

Yeah, and his ranting style isn't quite up there with Cleve's Usenet quality rants either. Someone call in the real Cleve to kick this imposter's butt!

[Supertanker]

Sort of like Mattel trying to make software, there are a lot of companies expensively learning that they are not cut out to distribute PC games. I spend a lot of time in Toys R Us, and am always surprised at how high their PC game prices are. Pretty much full list price unless they decide to clear something out. I saw one recently that was still selling some Dreamcast games (NFL 2K2 and Tennis 2K2) at $39.99.