Platforming, in a different sense

MrBond's picture

Hello everybody,

In watcing the game industry evolve over the years, it's not only the games that change and adapt, but also the platforms themselves.  Each of the major console developers has their own distribution channels, sometimes more than one to handle each of the console and mobile areas.  Even the larger publishers have their own - to varying degrees of praise and criticism.  With the glut of options out there, it's hard to see now as anything other than a great time to be able to buy games.

That's not to say it's all perfect, though.  The platform for an individual publisher isn't necessrily all the same.  Take, for example, the appearance of the most recent Humble Bundle, which distributes games for the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U.  The problem here is that it's just for certain regions (specifically, the Americas).  And they (Nintendo) can get away with it - they own the platforms, and historically, they are terrible with cross-region releases, and not much better with porting releases across regions after the fact separately (there's a reason imported games are treasured so highly).

Add to that the obvious ability to control what shows up in a curated ditribution channel.  Just recently, GOG denied carrying controversial game Hatred.  Steam also pulled it's Greenlight entry some time ago, only to restore it the day after from the incredible backlash.  And, that's to say nothing about the clear DRM possibilty, though that seems to have died down a bit.  Platform exclusives are another thorny issue, with the result mostly begin lost revenue or the inevitable loss of goodwill - even though it works well enough that the strategy won't stop any time soon.

So as far as potential development platforms are concerned, despite the inherent fragmentation of the PC platform, it seems to be the most established and least problematic to distribute for.  Not only are there several mature distribution services (Steam, GOG, Desura, etc), you can self-distribute without much hassle.  Thanks to the march of technology, getting paid is getting easier!  And that's to say nothing of raising funds, though that in itself is still changing rapidly (see Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Patreon, etc).

So with all the above considered, my choice is, and always will be, PC - it affords flexibility of development and distribution, and gives me (the most) control of what I buy.

That's all for now.

Tags: