PC gaming monopoly?

[Guest]

Do you guys think the PC gaming market will ever become monopolies like the console market(paid multiplayer, overpriced games, etc)?

 

[MasterMace]

the PC gaming market already has this, the difference is 'paid multiplayer' in the PC world means 'no singleplayer'

 

[Deniedstingray]

Do you guys think the PC gaming market will ever become monopolies like the console market(paid multiplayer, overpriced games, etc)?

I don't think that is possible. Because there isn't one company just running the show like on console. On PC it is an open platform which provides constant competition between companies. It is easy for consoles to be a monopoly because if xbox or psn make a dumb decision sure people will be mad but what can they do? Nothing. On PC people could just not use the service and be fine. If people on Xbox for example stopped using the xbox store they would be <mod edit>

 

[Deniedstingray]

the PC gaming market already has this, the difference is 'paid multiplayer' in the PC world means 'no singleplayer'

Do you know what a monopoly is?

 

[Guest]

the PC gaming market already has this, the difference is 'paid multiplayer' in the PC world means 'no singleplayer'

Do you know what a monopoly is?

From my understanding, it is when a single company is able to enforce things for their own gain.

 

[Deniedstingray]

the PC gaming market already has this, the difference is 'paid multiplayer' in the PC world means 'no singleplayer'

Do you know what a monopoly is?

From my understanding, it is when a single company is able to enforce things for their own gain.

It is when a company has complete control over a product or service. So if only one company in the entire world owned all the water, they could charge whatever they wanted because there would be demand for it but no competition. Sure the pay to play games have become a problem but they arent quite at monopoly levels yet.

 

[SBMfromLA]

Do you guys think the PC gaming market will ever become monopolies like the console market(paid multiplayer, overpriced games, etc)?

I think the word you're looking for is: Collusion

 

[Jeff Kaos]

Look, publishers and developers will always try to nickle and dime gamers. That's the sad fact. And who can blame them? People pre-order games and season passes all the time which shows a total lack of awareness. Back in the day I pre-ordered Final Fantasy 7 and got a cool FF7 t-shirt I still have to this day. But nowadays I can't see why I should be bothered to pre-order a game when I know that it'll never be "sold out" and I can download it from Steam any time I want. So why not wait for some reviews? Same thing with DLC and Season passes. Who can forget the hilarious disappointment over the X-Com 2 DLC?

But the good news is that unlike consoles PC gamers have a lot more options when it comes to how they spend their money. And a dollar on the PC stretches a lot farther than it does on a console thanks to annual sales on sites like Steam, GoG and Humble Bundle.

But to fully answer your question I'll say this: gamers will always be seen as little more than open wallets by a lot of the industry, it comes with the fact that gaming is a luxury, but PC gamers have a little bit more of a leg to stand on thanks to indy devs and distribution platforms. Love or hate Steam, GoG, Origins or UPlay be thankful we can get games from more than one "keymaster"; which is how I see the Console manufacturers.