In the late 1990s, just after my 16th birthday, I decided to build myself a PC. It was constructed, Frankenstein-like, from a couple of older computers and new parts brought from a specialist shop called, if I remember correctly, Micro Bytes. At the heart of the machine was my most extravagant purchase: a 3dfx Voodoo Banshee graphics card. At the time 3dfx Interactive were one of the biggest manufactures of graphics hardware. If you wanted to run the latest PC games on the top settings you needed a card of the Voodoo Banshee’s calibre. And as PC games were light years ahead of their console counterparts, there was no doubt in my mind that it was a worthy purchase.
A few years later, in October 2002, 3dfx Interactive filed for bankruptcy, ruined by a poor business model, overspendin
g and an over ambitious design for their latest generation of graphics cards. By then my lovingly created PC was barely used as a gaming machine. I’d had some great experiences initially, feverishly playing through games like Half-Life, Deux Ex and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. I tried online multiplayer gaming for the first time with Unreal Tournament and raved about The Curse of Monkey Island. But by the time of 3dfx Interactive’s demise the PlayStation 2 had cannibalised most of my gaming time.
Why? Because in a relatively short period the gap between console and PC gaming seemed to have closed. Suddenly I could experience arcade worthy visuals on a comparatively cheap machine, with fewer irritating bugs and no compatibility issues. It seemed to mark a turning point for PC gaming – the golden era was drawing to a close. Of course that’s not to say the PC was deserted en-masse by gamers: it continues to be the platform of choice for fans of flight sims, real-time strategy games, MMOs and first person shooters. But for the average gamer who may previously have been tempted by PC exclusives or lush visuals, a PS2 or Xbox arguably became the more attractive choice.
The Xbox 360 and PS3 have nibbled away at the PC gaming market even more in the last few years. Often this has been achieved by further emulating much of wha
t the PC does best, such as smooth and accessible online multiplayer gaming, multimedia capabilities and downloadable content. The number of PC-exclusive titles has also dwindled, while many console ports have been marred by bugs and released a substantial time after they’ve appeared on the home systems. But reports of the death of PC gaming are greatly exaggerated.
A vibrant and devoted modding community can keep an exclusive series like Neverwinter Nights alive for many years, and the platform has benefitted from the popularity of MMOs such as World of Warcraft. For hardcore first person shooter fans keyboard and mouse control and top-spec graphical performance is still a must. And strategy gamers have recently been blessed with StarCraft 2 and Civilization V – two superb PC-only titles. So while it may have been on the ropes a few times in the last decade, the platform is far from out for the count. Whether that continues to be the case depends on what happens during the next console cycle. And that, for the time being at least, is anyone’s guess.
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