Video game industry comes full circle

The video game industry has seen a lot of changes, but the age-old competition between PC games and consoles has finally seen a paradigm shift.

Ten years ago, PC games defined the video game industry. Everyone played them, everyone bought them, and everyone loved them.

Sure, there were great consoles out there like the GameCube, Xbox and Playstation. But for any serious gamer, PC games were not just a hobby, they were a way of life.

Why were PC games so prevalent? They were the first platforms for online multiplayer, where massive hits like World of Warcraft and Counter-Strike could only be played on a PC.

Competition between home consoles and PC games has always been quite intense, but for the longest time, the PC always seemed to hold the upper hand.

However, as the new decade begins, it seems quite the opposite: consoles are winning.

New trends in popular culture and social aspects of video gaming have contributed to this phenomenon.

Simply put, nothing can replicate the euphoria of sitting in a reclining leather chair, playing your favorite game on a 50-inch plasma TV with your best friends. The social facet of consoles have always engaged gamers on much deeper level.

Sure, you can play World of Warcraft with your online community, but for most people, the concept of playing with someone in the same room seems to be much more enjoyable.

Its ironic that World of Warcraft is used in this example, as its publisher, Blizzard Entertainment, is one of the main reasons the PC is still so popular.

The most anticipated sequel of this decade, in my opinion, is the long awaited Starcraft 2, a game strictly for the PC.

Economics are also a major factor in this complex tug of war. Every new PC release requires the majority of gamers to purchase an expensive, fast computer able to run that game without any problems.

I don’t know how many people are going to buy a brand new computer when Starcraft 2 comes out, but I can say with confidence that if it was a console game, sales would be significantly higher.

Consoles last for years. The current versions of the Xbox and Playstation have already been around for a couple of years, and are going to stay around until at least 2012, according to Microsoft and Sony, respectively.

Any games that come out for these machines will never require any kind of expensive hardware upgrade or the purchase of a completely new model; a sharp contrast to the PC world.

This isn’t to say that consoles are “winning the war,” so to speak. No matter how brutal and intense this competition might get, they will always coexist.