The attitude that PC gaming is dying is hardly a new one.
Since the beginning of the current console generation way back in 2005, we’ve seen the slow, painful decline of the platform, with video game publishers shifting priority focus toward the popular Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 for their major releases, while leaving PC users with the leftovers of shoddily-made, lazy ports.
One of the most commonly heard gripes against PC gaming is the high investment required by the experience. Gaming on consoles is simple.
Today it’s as easy as making a single, often-under-$300 purchase at your local retailer, hooking it up to your TV, and then popping in a game.
For the true PC gamer, setting up a gaming rig is a much more complicated endeavor.
It requires one to build their PC from scratch, combining the best of aftermarket parts, such as processors, hard drives, cooling systems, and vast array of graphic cards, into a beast of a machine capable of ready to run “Battlefield 3” on the highest settings at 60 frames per second come Oct. 25.
As such, your average gamer tends to be left confused, intimidated and pushed that much closer to buying a $200 Xbox 360 slim.
Enter Razer USA, one of PC gaming’s most well-established names, known for producing sleek, high-quality accessories for gamers. On Tuesday, Aug. 21, they launched the website PCgamingisnotdead.com, which contained a countdown timer scheduled to end at 8 p.m. that Friday.
That same day, they published a one-page spread in the Wall Street Journal. It was a manifesto to the “300 million PC gamers worldwide,” a call to arms for console equality, and a promise, that Friday, Aug. 26, would “bring a new age of openness and innovation to all gaming.”
Well, the day came and went, and this is by no means a “new age. “
Razer’s big, game-changing reveal? A laptop. Not just any laptop, but really expensive laptop — with shiny green buttons.
Razer announced their new 17-inch gaming notebook, codenamed “Blade.” The product comes with a plethora of spiffy, faux high tech bells and whistles: a powerful Intel i7 process and NVIDIA GeForce GPU, a LED-backlit 17-inch screen, a customizable “Switchblade UI,” a gorgeous LCD multi-touch screen, and even fancy green lights across the very Macbook Pro-like casing.
All for just the one time purchase of $2,800.
And that is exactly why the Razer Blade (seriously) will not be the messiah that ushers in gaming’s golden age of “openness and innovation.”
The core fan base of PC gaming is not interesting in blowing obscene amounts of cash on a pre-made system. Building from the ground up, then upgrading piece by piece is not just tradition, it is an intrinsic part of PC gaming.
And you can forget about attracting new players from the mainstream audience. A price tag that’s effectively fourteen times more than an Xbox 360 will put a stop to any console gamer converting to PC.
PC gaming is by no means dead. It still enjoys a thriving, passionate, and dedicated community.
But if it is to ever return to mainstream acceptance and sales figures, as well as achieve true innovation, it must look beyond gaudy monoliths of excessive spending, such as the Razer Blade.
Reach the columnist at dsydiong@asu.edu.
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