PC games endangered?

I remember when I would walk into EB Games and see shelves filled with PC Games from floor to ceiling. Now, PC Games just get two sides of a small shelf hidden in some dark and dank corner of the store, where half of the boxes have been opened already and new titles, or classic titles, are a precious commodity. Let’s face it; the only thing still on those shelves are games that never took off, like Auto Assault (sorry NCsoft and NetDevil, it did have potential, I’ll give you that), or games past their novelty phase, but aren’t quite old enough to be tossed out the window to make room for new titles yet. If you look hard enough you can find the new titles there, but they aren’t in the glory of an attractive display like they would have been four years ago, that’s the kind of stuff that I miss.

While we’re on the subject of PC Games, I just want to add that those boxes used to be of substantial sizes. Some would’ve been almost as big as a cereal box and contained useful informative manuals. Now, PC Games just come in a DVD container on steroids with a four page manual telling you to go online with any questions after trying the tutorial.

The plus side to manuals going MIA is that developers are forced to make instructive and helpful in-game tutorials. And personally, I do find the in-game tutorials more beneficial, since I am the type that has way too much energy to settle down and “read the manual” after getting a new game.

In giving up our comprehensive and plentiful supply of PC Games we did gain an overt and tangible supply of console games. And for those of us who have an Xbox 360 (or will have a PS3) it is very convenient and nice to have such an excellent resource at every gaming store. Not too mention it is far more cost effective to purchase a console than to maintain a proper gaming computer. That being said, part of me will always miss the overwhelming, mouth-watering, and just plain cool display of PC Games that we used to have.