PC Gaming
PC gaming is today the main choice for people who play Massive
Multiplayer Online
(MMO) games, the most popular of these include World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, EVE Online, Star Trek Online
and many others.
PCs are also the best platform for the wide variety strategy
games. Some of the best examples are the Warhammer
40,000 Dawn of War series, Starcraft
2, Sid Meier's Civilization V, the Total War
series, Company of
Heroes, Galactic
Civilizations 2 and Sins of a Solar
Empire.
PC gamers do have access to arguably the best game downloads services
available.
The market leader is Steam,
generally considered as 'the iTunes of PC Gaming', with
other great services including Impulse,
Good Old Games, Direct2Drive and GamersGate.
Mac Gaming
Apple Macs haven't really ever been considered as gaming
machines. However since Apple began using Intel processors game developers have been releasing
Mac
versions of their games. Blizzard
has been a leading Mac game developer, each game they publish comes in both PC and Mac formats.
Mac gaming also got a boost when Valve released the game
download service
Steam for Mac
and
converting their most popular games to be Mac-compatible. Apple
have also trying to boost Mac gaming with the introduction of the Mac App Store.
Games Consoles
The games console market is dominated by three companies, Sony,
Microsoft and
Nintendo. Games consoles are now considered the home of the First
Person Shooter, Action/Adventure, Sports and Third Person Shooter game genres.
Sony has the most powerful console on the market. The blu-ray
drive allows game
developers to add more content to their games than the standard DVD
drive that the Microsoft XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii use. The powerful hardware
makes the Playstation 3 the most expensive console. Sony released the Playstation Move
motion controllers in late 2010 to compete with the Wii, the move works in a very similar way
to the Wii but it uses bluetooth and a camera to track the controllers, making it more
accurate.
Microsoft's console is the XBox 360. The XBox's main advantage
over its competitors is XBox Live, an online service which offers downloadable games, demos,
videos and online gaming at regular, fast speeds. It was also the first console to
introduce an achievements system, which has now been copied by other groups in the gaming
market. Microsoft has also released a motion device to compete with the Wii, called the XBox
Kinect. The Kinect differs from the other competitors by tracking the user's body
and voice using 3 cameras and two microphones, without the user needing to hold any form
of controller.
Nintendo currently hold the greatest market share thanks to the Wii,
the first console to use infra-red motion controllers for gameplay. The motion
controllers made Wii gaming incredibly accessible to every age group, making it the most popular
family/party console. However, the Wii cannot match either the XBox 360 or Playstation 3 in
terms of graphics and online services.
Portable Gaming
The portable gaming market is competed over by Nintendo, Sony and Apple.
Nintendo also hold the greatest market share in the portable market,
stating with the Game Boy in the 1990s and into today with the DS. The DS has two
screens, one of which is touch-sensitive allowing for the use of standard and touch
controls. This has led to new types of gameplay, making the DS appealing to gamers and non-gamers
alike. A new DS model is being released in 2011 called the 3DS. The 3DS
offers improved graphics and glasses-less 3D.
Sony's Playstation Portable (PSP) offers greater graphics than the
current Nintendo DS, as well as a game download service for both current games and the
Playstation back-catalogue. The PSP uses standard games controls only, narrowing its appeal.
However, the PSP is the home to some of the best portable games to come out of Japan.
Rumours have been circulating that Sony will announce the PSP2 sometime in 2011.
Apple entered the portable market relatively recently, in comparison to
the other two. They entered the market with the App Store and the iPhone, iPod Touch and
the iPad. The App Store contains thousands of games, with the most expensive clocking in at £6,
an 'impulse buy' price range, significantly cheaper than the average DS or PSP game.
Sony and Nintendo are struggling to match the App Store's sales numbers.
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