Suttree.com: Casual Games, Social Software by Duncan Gough

When companies like Valve announce that they’re developing for the Xbox360, it’s clear to see that the platform is so popular because developers find it easy to write for. Given that it’s a PC in a box, then no wonder. It’s just a matter of porting code over, which is what I imagine Valve will continue to do with the Source engine.

So, why are PC games suffering at a time when PC game engines have become more cross platform than they were before the Xbox? Most likely, because developers are being paid to write for the Xbox, not the PC. Because Microsoft wants and can afford to make the Xbox profitable.

But really, in my own opinion, I think it’s because they don’t like the open nature of the online arm of PC games. For a long time now, all PC games have been released with on-line play and modding tools for free. That the on-line play is also free is seen as standard in all newly released PC titles barring MMOs. It’s pay-to-play on the xbox (Xbox Live requires a subscription), a feature which is otherwise known as ‘opening up a new revenue stream’. Again, to me, the Xbox looks like the perfect opportunity for Microsoft to ‘do’ games again, only this time making them profitable. It’s not often you get a second change at something like this, so it’s no wonder everything costs something.

Modding, on the other hand, has been killed off. The whole hard-drive-not-required ethos of the Xbox 360 is confirmation of this. Game mods, where new developers get to show off their talents on existing games using the freely available tools that are released, as standard, with each new PC game, has been a great way to extend the life of a game, foster good developer and community relations and find new talent. Just think of counter Strike and Stephen Polge (creator of the Reaper bot, developer of UT2004 and UT2007).

Perhaps the only well-known modder for the Source engine is Adam Foster, creator or Minerva.

The real shame in this is that modding and co-op play have been the two best things about PC gaming in recent years, and it looks like they’re being edged out in favour of grinding MMORPGs and relentless deathmatches. Maybe it’s time for flash games to take up the challenge, as it did when all the good, classic arcade games seemed to have been found swept under the carpet and brought back to life in casual, tea-break chunks for the web. After all, co-op in flash shouldn’t be that hard - two players on the same computer is easy,
two players remotely is harder but not impossible. Enough open-source multiplayer servers exists for this to be a small hurdle. As for modding, plenty of flash game developers already build level editors with their games for internal use, so it’s purely a matter of opening up the rest of the process - the art and the sounds should be replaceable to generate a whole new game. Give me the framework for Asteroids and let me make something on-top of that. Just like Bunchball does.

I’m not the only one who thinks like that either.

Update: Looks like I’m not the only one wondering this. bits & bytes & pixels & sprites are asking the question - can Co-Op come out to play? Counter Strike remains the most popular Co-Op game, as far as I’m concerned.