Question:
why are there more games on PC then console?
?
2019-09-08 03:37:01 UTC
im a pc gamer and ps4 gamer. steam alone is packed with games.including smaller dev indie games.and more historially accurate war games.i love it.but why are there more on steam then psn or xbox live?
Sixteen answers:
TStodden
2019-09-08 08:39:26 UTC
Short Answer: Lower barrier of entry & no quality control.



Long Answer: After the US industry crash of 1983, console manufacturers serve as the gatekeepers to their related platforms. This was a key thing with Nintendo when they released the NES in North America, as they wanted to maintain what they considered "high quality" with their licensing system in order to recover the confidence of the public.



While the requirements to publish a game on a console has been lowered due to legal regulations & competition over the years, every game that gets a commercial release (physically or digitally) must be certified by the console maker (Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony) to meet minimum quality requirements. Because the certification process can take weeks or months, game developers & publishers need to nail this the first time OR risk delaying their game's release (as they have to get certified before their game can go to the publisher's factory).



Additionally, console makers generally require software developers & publishers to purchase a Special Development Kit (aka SDK) that has specs similar to the console it was designed for, so games can be designed & optimized to run on that hardware. While console makers may support game engines (like Unity) to make development easier, they still control the add-on to export the finished game to their platform.





On the PC side, there's no gatekeepers for quality control. Before the commercialization (& public access) of the Internet, developers have to get the attention of a publisher & then a major publication (like a gaming magazine) OR pick up good word-of-mouth through demos & shareware. With the Internet, developers can publish their own games online & with digital distribution platforms like Steam, it's even lowered the barrier between developers & consumers. While some platforms (like GoG.com) are more curated, where they select the games they feature on their platform (to help ensure the "good" games are being promoted). However, developers can go completely indie & offer their game(s) directly to the public, but only games that have some buzz around them or the developer would ever gain some traction in this regard. Most "shovelware" games will try to find themselves on a platform that most people will utilize (like Steam).



There's also the fact that game consoles tend to have a limited market lifespan, which is typically around 6 - 10 years. Once a console has reached the end of it's market life, everybody has likely moved onto the next generation for that console maker. On PC's, while the OS can be a limiting factor on what can run on systems, PC games can be run through emulation (with their original code intact), modified (with a compatibility layer in place) or re-written completely to support newer hardware & OS's. These options can allow games to bypass these limiting factors. Using GoG.com as the example game, some of the classic games they sell originated back in the early 1980's. Ultima I, for example, was originally released in 1981. It was later remade & repackaged as a trilogy set (with II & III packed with it) in 1989, which is the version that GoG.com has adapted to run on modern systems (via DOSBox) & sell on their site.



While Nintendo & other console game developers have updated their old games to run on newer consoles (like the NES Online & SNES Online services for the Switch), it's more like they're reinventing the wheel each time they come out with a new console... so it restricts such offerings.



For the NES & Famicom, there were 715 official games released for it worldwide during it's lifespan

For the PS2, there were 4490 games released for it worldwide during it's lifespan



For PC, there were 1,771 games released on Steam in 2014 alone... This has risen to 9,050 games released on Steam in 2018 according to Statista ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/552623/number-games-released-steam/ ). Over the life of Steam (2004 - 2018), there's been a total of 27,279 titles released on the platform SO FAR (current count of games only at time of writing is currently at 35,321 titles, which makes me a little ashamed that my library contains ~4.5% of their entire games catalog)... this is excluding games that were made for older consoles & content that is likely to never see a listing on Steam (like Minecraft & Sea of Thieves).



I know this is a lot to process, but I hope this sheds some light on the subject.
Earli
2019-09-12 17:53:35 UTC
Computer game more
?
2019-09-09 22:28:44 UTC
there's a lot of reasons why one is flexibility anybody can make video games for PCs, a lot more people have computers than gaming consoles, you can also have PC be anywhere not so much for gaming consoles
?
2019-09-09 16:57:58 UTC
Because they are more popular, maybe?
Johnny
2019-09-08 17:23:34 UTC
Every console game is made on a computer, so it makes sense that more developers would release their games on the platform they were created on just for ease of use.
2019-09-08 13:11:19 UTC
there's a lot of reasons why one is flexibility anybody can make video games for PCs, a lot more people have computers than gaming consoles, you can also have PC be anywhere not so much for gaming consoles
abai
2019-09-08 10:43:25 UTC
i think pc gamer more than ps.
Raditz
2019-09-08 05:05:52 UTC
If you look closely, most of Steam games can be categorized as "shovelware", like broken games or asset flip games.



This is because Steam were very lax on curating games, and they just accept everything from anyone, without cheking it first. They will start curating them if they received numerous reports from the users, or when the game reached the internet.



Sony and Microsoft were a bit tighter in curating the games, but there's still some small shovelware games that could pass the curation.
?
2019-09-08 04:12:55 UTC
Because Video games are made on a Computer. So it makes sense to release them for a Computer first.
Kyle
2019-09-08 03:43:31 UTC
more freedom do build those games on PC than on console.
?
2019-09-09 18:33:41 UTC
Sureeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Mio of The Digital Haze
2019-09-09 15:36:28 UTC
Take a look at Steam...now imagine if ALL of the games on it were on consoles too. Do you think many of them would be successes or failures? PC allows for more "trial and error" as compared with directly porting to a console, unless the devs know the game is going to sell or be popular FOR SURE.



That plus budding game developers have a chance to get their feet wet before jumping right into the console field.
?
2019-09-09 05:25:21 UTC
While console makers may support game
Mary
2019-09-09 04:18:53 UTC
It's more convenient to play games on PC
2019-09-08 03:45:42 UTC
consoles are generally closed hardware platforms. you have to jump through more hoops with the owners of the platform, to get your game published on those platforms



pc is a much more open platform. pretty much anybody can write for and publish for the pc without going through any red tape with anybody at all
2019-09-08 03:38:11 UTC
Because console is for losers


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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