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[Chettlar]

Because publishers put their stake in consoles, not many really care about pc. And let's face it games journalism will bow to whatever publishers want.

Um...no. OP even mentioned EA having said that they expect PC to become their biggest platform. So while I agree that there are a lot of cases that journalists will "bow to whatever publishers want" in certain cases, it's really not representative of quite a few issues, such as this one.

 

[quantumnerd]

I'm starting to think that most journos don't think the average gamer wants to read about the PC, no matter how many PC gamers there are. There's just this hobbyist-machine image problem the PC has. The public is scared of doing anything with its PCs. My dad, who actually kind of likes games, will sooner play a game on his Android phone than play a game on the hand-me-down gaming rig I gave him with Steam set up. And there was that one article a while back about why barely any PC gamers are in Japan where a guy basically said he doesn't play games on his computer because he didn't want to burden it with "unnecessary stress." And then there's the general (correct) view that console gaming is more accessible than PC gaming. Put all that together, and it's easy to get stuck in the "this is niche, so it's bottom priority/a specialist will cover it" mindset if you're stuck in the idea that a normal gamer = a normal person who happens to play games on console.

Some people have suggested conspiracy, but simple biases are a simpler explanation. Sure, a journo might say "oh, I should cover PC games more" if they did an analysis of the market and what they wrote, but who does that when you can lean on your gut?

 

[DocSeuss]

I'm starting to think that most journos don't think the average gamer wants to read about the PC, no matter how many PC gamers there are. There's just this hobbyist-machine image problem the PC has. The public is scared of doing anything with its PCs. My dad, who actually kind of likes games, will sooner play a game on his Android phone than play a game on the hand-me-down gaming rig I gave him with Steam set up. And there was that one article a while back about why barely any PC gamers are in Japan where a guy basically said he doesn't play games on his computer because he didn't want to burden it with "unnecessary stress." And then there's the general (correct) view that console gaming is more accessible than PC gaming. Put all that together, and it's easy to get stuck in the "this is niche, so it's bottom priority/a specialist will cover it" mindset if you're stuck in the idea that a normal gamer = a normal person who happens to play games on console.

Some people have suggested conspiracy, but simple biases are a simpler explanation. Sure, a journo might say "oh, I should cover PC games more" if they did an analysis of the market and what they wrote, but who does that when you can lean on your gut?

Right. Most people simply aren't going to want to write about a platform they don't spend much time on. I can think of plenty of major games journalists who find reasons to slip mentions of games--consoles, portables, iOS--into things they're writing about. It's what they play. It's what they like. As a result, they're not as informed about the PC. Not being as informed... well, there's little impetus to write about it, y'know?

Go look at Kickstarter. The games that succeed are coming to consoles. A lot of journalists seem (SEEM) to be thinking "ooh, I might play that on..." and so it gets hype. Call it PC-only, though, and you might get a "new Kickstarter" post, if that, but nothing else. People write about what they want to write about; they should ensure that they've got a great mix of people talking about all sorts of games.

 

[BBboy20]

next step is to abandon Windows completely and switch to Linux and other OS that are community driven and not tied to Microsoft's interests. Certain game producers are more and more in favour of those OS.

I am afraid that this will shrink the number of PC gamers even more, but freedom has a price!

After the Xbone reveal and when Valve announced SteamOS, I was hoping it would be the gateway to escape from Microsoft for good but so far but so far, it seems like it's just for the Steam Machines.

Is it me or is this thread has become the best advertising Dragon Commander has ever had because when I checked it out, I thought this was what Drakenguard should be (hey, let's even mention other niche titles) and it's dragon gameplay seemed much more frenetic and intense and awe inspiring then almost whatever is going on at the AAA scene.

Even then, AllGamesBeta is the best around. ;P

 

[Usobuko]

It's very simple. The gaming media mentioned here is basically Western gaming media. There are like 0 Asian representative for metacritic, a place where PC gaming is huge. It's no wonder PC gaming is shafted along with games from the East.

Kotaku's poll now has 10,000+ people for PCs, while the next-highest platform is at 3,000+. Adding the four major consoles up... you end up with about 100 more than PC gamers.

One platform beats four. Kinda seems like it deserves more attention, right?

That's not how you use statistics.

 

[DocSeuss]

That's not how you use statistics.

"Gosh, most of our respondents use computers as their primary form of gaming; maybe we should write more about the platform."

This seems pretty reasonable to me.