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PC Gaming Alliance to be announced next week?
In an effort to save the purportedly decaying PC gaming platform, major gaming industry players including Microsoft, Intel, and Nvidia are joining forces to form what has been dubbed the “PC Gaming Alliance,” reports veteran video games journalist Dean Takahashi from Mercury News.
An announcement is expected at next week’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, with the PCGA expected to focus on addressing problems which make the PC a less desirable gaming platform than consoles. One such issue is the complexity of developing games for the PC: not only do the various components within a PC vary widely, but the performance ranges widely as well – hence PC gamers are often unsure about how well a game will run (if at all) until it is installed and loaded up.
Consoles, on the other hand, while less powerful than the average PC, at least offer a stable, consistent hardware platform in which users need only to pop-in a game to start playing. The PC Gaming Alliance would exist to bring this unified, standardized experience for PC gamers. The Alliance looks a bit like an extension of the ‘Games for Windows’ initiative, though exactly what they plan on doing remains unclear.
An announcement is expected at next week’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco, with the PCGA expected to focus on addressing problems which make the PC a less desirable gaming platform than consoles. One such issue is the complexity of developing games for the PC: not only do the various components within a PC vary widely, but the performance ranges widely as well – hence PC gamers are often unsure about how well a game will run (if at all) until it is installed and loaded up.
Consoles, on the other hand, while less powerful than the average PC, at least offer a stable, consistent hardware platform in which users need only to pop-in a game to start playing. The PC Gaming Alliance would exist to bring this unified, standardized experience for PC gamers. The Alliance looks a bit like an extension of the ‘Games for Windows’ initiative, though exactly what they plan on doing remains unclear.
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User Comments (3)
Post a comment| thejedislayer on February 15, 2008 12:14 PM | I didn't release that the PC gaming industry was in trouble. I'm not a big fan of the console system, anyways.
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| icye on February 15, 2008 2:49 PM | Microsoft, Intel, & nvidia only care because 1) the only way to play DX10 games is to buy their Windows Vista, 2) to get the most out of games today you need a good dual core or quad core which Intel is pimping, 3) the computer games industry is the sole reason why newer, more powerful video cards are on the market. The computer game industry is one of the main reasons why people need SLI, Crossfire, $400 + video cards, newer CPUs, etc... If there aren't too many games sold, then it will hurt those companies involved in this initiative. Compare that to a video game console, sure they are less powerful but the costs are lower and you are ensured full compatibility with any new video games coming out. There is no need to download the latest video drivers or update Windows.
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| teotwawki on February 18, 2008 8:20 AM | Much of the hassle of PC gaming would be avoided by a scheme like this: http://www.gamix.com/ 1) OS agnostic - Any flavour of Windows, Linux & Intel Macs, or dedicated OS-less box. 2) consistent environment or customisable without compromising the rest of the machine. 3) based on free (gratis & libre) open standards & commodity hardware.
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