Article :: Microsoft, NVIDIA, Intel and others to shake up PC gaming

[HEXUS]

Can a new consortium, dubbed as the PC Gaming Alliance, make the PC a desirable platform once more?

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[nichomach]

Soooo....that'd be AMD screwed, then, since I can just see the results from an Intel/NV/MS "scanning utility" on a DAAMIT system - "You have an AMD Phenom 9600 processor and a Radeon 3870X2 graphics card. Tetris will not play optimally on your PC. Have you considered upgrading to a Celeron E1200 and an nVidia 8400GS graphics card?". Bleeuuugh....

[dangel]

Every generation of console launches has seen declarations of PC Gaming being dead - it's almost a tradition. Still waiting for it to happen: and whilst steam has 15 million subscribers and things like WOW are basically a licence to print money I don't think there's much to worry about right now - do you?
Still, if this can cut down on the half arsed console porting then that's all good.

[0iD]

It's in their best interests as PC gaming has a large hand in driving foward technological development in their areas of business.

[Steven W]

Every generation of console launches has seen declarations of PC Gaming being dead - it's almost a tradition. Still waiting for it to happen: and whilst steam has 15 million subscribers and things like WOW are basically a licence to print money I don't think there's much to worry about right now - do you?
Still, if this can cut down on the half arsed console porting then that's all good.

There were some figures released about how badly PC games are selling, but it didn't take into account the digital sales and MMO subscriptions. We don't really know the true story. All we do know for sure is that developers aren't developing games for the platform as much as they used to, and the PC section of game stores are dead. If these guys are getting together to revitalize it, there must be something wrong.

[dangel]

There were some figures released about how badly PC games are selling, but it didn't take into account the digital sales and MMO subscriptions. We don't really know the true story. All we do know for sure is that developers aren't developing games for the platform as much as they used to, and the PC section of game stores are dead. If these guys are getting together to revitalize it, there must be something wrong.

I think as OiD pointed out - it's in their interest to do so (margins alone). I don't seem to run out of games to buy, therefore I find it hard to point to some decline in the market. It's been years since i've even been to a high street game store - they're largely irrelevant in an age of internet distribution and online (cheaper) purchases (with delivery on/before release day).

History repeats itself here - i've seen the heralded death of the PC platform more than once before.

[kalniel]

Any time Intel is involved in a gaming decision you know they are talking about casual gaming, not AAA titles.

Microsoft could easily catapult AAA PC gaming to a level similar to consoles (it's not anymore - WoW, if you can even consider it a AAA game, is the *only* example to match the numbers that several AAA titles get for consoles) - all they have to do is specificy a mininum hardware level for the mainstream operating system. The tug from Intel to keep dx* compatibility/requirement with onboard chips ensures the majority of PCs sold will never match the capabilities of their standardised console brethren.

Nvidia will want to keep gaming separate from onboard chips too, as if Intel were good enough then they'd be much reduced market for them.

In short, I don't believe any consortium containing Intel, MS and nvidia will achieve any positive change in the gaming arena - it's in their interests not to.

[Steven W]

Any time Intel is involved in a gaming decision you know they are talking about casual gaming, not AAA titles.

Microsoft could easily catapult AAA PC gaming to a level similar to consoles (it's not anymore - WoW, if you can even consider it a AAA game, is the *only* example to match the numbers that several AAA titles get for consoles) - all they have to do is specificy a mininum hardware level for the mainstream operating system. The tug from Intel to keep dx* compatibility/requirement with onboard chips ensures the majority of PCs sold will never match the capabilities of their standardised console brethren.

Nvidia will want to keep gaming separate from onboard chips too, as if Intel were good enough then they'd be much reduced market for them.

In short, I don't believe any consortium containing Intel, MS and nvidia will achieve any positive change in the gaming arena - it's in their interests not to.

Interesting. I'm looking for seeing what they say when they officially announce their plans.

[kalniel]

Crysis, which was marketed as one of the greatest games of all time in 2007, and was a title that EA spent millions of pounds advertising, didn’t achieve the sales and the world-wide following that they’d expected.

Can you clarify that a bit more - what have you been told EA were expecting? Most people would be happy hitting a million sales.

[Steven W]

Can you clarify that a bit more - what have you been told EA were expecting? Most people would be happy hitting a million sales.

Yep, you're right. I was looking it from the point of view of the top console titles,such as Halo 3, Gears of War, which have sold 4 to 8 times as many copies. Wii Play, Super Mario Galaxy, even the PS3's Resistance Fall of Man.

The way I wrote it suggested that EA would be disappointed with a million sales, when of course I don't know that. I've amended the article to read:" hasn't yet achieved the same high sales as the top console titles." and have put a footnote at the bottom to confirm the change.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

PC gaming is slowly diying or its in its worse state for a loong time. you dont get much quality pc games anymore. for example im looking forward to playing rainbow 6 vegas 2 but will that be on the pc?

if its in the pc will it be a crappy port? how many will be playing it online? name me a very popular racing game that many play? i have both rfactor and race07 and the amount of players who play online is none existance compared to the likes of forza.

what AAA titles are we expecting for pc this year?

it doesnt help the fact that you need a sub £200 gpu card to play the latest games but i must admit, both nvidia and ATI are doing somthing in this area. a 8800GT can be purcahsed for £150 now and that is a bargain but same time last year could you tell me that a £150 gpu card can play all the latest games in highest settings?

[Pyrii]

PC gaming is slowly diying or its in its worse state for a loong time. you dont get much quality pc games anymore. for example im looking forward to playing rainbow 6 vegas 2 but will that be on the pc?

if its in the pc will it be a crappy port? how many will be playing it online? name me a very popular racing game that many play? i have both rfactor and race07 and the amount of players who play online is none existance compared to the likes of forza.

what AAA titles are we expecting for pc this year?

it doesnt help the fact that you need a sub £200 gpu card to play the latest games but i must admit, both nvidia and ATI are doing somthing in this area. a 8800GT can be purcahsed for £150 now and that is a bargain but same time last year could you tell me that a £150 gpu card can play all the latest games in highest settings?

But the fact of the matter is it should be 100-125 quid for the 8800GTs, Nvidia stated when they made the 8800GT that they wanted the price to come down from $250 to $200, and of course retailers have kept the price higher than this, using demand as an excuse, the same goes for the QX9650 which should be £500-£582.5(incvat), but is infact still INCREASING in price.

The retailers are having a field day with PC sales and this of course is also limiting entrance to better performance for gaming. It's certainly halting my plans for my new PC which I plan for a little gaming, but mostly 3D work/rendering. So I need the processing power which is being priced straight out of my hands when it doesn't need to be.

In short, we can look at game specs and the price of entry into PC gaming, but dont' forget who keeps bumping these already over-inflated prices.

[kalniel]

PC gaming is slowly diying or its in its worse state for a loong time.

I don't agree. I think the number of games played on the PC is at the highest level it's ever been. They just might not be the kinds of game you want to play. But if that's the case, you're in a minority.

you dont get much quality pc games anymore

Also have to disagree - times have rarely been better for RPG, RTS, FPS games, let alone user-generated content which is at an all time high.

name me a very popular racing game that many play? i have both rfactor and race07 and the amount of players who play online is none existance compared to the likes of forza.

Test Drive Unlimited - so many players you can't get onto the servers at the weekends these days. I expect NFSrostreet is quite popular too.

what AAA titles are we expecting for pc this year?

Fallout 3, Spore, Dragon Age, StarCraft 2, HL2 ep3, Warhammer Online, WoW:wrath of the lich king, Alone in the Dark.. and probably tons more.

[UKJack67]

As long as game developers come up with ridiculous excuses for not designing games for PC, read Steve Nix (id Software)'s comments, then there will be a trend away from PC gaming.

The argument used in this case is that;

"I know that I have friends who are considered core gamers, who years ago were just keyboard and mouse guys - now, when a game ships on all platforms, they buy the console version, even though the PC version is sitting there and they have a PC that would run it perfectly well. It's just their preference" (direct quote from interview).

Perhaps Mr Nix and his associates have missed the reason why this happens. Building a game which works well on a console and then trying to ship it onto a PC, with a total disregard for the difference in user interface, rarely results in a game which is playable.

The major Hardware companies are only now beginning to realise just how important the PC gaming market is. AMD, Intel, Nvidia and Microsoft have only now realised, as sales of PC games and hence PC components fall off, the importance of the market segment. No PC gamers, no upgrades, no revenue from add in cards or processor upgrades.

What will happen to the price of future versions of the XBox when neither Nvidia or Microsoft are posting profits high enough to justify R&D, the XBox, I believe still makes a loss for MS, so development is funded by a willingness in the PC "enthusiast" market to support new technology.

To echo a point made on pricing above, a new GT9800 GX2 graphics card alone costs almost the same as TWO XBoxes. Why should I have to pay so much to play games ported from a vastly inferior platform?

For those who say that industry will pay MS so they need not rely on the enthusiast market, look at the number of threads on various sites from disgruntled corporations refusing to upgrade their systems to Vista.

It's been a long enough rant now so to finish off, without PC gamers there is no XBox, consoles stagnate gaming doesn't progress and eventually everyone moves on to new sources of entertainment, dusting off the old console for a nostalgia trip at parties and reunions. For those of you who say "Pah the console will be here for ever!" that's what your Dad said about Tiddlywinks.

[danroyle]

surely isn't most of the isuue here a mindset you are either a console fanboy or a pc fanboy.

i think pc gaming is still in a good state although i find these days i play my xbox 360 more but thats more an issue of its less of a pain to use.

but the main issue comes down to the same thing a good pc graphics card can cost as much as an xbox360 now so for me thats the winning factor, but i keep my pc because of my steam account hl2 css etc and bf2 and some rts games because they are so much better and easier to use on a pc.

[UKJack67]

Nope, most of the issue here is the mindset of PC gamers tiring of being screwed by developers who think half ready games and shoddy ports are enough for the only segment of the games market which drives the technology used by consoles.