February 20, 2008 8:54 AM PST
PC Gaming Alliance debuts
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This defensive attitude is also apparently afflicting hardware manufacturers and software publishers, a number of which on Monday announced the formation of the PC Gaming Alliance.
The first body ever formed solely to promote the PC gaming industry, the PCGA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to "driving coordinated marketing and promotion of PC gaming...and creating forums for member companies to cooperate on solutions to challenges facing the PC gaming industry, such as hardware requirements and antipiracy."
Said member companies include PC hardware manufacturers Acer-Gateway, Dell-Alienware, Intel, and Advanced Micro Devices. AMD also owns ATI, a leading manufacturer of PC graphics cards, whose chief rival, Nvidia, is also on the PCGA board along with PC game peripheral company Razer USA. Rounding out the list are game developer Epic Games and the biggest third-party publisher on the planet, Activision.
Ironically, the maker of one of the consoles being blamed for cutting into the PC's market share is also on the PCGA's board. After spending billions on launching and promoting the Xbox 360, Microsoft has joined the board as part of its reinvigorated PC gaming initiative, Games for Windows.
The formation of the PCGA is drawing praise from some analysts covering the PC gaming market, which took in $911 million at U.S. retailers last year--a decline of 6 percent. "This collaboration will provide developers and publishers with a champion for consistent demographics, hardware adoption, and revenue measurement and reporting," DFC Intelligence David Cole said in a statement. "An authoritative source of information on the PC as a gaming platform will serve as an invaluable catalyst for growing the market and improving the consumers' PC gaming experience."
The announcement of the PCGA's formation was timed to coincide with this week's Game Developers Conference, where many of its member companies are touting their wares.
Tor Thorsen of GameSpot reported from San Francisco.
Promoting Windows boxes at the same time it is selling its own
gaming machine. Ludicrous and laughable and self-defeating.
I just could not see the reason to upgrade the graphics card just to play a game. Much less a game out of numerous others that needed a less power graphics card.
It is so much more economical to get a console and play without worrying about the graphic cards for at least 4-5 years instead of the PC's 1.5 years
continue to advance and for the most part overtake the PC
gaming community.
The problem is that it is simply not economical to be a PC
gamer. The games are just as expensive as the console versions,
and the hardware to run the games on is much more expensive
than a comparable console. The PC gamer market can be divided
into two groups. Casual gamers that will play games that happen
to run on their systems, but don't upgrade hardware to play
them, and the hardcore gamers that will buy the latest
technology to run the latest games.
The PC gamer market is made up of more casual gamers than
hardcore ones, which is a serious problem for PC game
developers that feel they need to constantly be on the bleeding
edge of graphics technology. PC games are not going to regain
any of their former glory or popularity unless developers start
making them playable on older systems that aren't running
$300 graphics cards.
I have a feeling that everyone is spouting their complaints about 1 particular game (that requires vista) that wants you to update to highest system possible which someone told you it would cost $500.