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Software PC Gaming Alliance Offically Announced
Marcus Yam (Blog) - February 20, 2008 8:42 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 62 comment(s) - last by landeel.. on Feb 24 at 2:57 PM
PC Gaming Alliance: Activision, AMD, Dell, Epic Games, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA and others

As first reported last week, leaders in the PC industry are banding together in an effort to maintain and advance PC gaming. Announced today, the PC Gaming Alliance is a non-profit organization that unites hardware and software creators, game developers and publishers to keep the PC as a viable and attractive platform for developers.

The PC Gaming Alliance will also attempt to stay competitive with the console gaming industry by coordinated marketing, developing and promoting guidelines and recommendations, such as for hardware requirements and anti-piracy measures, and foster information sharing between members to accelerate the PC gaming industry.

In light of the recent NPD report that the PC gaming industry only accounted for 14 percent of retail game sales in 2007, the PC Gaming Alliance will also encourage consistent and accurate reporting of PC gaming market sizing and research, including online sales.

It will focus on driving coordinated marketing and promotion of PC gaming, consistent and accurate reporting of PC gaming market sizing and research, and creating forums for member companies to cooperate on solutions to challenges facing the PC gaming industry, such as hardware requirements, anti-piracy, and more. PCGA will develop and promote guidelines and recommendations and foster information sharing between members to accelerate the PC gaming industry.

Members of the PC Gaming Alliance are Acer Inc./Gateway Inc., Activision Publishing Inc., AMD, Dell/Alienware, Epic Games, Intel Corp., Microsoft Corp., NVIDIA Corp. and Razer USA Ltd.

"PCGA members believe that we are stronger and more effective together than any member company is alone, and that our shared vision and group effort will improve PC gaming worldwide," said Randy Stude, director of the Gaming Program Office at Intel. "Industry forums have proven to foster competition and innovation among member companies and grow markets while improving user experiences."

"Microsoft is a strong believer in the PC as a platform for gaming, and the formation of PCGA is a major step forward for our industry and for PC gamers," said Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows at Microsoft. "Working together, we have an exponentially greater opportunity to propel the PC gaming experience to new heights."

While the console market may be stealing some gamers away from the PC, the PC Gaming Alliance has great faith in the future of its segment. Research firm DFC Intelligence projected that the PC game business will grow more than 80 percent over the next five years, with digital distribution as a leading factor.

"This collaboration will provide developers and publishers with a champion for consistent demographics, hardware adoption, and revenue measurement and reporting," said David Cole, an analyst with DFC Intelligence. "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."

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This sounds good.....
By eye smite on 2/20/2008 8:58:27 AM , Rating: 3
I'd like to see pc games make a revival. I haven't played anything but 2 mmo's for the last 3 yrs. Guild Wars and Wow. I'd like to see games that have definitive goals in them that aren't mmo's but have goals similar to and complex like an mmo. Don't get me wrong, there have been great games in the past, but once you've played the original Age of Empires, any strategy game like that really starts to feel the same for me at least and I lose interest. I'm sure they'll come out with some newer things and make it more appealing, at least I hope they do. All in all this sounds good to me though, it certainly can't hurt.




RE: This sounds good.....
By Spivonious on 2/20/2008 9:11:18 AM , Rating: 3
Please excuse my ignorance, as I've never played an MMORPG, but how are their goals complex? Isn't it just "raid this dungeon"?


RE: This sounds good.....
By eye smite on 2/20/2008 9:25:53 AM , Rating: 4
Well having to progress through to lvl 70 for your char opens up alot of things to accomplish. Gear or armor for one. Cooking and using food that boosts your stats. My professions are mining and skinning so I make a bundle on the auction house selling leather and ore that I've smelted which all leads back to paying for the mounts you can get starting at lvl 40. Standard and Epic riding mounts then standard and epic flying mounts. Gear you can only get from 25 man raids that will never be on the auction house. There's always something to drive towards with the goals you can set and it's always been limited in a game local to your machine. I know alot of that sounds silly, but it keeps interest in the game going.


RE: This sounds good.....
By SavagePotato on 2/20/2008 9:41:05 AM , Rating: 4
Basically all of that filters down to raid this dungeon 1000 times to get the equipment to raid the next dungeon 1000 times, to get the equipment to..... yeah thats how it works.


RE: This sounds good.....
By eye smite on 2/20/2008 9:43:48 AM , Rating: 4
No not exactly. I guess you'd have to play one to see what I'm saying and understand. I for one don't raid or do instances and have plenty of goals that have nothing to do with raiding or doing instances. Again, you'll just have to play one to see.


RE: This sounds good.....
By xsilver on 2/20/2008 10:12:01 AM , Rating: 1
maybe I'll inject some heroin straight into my eyeball...
just to see =P

wow: hugely interesting for those that play, but if you're not playing it by now, its probably not for u.


RE: This sounds good.....
By Arribajuan on 2/20/2008 4:58:30 PM , Rating: 2
"maybe I'll inject some heroin straight into my eyeball...
just to see =P"

you will not be seeing much after that man!!!


RE: This sounds good.....
By SavagePotato on 2/20/2008 10:23:15 AM , Rating: 2
Played WoW before the expansion. With the expansion theres a bit less raid focus but it's still there big as ever.

Before the expansion it was insanely monotonous over and over and over raiding to get your crap to do the next raid while fighting 40 other people all pretending to like each other to get what they needed out of the situation.

In fact played wow, swg, anarchy online, city of heroes, city of villains, lineage2, lord of the rings online, and tabula rasa.

Considering it's been a mad dash to emulate wow (lord of the rings online aka WoW of the rings online) theres probably much more repetitive raiding on the mmog horizon.


RE: This sounds good.....
By 306maxi on 2/20/2008 10:42:21 AM , Rating: 2
I'm sorry but that's exactly what it's like. Just presented a different way. I never could quite understand Diablo and such other games. Hack demon, hack skeleton, hack this, hack that. hack boss, hack more demons, hack uber boss and then hack the super duper boss to finish the game. Just sooo repetitive and boring. Not to mention you have to pay a monthly subscription! What a crock! I bought Team Fortress 2 back when it was released and haven't paid anything other than for electricity to play it since.


RE: This sounds good.....
By christojojo on 2/20/2008 1:54:36 PM , Rating: 3
Actually slash and gather is pretty much MMorpgs description. My son and brother (two different people) play WoWcrack. They love it; I am bored with it. I love playing RTS (Company of Heroes), Sandbox (GTA), Fallout 1&2, and shooters (BF2, COD4, TF2).

Each of those can be shrunk down into their basic formulas.

RTS - Gather, build, kill
GTA - Steal, collect, kill, and hookers
Fallout - Gather, gain, kill
Shooters - kill (BF2 and COD4 kill to get better killing tools)

My point are...

The basic formula is only truly annoying if you're not drawn into the experience.

Rehashing successful games eventually kills/ weakens that genre.

Another thought that might be hurting PC gaming is the longevity of MMorpgs. They take forever, never to complete and a wad of cash). That's the actual reason I don't like WOW; money and time for just about nothing but killing level 70 rats.


RE: This sounds good.....
By johnsonx on 2/20/2008 7:11:06 PM , Rating: 5
quote:
(two different people)

I'm glad you clarified that, otherwise we would have all naturally assumed you had impregnanted your own mother.


RE: This sounds good.....
By christojojo on 2/20/2008 10:55:26 PM , Rating: 2
I proof read it a couple of times before I finally decided that I shouldn't take the risk of leaving the interpretation to fellow wiseguys. ;)


RE: This sounds good.....
By MrBlastman on 2/20/2008 2:15:02 PM , Rating: 2
Don't forget to mention that ever since TF 2 has been released, there practically has been a new map released EVERY SINGLE DAY for the past 4 1/2 months :) :)

How is that for consistent, new, and fresh content? Best part is - it is free. Sure, they aren't official valve maps - but who cares? Many of them are as good, if not significantly better than the stock maps. QWTF (Team Fortress 1) had a huge number of maps, all user made.

I'm very happy with my one time purchase of the Orange Box. Best money I've spent in a while.


RE: This sounds good.....
By djc208 on 2/20/2008 3:07:07 PM , Rating: 3
I think that is a strength the PC group needs to exploit. Like the HL2 episodes. Periodic content provided more frequently. More money for them, more play time for us, more immersive story line. Everyone wins.

Some of the consoles will let you download extras but the custom maps/add ons/extras are easier on a computer.


RE: This sounds good.....
By ice456789 on 2/20/2008 11:16:06 AM , Rating: 2
I agree. I played WoW for a while, getting a guy up to level 40 and a couple others to level 30. Then I realized I wasn't playing a game, I was WORKING. Hours in the auction house buying ingredients to merge into items to sell for more money. "Kill 8 of this", "Kill 12 of this". I got so sick of the quests requiring you to kill a number of monsters. Killing them was easy, finding 8 of them is the hard (and boring) part. And you go into raids and there's always some jerk that goes all 'Leeroy' on you and screws the whole thing up. $15 a month for that abuse? No thanks. There are plenty of good games that don't have monthly charges.


RE: This sounds good.....
By steelincable on 2/20/2008 1:35:24 PM , Rating: 2
Is it like 'Heroin Hero' where you have to catch the dragon?


RE: This sounds good.....
By Proteusza on 2/20/2008 10:54:36 AM , Rating: 2
I tried WoW for a month, found it incredibly boring.

if you like story, interesting characters, exciting quests and changing landscapes, dont play WoW. if you like grinding and getting high level items, play WoW.


RE: This sounds good.....
By ShadowZERO on 2/20/2008 6:18:52 PM , Rating: 2
They are complex because they are non-linear. In a lot of MMORPGs, you raid, solo, group, do instances as the previous, quest as the previous, trade with other players, etc. Not to mention there's a level of social interaction, in the form of virtual economies, that most other generes of games don't have. How you improve your character and have fun is totally up to you, there's dozens of ways to do it.


RE: This sounds good.....
By MrBlastman on 2/20/2008 10:09:29 AM , Rating: 2
I might not like MMO's at all (never play them), but I agree with your main point.

I'd love to see more work put into the PC gaming industry. PC's are my primary gaming platform (Wii/PS2 is secondary) and for what I play - Military Flight Simulators (IL-2/Falcon 4/EECH/LOMAC etc.), FPS, and RTS games - consoles can not cut it... period.

Especially for simulators. No way a console any time soon is going to come close to being able to do what my PC can do for simulation. The sheer number of control inputs alone are impossible on a console for your typical console gamer. I'd love to see a console with a real HOTAS (the pseudo-fake one for the 360's Ace Combat does not count - it isn't programmable and is missing several axes and hats) that couples together with rudder pedals. No, I'm talking a programmable one with its own microprocessor in it along with flash memory, hall-effect sensors (no pots) etc.

I'd also love to see a console add the above + head tracking. Not going to happen any time soon. I'd love to see that be taken even further with the ability to export aircraft systems (HUD, MFD's, Instruments) from your PC to a second or third machine which runs hosting software to output those exported systems on individual displays/panels. I'd love to see that. I'd love to see them take that one step further on a console and do what the guys here do: