Gamasutra quotes GPG boss Chris Taylor as saying that the PC is “rediscovering itself” as a platform.
He wasn’t so positive about the platform last February.
The two statements don’t directly contradict each other; in February he was talking business but now he’s talking about hardware and install base. But if the business problems are still there, specifically piracy, what does it matter if the average graphics card will do the job that needs to be done?
“But if the business problems are still there, specifically piracy, what does it matter if the average graphics card will do the job that needs to be done?”
For one, it means more of the non-pirate crowd has game-ready PCs. If every $499 PC at Walmart has Nvidia or ATI graphics, they can all run every game on the market, albeit slower than ones with $499 videocards.
The biggest problem with PC gaming remains Intel integrated graphics. The newer versions are better, but with laptops sales passing desktops, the need for better integrated chipsets is critical. At a minimum, they just need to support base DX-whatever functionality, and that’s what previous versions of the Intel chipsets failed to do.
That really killed gaming for a lot of people; they’d buy the simplest Disney game for their kids and it just wouldn’t work. And those who might pick up something more ” traditional game-y” (like, say, Civilization IV) could have similarly bad experiences.
The business for PC games is still tough, though. But more potential buyers makes it less tough.