PC Game Alliance formed to combat low sales, piracy
- February 20, 2008 10:18 AM PST
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"The PC market is not dying," said the newly created PC Gaming Alliance on Tuesday -- it's just in disarray.
"One for all and all for one!"
Read PC World's full report on the PCGA press conference.
The PC Gaming Alliance (boring name, eh?) was formally announced on Tuesday evening in a press conference held near the Game Developer Conference. The PCGA was formed in order to champion PC gaming, which has taken knocks with rampant piracy and the disappointing sales of games like Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3.
"We are stronger and more effective together than any member company is alone, and our shared vision and group effort will improve PC gaming worldwide," said Intel's Randy Stude, the group's founding board member. Other represented company members include Acer/Gateway, Activision, AMD, Dell/Alienware, Epic Games, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Razer.
According to Stude, the PCGA will serve as a unified voice to combat the lack of reliable PC sales data, widespread piracy, and consumer confusion over game hardware requirements. In addition to guidance and research, the alliance hopes to standardize minimum system requirements.
The highlight of the press conference was a lively Q&A session with the attending journalists. Again and again the topic returned to soaring hardware requirements, evidenced by games like Crysis and the PC version of Assassin's Creed. "I love Ubisoft, but I don't know what they were thinking when they set Assassin's Creed [PC] requirements so high," said Stude at one point.. Assassin's Creed is currently on the PS3 and Xbox 360, but the upcoming PC version has drawn complaints for its surprisingly steep hardware requirements. Stude said that many PC game developers struggle to adopt realistic minimum requirements, a challenge the PCGA hopes to change.
While the consortium's intentions are noble, no specifics were given as to how the alliance will achieve its goals. And while the PCGA would have you believe that all is well in PC gaming land, the creation of the group, not to mention struggling box sales, suggest otherwise.
