Gamesindustry.biz reports that Microsoft and NVIDIA have departed the PC Gaming Alliance, a movement the two organizations helped found. Neither firm offered a reason for departure.
The PCGA was founded a couple years ago, if memory serves, to advance the PC as a viable platform for gaming. As consoles grow in market share, and development costs for PC (plus the ever-present threat of piracy) continue to spiral upward, the platform has long been losing its dominance. Which kind of sucks for people who like PC gaming.
Now, since the PCGA’s founding it’s not actually done much to further its goal. In fact it’s been one of the quietest and meekest industry organizations out there, neither vociferously campaigning for the importance of the PC nor working particularly hard to draft new adherents. With the exit of two companies that are arguably the most important players on the stage, the PCGA is likely to become more of a technical advisory board than an industry rabble-rouser. PCGA president and Intel exec Matt Ployhar has even said as much.
The world of computer gaming is a complicated place, where conflicting desires and malleable corporate alliances and enmities define the landscape much more than “what’s best for gamers.” While Microsoft has no vested interest in destroying PC gaming, it does have a keen interest in strengthening its hold over the living room – that means Xbox 360. Microsoft would rather you bought your games for that platform. The abominable Games for Windows Live service – improved but still a festering blight – demonstrates that at least some within the company are willing to sabotage PC gaming a little bit in order to further the company’s designs on your television. To be perfectly blunt, you don’t put together a piece of software that bad unless you intend to.
NVIDIA is another story. This firm has its fingers in many pies. While as gamers we tend to think of them as a gaming hardware company, that’s only a piece of the puzzle. NVIDIA is very heavily invested in high performance computing, for example, where the GPU will soon eclipse the CPU (if it hasn’t already) as a means of performing predictive modeling and simulation for manufacturing, product design, and other sectors that haven’t yet adopted HPC.
NVIDIA certainly has reason to support gaming on the PC. While it and its competitors in the GPU sector make the vast majority of their revenue from integrated or low-ticket video cards, there is cachet and income to be had in the ultra-high end. NVIDIA’s Fermi graphics architecture is only just getting off the ground and right now it’s looking like a winner. Naturally, being tapped to design graphics cores for the next generation of consoles is also high on the company’s priority list (historically AMD/ATI and NVIDIA have battled for control of Xbox and Playstation graphics), but there are no next-gen consoles coming… at least not at the present time. Nintendo is likely working on one, but Microsoft and Sony see (wisely) content to let what they’ve got keep going for a few more years.
So what’s basically unclear is why these two organizations left the Alliance. We may never know the actual reason, though I’m sure both companies will release heavily-lawyered statements explaining their impetus. Another key question is whether it matters. Frankly the PCGA hasn’t done much in its time on this earth, and that may honestly be why companies are dropping out. Meanwhile the PC has enjoyed its own resurgence without the help of the Alliance: Valve has come to dominate digital distribution, developers in Eastern Europe still tend to be committed to the platform and and producing some of the most imaginative work, the rise of the Super-Indies have resulted in games such as Minecraft, Amnesia, Immortal Defense, and what have you, all on the PC; and of course the Zyngafication of the platform means that casual games have become an enormous revenue opportunity for those who capitalize well on the space.
Thus while the PCGA, never very impressive, grows less impressive with these departures, it may wind up achieving its goal after all.
Send an email to the author of this post at steerpike@tap-repeatedly.com.
Great Article Steerpike.
I blame Steam! Its got to be the real reason!
Skipping down to the comment area half-way through the article to announce;
GLEE! Finally, this means I’ve found a place I can share my deranged conspiracy theories about Microsoft’s wicked machinations without getting the strange looks and the gag and the oh no, not the mop, not the mop again..
… I’ll just resume reading now.
Hrmm.
I’m glad to see the PC an underdog for two reasons; one – the Indies get more attention from PC owners in general, and thrive, two – with graphics technology held back by and large by multiplatform emphasis demanding compatibility with the Xbox 360, we’re no longer lost in an eternal graphics race whereby only the rich and dedicated gamers get the full experience, or a competitive edge.
Nonetheless, it saddens me every time I see a game with potential dull its edge for the sake of crossplatform development. I tire of the argument that there is no ‘consolification’ of complex titles, for there is no real argument; it’s real. Oblivion was the first big step in that direction and only recently have we seen developers acknowledge the trend and work against it – such as with Battlefield: Bad Company 2’s fairly decent PC version.
In the middle-years there it was getting so bad even the PC developers were intentionally crippling their products to match an ideal notion of what makes a console game popular. Case in point; Left 4 Dead’s horrendous server brower/quick matching at release.
Thanks for the info Steerpike. Oh, and all hail Steam.
The reason why PC gaming industry is dying is because it is less profitable. This is why the alliance is shrinking because the companies related in the PC gaming industry is shrinking.
It is shrinking because of several market forces. PC games are being pirated too much! = Less profit for the game publishers and developers. No body works for free.
Computer Gaming is complicated for the average joe. When it comes to buying games. A Xbox buyer needs to know 1 thing. The video game box must have the label XBOX 360 on it. Thats all. The same can be said about PS3 and Wii gamers. Its simple! Your grand ma, children and wife can buy a console game for their love ones. Its just that easy!
Plus the PC gamers must overcome the relatively tedious and long installation of a video game… For console gamers. they just put their game in the console and press a few buttons and they are ready to go.
PC gaming also have a horrible history with compatibility and installation issues. People remember how complicated it was and they continue to believe that it is the same.
Also buying a Gaming PC is complicated. the video card requirements are soo tricky for the average joe. a layman couldnt figure it out.
Only hardcore gamers and ethusiast knows how to work around it.
Hardcore gamers and techies are also more likley to feel more comfortable surfing the internet. They are more pickier when it comes to buying video games. They also are more open to buying video games online because they know that publishers like Valve is a legit company. to the avg joe. Steam is just another website which can potentially be hazardous.
Gaming PC’s are really expensive. They cost twice as much as an average mid priced PC. If you buy anything lower in retail the games performance will be bad which ruins the exprience. I know people can build fast PC’s but not everybody can. In other words alot of people got burned when they try to buy gamin PC’s its too expensive and complicated!
Due to all these factors that keeps casual and normal gamers out of the PC gaming world… the volume of new PC games being purchased are shrinking rapidly.
Xbox, PS3 and Wii is cheaper than ever too!
Why buy a PC???
Because the Pictue looks better?
well it comes at a price!
Developers will have to spend more time and make less money on the PC platform.
This makes PC platform an epic fail. which will ultimately hurt Windows. Because windows will be come more subsitutable. This is why chrome, andriod, iOS and other emerging rivals are growing quickly. they may not have a huge marketshare but they are putting alot of pressure from the top end low, end and the ect…