PC Gaming Alliance Officially Formed
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The full list of PCGA members includes Acer/Gateway, Activision, AMD, Dell/Alienware, Epic Games, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia. and Razer.Rock, Paper, Shotgun has some interesting additional coverage.
"There's no one source that says 'hey this is where the PC market is going'," said Stude according to Develop. "Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft are always calling their market share--we're going to call our market through this group."
"What we intend to do is look at what's out there and tell developers what consumers have and understand what audiences exist," added Microsoft Games for Windows chief Kevin Unagast. "The role of the PCGA is providing guidance to developers when they are making a game, explain how they can achieve consistency."
PC Gamer's Tim Edwards: (Does the PC even need retail, I mean-)
Mark Rein. (YES! Yes.)
Later an anonymous man in the audience started screaming at Rein, shouting (Haven't you heard of the Internet!?) It was interesting. Rein, who had heard of the internet, observed that piracy was so bad that people even ran cracked servers for pirate CD-keys of their games. This was what the real thread of the discussion moved around: how to get around piracy. Stude couldn't quote figures for losses from piracy, but it certainly seemed that everyone in the room felt it was the most unattractive aspect of the PC, after exploded system specs. How do we fix it? Well, that's the problem, isn't it? Nobody really knows. Maybe the PCGA can come up with some suggestions. Make your games free might be one. Who knows.
The presentation ended with a mixed feeling of anticipation and validation. PC gaming is huge, and growing, and the big boys know that they have to get a handle on it, and that they can't leave it up to the single-entity consoles to lead the charge into the future of gaming. I really hope the PCGA can settle some problems and do some things to change the landscape of gaming in a positive way. I really hoped it doesn't just fizzle out and quietly disappear. While I'd argue that it's people like Valve and the Runescape boys that are really doing the most for the PC, it'd be good to know that the commercial magnates are actually paying enough attention to realise they have to work together. That alone, I suspect, could be enough to make PC gaming a far stronger, safer place for development.
