The PC Gaming Alliance

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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Good stuff. Consoles are for suckers.

Sounds like trying to stop the tide with a pitchfork, imo

Would be neat if microsoft actually did something with the whole "games for windows" intitiative. Still, I think Steamworks will do a lot of good if developers decide to use it.

Out of that 14% most profit came from games like world of warcraft and the sims. If games like that start to become hits (the sims already are of course) on consoles then pc gaming will take a huge huge hit. I love my pc, but I simply can't deny the strong upcoming of consoles. Since they offer simplicity and far greater value for their money, they pressure the pc market into a corner it forced itself into.

Piracy on the pc is so big that most developers already look at the pc as their B platform of choice. Then come all the driver problems on the 2 million different types of set-ups you can have and a million more reasons to prefer developing for consoles over the good old pc. Funny how Activision is in the pc gaming alliance btw, they were the ones complaining the hardest about piracy on the pc and how they looked at it as their second choice over consoles in the first place.

"Microsoft is a strong believer in the PC as a platform for gaming" Yeah, right. That's why they created the xbox project some years ago when they noticed the increasing popularity of consoles over the PC which had doing remarkably fine till the point of the Dreamcast/PS2 era. Microsoft is just looking at the current losse they are taking against cheap laptops with no more functionality then mailing and browsing based on linux distros and want to pull the image of the pc up again. Too little too late.

Sigh, I love my custom build pc's and I am not liking what I have to say about the matter. Let's just hope this alliance brings us some cool games that run properly on current day setups instead of Crysis which also had a increasingly lamer story as you progressed into the game.

Go pc!

Apple is not part of it. Obviously because they don't regard their Mac as a pc. But what is it then? A micro-mainframe or so? Major ICT companies always have had such a bad attitude, so it is not a surprise that GNU/Linux and the consoles increase their market shares (on the markets they operate on, I do not see Linux as a gaming platform yet).

For once I agree with Gazz on something, he nicely encapsulated why the PC is beyond salvation.

They can talk all they want about accurate reporting and hardware requirements, yada yada, but until the issue of piracy is addressed, PC game development will continue to decline.

Some of the recent numbers I saw indicated that something like 70% of PC games are pirated.

Can you imagine selling a product knowing full well that you will never get paid for 7 out of 10? With no effective barrier to piracy (except client based software like WOW, which has proven to be a very difficult nut to crack) PC gaming is simply doomed.

About the best they can hope for is a RIAA style legal crackdown, which won't do anything to sell more games.

It has always been the software/medium that was being "secured". Why not "block" copying from within the OS, in case of software with an EULA? If the OS (either Windows, Mac or GNU/Linux) detects a file able to "tell" your pc of what type the license is, the copy process should be disabled*.
One possibillity is that this is an idea that won't work, a second is that no one "dared" to give it a try.

*in case it is a commercial application that is on the disk.

Originally Posted by Bucky

For once I agree with Gazz on something, he nicely encapsulated why the PC is beyond salvation.

If Bucky agrees with me on something it can only mean one thing, it's the end of the world as we know it.

I also believe that consoles are starting to get ahead of the pc a bit. Not in terms of raw power or overall functionality but in terms of being user friendly. For example the way that the Wii is being controlled with their controller. The idea is so basic and functions so great it's way easier to select something with that instead of the mouse. Then there's Home on the PS3 it will allow people to receive mail, browse the net and use an im of their choice. It will come pre installed on each PS3 so it will be plug and play and these types of things will absolutely drive a lot of people away from the PC they used for that. Maybe not you and me, but it will have a huge impact on mr and missus casual who want the basics. Something to mail with friends, watch a hd movie on and play a game online with some mates.

Maybe it won't just happen in this generation of consoles as I predict, but it's a destination we will ultimately reach.

I see dark ages for the pc world as we know it.

@Richard: Of course Apple isn't on it. You can even play more games on Linux then on a Apple. There are strong rumours that Apple will be releasing a handheld aimed at casual gamers that the ds now serves and with the functionality of their ipods. Basicly a PSP with brain training games.

Originally Posted by Richard_Rahl

It has always been the software/medium that was being "secured". Why not "block" copying from within the OS, in case of software with an EULA? If the OS (either Windows, Mac or GNU/Linux) detects a file able to "tell" your pc of what type the license is, the copy process should be disabled*.
One possibillity is that this is an idea that won't work, a second is that no one "dared" to give it a try.

*in case it is a commercial application that is on the disk.

What you are describing is DRM (digital rights management), which is a hotbed of controversy in the music industry as we speak. Vista embedded support for it which caused a lot of hate. But I can assure you, this is just a minor technical barrier to someone who wants to make illegal copies of software. Given that a user can access the file system and registry of their PC (and I think it is safe to assume that your average pirate has above average PC skills), any block built into the OS is purely a hindrance, not a barrier.

Originally Posted by Gazz

@Richard: Of course Apple isn't on it. You can even play more games on Linux then on a Apple.

I know, but my point is that they should change that. I mean, Windows became big partially because of its functionality as a gaming platform. But I can say that Apple is way too arrogant to see that, while they breathe in Microsoft's neck, Linux is doing in theirs. If they wish to maintain their market share, they really should be getting much more a gaming platform.
I wish all pc OSses had the Linux kernel, and Ubuntu's "usabillity" (=amount of being user friendly). Because know I forsee dark ages for "the" pc.