The state of PC gaming has been a hot topic in recent months. Some members of the industry have maintained a positive outlook while others have been a bit more negative. Now Microsoft VP John Schappert has decided to chime in and agree with the former group, saying that things are fine and dandy in the land of mice and keyboards.
“Today I’m excited to report that Microsoft and a growing community of the gaming industry’s leading publishers, hardware manufacturers and retailers have made the Windows-based PC the largest gaming platform in the world. Every major region will see PC gaming continue to grow in audience, game revenue and hardware purchases for the foreseeable future. While the challenges we face as an industry are many, PC gaming has never been stronger, and we’re confident this trend will continue in the years to come,” he stated before a Games for Windows event earlier today.
"The past year has seen exponential growth in online activity and sales, continued platform and hardware innovation, and continued success with the Games for Windows branding initiative, which adds prominence, a quality and technical bar, and a consistent look and feel to the retail PC gaming experience.”
Schappert backed up his statement by releasing a list of sixteen games (viewable after the jump) that will be releasing under the Games for Windows brand in the next few months.
While I certainly agree with his overall message that PC gaming isn’t going away any time soon (one need only look at the billion-plus install base to realize that), I’m not sure that these games were necessarily the best example of that -- all of them besides Crysis Warhead, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, and Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection are cross-platform. Still, for those of us in the old guard that prefer to have physical copies of the games we’ve bought, it’s nice to see Microsoft stick up for the retail side of PC gaming.
[Via Next-Gen -- Thanks, Joe]
- Battlestations: Midway (Eidos)
- Battlestations: Pacific (Eidos)
- Borderlands (2K Games)
- Call of Duty: World at War (Activision)
- Crysis Warhead (Crytek/EA)
- Dawn of War 2 (THQ)
- Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom)
- Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Sierra)
- Quantum of Solace (Activision)
- LEGO Batman: The Videogame (Warner Bros.)
- Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa Video Game (Activision)
- Mafia II (2K Games)
- Project Origin Warner Bros.)
- Red Faction: Guerilla (THQ)
- Saints Row 2 (THQ)
- Zoo Tycoon 2: Ultimate Collection (Microsoft)
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Contest:
5:54 PM on 06.25.2008
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Now I know most games work only on Windoze, but the truly multi-platform games ( that don't use Wine :p ) generally run better on Linux/MacOsX then they do on comparable PC's running windoze...
And, why are Windows stronger than ever? MMOs are the primary reason. Most of those games on that list will sell a heck of a lot more on consoles rather than PCs.
The only thing consoles have on me is playing some graphically demanding game like Oblivion on max settings since my computer can't handle it. And maybe achievements too, but I see Steam expanding from Orange Box and changing that in the future. Did I stay I love Steam? I don't care about the points, I just like working towards a goal.
But yeah, meh for Microsoft and GFW. I guess it's good they're still porting some 360 games to PC though, I'm really excited for Red Faction 3 coming to PC.
Just playing Devil's advocate.
Oh I forgot, PC is the only medium for strategy games too. Gonna have to upgrade for SC2 and DoW2.
@Milkman519: How could you even try to claim shovelware like Limbo of the Lost has to do with the install base of PCs or is representative of the biggest PC sales successes? It's a piece of shit small time game published by a vanity press outlet that was released almost a year and a half ago and took that long for someone to buy it and notice the extremely blatant content theft.
Limbo of the Lost isn't representative of anything. Ever.
It might sell less in the US but PC gaming is def. bigger in mainland europe.
Xp works fine with games, I havent tried vista yet, I heard is not that good.
And you dont need to spend LOTS of money on a PC, and its not going to become useless in 6 months to a year. Those arguments are stupid.
Of course, the argument is, you have to go and buy the super extra GTX from Nvidia... no, you dont, a good PC is a good PC for two years, and a 200 dollars graphic card wont blow your eyes out but you wont suffer with a rrod and in time that 200 dollars video game card is getting better graphics than a console.
So yeah, if you dont like PC´s because you dont know how to handle them, ok, I get it, buy a console and a mac. But dont come up with stupid arguments.
I agree with Velt, even if you're graphics card is a bit outdated, that doesn't mean you can't play new games. just crank the settings to low and you'll be fine.
@Kaikara: Don't worry, Blizzard promised that SC2 can be configured so it'll play on old PCs with acceptable framerates. won't be able to see the fanciest effects though