Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Valve: Why the PC is the future by Oli Welsh, 27 June 2008

Original article can be found at Eurogamer.

Valve predicts that the PC is "The" games platform of the future. The PC is often viewed as a multipurpose platform rather then a games platform unlike consoles who's sole purpose are for games. Gabe Newell argues that, "There are 260 million online PC gamers, a market that dwarfs the install base of any console platform, online or offline...PCs remain at the cutting edge of hardware development, and consoles their "stepchildren", in connectivity and graphics technology especially".

Also in games reviews, there are revenues not reported withint the retail charts. Things likedigital distribution, persistence and subscription (revenues of MMO games). With the game that "considered" as the end for PC gaming, is actually the future of PC gaming. Make no sense? Until recently, the fact that World of Warcraft was generating 120 million dollars in gross revenue on a monthly basis was completely off the books," Newell says. "Essentially, [Blizzard is] creating a new Iron Man every month, in terms of the gross revenue they're generating as a studio. Any movie studio would be shouting about that from the rooftops. But it was essentially invisible."

Valve thinks that there's a silent majority of global gamers who are skipping the console era entirely, the way these developing nations already skipped dial-up internet.


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