14 DAY TRIAL // The PC is not dead and it's not dying either. This is the position taken by Blizzard chief executive Mike Mordhaime during an interview he did with Eurogamer this week. The company is focused on creating complex AAA titles for the personal computer and it's unlikely that this position will change in the near future.
Mordhaime was very clear in his statements. He said that the "PC is the gaming platform with the largest installed base around the world. It's also the platform with the best margins".
The head of Blizzard cited Valve boss Gabe Newell as presenting a very valid defense of PC gaming. He pointed out that retail games doing better on consoles than on the PC only means that the retails business model is not dominant on the PC now, while the console market has not reached this stage.
Subscriptions for MMOs, micro-transaction systems built around online experiences and revenue from advertising and digital downloads are now generating revenue of more than 1 billion dollars per year. Blizzard is getting the lion's share of this market because it runs World of Warcraft, which has more than 10 million subscribers, making it the most successful MMO in the world.
Mordhaime pointed out that "If you look at the numbers, there are probably more people playing games on the PC than any other platform. More than there ever have been before". He also underlined that there are more developers that create games for low level PCs.
He is insisting that even if his company is not currently developing any games for the gaming consoles, they will not rule out "continuing to look at console in the future if it was appropriate for the game". Which basically means it will be a cold day in Diablo III Hell before Blizzard even thinks of developing a console title again. The new installment in the Diablo series is only announced as being a PC and a Mac title.