14 DAY TRIAL // Epic has a bit of schizophrenia when it comes to PC gaming. As a company that has released games for more years that some of their customers have been breathing, Epic has a clear connection to the PC as the first platform on which they released games, back in 1991 when they were founded.
Recently, the lead designer within Epic, Cliff Bleszinski, has said that PC gaming was in disarray and development for consoles was to become the main focus at Epic. Little more than a day after that statement, Mark Rein, vice president of Epic and founder, stepped up and reaffirmed Epic's commitment to making games for the PC, while also announcing that Epic was to become part of the PC Gaming Alliance, an organization of industry leaders that aims to promote the advantages of the PC as a gaming platform.
Now CEO and co-founder of Epic, Tim Sweeney, has brought some clarity regarding his company's position when it comes to gaming platforms. He said that although more people now own a PC than at any other point in history, the PC is no longer suited as a gaming device because of the vast array of hardware present and because of the big performance differences between top end and low end computers.
He added: "Yesterday's PCs were for people that were working and later playing games, even if those games were lower-end ones. There will always be a market for casual games and online games like World of Warcraft. But at the end of the day, consoles have definitely left PC games behind." When Tim says games, he is mainly referring to triple A titles, blockbusters that need to find a way to reach as many gamers as possible to make a profit. It is both easier to develop for the consoles, because of the unified and standardized hardware, and to market for consoles because the consoles users are usually very well defined in demographic terms. It seems that the diversity of the PC user is not only a strength, but also a weakness when it comes to selling games.
Even if such high-profile developers make statements about the death of the PC as a gaming platform ,it might be too early to declare the good old personal computer dead. After all, Starcraft II is coming out for the PC, isn't it?