Gas Powered Games: PC Gaming Is Not Dead
Gas Powered Games CEO Chris Taylor says the PC space is "where the opportunity is."
Gas Powered Games CEO Chris Taylor seems rather excited about the state of PC gaming. He even believes that the PC version of Dungeon Siege III will actually compete against the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions in regards to actual sales. Why? Because of Steam.
"Two, three years ago I would say the 360, PS3 version [would dominate], because PC was in disarray," he said in an interview. "Now with Steam--a year-and-a-half ago they announced 25 million paying customers as opposed to people who just created accounts. There will probably be 40 million the next time they provide an announcement--or 50 million. That creates an incredible intensity in the PC business that had been lost."
He also said that the PC space is where the "opportunity is," meaning the platform is in a rapid state of change. He pointed to Google's acquisition of Zynga, EA purchasing Playfish, and the fact that 70-percent of Activision's revenue comes from the PC--just several examples that "major" players are investing in the PC gaming industry.
"It's a matter of time before you're playing a game of the quality of a triple-A game that we know and love, like a Supreme Commander 2 or a StarCraft II, in a browser experience," Taylor said. "There's no reason that won't happen within five to eight years. That's one of the reasons PC gaming breaks out in that space. No installation. No grief. No reading the box and wondering if you have a 7000 or 8000 series video card and DirectX what? It just plays. It works. Wait till that happens full on."
Dungeon Siege III is expected to launch in 2011.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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amk09 although its a sweet idea that will probably end up taking over pc gaming, it's sad to know that we won't need to build high power pc's for gaming anymore :(Reply -
Prey Hopefully good news for PC gamers. I will say however that Supreme Commander 2 looked like it should be called Supreme Commander 360. I liked the the first Sup Com much more, RTS and PC gaming go hand in hand.Reply -
RipperjackAU Gaming in a browser = Zero piracy... since everything is client/server based, there is nothing to pirate.Reply
Software as a service = Welcome to your gaming future. -
nevertell If only the source engine was stable on wine/linux :(Reply
You shouldn't be mixing up windows and pc when talking about platforms, because now you can run 5 (or more, I guess) different os's virtually any pc. -
wikiwikiwhat Wow, They put Sup Com 2 and SC2 in the same sentence with the words Triple- A titles. I own both but Sup Com 2 has been virtually left alone. Since SC2.Reply -
Anomalyx I think PC gaming took a slight plunge when consumers figured out they could still check their email without a high-end video card, and many PCs were not up-to-spec to play games. Nowadays, Dell, et. al., would probably not hesitate to tell you that you need a 5770 just to watch Netflix (same concept as the AT&T rep trying to tell me that there was no way my 3mb/s DSL could handle Netflix at all. Had to tell her to quit trying to sell me upgrades and keep my service as-is about 20 times). The end result is that many people's "email-checking machine" is already up to light-medium gaming spec. They probably wouldn't buy a gaming PC, but since they already have one that can handle it, why not game a little?Reply -
jhatfie I am sure gaming in browsers will continue to evolve, but to date I have found no such game very enjoyable or worth my time. Even if they increase in graphics quality to that of Starcraft 2 in 5 years, high end gaming will still offer a significant increase in graphics quality in comparison. Also you have to deal with issues with lag a doubtful ability to scale to triple screen resolutions further eliminating it's appeal except for certain types of games.Reply -
partytime Full games in a web browser? What the hell for? I don't think this will happen like he thinks it will. MAYBE computers will get powerful enough one day that we will not need to worry about our hardware and any computer will be able to play any game.. but event that is far fetched as long as game developers (god bless them) are pushing the limits of hardware. (can it play Mafia II?)Reply -
Trueno07 amk09although its a sweet idea that will probably end up taking over pc gaming, it's sad to know that we won't need to build high power pc's for gaming anymoreReply
There will always be a reason to build a high end PC.