Microsoft, Nvidia, Intel lead ‘PC Gaming Alliance’

News

Michael French Feb 13 2008, 10:22am

Technology firms join forces to ensure PC remains a viable games platform, says report

Anyone familiar with the games industry will tell you that in historical terms, the PC's star has waned, with market share amongst core gamers gradually lost to the Xbox and the PlayStation iterations.

Microsoft, Nvidia and Intel and other technology firms have different ideas however, with a report on The Mercury News saying giants from the computing hardware and software industry will join forces to form the 'PC Gaming Alliance'.

The paper's Dean Takahashi reports that the three firms along with other "top players" such as AMD, will make a formal announcement in the coming days - just in time for next week's Game Developers Conference.

The PC Gaming Alliance would have "a vested interest in keeping the PC alive as a gaming platform". Those involved of course already do have a 'vested interest', with all those mentioned selling the various components needed to run a modern core PC gaming title, such as OS, processor and graphics technology.

A more formal allegiance, however, would go beyond the individual firms' marketing campaigns such as 'Games for Windows' (Microsoft) and 'The Way It's Meant To Be Played (Nvidia).

Takahashi adds: "The consortium will coordinate and expand those efforts to improve the experience of playing games on computers."

Will an industry-wide allegiance like this help boost the PC games market and make it a more desirable platform to make games for? Or does the platform not need such efforts? Let us know what you think via the comments section below.