John Carmack on PC Gaming….

With everyone and their grand-mother passing judgment on PC games and gaming, how can the legendary programmer and the man behind DOOM/Wolf3D be left behind? In an interview with Tom’s Hardware, Mr.Carmack took a good amount of shots at PC Gaming, though he was smart enough to present them in a polite way while making some good points across the board. According to Carmack:

Well, it’s hard to second guess exactly what the reasons are. You can say piracy. You can say user migration. But the ground truth is just that the sales numbers on the PC are not what they used to be and are not what they are on the consoles.

That gets a big “No shit”. Comparing 3 platforms to a single one (One that is often orphaned and left to dry) is hardly smart. But anyway, the good news is id Software will continue to release games on PCs and support the platform, though with their uber-cynical rantings, one has to assume the clock is ticking before id goes full consoles and tells the PC platform to fuck-off like so many other devs have.

Final Fantasy XIII Coming to PCs?

Square Enix is loving PCs, during an E3 2008 press conference, the producers have said to moved to PC developmental platform and the game, Final Fantasy XII, is being developed primarily for the PC platform. With the PS3/X360 ports following afterwards.

The content will be the same on all platforms,” said Kitase. “However, we have yet to determine how many discs will be required for the 360 version. We’ll have to consider the differences between formats. Currently the game is being built on PC, where it’s actually functional. We’re still focusing on making it work on PS3, so it’s difficult to know how long the process of taking it to 360 will take.”

Thanks to the new PC development platform, Kitase added, “Now that we’re developing on a PC base, the pace is going a bit faster,” Kitase said. “We haven’t introduced new footage of the game, but we should be able to show something new in the near future.

PC Gaming is The Future

Valve has been notoriously loud about defending PC gaming and it’s titles, and this time it’s no different. Speaking with Eurogamer, Gabe Newell, the man behind brilliant Half Life franchise has slammed all the false accusations and snarky comments thrown at PC Gaming. According to Valve, PC Gaming is the future. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

Where console platforms have merciless and well-funded PR armies poised to combat any criticism, negative stories about the PC - mostly publishers, or developers like Crtyek, complaining of rampant piracy and flat sales - run unimpeded. Sales data that focuses solely on boxed copies sold at retail appear to back them up. Valve has had enough. “There’s a perception problem”

“I don’t want anyone between me and my customers,” says Walker. “I want to write code today and I want all my customers running it tomorrow.” Possible on the PC - Steam in particular, naturally. Not possible on consoles. For his part, Fitterer added achievements to Audiosurf in a total of two days. This constant iteration creates a feedback loop between developer and customer that, reckons Walker, can only improve the quality of the game. “The more I talk to my customers, the better my decisions will be. Without a system of talking to my customers, I will make bad decisions.”

Make you read the whole article, as it’s, for the lack of a better word; Brilliant.

And VAVLe, we couldn’t agree more!

MTV says EA will struggle with casual gaming market

Either MTV is polishing their fragile ego or just trying to feel big. In anycase, speaking with Casualgaming.biz, MTV’s Salmi took some shots at other companies for being relatively new to casual & ad-propelled gaming market:

“EA, Take Two, Activision; our history gives us an absolute advantage on these guys in this space. These guys never sold [in-game] ads. For them to set up advertising connections is a huge challenge, and even if they manage to get past that struggle, we have a huge advantage that we sell across platforms.

Read the full interview here.

Steve Nix: “Core PC Gamers are moving to consoles”

Another PC gaming is dying newsbit. We’re as tired as you. Speaking with Eurogamer.net, Steve Nix of id Software said:

“I know that I have friends who are considered core gamers, who years ago were just keyboard and mouse guys - now, when a game ships on all platforms, they buy the console version, even though the PC version is sitting there and they have a PC that would run it perfectly well. It’s just their preference,” explained Nix

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The Orange Box - Over 100 Awards

According to the official website, Valve’s Orange Box has won over 100 awards across platforms. See what Gabe Newell has to say about it after the break. “While some have called it the best value in video game history, Valve took a chance with the product mix in The Orange Box, the game design of Portal, and the art style of Team Fortress 2,” said Gabe Newell, president of Valve.
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