If you’ve been following the video game industry at all over the last several years, you’ve probably heard that PC gaming is a dying breed, but when this company says it, you need to listen.
The publisher id Software, known for making some of the most classic games like Doom and continuing to innovate – and almost exclusively serve – the PC game community, is now learning to accept the inevitable.
Company frontman John Carmack shocked everyone when he recently provided this quote: “We do not see the PC as the leading platform for games. That statement will enrage some people, but it is hard to characterize it otherwise; both console versions will have larger audiences than the PC version.”
This comes after the PC version of id’s most recent game, Rage, sparked controversy among hardcore gamers. They complained of poor frame rates and sloppy rendering on their high-end PCs, while people playing the console version of the same game had no such reaction.
At first, id dismissed the issue saying any PC problems were the fault of the PC owner. But now it seems to be changing its tune.
Carmack explained, “We knew that all older AMD drivers, and some Nvidia drivers would have problems with the game, but we were running well in-house on all of our test systems. When launch day came around and the wrong driver got released, half of our PC customers got a product that basically didn’t work.” He added that he was “not happy with the experience on what should be prime platforms.”
Of course, the highest-end gaming PCs are much more powerful machines than Xbox 360s or PS3s. However, the market of highest-end PCs is an exceedinly niche one, leaving game makers to serve the common denominator of game consoles.
This is a fact that most publishers had already accepted, but with id finally relinquishing to that reality as well, it may be the beginning of a final nail in the coffin.
