NCsoft EU CEO: ‘PC players will transition to PS3′
In an interview about NCSoft’s publishing deal with Sony, NCSoft CEO Geoff Heath dropped this little gem: “I think there is a difference between PC and console players but there’s overlap as well. Our view long term is that people who have traditionally only played on PC will actually now start transitioning to PS3.”
We’ll find out if he’s right in due time, but native mouse and keyboard support will go a long way toward alleviating the concerns that PC gamers have with consoles.
Despite the growing market for MMOs on the consoles, NCSoft will continue developing for the PC. Guild Wars is doing well, with over 3 million copies sold, and more expansions are on the way.
Heath also gave World of Warcraft a nod, saying: “We love World of Warcraft because it’s grown the market incredibly; it’s found a whole load of new customers. Eventually they will, and they do, have a certain amount of churn, where people stop playing it. Where do they go? Us.”
For more info about the Sony / NCSoft publishing deal, check out this interview with NCSoft U.S. president Robert Garriott about the deal, conducted at E3.
Read: NCsoft Europe boss Geoff Heath on the Sony deal and more.
29. August 2007 at 5:49 pm :
There was a study not that long ago that concluded the PC is starting to replace the console in the family living room.
The only thing stopping the PC from stomping the consoles out of existence is the fact that a lot of people are scared to buy one. Operating systems, choosing a CPU or a graphics card.. it freaks people out.
Honestly, the way I see it, at some point in the future consoles themselves will disappear and a PC/Console hybrid will appear.
A handful of manufacturers developing these new systems with publishers creating games specifically for these systems, but compatible with PC at the same time. The difference will be people will have names they recognize like a playstation brand one, encouraging console users to purchase one.
One of the big put offs about PC Gaming is that not every game will work on every machine, different specs etc. The thing this machine will do to solve the problem is all games will be developed specifically for the system, and anyone who has one won’t need to worry about it working, every machine will have the bare minimum specs, like the consoles.
So you’ll have your metal gears and your Counter-Strike: 2015’s on your hybrid and things like the Wii will still exist in console, serious gaming will be on your PC/Console hybrid and your fun gaming will be on that or on systems like the gimick… I mean the Wii.
30. August 2007 at 12:03 am :
It is obvious to me that there will be two different types of computers in the future. The first will your Media Center. This will be manufactured by your current console makers; You Xbox 720/1080, PS3/4, and possibly even an Apple/Nintendo joint project. They will have the massive hard drive space and processing power to play video games, high definition movies, as well as surf the web and run other resource intense applications. Current PC makers may even have the opportunity to license their computers to not only play exclusive content, but retain the ability to play third party content as well. (Complying to strict guidelines of course)
-
The other type of PC will be the ultra portable “$100″ laptop. This is the device with Google will carve out of the “GPhone”. It won’t have that much processing power and minimal hard drive space. However what it will have is 4G wireless and beyond with VoIP, SMS, and Internet Browsing capabilities from which you would use for business productivity (visa vie Google Docs and an online MS Office/iWork). You will also be able to stream media to these devices by way of services like Last FM and YouTube.
You’ll also have your hybrid devices like the iPhone and PSP which lie somewhere inbetween; however arguably the market for high definition video content on a and massive capacity on a portable device will have obsolete advantages with wireless internet speeds of 10mbps.