PCGA Predicts Official Console Emulation on PCs; Piracy 'Ridiculous' Reason to Axe PC Support

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In the future, PCs will be able to officially play console games with the full blessing and support of major console manufacturers Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, believes PC Gaming Alliance president Randy Stude.

"I predict that all of the console makers over time will recognize that it's too expensive to develop the proprietary solution and recognize the value of collapsing back on the PC as a ubiquitous platform," he told GamePolitics in a recent interview.

Stude, also the director of Intel's gaming program office, explained that "the guts of every console should tell you that the capability is there for the PC to act as the central point for all the consoles," asking why a PC powerful enough to emulate the PlayStation 4, for example, shouldn't be able to run games specifically developed for that platform.

"[Sony is] certainly not making any money on the hardware," he added. "I mean, can't they create a stable enough environment to specify that if Dell's going to sell that notebook and say that it's PlayStation 4 [compatible] that it must have certain ingredients and it must meet certain criteria? Absolutely they could."

As for publishers who cite piracy as the impetus to halt PC support, Stude labeled that reasoning as "ridiculous." He explained:

If someone wants to leave the PC market, we'll miss you. We'll watch with admiration as your titles ship in a diluted fashion without a whole lot of game play innovation, at least until you copy the innovation that occurs on the PC. Well find the great games on PC and we'll play those.

In his closing statements, Stude declared that "PC gaming will survive. It will adjust. Certain publishers will say we're done with PC gaming. Whatever. When you leave there's six new success stories coming right in to replace you."

"The PC is still the easiest platform to develop for and it will continue to be. It certainly is the most ubiquitous device worldwide. [PCGA] is here. We're talking about [PC gaming]. We're going to address the weaknesses and come out with an industry voice for the continued health of this industry."

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 12, 2008 8:46 AM

    [deleted]

    • reply
      December 12, 2008 9:03 AM

      He hasn't lost his mind. He speaks the truth. Developers bring piracy upon themselves. They give PC gamers half ass ports (GTA IV) for example, and some of the games that do come out to PC after being out for years on console and we get charged full price because of some little extra bullshit they add in. Developers are greedy but the main thing that kills them is their stupidity to realize you can't stop piracy. For every genuis that figures out some way to counter piracy there is some computer guru just like us on the outside thats already cracked it. Give up on DRM and just give us quality products like they try so hard to do with console.

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        December 12, 2008 9:26 AM

        Piracy on the PC was around long before the games were ports from consoles.

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          December 12, 2008 9:49 AM

          Reading late 80's magazines showed that piracy wasn't a real problem then. Games weren't that great to begin with and the cost of making them was so minimum. Manufacturers were happy because it was driving computer (C64 then Amiga/Atari ST/386 PC) sales.
          But then EA started looking at the 16bit consoles and said "OMG they must buy the games, let's focus on that market".

          • reply
            December 12, 2008 11:36 AM

            seriously... you've never heard this?



            Don't copy that Floppy.

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              December 12, 2008 1:53 PM

              omg, it's been so long since I've heard that.

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            December 14, 2008 4:07 AM

            In the 80's 99.9% of people didn't have internet access and there was no such thing as the Pirate Bay.

    • reply
      December 12, 2008 9:53 AM

      I think he has a couple of good points. But I'll be damned if I'll ever load up ps8emu.exe/app to play the latest games.

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      December 12, 2008 10:00 AM

      Agreed in spades. Anyone that thinks this is going to happen any time soon is just plain ignorant.

    • reply
      December 12, 2008 10:07 AM

      Yeah, just a little.... and by a little I mean a lot... and by a lot I mean he should be committed now before he hurts himself.

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