Good Ideas, Dumb Execution: PC Gaming Alliance
So, recently a couple of big wig tech companies and few other relatively unimportant people formed a PC Gaming Alliance. Needless to say, it ended being super stupid. The big names running the show are all supplemental technologies. Right now, only 3 developer/publishers are actually signed on to contribute. Activision, Epic (arguably not an actual game developer), and Capcom (one of the greatest developers ever but are only Contributor level members) are the only people with the cash to throw away at this thing. Microsoft is a member but they're are first party developers with an allegiance to their Xbox 360 and more importantly Windows.
Other suspect players include Dell, who of course would want to push to handle rolling out "certified" gaming machines. Acer falls in to the same category, the existence of the both of them makes their presence a little more tolerable but seeing as these people just put pieces together and sell them to us I'd like to see them both off the board.
Logitech, I'm half-and-half with. You want an input device developer on board. However, Logitech has a very closed source, proprietary nature and they don't like Linux (my mouse still uses workarounds for all the buttons).
WildTangent is a nice example of dead technology that no one cares about. It's obvious that they have a seat in order to leverage a chance to come back.
Antec? Why? Just no, please. Have some dignity and don't just take any tech firms money. There's no gaming related information in the Senior VP's bio on the site. Yeah that's right, Antec is on the board.
Razer? We have Logitech -- they're bigger and better, go home and save your money for a new start-up.
People I actually approve of:
Intel, AMD, and nVidia need to be there for obvious reasons. Any uniting of PC Gaming has to involve the key components of playing games: the CPU and the GPU. No worries with this.
Capcom rocks hands down. They make great games and now they're pushing to support PC ports with every major release in face of piracy. And no longer are they offering half-assed support. Word on the street is DMC4 is a prime example of how games should be taken to the PC. It has it's quirks but it's a lot better than the old DMC3 port.
EMA is a solid pick. Distribution is very important here and they need a representative from that sector.
SMU Guildhall is something I wouldn't have thought of off the bat but I approve big time. Educating new game developers is important as what is taught now will come to be the practice of the future.
People I want to see in the future:
Electronic Arts. I hate them but at the same time they are the second biggest developer (thanks to the Activision Blizzard deal) and they need to be a part of this. They ship way too many games for them not to. Also, they handled the PC port of Mass Effect beautifully.
Ubisoft has been responsible for a number of quality PC releases (even if the actual game isn't quality). They should have a say since they're kinda awesome.
A motherboard manufacturer. Gigabyte, MSI, someone. Maybe work towards some BIOS level features they assist with PC Gaming?
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Right now, no one knows what this group is really getting done -- that is we're assuming they're doing something. When large companies get involved and demand large sums of money I can't help be think this is all silly. Especially when their GDC results were piss poor.