PC: Gaming platform of the future?

Console generations come and go while personal computers prevail. Small wonder that publishing giant, Electronic Arts, thinks that PCs will become the major force in gaming.

Of course EA has plentiful evidence to back up such a prediction. Online gaming revenues for the company rose by around 60% year-on-year according to the latest financial statement, and EA released more games on PC than any other individual platform last year, improbable as that may seem.

Moreover, as EA’s chief financial officer is quick to point out, there are over a billion PCs out there and “Very Rapidly the PC is becoming the largest gaming platform in the world, just not in a packaged-good product.”

And there, we guess, is the rub. Or at least part of it. There doesn’t seem to be such a thing as a common technical standard for home PCs – and having one with the sufficient grunt to run the high-spec online titles that EA would like to flog you is another matter altogether. Thus the size of EA’s target market may be just a little shy of the billion figure quoted.

Then again PCs as a format won’t be disappearing any time soon, and we’ve no doubt technical specification of the average machine will continue to grow inexorably, as will the sophistication of the games playable on them. Meanwhile, it looks like we’re stuck with the current crop of home consoles – at least until 2013, if current speculation is to be believed.

So, with big publishers like EA throwing their weight behind the platform, will you be joining the PC party? Are PCs even the best format for gamesplaying when consoles are cheaper, easier to use and have the same online capabilities? In short, it’s PCs versus Consoles. But which is best? There’s only one way to find out…