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Today, I had an epiphany: E3 is going to be a snooze-fest. Blizzard is making their big announcement tomorrow, most every PC game at the show will just be a high-res console port, and apparently Half-Life 2 Episode 3 won't even have a presence. Soon after, however, I stumbled over a piece that lightly patted me on the shoulder and assuaged all of my fears. Jump past the break for said piece and its bionic arm -- plus more!
E3 -- boring? Hah! Not a chance. This helpful little slice of truth is a nice reminder about all of the top-notch PC games in development. Hell, it even covers a few games I didn't know about, like next-gen Runescape -- Windows 95's killer app. I am still a tad wary, though. After all, for every mole hill of PC-exclusives, there's a mountain of cross-platform titles. Even so, as long as they're high-quality, I suppose it doesn't really matter.
No, not merely because of Steam. Valve's Gabe Newell cited World of Warcraft as PC's biggest benefactor. "Essentially, [Blizzard is] creating a new Iron Man every month, in terms of the gross revenue they're generating as a studio. Any movie studio would be shouting about that from the rooftops. But it was essentially invisible," he said of Blizzard's money-magnet. Additionally, he pointed to countries outside of the English language's oppressive bounds -- countries where PC gaming has claimed console gaming's throne. Also, he talked about Steam. Like, a lot.
This story is kind of fun, because it catches all of games journalism with its pants down. The tale begins with the official E3 page, where a few writers -- noses to the ground, scrounging around for a story -- discovered a listing for Half-Life 2 Episode 3. "It's at E3! Confirmed!" they exclaimed. Not quite. See, the "official" E3 page is owned by UGO, thereby disqualifying it front any sort of officiality contest.
20:1? I think our pal Yerli is exaggerating a smidge. Sure, piracy is an issue, but as one of our commenters pointed out, retail PC game sales are down because brick-and-mortar is console turf.
“'We view E3 as irrelevant nowadays,' 3D Realms chief Scott Miller said. 'In fact, I wasn’t even aware it was coming up.'
We suppose that would be an issue when you’re developing your game under a rock."
My sentiments exactly.
Phone your friends and taunt your enemies, because this thing's happening. Suddenly that piggy bank is looking mighty breakable.
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Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/vahn16_0
[2] http://news.bigdownload.com/2008/06/27/opinion-not-many-pc-games-at-e3-2008-well-thats-not-really-t/
[3] http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=160866&page=2
[4] http://kotaku.com/5020376/will-half+life-2-episode-three-be-at-e3-valve-says-no
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/crytek_ceo_bemoans_software_piracy_claims_201_ratio
[6] http://www.videogaming247.com/2008/06/27/3d-realms-e3-%E2%80%9Cirrelevant%E2%80%9D-tiny-screenshots-are-only-way-to-go/
[7] http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/27/full-page-kmart-ad-showing-299-xbox-360/
[8] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/gaming_roundup_62508_diablo_iii_confirmed_no_real_this_time_microsofts_glowing_comments_about_pc_gaming
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/gaming_roundup_62608_new_civ_expansion_racist_spore_pokemon
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/3d_realms
[11] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/crytek
[12] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/gaming
[13] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/gaming_software
[14] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/microsoft
[15] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/news
[16] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/roundup
[17] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/software
[18] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/software_news
[19] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/valve
[20] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/news/gaming
[21] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/news