What do you think the state of PC gaming is right now? Is PC gaming as its own entity fading away in favor of it being just another platform option for console titles?
JC: It's definitely true that when you set out to make a new game now, you do wind up looking at the PC as it sits next to the console, and that drives design conditions.
If you make a cross-platform game, the PC is not going to look that much different there. There is a little bit better graphics fidelity, and it's lot more powerful than a high-end console. You certainly only have about half efficiency, but still, you get some influence. But it's not really drastic.
Historically, the real value of PC has been in connectivity, and in modificationˇ but the latest generation of consoles is encroaching on that territory with all the options you've got on current consoles, the connectivity and the add-ons and things you can get there.
But on the other hand, if you look at what's really successful on the PC, like World Of Warcraft, that's an insanely successful product. It's like a train driving all the PC sales numbers altogether on gaming.
Just in terms of games that you sit down and play in the console mode, the PC probably doesn't have a huge amount of differentiation, and that's unlikely to change.
But the different areas where the PC is still standing on its own is MMOs, and a lot of casual games are interesting, too. The people that sit down to play games are predominantly playing them on consoles -- at least, higher-end games -- but the PC still has a strong enough margin to make games, and we continue to support it.
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