GamerNode: News - Microsoft, Intel and other PC firms will avoid E3

Microsoft, Intel and other PC firms will avoid E3

E3 is fast approaching and the likes of PC proponents Intel and Microsoft will be conspicuously absent from the festivities because of the heavy emphasis on console games at the event.

Although Microsoft decided to opt out of the E3 event, they held their own PC games show in San Francisco this week in order to cut down the competition for face time at E3.

Kevin Unangst, senior global director of Games for Windows said, "As it has morphed, E3 has fundamentally become a console show. We didn't want to just squeeze out some time at a console show."

Rahul Sood, head of HP's Voodoo PC game division expressed similar feeling about how E3 has changed throughout the years. "E3 used to be the Mecca of gaming. I'm skipping it because it's not what it used to be. Now it's just an event called E3."

Unangst is very positive about the state of PC gaming. "There have been a lot of trend pieces about how PC gaming is dying when that is absolutely not happening. It's growing exponentially, thanks to online games, and even faster than the rest of the market."

Worldwide, console games pull $14 billion while PC games sold $11.3 billion. The figures seem to show console games in the lead, but when you consider that PC games are usually cheaper and are going against multiple console platforms, the actual units of games sold for PCs may actually be much closer to consoles then the dollar figures suggest.

So is PC gaming alive and well? That would depend on whose statistics and hype you believe in more. With the pulling out of PC game and hardware companies at E3 and other events, perhaps it is time for the PC industry to put on a mega show of their own. But if it happens, will there be enought content?

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