Printer/scanner superstar Hewlett-Packard showed off its plans to enter the PC gaming market last night, and unsurprisingly there was an air of hostility towards those old-fangled game consoles the kids are talking about these days.
The first snipes came from a panel of industry leaders that included Games for Windows boss Rich Wickham and other gaming bods. "I believe the days of the console are numbered," saidLars Butler, founder ofthe broadband game publisher Trion World Network. "There is one more generation of gaming consoles and that is it," he claimed.
Butlersaid the gaming potential of PCs could render consoles obsolete.
Above:The HP Vampire Project.More shiny and more powerful then any console.So... you've got a few thousand dollars to spare, right?
Roy Taylor, vice presidentof graphics-card powerhouse NVIDIA, also painted a rosy future for the mouse and keyboard side of gaming: "Our advantage as developers is we know what is coming," he said. "And what is coming is far ahead of the console. You will see a huge difference between what you can get on a PC (personal computer) and a console."
HP plans to roll out a new line of gaming gear later this year including a curved computer display designed to immerse players in the action.
As PC tech climbs above the capabilities of the next-gen consoles it will certainly be interesting to see if the doomsday prophecies for PC gaming yet again turn out to be hot air. Let us know what you think in ourforums.
April 5, 2007
