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Carmack Says World of Warcraft Driving PC Gaming

by Carlos Bergfeld, Nov 21, 2007 12:53pm PST

Related Topics – World of Warcraft, Blizzard, PC Gaming, John Carmack

In an interview with Gamasutra, Id Software's John Carmack says Blizzard's World of Warcraft has spurred PC gaming, and he reaffirmed his company's support of the PC as a platform.

Carmack described World of Warcraft as "a train driving all the PC sales numbers altogether on gaming." He acknowledged that most players of "higher-end games" play them on the consoles, but said "the PC still has a strong enough margin to make games, and we continue to support it."

The studio head went on to say part of the reason PC gaming has remained less popular is because of well-implemented console connectivity features like Xbox Live and other PC-like options. The company's forthcoming title Rage will launch on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as well as PC and Mac.

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18 Threads* | 135 Comments*

#32

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By: freakynipples69 x Show Full Post

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Almost any game that is released on the PC is released on a console sooner or later. Plus it's a lot cheaper to buy a console than it is to buy a high end PC that's capable of playing some of the games out today. The only advantage PC games have, more specifically FPS, is the mouse and keyboard as controllers. They release a real mouse and keyboard combo for the XBOX360, then there really isn't a reason why I'd get the PC version of a FPS. The console is going to run it without the headaches that a PC can entail. MMO's and the Mod community is what is keeping PC games alive.

Nov 21, 2007 2:57pm PST

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Almost any game that is released on the PC is released on a console sooner or later. Plus it's a lot chea... : freakynipples69
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#1

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By: eeeealmo x Show Full Post

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come on Mac games. As much as I hate their cocksucking commercials, I'd use a Mac over a PC if it could just play games (natively).

Nov 21, 2007 12:55pm PST

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come on Mac games. As much as I hate their cocksucking commercials, I'd use a Mac over a PC if it could ... : eeeealmo
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#102

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By: Fred Garvin x Show Full Post

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Even Carmack sees Live as a good system. Really, nothing compares to it on any platform at the moment.

Nov 22, 2007 11:30am PST

Even Carmack sees Live as a good system. Really, nothing compares to it on any platform at the moment. : Fred Garvin

#131

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By: poopster2 x Show Full Post

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I'm sorry but for a good intensive "multiplayer" game with good controls nothing beats a keyboard and mouse. I dont have a problem with consoles because they are basically becoming PC's in sheeps clothing. I just wish the games would be made with keyboard an mouse support. Some games just play better with keyboard and mouse. If you want to use a joystick so be it, but let those of us that choose, have keyboard and mouse and mouse support in the game. For example, with halo 3, its not bad, but I want to use a keyboard and mouse not a flippin joystick.

Nov 25, 2007 7:03am PST

I'm sorry but for a good intensive "multiplayer" game with good controls nothing beats a keyboard and mou... : poopster2

#13

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By: RetroRedEyeJr x Show Full Post

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My opinion might be a little uninformed however i don't see why anyone should give a rats ass about what John Carmack has to say about pc gaming anymore. yeah he created wolfenstien 3d, doom and quake but his newest iterations of Doom and Quake were both pretty mediocre and his new project "Rage" while it sounds great my gut feeling is that it will be mainly focused on appealing to console crowds and end up being just average. I'm not saying that Carmack is not a good dev i just don't think he should be given the same merits he previously had when he launched Quake 3.

Nov 21, 2007 1:32pm PST

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My opinion might be a little uninformed however i don't see why anyone should give a rats ass about what ... : RetroRedEyeJr
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 33 replies.

#129

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By: mjolnir2 x Show Full Post

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My greatest faith in PC games comes from the knowledge that long term detailed strategy games such as hearts of iron 2 or medieval II Total War are best implemented on the PC platform. For those of us that arent really interested in FPS or arcade games I think there is a valid reason to keep PC alive. However, Assassin's Creed is one title that brings me back into wishing I had console too.

Nov 24, 2007 10:39pm PST

My greatest faith in PC games comes from the knowledge that long term detailed strategy games such as hea... : mjolnir2

#124

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By: three-d x Show Full Post

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PC gaming always has this or that person evaluating how "healthy" it is or whatever. The fact is, individuals will always have a use for a general computing platform. So long as that platform exists, some bored programmer or CS student will program games for it for fun and profit.

With that in mind, PC gaming's "health" doesn't matter, seeing as it'll never truly die. Personally, I really do hope all the big league game shops move to making everything for consoles. It'll leave PCs as the realm of small independents not interested in huge start up costs, huge up front investments, gigantic "games" that are just linear stories with stale gameplay, or horrendous grindfests with no real gameplay to speak of like WoW.

If id continues to support the PC, great. If not, somebody else will be there to fill the gap as the NEXT id. It's always small groups and students coming up with the really awesome stuff anyway.

Don't sweat the health of PC gaming or what's "driving" it. It'll be there a long time after Microsoft no longer gives a rat's ass about your current console, and you'll always have SOME way to run your old games on your latest PC, which is probably the best part of PC gaming.

Nov 24, 2007 4:21am PST

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PC gaming always has this or that person evaluating how "healthy" it is or whatever. The fact is, individ... : three-d
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- You good sir speak the truth. Its the small start up groups that make the next greatest thing. Great p... : samduhman

#5

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By: chilln x Show Full Post

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Only people still playing wow are the people who forgot to cancel their subscription.

Nov 21, 2007 1:08pm PST

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Only people still playing wow are the people who forgot to cancel their subscription. : chilln
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  all 8 million of them. : skinlab133
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    9 million. Lotta forgetful people out there. : critch
    - And they just keep growing! Must be forgetting not to sign up. : aeg1x
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  Its the number of all existing accounts that exist. Not only accounts that have an active subscription. L... : Lukiopimp
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    No, actually bliz clarified that number as 9mill active subscriptions, so suck a dog. : kiddygrinder
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      Where'd you get that from? Have a URL handy? Otherwise, I'm calling shenanigans. : wendigo
      
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      http://www.blizzard.com/press/070724.shtml : mobab
      
      By their definition of subscribers, it's 9mil. Actual subscribers, probably a lot less. : mobab

#28

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By: crypt420 x Show Full Post

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it doesnt seem like carmack said anything at all there...

Nov 21, 2007 2:16pm PST

it doesnt seem like carmack said anything at all there... : crypt420

#117

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By: mrshrinkray x Show Full Post

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More people subscribe to World of Warcraft than own PS3 or XBOX 360s. That's definitely a figure to be interested in if you want to make money.

Nov 23, 2007 5:43pm PST

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More people subscribe to World of Warcraft than own PS3 or XBOX 360s. That's definitely a figure to be in... : mrshrinkray
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- It's pretty interesting if you're collecting World of Warcraft checks, but I think it's a mistake to assu... : wendigo

#41

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By: gnoleb x Show Full Post

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This is not true, at least to the degree of RTS games. RTS games have always had strong sales on PC, and the higher end consumer is definitely not switching to console for their RTS games- the sales numbers prove this.

Nov 21, 2007 3:42pm PST

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This is not true, at least to the degree of RTS games. RTS games have always had strong sales on PC, and ... : gnoleb
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  Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander did not have good sales numbers : Maarten Goldstein
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  The day RTS gaming moves to consoles, is the day I nuke planet Earth. : nakor_
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    World in Conflict and Universe at War have console versions, so we're headed there. : d3pr1ved
    - wic isn't an rts as far as I'm concerned and even then I bet the controls blow, will have to wait until t... : Shai-Tan

#93

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By: Rotten Deadite x Show Full Post

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Great. Now if WoW wasn't starting to look like something that came out of the back of a cat, maybe it'd help drive new hardware sales too.

Nov 22, 2007 7:44am PST

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Great. Now if WoW wasn't starting to look like something that came out of the back of a cat, maybe it'd ... : Rotten Deadite
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  It still looks great. And since hardware is way overpriced, I'm glad when games don't require state-of-th... : code-e255
  - It kinda looks like it's from the quake3-ish era : phipple
- eh, it looks fine, i don't *want* hardware sales driven, i would rather burn my cash on other stuff : kiddygrinder

#4

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By: feek x Show Full Post

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I've always thought that WoW was kind of killing PC gaming, or at least PC game sales.

Nov 21, 2007 1:07pm PST

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I've always thought that WoW was kind of killing PC gaming, or at least PC game sales. : feek
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 9 replies.

#9

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By: justspamme x Show Full Post

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With delays of most PC games so their console counterparts can be released first and soak up sales numbers to continually perpetuate the death of PC game market only gets stronger with time.

Not that G4 is a strong example but if you watch most review shows it is obvious that they favor consoles and even certain console vendors at that when showing with the available platform graphical icons during the review.

It's like music on the radio, is it a good song and they play it all the time because it is? Or do you just hear it so damn many times it sticks and you begin to like it?

The death of the PC game market has been driven by console vendors and perpetuated by the masses that are willing sacrifice the diversity PC gaming used to have for the lowest common denomination console titles. Console vendors were smart enough to see this early and either bought game companies that offered innovative titles or bought them off to favor their platform.

In the end it's juts business but I do miss the days of old with my PC, and I refuse to move to console to play whatever title. I will just live without.

Nov 21, 2007 1:22pm PST

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With delays of most PC games so their console counterparts can be released first and soak up sales number... : justspamme
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 14 replies.

#23

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By: astonish x Show Full Post

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You know, I want to be a PC gamer, but those reasons to are fading. I have a fucking ridiculous spec PC, but i still find myself buying 360 versions of games and that was unheard of even a year ago for me. And it only gets worse with all the launch key server problems that bioshock and hellgate had. Sure i get higher resolutions with AA but i usually have to deal with shit drivers and needing to tweak stuff to get the performance I want... and with so many good commercial games its hard to find time for the modding community...

I think MMOs and RTS will naturally be at home on the PC, but other than that if it wasn't for the mouse control in FPS I would have never looked back after getting the 360....

Nov 21, 2007 2:09pm PST

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You know, I want to be a PC gamer, but those reasons to are fading. I have a fucking ridiculous spec PC, ... : astonish
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  It's vice versa for me. I just can't seem to find a use for my 360: the top of the line shooter of this y... : Autocrawler
  - Good post. I agree when I get a console version I feel Im playing the neutered version of a game. The... : samduhman
  - I'm totally with you on this. Halo is SOOOO overrated. Crysis on the other hand was spectacular, but it c... : astonish
- I like RTS and FPS games so PC is a no brainer for me. Consoles don't have anything for me on that front.... : Shai-Tan

#37

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By: tKillbox x Show Full Post

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How could the father of the fps on the PC say such things...?

Nov 21, 2007 3:24pm PST

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How could the father of the fps on the PC say such things...? : tKillbox
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- I don't see anything wrong in his statements. What I like about JC is that he always seem to say what ... : zehh

#2

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By: FlatlineDixay x Show Full Post

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Driving PC sales numbers, but hopefully not monopolizing them!

Nov 21, 2007 12:57pm PST

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Driving PC sales numbers, but hopefully not monopolizing them! : FlatlineDixay
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
- With the console market the way it is currently I don't think you'll have anything to worry about. : highlander

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