The PC Gaming Alliance has lost two of its founding members, as Activision Blizzard, the company behind such major PC titles as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, and hardware manufacturer Acer have left due to membership costs.

PCGA president Randy Stude confirmed the cost-related leaves with Big Download, explaining to Edge Online that "a few members cannot justify the budget (membership and staff) required to maintain an active role in the PC Gaming Alliance at this time."

"Membership turnover is a fact of life in any industry consortium particularly so in the current economy," he added. "The PC Gaming Alliance is an industry consortium that relies on membership dues to achieve its' mission."

Despite the departures, Stude asserted that the non-profit organization, dedicated to improving PC gaming, has seen a "net [membership] gain for 2009," with recent joins including retailer GameStop and Sony DADC, maker of the oft-derided SecuROM DRM.

Clarifying comments made earlier this week, PC manufacturer Acer has stated that it will not be releasing a dedicated gaming console.

"Acer is not going to release any game console but the idea is to develop a high-end PC (so not a console) targeted at the serious gamer," a company representative explained to videogaming247.

"That was a major misunderstanding as [Acer senior VP James T Wong] was wrongly interpreted," the rep noted.

At the time, Wong's comments were taken as a sign that Acer was considering an open, non-proprietary game system. Unlike current consoles, such a device would theoretically allow users to create and execution their own programs without prior approval or authorization from the manufacturer.

PC hardware manufacturer Acer is considering the development of an open, non-proprietary game system, BetaNews reports.

Acer senior VP James T. Wong said that his company has a game machine in mind that would be built upon "open standards" at a press event last week.

"If you look at most of the other game machines that are out there right now--Nintendo's, the Xbox [360]--they are 'closed' and proprietary systems," Wong said.

Unlike the current roster of consoles, an "open" platform would not require corporate oversight or management, allowing anybody to run just about anything on the hardware.

The company, which recently acquired fellow PC manufacturer Gateway, hopes to incorporate open standards into all its products envisioned for future development, including the possibility of a console or console-like game system.