Despite being known as a PC developer, id Software says it no longer builds its decisions around the PC market.
In an interview with Tom’s Games, id co-founder John Carmack said that despite its roots, the company has been affected by the emerging dominance of videogame consoles, and is no longer a PC-first developer. “We still think the PC is a market worth supporting, but we’re not making decisions around the PC,” he said. “It’s probably more of a junior partner in the cross-platform strategy, although obviously, our day-to-day development is predominately on the PC.”
While Carmack recognizes that the PC gaming demographic is shrinking, he’s not convinced by oft-repeated arguments that piracy is the primary cause. “It’s hard to second-guess exactly what the reasons are,” he continued. “You can say piracy. You can say user migration. But the ground truth is just that the sales numbers on the PC are not what they used to be and are not what they are on the consoles.”
Despite that, id won’t be turning its back on the PC faithful anytime soon. “We certainly expect Rage and the Doom project on the PC,” he said. “We’re contractually obligated to have Rage on the PC, and I would be stunned if we did not do Doom 4 for the PC.”
“It would just be wrong,”he added. “Even if it was a marginal business case, we would still do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
Source: Tom’s Games
Published: Aug 8, 2008 05:50 pm