BioWare is one of the most respected videogame developers on the planet and, responsible for a number of killer PC titles, is a company that certainly knows its biscuits when it comes to developing for the platform and what the future holds for it, too. It's on the verge of releasing Jade Empire: Special Edition for PC, is beavering away on PC RPG Dragon Age and is developing an MMOG that we can't wait to see fully unveiled. And it's surely got other PC delights up its sleeve that it's waiting to announce.
But what exactly does BioWare think of the PC gaming scene as it stands currently, its recent developments and where it's heading? We asked this of CEO Ray Muzyka and president Greg Zeschuk, additionally querying them on their videogame highlights of last year and what 2007 games they're eager to get their hands on. Part one of a two part interview is below...
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What for you was the highlight of the videogame world last year, and which title released in 2006 would you say most pushed videogame boundaries?
Ray Muzyka: Focusing on PC games (since that's the focus of this story!) there were a number of solid titles last past year - Company of Heroes, Oblivion, Medieval 2, Half-Life 2 Episode One, Neverwinter Nights 2, Prey, Gothic 3 (Gothic 3 is my current PC addiction - it's quite good and definitely worth checking out, a few minor issues aside) and many others.
Overall on all platforms other than PC, some standout titles included Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii), Gears of War (360), Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3), Okami (PS2), Final Fantasy XII (PS2), Guitar Hero II (PS2), New Super Mario Brothers (DS), Age of Kings (DS), and others. A few of these have been really innovative I think - most of the Wii titles since they have such a new way of controlling the games (this is more of a hardware innovation than a pure innovation in the Wii games themselves of course), the DS titles because they are so different from past handheld games in how you play them (again more of a hardware issue - the touchscreen and dual screens make a big difference which we're excited about in our as-yet-unannounced BioWare DS title), and games like Okami push boundaries in terms of art styles and games like Guitar Hero expand the audience reached by video games to new markets.
There have been a lot of innovations in the PC space in online games - World of Warcraft and other MMOs continue to expand the business and we're excited about joining that world ourselves with the upcoming title we're developing down with our great team at BioWare Austin - and digital distribution and episodic content (we have big plans afoot at BioWare for post-release and episodic content for upcoming cool BioWare games like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Jade Empire: Special Edition and other upcoming BioWare titles, both on console and PC).
What do you look on as the strengths of the PC platform, and what's your opinion of the PC gaming scene as it stands currently?
Ray Muzyka: PC gaming has a number of tremendous strengths. First off, the installed base of systems - there are literally millions of PCs, probably hundreds of millions worldwide, potentially available as gaming systems. Now, not all are used for games - many are owned by non-gamers or are work systems - but there is still a large potential installed base for Vista and Windows gaming.
Second, PC systems are ever-expanding: the new console systems are awesome (and I am enjoying all of them in addition to my PC gaming!) but PC systems can and will catch up in terms of technology (graphics, physics, etc) in the next year as new video cards are released and players upgrade their systems.
The videogame market is very cyclical and PC and console gaming have an uneasy alliance - as new console systems are released, early adopter fans move over to check those games out and as PC systems reach and surpass console systems at the end of a console life cycle, a good number of those early adopter fans move back over to PC gaming. Console gaming is huge of course, especially when you add in hardware sales, but it's hard to quantify the enormous impact of online gaming on the overall PC market - retail sales just don't capture the revenues from the increasingly successful PC MMOs as well as digital distribution and episodic gaming (which are both gaining strength year after year).
PC gaming does tend to appeal to more "core" players (some games are exceptions of course) in part due to another strength - the input systems of mouse and keyboard, which enable a more "in-depth" interaction with players, arguably more complex, but also with more options easily accessible if you spend the time on designing a good interface. Games like World of Warcraft and other great MMOs can and will be designed for console but it's somewhat easier for players to see the range of possible feature options on a PC system.
Next, PC systems tend (at least right now) to be more connected to the internet - this enables more players of online games and more consumers of digitally distributed post-release and episodic content on PC. That is evolving as more players go online in the console world of course (Xbox Live was at ~60% of all Xbox 360 users last I heard which is awesome) but for right now PC still holds the edge in online penetration. Overall I think both console and PC (and handheld and mobile too!) systems have distinct advantages and strengths so both are viable gaming systems. I know I play a lot of games on all of these systems myself so I'm certainly glad to have the range of available options!
Do think PC gaming is suffering, or is going to suffer, at the hands of consoles in your opinion?
Greg Zeschuk: Much as Ray noted above, the gaming business is very cyclical - as console games launch at the start of a new cycle PC gaming tends to wane a bit, but it picks up at the mid- to end of the console cycle as PC systems move ahead in terms of their technical capabilities. And, as noted above, the impact of massively multiplayer games (as well as the growing interest in digital distribution and episodic content, all of which we're pursuing in our future PC and console titles alike, such as the MMO being developed at BioWare Austin and upcoming titles like Dragon Age and Mass Effect and Jade Empire: Special Edition) can't be underestimated and when you add those revenues in PC gaming is definitely on the rise.
The "demise" of the PC gaming market is more an error in the tools used to measure gaming on the PC than it is an accurate reflection of the amount of gaming that is taking place on the PC. Also, most of the growth of gaming in Asia is taking place on the PC; the numbers there are truly staggering!
Check back on Sunday for the second and concluding part of our interview with BioWare.
