Pretty much setting themselves up for failure then, as far as gaming is concerned?

It's an odd one, isn't it? Unless it's the foundation for moving forward or something. The whole Larrabee thing was weird too...

I don't think so. Examining the slide concerned makes it clear what Intel are up to.



Intel have cottoned on to the fact that bleeding edge graphics is actually a tiny part of the market. For most people in this world, £300 is the price of an entire computer, not just the graphics card.

If they can work out some good 3D performance combined with fast 2D performance and fairly good HD rendering then they might have a chance. And because their graphics drivers are already open-source, once your graphics card reaches end-of-life, you shouldn't be abandoned either.

If they get this right, it might just pay off. Bit of a gamble though.

See, it was Resident Evil being at the top of that list that bothered me - is RE considered an enthusiast's game by those who buy it these days?

And the prices of PC games drop so quickly (all games do these days, seemingly) that many people would probably purchase a game on a whim

The games seem to be roughly organised by processor requirement.

Enthusiast - Minimum requirements are fairly fast
Mainstream - Can be run by a fairly old computer but will be significantly enhanced by class leading hardware
Casual - games will run on a gas-powered abacus.

They have succesfully identified that most PC gamers are not purchasing games based on graphics but based on gameplay. If you look at the bottom half of the pyramid you will see games whose premise doesn't require hardcore graphics.

Is Resident Evil an enthusiast game? Maybe not.
Is Resident Evil an enthusiast game when compared to Peggle and The Sims 2? Absolutely.

I have only ever bought three PC games when brand new - all of the others were Replay-type editions. Most of my friends are the same.

RE got me wondering just what other games are gonna be considered enthusiast though, or would need what would be considered enthusiast hardware - I'm well out of touch with PC gaming, would today's 'average' on-board graphics run RE?

Tbh I'm starting to see why a lot of people wouldn't be bothered with it all (possibly even related to why PC gaming is said to be dying on it's arse), and just buy a console or play flash games etc .

Maybe Intel have read into that somewhat...

I haven't bought a PC game in years because most games require Windows and I refuse to use it ever again on my home system.

Even without that though, I simply cannot afford to keep up.

Maybe it was because 'Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 Special Ops mode' didn't fit in the little triangle?

Jon