Games publishing powerhouse Blizzard has said that while the PC faces a lot of challenges as a games platform, it refuses to turn its back on it, following the launch of the highly anticipated StarCraft 2 late last month.
Mike Ryder VP and Managing Director International Operations told PCR:
"Its certainly not written off by us. PC development has a number of unique challenges that console developers don’t face, but Blizzard is one of the few companies that is there making great PC games. We’ve spent a lot of time in development focussing on scalablity, on new PC hardware and old. If you were just designing for a console it would be a much easier task."
The PC gaming sector is increasingly reliant on digital downloads, as platforms like Steam attract more and more user. However Blizzard insists retail is still a vital part of its business.
"We focus on the players and what they want, and in some cases they want digital, and in others they want a retail box. Retail is a vital part of our business – we built wow on largely around the retail channel. And we continue to have quite a bit of focus on retail, we think its really important."
Starcraft 2 sold 1.5 million copies in its first 28 hours of release last month, already making it the best performing PC game of 2010, and the fastest selling strategy game ever.