Intel Hot on PC Gaming
Damn, it is hot in Arizona! Ya, ya, dry heat - but still...
Intel invited an elite list of game industry insiders down to Phoenix for a three day "strategy summit". Rather than the usual chip/tech roadmap presentations they give during their developer conferences, this summit was all about listening to the attendees. In fact, they didn't just have game industry folks down, but invited several other sectors down as well (eg, mobility, digital home, etc). All to get input and food for thought.
As Intel's special guests we were treated very well. Lots of food (dare I say way too much food (unlike the usual marathons that industry events become (ie, chocolate bar lunches during E3))), a Hummer excursion in the desert, entertainment, etc. But, they made us work for it.
Locked in a roundtable room for the duration of the summit, reps from Intel's various game-related groups drilled us with questions, framed discussion periods (eg, business issues in the game industry), and had us prioritize actions we wanted Intel to take.
The goal, of course, was to help grow and support game development, and game playing on PCs. Certainly feeling the heat from the rise in consoles over the years, the decline and homogenization of big budget releases (ie, usually only games falling into FPS, RTS, RPG genres), and the burgeoning "casual" games market (which don't exactly demand intensive processing power), Intel is trying to ensure they don't fall behind.
The discussions were far ranging: from the idea of Intel becoming the platform "owner" for the PC and all the responsibilities that that would entail, to my personal push to embrace the chaos/openness of the PC by providing support mechanisms for fringe and true indie games to prosper (ie, think mods, academic/experimental stuff, artsy games, etc).
While the group did create a list of action items for Intel to "go work on", it was difficult to get a true sense of what Intel actually gleaned from the very wide ranging discussions - at least to the extent they could do something about it all in time for the next summit. Regardless, it was extremely refreshing to have such a huge corporate machine ask, "What can we do to help?"
Note: This event was under NDA, hence the somewhat vagueness of this summary report. I got specific permission from the Intel devrel folks to do this more overview style post.
Posted on June 28, 2004 04:53 PM
Comments
Funnily enough, I work for Intel running an R&D team on games & simulations for education and I heard NOTHING about this!
Want to hear something even funnier?
I'm leaving Intel in a month or two to join a gaming company, and as part of my leaving preparation am writing an internal discussion paper entitled "Why Intel Don't Get Games"!
Jason, could forward me (offline) your contacts for this event in Intel?
Posted by: Tony Kelly at July 14, 2004 10:31 AM