With the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One both set to include AMD chips, you may feel a bit sorry for Nvidia being left out in the cold, but the company doesn’t seem too worried. In fact, Nvidia believes that a lot of PC users will invest in new hardware to play games like Call of Duty: Ghosts, Assassin’s Creed IV, and Grand Theft Auto 5. Wait a minute!
Chris Evenden, Senior IR Director of Nvidia, said during an earnings call (transcribed by SeekingAlpha) which was uncovered by CraveOnline:
The PC market is evolving. As entry level laptops face pressure from tablets. Yet sales of specialty PCs like gaming systems and work stations continue to grow. The disparity reflects how consumers use these different classes of PCs. Many consumers look for PC as a general purpose device they can use for browsing, email, social media video. But much of this can be better served by a tablet. In contrast, gamers are preparing their systems for a strong roster of games coming this fall, including blockbuster franchises, such as Call of Duty: Ghosts, Grand Theft Auto V and Assassin’s Creed IV.
As seen above, he directly mentions the title along with PC without hesitation. Nvidia appears to know something consumers don’t.
Not only that, but Nvidia claims that PC games make more than both PlayStation and Xbox revenues combined:
Open platform such as PC and Android are outgrowing the world gardens of the traditional console market. They benefit from more innovation. Nearly half of the developers surveyed at GDC recently who are working on PC games compared only 11% on Next Gen consoles. PC game revenues are expected to reach around $20 billion annually by 2015, whereas the total for both PlayStations will be less than $10 billion and Xbox is only around half of that.
Now, Evenden’s GTA 5 announcement could simply have been a reference to a port that doesn’t exist, but it does match up with our discovery of a Rockstar job listing for PC ports. The cards stack up.
With how much time and money has been invested into GTA 5‘s development, it would make no sense to not cash in on the large group of PC gamers who want to buy the game and enjoy platform-exclusive mods. Speaking of cashing in, when are those PS4 and Xbox One ports coming? Nvidia wouldn’t be the right company to ask given its public disinterest in both consoles. We’ll have to find a new hero.
