Windows PCs need a new Amiga-style gaming rival – Reader’s Feature

A reader argues that a new brand of gaming PCs, with their own first party games, is needed to provide real competition for Windows PCs.

There should be a brand of gaming PCs/laptops to compete with the dominance of Windows/x86 based machines with Steam. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Commodore and Atari computers were somewhat successful and popular alternatives to the Macintosh and PC that were especially popular for playing games. Depending on your region of the world, MSX, PC-8800, PC-9800, and ZX Spectrum, to name a few, were also popular alternatives to the MS-DOS/x86-based computers that would come to dominate personal computing. market.

Today, only Apple’s Macs are left, aside from the more recent addition of Google throwing in their hat, where Chromebooks are an attempt to take a slice of the computer market. But neither of these two brands has machines aimed at gamers. There’s nothing wrong with the current setup of Windows/x86 machines for gaming, but competition is good for consumers, and I believe an alternative to that near monopoly would be a good thing and here’s why.

It encourages that us-versus-them mentality, which nurtures a mindset of friendly competition between rival companies, a sense of customer loyalty, and one-sidedness that has been so common in the tech industry over the years. Samsung vs. Apple, Apple vs. Microsoft, Microsoft vs. Sony vs. Nintendo, Commodore vs. Atari… you get the idea.

To elaborate on this point, if you look at the Apple Mac fanboy and fangirl crowd, they feel a sense of one-sidedness towards the regular Windows user due to the move from x86 to ARM-based Macs in recent times. years and I’m sure Apple as a company thinks the switch made sense because Intel has problems producing modern, power-efficient 64-bit CPUs and quality control issues in chip manufacturing.

A similar example of sole proprietorship is Sony’s super-fast SSDs for the PlayStation 5 that the Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch don’t have, the technology that should make Rachet & Clank: Rift Apart feel like a true next-generation game. compared to things on Xbox One/PlayStation 4, with almost instant loading times and better, but not necessarily stunning graphics.

With that in mind, I think a hypothetical gaming PC brand would need to step away from x86 and Windows (maybe dare and use ARM or RISC V) to take advantage of the power efficiency of different computer architectures and provide an operating system that is different from Windows , like a Linux distro to encourage the us-versus-them mentality and offer things like extra security or a much smaller operating system.

I also think that this hypothetical gaming PC brand should make their own exclusive video games, similar to what Nintendo does, similar to what Sony usually does (with the exception of a few games they’ve ported to PC, and similar to what Microsoft does. does on the Xbox and Windows platforms.

I think this would be a big advantage over PC companies like HP, Dell (Alienware), Asus and MSI who produce x86/Windows based gaming PCs and usually sell high end gaming hardware for £600+ and presumably for a profit, while video game consoles are usually £500 or less and are sold at a loss, with the money being recouped from the sale of first-party games and royalties from third-party developers.

I think the combination of a hypothetical PC gaming company producing their own first-party games, and possibly licensing a Linux distro to third parties as a developer platform, similar to a console, would make the gaming PC much cheaper than others. on the market. I think this idea would be a brilliant evolution in the PC and video game market, encouraging competition and fandom around a brand. If successful, it could spark nostalgia in gamers years later, as well as brilliant games and hardware.

By reader Ronaldo Chambers

The reader’s position does not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.