Futuremark founding own game studio

E.T

I guess this could be called as closing the circle because Futuremark started as "spinoff" of Remedy Entertainment for continuing development of benchmark software.
They're aiming to make games which work well also in other than highend PCs without sacrificing graphics. (weren't Max Paynes rather moderate in requirements?)

One Finnish article mentions that while Futuremark has received some gentle caressing nicknames, like "Overcomer of all PCs"/"Enslaver of new hardware" :p they should well know how to squeeze every drop of performance from hardware.
When you think it would be actually good if they would then license their game engines to other game makers... there aren't too much game engines which scale well and squeeze everything out from older hardware.

[url]http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=814982[/url]

Freejack

This is pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if they are seeing a slowdown in the rate at which people swap out hardware for faster equipment, esp. those that are not considered "techies"? One would have to think that at some point faster processors are going to out strip our ability to "notice" the difference, especially by those who use their PC primarly for web-browsing.

I would welcome games that are directed a moderate hardware. First, it forces the developers to be more efficient with the design and second it may move some of the focus away from games that a visually innovative to those that are gameplay innovative.

Jake

Stingray

[QUOTE=Freejack;169483]I would welcome games that are directed a moderate hardware.[/QUOTE]

Do I have news for you, there is a company famous for doing just that, it's called... Nintendo. :D

I don't see any change in the foreseeable future of the driving force behind PC gaming. It's a pricey hobby for sure. Many have switched to video consoles for that reason. I haven't yet, and I don't plan to because I usually don't play the latest games (with a few exceptions).

Anyway, I do appreciate the fact that many games allow you to dial down the eye candy without sacrificing too much of the visual quality. In the end a game needs to be fun, everything else is just secondary.