With regards GameTalk, I'm beginning to worry Hot Coffee will destroying the PC gaming segment. Hot coffee was initially discovered on the PC and then confirmed on PS2. Even Rockstar played up this fact claiming that the PC version has an active mod community. From an outsider’s viewpoint this looks like PC games can be comprised.
This leads me to retailers. EB used to have a prominent shelf reserved for PC titles and over the months and years I’ve seen that space become smaller. Until I've saw a scary thing the other day. I walked into my local EB and tried to find the PC titles. After 5 minutes I asked the staff. They moved their ENTIRE PC games library off the highly visual shelves and stacked them sideways into the "bargain bin" styled shelves in the center of the store! The staff’s response for the move (to paraphrase), "My boss told me to move them because head-quarters said to do it." When I asked, "Why? These are new PC titles." He replied, "I don’t know. Maybe they’re getting ready for the 360." At the time his response was understandable. Then it scared me when I heard your "GameStop-EB merger almost complete" news I put two and two together and thought could this be the end of PC games in the retail sector? Because Hot Coffee compromised the PCCD version of GTA, if EB-GameStop decides to drop PC games and Wal-Mart follows could this be the end of PC gaming? I am a die-hard PC gamer and love them much more than console titles. The more I think about this possibly happening the more I’m getting sick to my stomach.
Can you comment on this Steve? Even better if you could discuss this in next week’s podcast, that would be awesome!
Thanks!