'Hardly anyone' agrees with Kudo's PC FPS BS

Massive audience

Gaming events organiser Corin Cole is a fan of all the gaming platforms, but he insists that PC first person shooters still have a massive audience.

"Console games will always find an easier audience than their PC equivalents due to considerations such as price of platform and ease of access, however there are still large numbers of gamers who feel that consoles cannot compete with a keyboard and mouse, particularly when it comes to first person shooters," he said.

"Hundreds of thousands play multiplay online shooters on the PC every day, with many more enjoying single player games, and as the prices of computer components continue to drop, the hurdle over which PC gamers must jump will gradually be lowered."

The view is by no means extraordinary, HP exec and Voodoo founder Rahul Sood recently hit the headlines for suggesting that Microsoft had scrapped a dual Xbox/PC gaming online tie-up because having mouse and keys in first person shooters was so massively advantageous that the 'console players got destroyed every time'.

I am lucky enough to have access to all three major online gaming platforms – PlayStation, Xbox 360 and PC – and it is still the latter that captures the lion's share of my now limited time.

I love mouse and keys for first person shooters and I've graduated through most of the major players through the years: Counter Strike, Doom, Quake, RtCW, Call of Duty and Team Fortress.

Why did he say it?

What makes Tsunoda's comment even more galling is that it seems entirely unnecessary for him to express his opinion in the first place.

The interview – in Game Informer – was not pushing him into a corner and his comment was in response to the fairly tame: "Looking at first-party games and 360 exclusives in the future, are we going to start to see Kinect integrated in small or nuanced ways? Or is it a "go big or go home" approach to gameplay?"

Hardly an invite to slag off PC gaming is it?

CVG editor Tim Ingham agrees: "Perhaps the oddest thing about Kudo's statement is how absurdly unnecessary it was.

"If he'd have wanted a reference point for why building games 'from the ground up' is the best approach, he could have named a host of Xbox exclusives that have done the business.

"He was obviously trying to pay Halo a huge compliment – and let's not pretend that to some extent, that game didn't tempt over a big chunk of PC gamers to console.

"But he was so definitive in what he said, he risked upsetting the millions – and there are still millions – of FPS PC gamers around the world."

Still, the proof of the pudding will be when I'm sat with stunning Crysis 2 on my PC and Kinectimals on the (rightly admired) Kinect for Xbox 360.

Perhaps I'll be one of 'hardly any' Kudo Tsunoda – but I know which one I'll be firing up.