Ken Levine: "If you want to know the future of gaming, buy a PC"

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Ken Levine

President of Irrational Games and lead designer on Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite spoke out in a recent interview about the virtues of the PC, saying that "the PC will always be the place that drives innovation."

Speaking to Kotaku , Levine outlined his thoughts on the strengths of PC gaming: "The PC is the place where great game developers are born, even—and maybe especially—where great console game developers are born. Halo, Mass Effect, Call of Duty…PC developers first."

Levine attributes the success of the PC to the low barrier of entry for new ideas. "You can have an idea that goes like this: "Hey, I've got an idea!" "Cool! Who do we need to approve this idea?" "Umm…nobody?" And then the idea gets done. Because magic can happen when there are no middle men, no marketers, and no naysayers."

Steam, modding and Minecraft are some of the examples Levine highlights of innovation on the PC. He finishes with "here's something you can take the bank: If you want to know the future of gaming, buy a PC. And pay attention. Because above all, that thing on your desk is a crystal ball."

Tom Senior
Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.

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