Nvidia: Battlefield 3 shows PC is "dramatically better than consoles"

Graphics card maker Nvidia has pointed to games such as Battlefield 3 as evidence that the PC platform is way ahead of current generation consoles.

In a question and answer session with investors following Nvidia's financial earnings, CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said the growing disparity between PC and game consoles such as PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 fuelled much of the money it made.

"We're expecting GeForce desktop to be up, and we're expecting that to be up nicely, driven by the hit games," he said. "This is likely a multiyear cycle of growth for PC gaming.

"This happens every major game console cycle towards the second half of its product life, because PC technology advances on a regular basis instead of once every seven to ten years.

"And so you could imagine how PC technology is dramatically better than a game console today, and you're starting to see that now with a new generation of games that are coming out, such as Battlefield 3."

For the quarter ending 31st October, Nvidia posted revenue of $1.06 billion, up $843.9 million from the same quarter last year. Net profits were $178.3 million, more than double the previous year's total of $84.9 million. The majority of the company's revenue - $644.8 million - was generated by its GPU business.

Money made from desktop consumer graphics rose beyond usual seasonal increases, Nvidia said, and this was due to "strong global demand from PC gamers, driven by highly anticipated blockbuster PC games just starting to hit the shelves".

Nvidia singled out EA's Battlefield 3, which is the fastest-selling EA game ever, Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, likely the best-selling game ever, and science-fiction MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, a PC-exclusive due out next month with impressive pre-order figures.

"We believe this surge of PC gaming demand will drive increased demand for Nvidia's GeForce products despite the soft consumer PC market," the company said.

"We expect a multiyear PC gaming cycle, as the PC becomes increasingly more powerful than five to six-year-old gaming consoles."

Last month DICE told Eurogamer the PC version of Battlefield 3 is what gamers can expect from the next-generation of consoles.

"There's some stuff in here that's truly next-gen," executive producer Patrick Bach said. "A lot of tech stuff, Frostbite 2. Rendering, the lighting, destruction, to me I'm mesmerised no one else has been trying to do it.

"I'm looking forward to see if other games can start to do some of the things we're doing. We have some really cool stuff."