According to Steam, only 53% of the PC gamers who log in to the digital distribution service are currently running a 64-Bit operating system. That means that nearly half of gamers need to upgrade their copy of Windows, if not buy a whole new CPU.
If they want to keep on playing games, that is.
I have no idea why it hasn’t happened already – other than the fact that far, far too many people still run Windows XP – but most Pc games are still happy to plod along in 32 bits. That’s changing soon, as EA’s and DICE revealed that a number of their Frostbite-powered games coming next year would require the extra bit of processing capacity. Games that could include Battlefield 4, Dead Space 3 and (deity willing) Mirror’s Edge 2.
“We’ll have Frostbite-powered games in 2013 that will _require_ a 64-bit OS,” Frostbite 2 dev Johan Andersson said yesterday on Twitter, adding that “If you are on 32-bit, great opportunity to upgrade to Windows 8.”
If you’re a real PC gamer, there’s no doubt you’ve already made the switch – because who wants to be constrained by just 4Gb of memory? For the rest of you? It time to start looking at upgrading.
Last Updated: May 22, 2012
