Mark Rein continues to opine

A couple weeks ago, we reported on Mark Rein's discussion at a developer's conference where he took Intel to task for sub-par graphics. Well, apparently he's making this a whole industry-motivational tour, because he's back and talking about a whole new topic: retailers.

With console games promising high profit margins and an easier sale to a wider audience, retailers have been pushing them harder and harder at the exclusion of PC games, Mark hypothesizes.

And, in an extension of his last speech, he puts the blame of general accessibility of consoles squarely on sub-par graphic power in mainstream PCs:

"The problem is it's very hard to take a game that's designed for PS3 and Xbox 360 - where the big money is now - and make it run on a graphics card that isn't capable of rendering even what a third of what those things do."

Mr. Rein doesn't just stop at laying blame, though. He made sure to applaud Windows Vista in his speech, which he feels will force mainstream manufacturers to dump horrendously low-end graphics. Addition of the "Live Anywhere" product will also allow PC gamers to interact more with console brethren, he thinks, which should cause PC gamers to expect more. He cautions, though, that the only way we'll ever really get beyond 'bare minimum' is through educating consumers about PC graphics.

It's good to hear an industry icon talk about this, though his outlook is a little bleak. Is there a way to educate the 'masses' on finer points of PC graphics? More importantly, are people willing to spend so much more to play games on their computer, when an Xbox 360 is cheaper than a high-end graphics card? Let us know your thoughts on the subject in our forums.