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Dell aims to be leader in computer gaming

Company founder scopes out hardware needs at game confab, predicts gaming will be a $4 billion-per-year industry.

Reuters
AUSTIN, Texas--Dell founder and Chairman Michael Dell sees computer gaming becoming a $4 billion-per-year industry by 2010 as consumers hook up to high-speed Internet services to battle monsters online.

Dell told the Austin Game Conference on Thursday night that his company is positioning itself to be a leader in computer gaming.

"Things like multi-core processors, acceleration engines for physics and graphics, wide-screen displays, Webcams: There are a lot of great things happening on the hardware side that can really make the gaming experience quite exciting," Dell said.

Dell Inc., the world's leading personal computer maker with $55.9 billion in revenue last year, acquired Alienware, a Miami-based maker of gaming systems, earlier this year. Alienware had $200 million in revenue in 2005.

Dell, a Texas native who has long admitted being a big fan of computer games, says he attended the conference to determine what game architects and designers want to see in computer hardware.

"I want to know what kinds of things they're looking for in hardware, and they like to discover what's happening with hardware, new features and new capabilities, so they can make sure they're enabled in next generation games," he said.

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