Some of the biggest names in the computing industry are teaming up to push the PC as a gaming platform.

Microsoft, Intel, Dell, AMD and Nvidia are among the founding members of the PC Gaming Alliance which will oversee the general welfare of gaming on the PC.

Randy Stude, director of Intel's gaming programme office, told reporters at a press conference in San Francisco that the Alliance will initially focus on three goals: evangelising the platform, standardising requirements and stemming piracy.

Stude pointed out that, unlike games consoles, there is no standard hardware configuration for which developers can design games. This leads to confusion among developers and customers as to which games can run on which PCs.

"What we intend to do is take a look at what's out there and tell developers 'this is what consumers have'," said Strude.

"We see our focus as creating more consistency so that people know what game will play on their PC."

The newly-formed group will also attempt to address piracy, cheating and account theft, but will not adopt the RIAA's tactic of hunting down and taking legal action against individual users.

Instead, the group plans to take a more pragmatic approach to the issue and examine other ways of making money from games than the initial purchase price.

"Maybe there is nothing you can do about piracy," said Strude. "Maybe piracy is not the problem; maybe the business model is the problem."