Soren Johnson, recognized for his work on Firaxis' Civilizations series, is "moving back" to the fold of Electronic Arts to join creative genius Will Wright's staff on the ambitious cross-platform project Spore.

Johnson was a former EA intern while he was taking up graduate school in Stanford University in California. He has a bachelor's degree with honors in history and has an MS in computer science, making him ideal for the Civilizations series.

He was Lead Game Designer in Civilization IV and Co-lead Designer in Civilization III. The Civilizations franchise rose to prominence in the late 90's and has been one of the most respected names in the real-time strategy genre.

Spore, on the other hand, is described by its developers as a massive single player game. How it works out is still uncertain, but we'll update you as soon as news is forthcoming.

Joel Durnham of extremetech.com informs that in a panel discussion at the Game Developer's Conference 2007, the idea of PC game viability was discussed by a quintet of industry folks that include: Xbox Live Arcade's David Edery, Electronic Arts' Richard Hilleman, Firaxis' Soren Johnson, Epic Games' Michael Capps, and Obsidian Entertainment's Chris Avallone.

As well as the usual PC gaming competing with console gaming debate that's been ongoing for years now, the effect of piracy on the PC gaming market was discussed. Capps in particular notes that PC Gaming is really falling apart and even though it "killed" them to make Unreal Tournament 3 cross-platform, Epic had to do it.

The reason for going multiplatform, of course, is piracy. Big AAA titles usually get stolen and, as Capps says, the market that would buy a US$ 600 video card also knows how BitTorrent works.

The future of gaming on the PC so far looks like it is set to be dominated by "casual" games and MMOs. Of course there's nothing casual about most casual games since the average Chuzzle/Zuma addict plays for 24 hours a week. MMOs are notable since they can't be pirated - unless of course you steal the source code and run your own illegal server. However, those things are easier to monitor than burned CDs.

They also covered the fact that user-generated game content could be big for the PC since console manufacturers try to wield more control over their products.

They end the discussion by noting that even though things look grim, AAA titles might never die on the PC, and that trends are ultimately hard to predict.

Oh well, so much for the good old days.

In a panel discussion at the 2007 Games Developer Conference aptly called "PC Gaming in an Age of Connected Consoles," Obsidian Entertainment's Chris Avellone, Epic Games' Michael Capps, Electronic Arts' Richard Hilleman and Firaxis Games' Soren Johnson came to the conclusion that PC gaming has been a consistent losing streak, with approximately US$ 500 million in revenue lost every year.

Face it. This is the age of the next-generation consoles. Even with DirectX 10 features and Vista's Gaming for Windows initiative, the PC is standing at a crossroads as far as gaming is concerned.

Rampant piracy, the pricey hardware, and the inability of the industry to adapt measures to making great games rather than just visually great games, could spell the PC gaming industry's inevitable doom.

Since 2001, the annual revenues of the PC games industry keeps dropping by half a billion dollars. But that doesn't include the MMO games industry and the casual gaming industry. Will the PC market be a viable option for gaming in the near future? Well that depends. The PC may be pricier than a next-gen console and console FPS revenue may be folds more profitable than the PC, but the PC is capable of everything the console is capable of, plus a whole lot more.

Control: it's one bane of the PC gaming industry. There is no control over piracy, but the lack of control also grants a blessing for the longevity of the PC game. Games with communities will always generate custom user content. Consoles establish control in their closed gaming networks so that custom user content don't go overboard or cause controversy. It's no surprise that the panel suggest taking advantage of this issue, to encourage more user content keep gamers interested in the games.

Cross-platform multiplayer, as set out by Microsoft, is also a mixed bag of goodies. Although Microsoft offered certification measures to ensure the games will work over Xbox Live, PC games will always be more power hungry than their Xbox 360 counterparts. Newer video cards keep coming out all the time, which makes for the peace pipe session between the PC and the console a thing for dreams.

Firaxis Games Designer/Lead Programmer Soren Johnson was a former EA designer. His game credits include Knockout Kings 2000 and 2001; Sid Meier's Civilization III; Sid Meier's Civilization III: Play the World, Sid Meier's Civilization III: Conquests; Sid Meier's Pirates!; Sid Meier's Pirates! for Xbox; and Sid Meier's Civilization IV.

In an interview with CVG, Johnson shares his views on Nintendo, PC gaming, and more.

Biggest Success Story of the Year: Nintendo
"The one-two punch of the DS and the Wii is making Microsoft and Sony look like dinosaurs. "

Biggest Challenge to PC Gaming: Consoles
"PC game developmentt has suffered because most publishers are putting their energy and money into console development...the industry's best studios are primarily focusing on consoles...the quality of console games will go up while the quantity of good PC games will go down."

Biggest PC Gaming Hype: DirectX 10
"I suppose the better graphics are nice, but it's not going to be changing the way PC games are played at this point."

Most Important Change To PC Gaming Industry: Digital Distribution and Flexible Pricing
"The PC games industry needs to embrace digital distribution and learn to be flexible on cost. Owning a game via Steam is very attractive to me...I can play it on any computer in the world without my CD. There should be a wide variety of fun games available online for all sorts of prices: $5, $10, $20, $30, $40, etc."

Biggest Expectation for 2007: Third party developers for Wii
"I'm looking forward to seeing third-party games blossom on the Wii like they have on the DS. Every week, a major publisher seems to be opening a new Wii-focused studio."

The Perfect Videogame: Shh!
"I'm working on that game right now. I can't talk about it, of course!"

You can read the full interview via the Read link.