As somebody who games primarily on the PC, but also enjoys console gaming (so mostly, but not quite, unbiased), I must say that I read a lot of bias in this article against PC gamers. I believe that, because of this, you're missing what makes DICE's (or any company's) dedication to PC gamers noteworthy.
To say that PC gamers are "desperate for relevance" implies that they are irrelevant, something that several articles on the Escapist have shown is simply not true. Though consoles make up a significant portion of the video game market, and mobile and browser-based games have carved out their own pieces of the pie, the PC is still a significant part of the video game market. Especially with the surge of indie productions, the PC has become a platform where broad accessibility and ease of entry have resulted in a lot of opportunities for new and interesting games, just as they have for decades. Even as far back as the 8-bit era, PCs have been the breeding ground for new ideas that later found their way onto the more controlled, affordable, polished consumer-friendly consoles. Both PC and console have been and continue to be key to the development and adoption of video games.
As somebody who plays games on the PC, it's not relevance that I am looking for; it's attention. Whatever their reasons, AAA game studios have been producing video games designed and targeted at the console market, then porting those to the PC. As both PC and console gamers will agree, the two domains are quite different. The A/B/X/Y buttons and analog sticks of a console controller don't map well to the 104-key keyboard and 3-button mouse that most PCs use. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and each is more suitable to certain styles of interaction. Taking a game from one platform and blindly porting it to the other always results in something that has the worst of the limitations of both platforms and lacks the benefits of either platform.
Porting has been a nuisance for as long as there have been multiple platforms. Awkward text-based adventures ported to low-res, D-pad-controlled consoles died miserably on the early generations of consoles. Fighting games with D-pad-sliding combo moves were blister-inducing on the sharp-edge keys of the PC. Early console FPS games left us spinning idly without the precise positional control of a mouse, while racing games with their analog throttle and steering have excelled on consoles almost as quickly as they have declined on the key-controlled PC.
For quite some time, it seemed that developers would either specialize on a particular platform or would develop independent versions for each platform. With sky-rocketing expenses and the tightening of consumer budgets that come with economic turmoil, companies have been trying to maximize their market coverage while minimizing costs. And that's where porting has made an ugly return.
It seems that, more often than not, AAA games are being developed for the consoles first, then ported to the PC. I'm not sure why that's the order, but it seems to have become a de facto standard. Often the porting will even be done by an entirely separate company with different standards of quality. The result is that the PC versions are often filled with bugs and ridiculous control schemes that didn't exist on the consoles, without taking advantage of the increased processing power that newer PCs can deliver.
This is why PC gamers care about developers paying attention to them. They don't want their games to be second-rate, with console games getting the premium treatment. So long as we are paying just as much for our games and even more for our systems, we expect to get just as good of a game.
Should any gamer be treated as a second-rate citizen just because of his platform choice? Whether console, desktop, mobile, or otherwise, we as gamers should be demanding quality in all of our games. PC gamers are sore because lately they have taken a backseat to the growing mobile and console gaming platforms. It's not about being the best or most relevant; it's about getting good quality games for our dollar. I think that's something all gamers want.
