While PC gamers are getting understandably excited about one of the year's biggest releases, which is guaranteed to have standards-setting graphics at least, there's a kick in the teeth waiting just around the corner. EA and Virgin Gaming have teamed up to launch a massive BF3 contest with $1.6m in cash and prizes - for consoles only. Yes, you read that right. And the reason? Consoles are the "gold standard". That's the aging console platforms reported on TechPowerUp a few days ago. GameStop's president Tony Bartel said in an interview with IndustryGamers:

We continue to believe that the console is a strong platform and will continue to be the gold standard.

Companies like Steam (and now EA) have already begun distributing their games by allowing users to download them, but Virgin is hoping to launch its own online game distribution service as the gaming equivalent of iTunes. "This is a really exciting development for us, as it gives us the opportunity to do for PC Games what iTunes has done for music," said Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin. "The GDI technology will revolutionise how the mass market will play games, and will give them more choice for less money." The services will be called A World Of My Own (AWOMO), and should launch towards the end of 2007. Publishers that are interested in the service so far are EA, Ubisoft and Deep Silver, although no agreements have actually been reached yet.