Schafer: Publishers Don't See "Financial Reward" in PC Games

[Andy Chalk]

Schafer: Publishers Don't See "Financial Reward" in PC Games

Double Fine [http://www.doublefine.com] boss Tim Schafer says a lack of "financial reward" is the reason publishers don't bring his games to the PC and they, not he, are the ones who ultimately decide what platforms to support.

I was all set to buy Stacking [http://www.amazon.com/Brutal-Legend-Xbox-360/dp/B000XJNTPG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290706986&sr=8-1], the new game coming to the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade sometime next year. It makes me wonder: What's the deal, Tim? Don't you love Team Keyboard anymore?

"As a developer we do not have final say in the SKU plan for our games," Schafer explained on the Double Fine website [http://www.doublefine.com/about/]. "That is the decision of the person investing the money, i.e. the publisher. We have much of the technology in place to produce PC versions of all these games, but there is still some more work required to make them shippable and that costs money. So far, our publishers have not elected to fund that work. Not because they hate PC gamers, but because they don't see enough financial reward."

"Double Fine does care about PC Gamers, and we always push for a PC version, and will continue to do so in the future," he continued. "If we ever get super stinking rich here, with enough money to fund PC versions of our games, then we will go back and make them ourselves! Oh man, wouldn't that be cool?"

He had a word of advice for die-hard fanboys who constantly pester him about the PC on Twitter, Facebook and the comments section on the Double Fine site, however: knock it off. "Every time that happens it makes my eye twitch and I take a dollar out of the 'PC Port Fund' jar," he said.


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[The_root_of_all_evil]

Don't you love Team Keyboard anymore?

Team Keyboard > Team Joypad

I should really make a shirt with that on.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

So, he wants them, publishers don't want to fund them. Got it.

I'd love a PC version of Costume Quest that I could play on my laptop...

 

[KEM10]

"Every time that happens it makes my eye twitch and I take a dollar out of the 'PC Port Fund' jar," he said.

That made me laugh, a lot. Also, porting should be easier now with Steam and Games for Windows and all the other soft distributors out there.

 

[Worgen]

brutal legend probably would have been much more popular on pc then 360 since pc players are more willing to accept rts type games and it was a pretty good one

 

[ph0b0s123]

Don't you love Team Keyboard anymore?

Team Keyboard > Team Joypad

I should really make a shirt with that on.

Me to please.

And to Tim Schafer. Instead of removing the money from the jar just give poeple the contact details of the publisher who's decision it was and team keyboard can vent there instead.

And to publishers. Stop being so greedy. Out of the money it took to create a game for the 360 and PS3, the money to make it playable on the PC is hardly anything. Just becuase the PC does not give the billion figure returns you have come to expect on consoles does not mean it is not worth while. I think PC retunrs have stayed the same but when compared to the ever incrasing console returns they don't seem worth it, maybe the problem is you are actually not greedy enough.

Of course you can always challenge my assertions with figures, I'll be waiting.

Never could understand why the device with the biggest install base (not counting buisness machines) was such a tough sell. I think more pleople have a PC in thier homes than have consoles. I know there is a lot of overlap. And maybe a lot of those PC's are not powerfull enough, but still.

 

[kibayasu]

Small budgeted games don't make money on a PC now? Seems to me that's the only thing that does make money as a PC game now.

 

[ASnogarD]

Thats fine, they can keep thier rubbish ... I'll go pester Schafer till either his eye pops out or his fund jar shatters, or he shuts the [ beep ] up.

Devs and publishers just go around blaming everything and anything for thier deficiencies.
The truth is more likely that they messed up the budget allocated to the development of the games and cut the PC version to save some dosh and face.

One day it will happen again, a new genre for the PC one that would be nearly impossible to do on a console without requiring extra hardware for the sofa gamers ... and the devs will be back on the PC each claiming it never pulled its commitment.
Hope by then the PC gamers will tell them where to shove that BS

 

[mjc0961]

He had a word of advice for die-hard fanboys who constantly pester him about the PC on Twitter, Facebook and the comments section on the Double Fine site, however: knock it off. "Every time that happens it makes my eye twitch and I take a dollar out of the 'PC Port Fund' jar," he said.

I would have thought better advice would be "Go bug the publisher."

 

[Pingieking]

Devs and publishers just go around blaming everything and anything for thier deficiencies.
The truth is more likely that they messed up the budget allocated to the development of the games and cut the PC version to save some dosh and face.

Wow. Bitter enough?

Not really a surprise. Publishers themselves have been saying basically the same thing.

 

[Therumancer]

Actually didn't Tim say there wasn't going to be a PC version of "Brutal Legend" pretty early on because it was being developed for consoles, and wouldn't work well on the PC? I'll have to see if I can did that up, because I'm pretty sure he said that, and it annoyed a lot of people at the time.

That said I do see the issue with publishers and the PC. We hear griping about it every time a piracy debate comes up. The bottom line though I think is that it's about greed, and the publishers probably figure that it's not worth the effort for the amount of profit, despite the fact that there will be profit, when the time being expended on the PC version could be invested on working on their new console product that will wind up making more money.

One of the problems with the corperate mentality running everything.

 

[Ken Sapp]

He had a word of advice for die-hard fanboys who constantly pester him about the PC on Twitter, Facebook and the comments section on the Double Fine site, however: knock it off. "Every time that happens it makes my eye twitch and I take a dollar out of the 'PC Port Fund' jar," he said.

Is it possible to have negative dollars in a jar? I would assume he's gotten more complaints for the lack of PC ports than his studio has made in as long as it has been open.

 

[thedoclc]

Actually didn't Tim say there wasn't going to be a PC version of "Brutal Legend" pretty early on because it was being developed for consoles, and wouldn't work well on the PC? I'll have to see if I can did that up, because I'm pretty sure he said that, and it annoyed a lot of people at the time.

That said I do see the issue with publishers and the PC. We hear griping about it every time a piracy debate comes up. The bottom line though I think is that it's about greed, and the publishers probably figure that it's not worth the effort for the amount of profit, despite the fact that there will be profit, when the time being expended on the PC version could be invested on working on their new console product that will wind up making more money.

One of the problems with the corperate mentality running everything.

Economics 101: a firm must make at least normal profits in the long run. Normal profits is the return on investment that investors can safely make elsewhere. If a firm fails to make at least normal profits, investors realize their money would do better and they pull it out. In other words, if I can get at least 5% a year on soybeans or index funds or money markets or whatever, a firm which offers me a 4% return is NOT getting my money. Nor will anyone else sink in the cash.

Frankly, I invest after two considerations: 1) Am I happy with the risk/reward trade off with this firm? and 2) Is this firm doing something I have no objection to? I'm not going to take a smaller RoI just to make someone feel good about devs getting a product to market in a manner which does not generate the same returns as, say, putting it in an index fund or similar investment. Some of the money in my fund is in various companies that make games, but it's almost all console because those companies offer a better RoI.

When you put your own money in the market, you can go ahead and be the nice guy who pays for everyone else's boondoggles.

That's why Double Fine can't find publishers willing to release on the PC very often; they investors, the people who actually pony up the money, realize they can just do better somewhere else.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Don't you love Team Keyboard anymore?

Team Keyboard > Team Joypad

I should really make a shirt with that on.

How nice that one can connect a gamepad to PC and a keyboard to console.

 

[Credge]

Don't you love Team Keyboard anymore?

Team Keyboard > Team Joypad

I should really make a shirt with that on.

How nice that one can connect a gamepad to PC and a keyboard to console.

Good luck using a keyboard on a console that's not UT3 on the PS3 =\.

 

[teh_Canape]

Spoiler: I see this would fit here... somehow

Good luck using a keyboard on a console that's not UT3 on the PS3 =\.

Typing of the Dead, Dreamcast *wink* =P

 

[Terramax]

Ah, that's why no Brutal Legend on the PC. It wasn't Schafer's fault after all. Sorry to doubt you dude. Don't suppose you have the address of the bastard who did decide to make it a console exclusive?

 

[Nalesnik]

Makes sense. Can't really blame the publishers for doing the financially responsible thing. It is their money they're putting on the line after all. But does this imply, that the cost of porting a game is greater than the profits it would generate from PC sales?

 

[sunburst]

This is hard to believe. Brütal Legend was published by EA who can't seem to stop porting games to PC. Why would they randomly decide that an industry name like Tim Schafer and his freakin' RTS wouldn't make money on the PC when PC gamers care more about names and RTS? Calling bullshit on Tim Schafer is hard because I love his games but in this case I don't see much other choice.