Bethesda VP: Developing For PC is a "Headache"

[HontooNoNeko]

Wait, so they got rid of that 250 mod limit that the old gamebryo engine had?

Awesome.

Also, didn't Skyrim get leaked early for the Xbox? Or was that Modern Warfare? I don't know, so many games get leaked early, I'm not sure which one is out early on which platform.

Xbox 360 and PS3 pirated version of Skyrim were leaked about 6 days ago or so. There has yet to be a pirated version for the PC.

The entire idea that it is harder to pirate on consoles is like comparing lifting a feather and a dime. You have to pirate in different ways but it is relatively easy regardless of the platform.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Does no one realize the Xbox is just as easy to pirate for? The whole "cry for us, PC games might be pirated" comes off as a completely ignorant statement.

Aside from Gears of War 3, what other console games were leaked early this year? I swear there were others. I'm not calling you out or anything, I really want to know.

Killzone 3 was leaked on PS3, and I believe that Bulletstorm leaked off the 360 a few days before the PC version.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Edit: It really is shit, though. My computer has the power to run literally any game on max settings (Except maybe Crysis), but the video card can't even play most indie games. I would buy a new one, but I have no idea how to install a new card or anything.

Trust me when I say it's a no brainer. You literally plug it into the socket and attach a screw plug it into the power supply and you're done.

And you would be surprised how many people have bricked their systems trying to install new hardware because they didn't know the difference between a PCI-E and PCI slot...
Working for DELL I once had a call where a customer bought new RAM for his laptop, found it was just a bit too big for the slot so he busted out a dremel and shaved it down to fit...
As easy as it is for people who know what their doing, I don't recommend uneducated users upgrading their hardware without a professional present to teach them how to do it correctly. Yes it is like building with LEGOs and yes most hardware only fits in certain slots but ignorance + upgrading = brick.

 

[Cecilthedarkknight_234]

Does no one realize the Xbox is just as easy to pirate for? The whole "cry for us, PC games might be pirated" comes off as a completely ignorant statement.

Much harder, and it can potentially get your Xbox bricked.

For PC, you type ' torrent' and boom. You either have the game or tons of viruses. Or both. Or really nasty porn. Or all three.

yeah if you want to play games online, offline it's free game and I could do it if I really wanted to.

On subject.. Really just really?? They where making pc games far before console games don't blame bad programming on this. If amateur modders for fallout 3, oblivion can make patches and far better mods for the game than the creators then you know something is wrong.

 

[swimon]

For most developers I can see how the statement "developing for the PC is a pain in the ass" would be accurate. I think the piracy issue is a bit overblown in the minds of the publishers but yeah it's a problem and trying to psychically intuit what drivers the player has installed is probably a pain.

That said this seems weird coming from Bethesda. I mean their entire business model on the PC seems to be: release decent game and let the modders make it a really good game. Profit! Bethesda owes so much to the modding community that can only exist on PC that it seems weird to release this statement that seem to imply that there are only drawbacks to releasing games on a PC.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

1. piracy is irrelevant. I know it makes executives panties all bunchy imagining a pile of money and imagining it would have been in their money pit but now it isn't. The reality is that people who pirate will do without rather than pay, the company isn't going to get their money. This dude has the right idea, focus on pleasing your customers, the ones you identify themselves by giving you money. And just maybe the occasional pirate will say "you know, they do a really good job making their customers happy, I think I would like to join that club"

2. there is no excuse for Rage, that was a failure by the QA department

3. since Morrowind every single Bethesda game has had a crap interface on the PC that had to be fixed by the community through mods, so yes the developers make the game run but the community are the ones who make it playable

 

[Waaghpowa]

Working for DELL I once had a call where a customer bought new RAM for his laptop, found it was just a bit too big for the slot so he busted out a dremel and shaved it down to fit...

That is just retarded. With the RAM situation like you presented, the different types of RAM are deliberately given different sized sockets to avoid people mis matching them. But on occasion you get someone too stupid to realize "Hmm, maybe it DOESN'T fit". But as far as the video card goes, as long as he has a PCIe slot, there shouldn't be that much issue as they're all generally the same.

 

[Waaghpowa]

If amateur modders for fallout 3, oblivion can make patches and far better mods for the game than the creators then you know something is wrong.

I felt the need to quote this for truth. Modders fixed every bug in Stalker and upgraded it.

 

[daftalchemist]

I'm so tired of game developers bitching and moaning about "if a person's drivers are different, everything looks likes shit, and that's haaaarrrrrrd". My video card wasn't compatible with the first Mass Effect. The card that came before and after my card were, but mine wasn't. The backgrounds, and especially the lights, had this horrible looking pixelation that would blur the edges of the things in the foreground. It was hideous, AND I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE IT! Do you know why? Because it was MASS EFFECT! I loved that game to death, and I didn't even care that my video card messed it up because I loved playing.

The moral of the story is, if your game is good enough, no one will care that their graphics aren't perfect.

that's not true .... I think what he was referring to was that they work their arse off to make it look good an then someone who has some weird set up plays it who also happens to be a bit of a dick, records it, puts it on youtube "look how buggy blank blank is" an very quickly a game can get a reputation for being buggy an a development team nicked named lazy purely on hearsay

people like yourself might understand put there is always at least 1 dick on the internet to every decent person an some idiot to listen to them, who knows some idiot who will listen to him an so on...

I think that's also a pathetic reason to say it's a headache though. Think of all the times when console gamers try to say "look how buggy this game is on the PS3, but Xbox is perfect", or vice versa. Are we catering to idiots saying stupid things on the internet, or are we catering to gamers who play the games?

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

And of course there's the old, familiar bugbear of piracy. "Unless you decide not to make your games available for PC, it's a problem and you have to deal with it,"

PC piracy is a major headache? Fair enough, but didn't GeoHotz crack the PS3, with this very site providing coverage of the ensuing court battle? To my knowledge, I think the XBox also can be hacked. The DS has a major problem with hacking. It's not really that valid an argument if hackers can pirate on any platform.

And for the SDK, we thank you, it's why we love you and it's why your games stand the test of time.

 

[daftalchemist]

I'm so tired of game developers bitching and moaning about "if a person's drivers are different, everything looks likes shit, and that's haaaarrrrrrd". My video card wasn't compatible with the first Mass Effect. The card that came before and after my card were, but mine wasn't. The backgrounds, and especially the lights, had this horrible looking pixelation that would blur the edges of the things in the foreground. It was hideous, AND I DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE IT! Do you know why? Because it was MASS EFFECT! I loved that game to death, and I didn't even care that my video card messed it up because I loved playing.

The moral of the story is, if your game is good enough, no one will care that their graphics aren't perfect.

that's not true .... I think what he was referring to was that they work their arse off to make it look good an then someone who has some weird set up plays it who also happens to be a bit of a dick, records it, puts it on youtube "look how buggy blank blank is" an very quickly a game can get a reputation for being buggy an a development team nicked named lazy purely on hearsay

people like yourself might understand put there is always at least 1 dick on the internet to every decent person an some idiot to listen to them, who knows some idiot who will listen to him an so on...

I think that's also a pathetic reason to say it's a headache though. Think of all the times when console gamers try to say "look how buggy this game is on the PS3, but Xbox is perfect", or vice versa. Are we catering to idiots saying stupid things on the internet, or are we catering to gamers who play the games?

fair point, but prob happens a bit less though as console gamer would have to have the other console or at least access to one, plus when they do that they are intending it as an attack on the console.

i can see their point though must be a bit like trying to design an engine to work with unleaded an then getting told it has to run diesel as well, then they invent 30 other fuels that they want to run on it and if it don't work 100% on all of them somebody WILL point it out publicly

Actually, the console argument is very common, and happened in a huge way with Battlefield 3 to the point where the developer went "actually, we released screenshots from the wrong version for PS3, and here's the RIGHT version" just to make people think that PS3 wasn't getting shafted on the graphics.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Working for DELL I once had a call where a customer bought new RAM for his laptop, found it was just a bit too big for the slot so he busted out a dremel and shaved it down to fit...

That is just retarded. With the RAM situation like you presented, the different types of RAM are deliberately given different sized sockets to avoid people mis matching them. But on occasion you get someone too stupid to realize "Hmm, maybe it DOESN'T fit". But as far as the video card goes, as long as he has a PCIe slot, there shouldn't be that much issue as they're all generally the same.

Yeah, I had to tell the RAM guy he had voided his 5 year warranty by doing what he did and he was pissed off to no end. I felt no sympathy for him however and had to mute the call a number of times because I couldn't help but laugh at the situation.
The whole PCI/PCI-E thing is just another of those situations I ran across working for DELL. I've been a system tech for about 20 years and it never ceases to amaze me the stupid things people do to their PC's when most of what they tried to do is easier than plugging in a blender. Technological ignorance is amazing... I even had a guy call about his power supply crapping out and I told him to leave it alone, that we were going to send a new one to him in 2 days but he insisted since he was a "master electrician" he could fix it himself and despite warning him repeatedly that opening a power supply is not just stupid but dangerous as hell he went ahead and did it anyway resulting in a major shock and a hospital visit. He tried to sue DELL later on for "not warning" him of the danger of messing with your PSU but since we record all our calls he had no case. Stupid stupid people.
All in all, upgrading computers is easy as hell but for some reason the statistics of "simple procedures" being beyond the lay-person is staggering.

 

[Zetatrain]

Wait, so they got rid of that 250 mod limit that the old gamebryo engine had?

Awesome.

Also, didn't Skyrim get leaked early for the Xbox? Or was that Modern Warfare? I don't know, so many games get leaked early, I'm not sure which one is out early on which platform.

I don't recall Skyrim being leaked, though it was released early in other countries like the Netherlands on Tuesday (which is when games are normally released). There were, however, reports of some MW3 copies being stolen before the release date.

 

[m72_ar]

Bethesda did okay in porting in most cases. All Elder's Scrolls and Fallout got released in "playable" state for the most part.

Rage is the first absolute technical clusterfuck they ever experienced

 

[EHKOS]

Does no one realize the Xbox is just as easy to pirate for? The whole "cry for us, PC games might be pirated" comes off as a completely ignorant statement.

Much harder, and it can potentially get your Xbox bricked.

For PC, you type ' torrent' and boom. You either have the game or tons of viruses. Or both. Or really nasty porn. Or all three.

Actually no. They use file hosts and it's really easy to download and burn the disc. (NOT THAT I DO THIS MODS I'M JUST EXPLAINING THE PROCESS!)Yes bricking your xbox can happen but people just keep buying them until a mod chip works. It's just as easy.

 

[brainslurper]

I guarantee that used games sales top piracy easily.
Edit: Important thing here is that bethesda just blamed PC drivers for "years of hard work coming off as buggy"

 

[giggetygooo]

Wait, so they got rid of that 250 mod limit that the old gamebryo engine had?

Awesome.

Also, didn't Skyrim get leaked early for the Xbox? Or was that Modern Warfare? I don't know, so many games get leaked early, I'm not sure which one is out early on which platform.

Xbox 360 and PS3 pirated version of Skyrim were leaked about 6 days ago or so. There has yet to be a pirated version for the PC.

The entire idea that it is harder to pirate on consoles is like comparing lifting a feather and a dime. You have to pirate in different ways but it is relatively easy regardless of the platform.

nope...id pick up both with my opposable thumb and nose-picking finger.

 

[maxmanrules]

Edit: It really is shit, though. My computer has the power to run literally any game on max settings (Except maybe Crysis), but the video card can't even play most indie games. I would buy a new one, but I have no idea how to install a new card or anything.

Trust me when I say it's a no brainer. You literally plug it into the socket and attach a screw plug it into the power supply and you're done.

And you would be surprised how many people have bricked their systems trying to install new hardware because they didn't know the difference between a PCI-E and PCI slot...
Working for DELL I once had a call where a customer bought new RAM for his laptop, found it was just a bit too big for the slot so he busted out a dremel and shaved it down to fit...
As easy as it is for people who know what their doing, I don't recommend uneducated users upgrading their hardware without a professional present to teach them how to do it correctly. Yes it is like building with LEGOs and yes most hardware only fits in certain slots but ignorance + upgrading = brick.

Aha, I have worse. Some guy tried to put his card in but it wouldn't stay in. It was the wrong size. He decided to WELD it on to his mobo. WTF?

The best part is, he welded it on upside down

 

[weker]

Does no one realize the Xbox is just as easy to pirate for? The whole "cry for us, PC games might be pirated" comes off as a completely ignorant statement.

Aside from Gears of War 3, what other console games were leaked early this year? I swear there were others. I'm not calling you out or anything, I really want to know.

Skyrim, COD, Crysis, gears, deus ex I am fairly sure, and maybe batman

 

[ph0b0s123]

I love the way they are saying that developing for the PC is a headache, using reasons that have exited forever.

Hardware variations? The PC has always had varied hardware in comparison to consoles. This has always been the case. In fact it is better now than it used to be. We now have only 2 CPU makers instead of 4. 2 (3 if you have to count Intel) gaming GPU makers, instead of the 5 or 6 previously, each with their own language to talk to their cards.

The truth is today's PC's have, arguably, a lower level of variation than they have had previously.

These are just lame excuses by companies looking to move out of the PC market. Or excuse games that may lack polish due to most of the resources being used to make the console versions.

I understand why companies are doing this. I just wish they would be straight instead using lame excuses and myths, about the PC, to justify their change in focus....