Consoles Are a "Massive Barrier" for Crysis 3 Development

[EHKOS]

A good carpenter doesn't blame his tools.

A very good carpenter leaves behind obsolete designs.
Seriously, if you have to massacre the engine, just release it for PC.

 

[Joccaren]

Agreed. Let's also not forget that the PS3 has a lot of untapped processing power. If anything, this is a problem of designing an engine that requires something about a PC. Maybe the engine required .exe's or DOS or something? Some other software requisite consoles aren't built with because they're exclusively for games? PS3 can handle it, so what's the problem? Besides, here comes the age-old problem that started with Crysis. They're building a game intentionally too complex for what it's going to run it on. Crysis had to be played on minimal settings for all but the best computers, if any of us remembers. And all that just to make an average shooter win awards for looking better than any of the others. Does anyone remember playing Crysis, or do they remember not being able to run it?

Or perhaps they're unhappy about having to spend millions to get the engine to run on PS3 and Xbox because, regardless of how much untapped potential it might have [Really, not a lot], PCs have about 10X more that they are able to and want to utilize, instead of doing this much optimization for what is likely to turn out as not a lot of return. You really have no evidence that the 7 to 8 year old hardware of the PS3 can handle it, at least without these millions of dollars down the drain making it so the thing can, so don't state it like you know. People want to know why graphics cost so much? This is why; getting them to run on a console, even on low settings.
Also, I remember playing Crysis on maximum settings a couple of years after it came out on my 9800GTX. The year it did come out, I played it on my friends LAPTOP on medium settings just fine. Really, Crysis wasn't that hard to run. If you had a PC from 1995, yeah, it was difficult. You want to max it out? Good luck to you with most modern rigs. You want to run it, even on just medium settings? You can.

Not sure where you get your facts from dude. Console sales always outweigh PC sales, no matter what - that is why a lot of publishers leave the PC til last. You think that the PC sells more games than a console? - that's just crazy, console sales are always more than double the PC sales, sometimes as much as 10 times more across all formats. Developers won't prioritise 10%-20% of their sales in favor of 40-50% on the 360.
As for piracy, well piracy does a lot more harm to the PC market than the console market. With the PS3 and 360, people tend to avoid piracy because they know it could end up with them being banned, and people like multiplayer games, and there are so many barriers put in front of people who pirate console games. On the PC on the other hand, people tend to buy the multiplayer games, but then single player games are pirated left right and centre. The only console that is really heavily abused with piracy is the Wii - I know lots of people with cracked Wii's, I don't know anyone with a cracked PS3 or 360.

You've probably quoted the wrong guy there, seeing as he said nothing about sales in the slightest, but I'd be interested as to where you get your facts from. For one, its not 'Always'. Developers like Valve have stated that PC has sold more than consoles for games like Portal 2, so whilst the majority of AAA games might sell better on consoles overall, PC still sells better with some of them.

In addition, 90% of statistics are made up on the spot. Console sales are hardly always more than double PC sales, let alone 10 times as much, and unless you work for EA/Activision to have those numbers I'd check where you're getting your facts from because everywhere you look you'll find different numbers. I've seen ones that have Xbox as around 37% of sales, PS3 as about 33% of sales, and PC as 30%, ones with PC at around 80%, Xbox at 15% and PS3 at 5%, PS3 at 40%, Xbox at 37% and PC at 23% as well as every other combination under the sun. Numbers vary dependent on what is being counted [Brick and Mortar Stores, Digital Sales, both, brick and mortar stores in a specific region - ect.], and I have yet to find one that is 100% reliable.
In terms of Piracy, there is something devs hate almost as much, that does as much for them, that the PC has no problem with: Second hand sales. No money to the devs, all to the retailer. For all intents and purposes, from the publisher/dev's side of things, its the same as piracy on the PC. They get nothing, someone else gets their game. The thing is, its legal, and the buyer is still paying money for it. Even then, its only slightly countered by online passes, which a lot of people ignore for single player games because, well, they're single player games, what do you need online for?

 

[Skeleon]

Wait, I'm not quite sure I got this.
Does this mean that a) Crysis 3 will be completely butchered in its console port - annoying console fans - or b) that Crysis 3 overall will be completely butchered in all versions - including PC - to accomodate the console market - annoying everybody, but PC fans in particular?
I must be missing the upside here.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Here's a word of advice for you Crytek; instead of bitching, go back to making PC only games.

But you won't do that will you? You like the green that console market brings in a bit too much eh?

 

[A-D.]

Instead of crying and bitching about the limitations, they could also just focus on development to begin with. If you know you have to develop for aging hardware, i.e. consoles, then your engine has to be capable of running on them without needing to be cannibalized. Crytek choose to make a new Engine and improve it, now they moan about having to strip it down to make it viable on consoles? Gimme a break.

You know what Crytek? Just keep the Engine as it is, make the game as you want, release it on that hardware that can run it, if thats only the PC? Well just release it only on the PC. And when the Consoles have caught up, you can release it for them too. I dont really see the Problem here. I dont think anyone said that they can only release Crysis 3 once and never again, just develop, put it out on the Platforms that run it and just release it later for those that just cant yet.

It is that simple.

 

[Joccaren]

Bloody hell, the amount of people on here goin 'herp derp sell outs, ees yow own faultz'.

They aren't selling out by going multi platform. They're trying to keep up. That's where the big money is, and if you want to them to justify that toad tech, they need it to make the big money.

As has been stated a number of times in this thread, they sold more copies of the original Crysis on the PC only than Crysis 2 across all platforms. Going console didn't earn them more money, what they cut out to make a console game lost them a large chunk of their PC audience.

And really, it is selling out. They're discarding their original fans and platform for the chance at some extra money. In what way is that not selling out on their PC fanbase?

 

[RubyT]

If it was only Crytek being held back, who would care. But ancient console hardware is holding the entire industry back, because no AAA game can afford to not be released on consoles.

Had development progressed as it did up until Crysis in 2007, we'd probably have graphics (textures, rendering, lighting) maxed out by now and the devs could finally start taking Animation and A.I. to the next level. 'cause really, graphics were already 8/10 in Crysis. But Animations are more like 3/10 and A.I. is a weak 1/10.