Epic: We Have Not Abandoned the PC

[oktalist]

With Epic offering the Unreal Development Kit free to whoever wants it, it's hard to make the case that it isn't supporting the PC platform.

Free for non-commercial use, that is. UDK and the Source SDK should be watching id Software closely, as they have said they will release id Tech 4 (the engine behind Doom 3 and Quake 4) under the GNU General Public License next year, as they have already done with their earlier engines.

 

[Autofaux]

Epic, I respect you. You make good games, but can you PLEASE release Gears of war 2 and 3 for the PC? That's all I want! You released the first one and now it just feels like your teasing us!

In regards to Gears 2; you aren't missing out on much.

Speaking at the GameHorizon conference in Newcastle, UK, Epic VP Mark Rein said that despite the misconceptions of some, the company was still very much a PC developer.

"I think that it's a myth that we've abandoned the PC, it's just not true," he said. "I mean, Bulletstorm is coming out on three platforms; we've just been in this situation where our biggest franchise has been published by a console-holder, and was a very console designed-IP."

That and being on consoles minimises the chances of piracy and releasing on PC requires a hell of a lot more patching than on consoles.

True, they haven't abandoned the PC. It's not the highest of priorities anymore, however.

 

[Lawyer105]

And I might even believe them. If they were going to code the PC version for the PC. But let's be honest... they probably aren't. They'll just make a lame-ass port just like most other developers these days and then claim that they support the PC.

Bitter much?? What gives you that idea... Cynical and sarcastic? Hmm... gonna have to plead guilty there!

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Well, that's what you are doing, isn't it? Mind explaining Gears of War 1 for the PC for us?

 

[JeanLuc761]

Well, that's what you are doing, isn't it? Mind explaining Gears of War 1 for the PC for us?

yeah, that one's a shame. It was a phenomenally good port; ran great, extra content only for PC. Problem is, everyone already had it on console so nobody wanted the PC version (should have had simultaneous release dates).

Now the PC players can't finish the trilogy unless they want to shell out for a 360.

 

[Busdriver580]

Epic, I respect you. You make good games, but can you PLEASE release Gears of war 2 and 3 for the PC? That's all I want! You released the first one and now it just feels like your teasing us!

In regards to Gears 2; you aren't missing out on much.

Speaking at the GameHorizon conference in Newcastle, UK, Epic VP Mark Rein said that despite the misconceptions of some, the company was still very much a PC developer.

"I think that it's a myth that we've abandoned the PC, it's just not true," he said. "I mean, Bulletstorm is coming out on three platforms; we've just been in this situation where our biggest franchise has been published by a console-holder, and was a very console designed-IP."

That and being on consoles minimises the chances of piracy and releasing on PC requires a hell of a lot more patching than on consoles.

True, they haven't abandoned the PC. It's not the highest of priorities anymore, however.

Agreed. They seem to think Gears can replace UT as their flagship, but that will never happen until they decide to properly patch the gears games to fix bugs and balancing isues that would be, presumably, easy enough to fix if they ever fixed their damn games.

 

[sunburst]

Now the PC players can't finish the trilogy unless they want to shell out for a 360.

I'm almost positive that was the whole idea.

 

[ultimateownage]

Even though I remember you stating at one point that you where no longer a pc developer. Shut up Epic. Also, I remember them saying in E3 that the characters in Bullet Storm where really likeable, fleshed out, and 4 dimensional. The main character just shot stuff, made crappy jokes, and swore. STOP LYING TO US!

 

[HK_01]

Haha, liars! But us PC gamers don't need them since CliffyB spewed so much hatred towards us.

 

[Doug]

A few months ago, didn't he say the future of PC gaming was in Facebook, and that it's future certainly didn't look anything like Gears of War?

Also, it's not actually the core Epic team that's developing Bulletstorm, so I don't know if that counts or not.

Indeedie, they did. Not interested in Bullet storm as of present, but then again, not really looked into it.

Haha, liars! But us PC gamers don't need them since CliffyB spewed so much hatred towards us.

Quite so - I believe they made many comments about how the PC was bad as a gaming platform on the grounds of its piracy rate.

 

[SnugglesPanda]

Quite so - I believe they made many comments about how the PC was bad as a gaming platform on the grounds of its piracy rate.

I'll just be over here smoking my corn cob pipe and using my extremely accurate and precise mouse owning with abandon. Then I'll play some games at max settings and not pirate a game.

Oh epic =/. They just don't like PC's

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Well you could've fooled... everyone. Well as long as you haven't. I'm waiting for a new Unreal Tournament with an all new engine and more mayhem.

 

[thatstheguy]

Don't confuse Gears of War with everything we do.

Whoops!

Perhaps if they tried varying their properties a bit more than just cow-men with guns.[/quote]

These are the guys who made Jill of the Jungle and Jazz Jackrabbit. Granted, that was many years ago, but most of the designers from the early days are still here now (Cliffy B even co-created Jazz Jackrabbit).

 

[whaleswiththumbs]

Epic, I respect you. You make good games, but can you PLEASE release Gears of war 2 and 3 for the PC? That's all I want! You released the first one and now it just feels like your teasing us!

Calumon: Jack doesn't want a 360. Not enough exclusives he wants. : /

I have no comment on this, i just like how you post.

OT:
So by giving away their development kit, and not making games for PC, just somewhat porting them, means they haven't left? Seems a little, skewed to me.

 

[Chaos Marine]

If you want to show you're still committed to the PC market, how about releasing GoW 1 and 2? I'm not interested in getting some melt-down prone mess of a machine to play one or two games.

 

[Rakkana]

What do we program them on again?

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Bulletstorm is PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and you'll see when it comes out, it will be a full-blown, oh-my-god amazing PC game."

Here, let's edit that statement a little to mirror something a certain other developer said about a certain up-coming multi-platform game of theirs:

"Borderlands is PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and you'll see when it comes out, it will be a full-blown, oh-my-god amazing PC game."

Yeah, and we all know how well the PC version of THAT game came out. This is the part where I make the "finger down my throat" gesture, except you wouldn't see it.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

If you want to show you're still committed to the PC market, how about releasing GoW 1 and 2? I'm not interested in getting some melt-down prone mess of a machine to play one or two games.

Actually, they did release Gears 1 on the PC (or rather, they hired some other company to do a shoddy port). And Gears 2 was announced as specifically not getting a port because, as specifically stated by the president of Epic, the PC community is nothing more than pirates.

Mind that he said it in a politically-safe "I didn't say that" sort of way, but tell me that there's any other way to interpret his statement when he says that anyone with a good computer knows how to work torrent sites, and thus it isn't worth doing a PC port. Yeah...

Epic doesn't give two shits about the PC crowd, and until I see tangible proof of otherwise (IE: Bulletstorm actually being far superior on the PC like they're promising), nothing will change that.

 

[Optimus Hagrid]

I'll say, check out the downloads sections for UT3 for the 360...