Firaxis Explains Why XCOM 2 Had to be PC Exclusive

[loa]

Not sure why any of this wouldn't work on a console or why a turn based strategy game has "high-fidelity characters and environments, physically based rendering" and "better-looking destruction" listed as crucial elements for the game to work at all but ok.

The problems of EU were a bit more fundamental than shiny alien butts or sparkly explosions.
For instance your guy not having line of sight of the alien right in front of his face, then getting shot through 3 walls or only being able to move twice so you can't correct inevitable line of sight issues which is bullshit or not being able to directly take aim at cover with your regular guns so cover destruction is completely random in a game where cover destruction is everything and where an exploding car can be the difference between loss and victory or how terribly that panic system was being handled.

But sure, it has to be PC exclusive because of pretty explosions and shiny graphics which are irreducably crucial and consoles totes can't handle auto-tiled maps, fo reals yo.

If that's really their focus, this game is gonna suck.
I'll trade shinyness for substance any day of the week when it comes to an xcom successor since a lack of stuff to do differently was its biggest shortcoming

 

[dragoongfa]

Time to save up for a new rig because this old thing won't handle it...

 

[Fox12]

That sucks for PS4 and X-Box One users. Perhaps after they release the game they can then port it to the consoles.

Or they could just spend an extra $200 above what a console costs, and buy a PC that is more than 3 times as powerful. That's what, a console and 2 games?

Or maybe games could be more readily available on all consoles, so no one has to miss out? I'm tired of everyone arguing about who has the best toy.

 

[Ladylotus]

Question. Can console gamers now become as whiny complain as much as PC gamers that they got screwed? Or are they just being told to not "buy an idiot-box next time"?

Er, no. They have to repeat this situation for about 200 more times during next 10 years or so, and THEN begin to whine.

Don't forget about the ports that did make it but barely worked.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Well that sucks for me, personally.

I've got to say the "expertise" thing does ring a little hollow , considering roughly the same team (as far as I'm aware there's been no huge comings or going) simultaneously released EU/EW on PC, 360 and PS3, whose architectures were all vastly different from each other in comparison to these new consoles, and then managed to port the game to everything short of a toaster, and nothing that I've heard about XCOM 2 so far sounds impossible to implement on consoles.

 

[Worgen]

Good. I picked up Xcom: EU during a sale for my old 360 and the controls were horrible. Now that they just have to focus on one market (and best market), Xcom 2 should be amazing.

SHOULD be, doesn't mean it will.

I found the controller to work pretty well on it, as opposed to mouse and keyboard which was weirdly awkward to use. Anyway, now they are just focusing on the pc the m/k should work much better.

 

[vallorn]

Hey if I don't get to play a superior version of Bloodborne on my PC, console gamers don't get to play an inferior version of Xcom 2 on those strange little television boxes.

 

[Passive Aggression]

I can't really see the game being all that enjoyable to play on the consoles. Then again, people play shooters on the consoles, and that's awful.
It's a bit of a shame for those who were looking forwards to it, but, sadly that's just how it pans out sometimes. It doesn't look like a particularly taxing game, so, even a modest computer should be able to run it.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

I'm a PC gamer but I fully support cross-platform titles. So I do hope it comes to consoles eventually for you guys.

That said, a strategy title like XCOM is not easily played with a controller setup and I'm looking forward a lot to the additional features for UI and mods that a bigger focus on the PC release will bring.

 

[cthulhuspawn82]

I'm always glad when a major game is PC exclusive. I have never seen the "console vs PC" thing to be about hardware but rather about two different types of people. I respect the Dudebros, but I hate how cross platform games have to be "dumbed down" and "action packed" to make it accessible to them. This is a tactical strategy game. It's shouldn't have to sacrifice that to be accessible to the console players.

 

[Redryhno]

It is so wonderful to hear the complaints coming out of the mouths of the consolers that are nearly carbon copies of the ones told by the PC crowd for years when it came to exclusives and ports and being told to suck it up.

So allow me to have this wonderful moment to repeat it, "Suck it up, wait for them to realize a port is profitable in a year or so, won't be that long of a wait".

 

[Bat Vader]

It is so wonderful to hear the complaints coming out of the mouths of the consolers that are nearly carbon copies of the ones told by the PC crowd for years when it came to exclusives and ports and being told to suck it up.

So allow me to have this wonderful moment to repeat it, "Suck it up, wait for them to realize a port is profitable in a year or so, won't be that long of a wait".

That's a pretty wide generalization. Not all console owners are like that just like all PC gamers aren't elitists.

I'm always glad when a major game is PC exclusive. I have never seen the "console vs PC" thing to be about hardware but rather about two different types of people. I respect the Dudebros, but I hate how cross platform games have to be "dumbed down" and "action packed" to make it accessible to them. This is a tactical strategy game. It's shouldn't have to sacrifice that to be accessible to the console players.

I played Enemy Unknown on both console and PC and I didn't notice any of that. By any chance are you talking about The Bureau: Xcom Declassified? That was a separate game entirely.

 

[Redryhno]

It is so wonderful to hear the complaints coming out of the mouths of the consolers that are nearly carbon copies of the ones told by the PC crowd for years when it came to exclusives and ports and being told to suck it up.

So allow me to have this wonderful moment to repeat it, "Suck it up, wait for them to realize a port is profitable in a year or so, won't be that long of a wait".

That's a pretty wide generalization. Not all console owners are like that just like all PC gamers aren't elitists.

C'mon man, just start up a thread about Bloodborne needing to have a PC release, or the Dark Souls port. Or one of a thousand games that were console exclusive that PC gamers didn't get a shot at. There'll be a plethora of console players singing to the tune of "So what?". Now it's just a sweet joke because there's something that can be pointed to that everyone can understand when people say "PC is better".

 

[Terminal Blue]

I don't own a console, and haven't done since I was a teenager. As a result, I've missed out on many games which I'm sure were excellent but were either console exclusives or designed so heavily with console in mind that the PC port was barely functional.

PC seems to be having a revival right now as a gaming platform (for better or for worse) but for a long time the boot was squarely on the other foot. I remember when I stopped being able to buy PC games in stores (which was genuinely annoying, as I lived in a rural area with capped internet usage).

I'm not saying this is a good thing. In an ideal world, everyone should get to play the game they want in whatever format they want and get an experience which is tailored to their needs, but in reality some developers do build games primarily for PC or consoles because that's what they're good at, and complaining about that is futile and only asking to be insulted with knock-off, barely functioning ports tacked on at the last minute.

The thing is though, developers like Firaxis and Paradox aren't going to die out unless they can get some of that sweet console money, they have incredibly committed and loyal PC fanbases to whom they are primarily marketing.

Consoles are valid platforms for gaming, but they are not the platforms for gaming. That's what people need to get over.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Good-bye XCOM 2. I will miss you, as you looked like a game that would address some of my criticisms of Enemy Unknown. But alas, it apparently is not meant to be for me. :-(

 

[IceStar100]

Meh I will miss not playing Xcom I still love enemy within but it's there product. Heck I never played the witcher 1. Just not worth getting a gaming lap top. Heck I only got the console becuase it had the most games I wanted to play. All in all I have bill and have to be an adult.

That all said I glad it at least is getting a second game. If they decide to put it out on PS4 later greate. If not a year down the road I will have forgotten about it. As another poster said another game will come out.

 

[cthulhuspawn82]

I'm always glad when a major game is PC exclusive. I have never seen the "console vs PC" thing to be about hardware but rather about two different types of people. I respect the Dudebros, but I hate how cross platform games have to be "dumbed down" and "action packed" to make it accessible to them. This is a tactical strategy game. It's shouldn't have to sacrifice that to be accessible to the console players.

I played Enemy Unknown on both console and PC and I didn't notice any of that. By any chance are you talking about The Bureau: Xcom Declassified? That was a separate game entirely.[/quote]

We cant know for sure how Enemy Unknown would have turned out if it were a PC exclusive. We cant know for sure if it was "dumbed down" for the console crowd. But Dragon Age and Elder Scroll developers have both admitted to making major changes to their games because the players are, in their words, "scared of numbers" and that people were quitting the game after being presented with the character creation screen. It is an assumption on my part that these people are primarily console players. I think that assumption is not too far of however. I remember Dragon Age some other games actually monitored gamely choices people were making and found console players were far more likely to make irrational and violent gamely decisions.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

We cant know for sure how Enemy Unknown would have turned out if it were a PC exclusive. We cant know for sure if it was "dumbed down" for the console crowd. But Dragon Age and Elder Scroll developers have both admitted to making major changes to their games because the players are, in their words, "scared of numbers" and that people were quitting the game after being presented with the character creation screen. It is an assumption on my part that these people are primarily console players. I think that assumption is not too far of however. I remember Dragon Age some other games actually monitored gamely choices people were making and found console players were far more likely to make irrational and violent gamely decisions.

There's no doubt in my mind it would have turned out better. Concessions are always bad. Firaxis has said they're a PC developer, so they would have had to change the experience they wanted to accommodate consoles. That's not good.

What I'd like is PC and all the different consoles to remain separate so they can excel in their own individual ways. Like they were in the SNES days. Ports are bad, and multiplatforming is bad. Perhaps this is why my favorite games over the past decade have been PC exclusives or handheld games - which didn't have to cripple themselves for accessibility's sake.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

That's too bad, I'm not getting a gaming PC any time soon.