Grand Theft Auto V for PC and Wii U "Up For Consideration"

[Metalrocks]

even when i lost interest in this franchise since gta4, after the many problems the game has on the pc and especially with ati cards owner as my self, its never fair to leave out the pc community.
LA noire worked fine on the pc and max payne 3 worked as well. never had any problems with them, so why they think its not worth it? only because they screwed up gta4?

 

[sonofliber]

how to make a succesfull pc game:

-release it the same day as consoles
-do not put extremly shitty DRM
-put some effort in the port
-enjoy massive amounts of cash

 

[Playful Pony]

I'm disapointed that it's not coming for PC any time soon if at all, but I'm hardly surprised. Rockstar has been primarily on console since GTA 3 (basically since they changed their name to Rockstar!), with mostly poorly made ports have followed for the PC a long time after the initial launch. I guess Max Payne 3 was a somewhat decent port. I still played it with my xbox controller, but I could enjoy it on the PC with decent visuals!

I'm still going to get it and play it on my roomies PS3 (or alternatively, wait for HIM to get it and then play) cause I love the GTA series and I have always enjoyed all of the games in the series, ever since I first played GTA 1 on my cousins PC while vacationing there one time in the late 90's. Good, innocent times for a young girl with a thing for plushies and murdering pixels <3.

GTA 4 sold less than a million copies on the PC in it's first year, the console versions sold ten million copies in four months (each having a higher trade and retail price than the PC version).

Small wonder, when they don't even release them at even close to the same time. We're looking at something like 6 months to a year a least before some of these ports show up, and they are at times nearly unplayable!

 

[frobalt]

"At a creative level, which is the most important for us, we could say everything we wanted to say and do everything we wanted to do on these machines."

Thank. You. I still don't see the need for a new console generation, and until someone can show me something that the new consoles can do (other than better graphics) that couldn't just be a firmware update to the old ones, I'll stick to my belief.

On the other hand, the lack of a PC version means I won't be playing it in the foreseeable future Not like there was a high chance of me buying it anyway given Rockstar's track record with their pc versions, but still.

The biggest point will be improved hardware. It might sound a bit stupid to have new generations based mostly on hardware, but you've got to realise the biggest advantage console gaming has over PC gaming is homogenised hardware.

To realise why this is an advantage, you have to look at it from the eyes of a developer. When creating a game for PC, you have to take into account a wide range of hardware and software set-ups, which certainly makes things a bit harder to develop, however, for a console you know exactly what hardware and software you are working with. Also, you know everyone that has that console can then run your game.

From a consumer point of view, having a console means you don't have to worry about upgrading hardware every so often in order to run games, and you also know that you will be able to run all the games for that system. Also, consoles are reasonably priced, whereas a top of the range pc can set you back quite a bit of money.

Although, it has just occurred to me that if 'consoles' were basically just PCs that were packaged as gaming rigs then it would be much easier to solve this problem. All you'd need to do is program in a way to control the game via keyboard and mouse and a way to control it via game pad, which most games on PC do anyway.

 

[Theminimanx]

"At a creative level, which is the most important for us, we could say everything we wanted to say and do everything we wanted to do on these machines."

Thank. You. I still don't see the need for a new console generation, and until someone can show me something that the new consoles can do (other than better graphics) that couldn't just be a firmware update to the old ones, I'll stick to my belief.

On the other hand, the lack of a PC version means I won't be playing it in the foreseeable future Not like there was a high chance of me buying it anyway given Rockstar's track record with their pc versions, but still.

The biggest point will be improved hardware. It might sound a bit stupid to have new generations based mostly on hardware, but you've got to realise the biggest advantage console gaming has over PC gaming is homogenised hardware.

To realise why this is an advantage, you have to look at it from the eyes of a developer. When creating a game for PC, you have to take into account a wide range of hardware and software set-ups, which certainly makes things a bit harder to develop, however, for a console you know exactly what hardware and software you are working with. Also, you know everyone that has that console can then run your game.

From a consumer point of view, having a console means you don't have to worry about upgrading hardware every so often in order to run games, and you also know that you will be able to run all the games for that system. Also, consoles are reasonably priced, whereas a top of the range pc can set you back quite a bit of money.

Although, it has just occurred to me that if 'consoles' were basically just PCs that were packaged as gaming rigs then it would be much easier to solve this problem. All you'd need to do is program in a way to control the game via keyboard and mouse and a way to control it via game pad, which most games on PC do anyway.

You may have misunderstood my point. I completely understand why most people play on console, and if FPS's played well on console, I'd probably have one too. What I was trying to say is that I don't see much of an advantage in getting new hardware (regardless of wether this is a better pc or a new console generation), aside from better graphics. I'd love to see some examples of games that actually put the new hardware to good use though.

 

[frobalt]

- snip -

You may have misunderstood my point. I completely understand why most people play on console, and if FPS's played well on console, I'd probably have one too. What I was trying to say is that I don't see much of an advantage in getting new hardware (regardless of wether this is a better pc or a new console generation), aside from better graphics. I'd love to see some examples of games that actually put the new hardware to good use though.

I see your point. Graphics is definitely 1 reason to upgrade hardware, but there are also other aspects of a game that can benefit from new hardware. AI being one of them.

Also, the upgrades are probably quite significant, especially given how long ago the last generation was released.

 

[Beryl77]

Let me guess, the PC version would be out more than half a year after the console release and some really annoying DRM attached to it, where it would be much easier to play the game as a pirate. Oh and don't forget, they would put barely any effort into the port and later say that there might not be much of an audience for a PC version, even though a GOOD PC version would sell really good.
I used to really like Rockstar but their PC release policy is starting to annoy me. I don't think I'll buy GTA V even though I'm a big fan of the GTA games. GTA IV was too much of a hassle and badly done, I don't want to give them money for that.

 

[Royas]

They always release the PC versions later, but they do release them every time. The problem with the port for GTA4 was that it was poorly done and they saddled it and Liberty City Stories with crappy DRM. They have a lot of nerve being surprised it didn't sell as well. Do a quality port, or even a parallel development stream, and axe the DRM for a single activation CD key or Steamworks and you might see sales go up significantly.

GTA4 was the first GTA game I didn't finish on the PC, just because I couldn't stand the way it played. Given my love for the GTA3 games on the PC, that's saying something.

 

[JochemHippie]

Does it say enough that I know plenty of people who still consider buying a console just for RDR?
If they'd actually bother to release it on Day 1 through Steam I can guarantee the sales will be huge.

 

[Vie]

Rockstar do this with every GTA release now.

"Oh, maybe we will do a PC version at some point." or "Oh no, we don't have any plans for a PC version at the moment."

They then release it half a year after the console version with a graphics upgrade. They just want people to buy the game twice because they know we will buy the PC version for mods.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

I honestly don't really care. GTA4 wasn't very good so I'll stick to Saint's Row for now instead. If they end up porting it I might look into it for a half off sale or something, but if it's anything like GTA4 it will be a par average game that removes a lot of the fun that GTA:SA brought to the series.

GTA 4 sold less than a million copies on the PC in it's first year... ...As much as this deflates my PC gamer ego, when asked about a PC release for GTA V, Rockstar's correct answer should be what is the point?

Firstly as I recall the PC Version used GFWL which for myself and plenty of other people is a huge fucking 'don't buy this game' sign. I was actually considering buying it earlier and then noticed that fact and ended up not bothering for like two years before I grabbed it for 5$ on steam. So maybe they should try porting it correctly before they complain that PC users didn't like it. Also when I got it like 2 years after the fact there was still a practically game-breaking bug(If you change controls) where you try to climb into a helicopter or something.

Anyways according to http://www.vgchartz.com/game/25503/grand-theft-auto-iv/ they sold 700,000 copies on retail PC alone. And retail is hardly representative of how most PC gamers buy games nowadays. The digital sales number could easily be above 2 million.

But for the sake of making an argument, lets use an insane baseline, and just assume absolutely no one, not a single person bought the game on steam or any other digital source. And lets assume that the total average savings people got from sales and pre-purchases was 10%.

60$ tabulated with 10% off is 54$. So 700,000 people buying a game for 54$ is 37.8 Million dollars would be the total revenue just from retail sales alone.

Average salary for Rockstar north(that developed GTA4) is 65,000$ per year. 37.8 million divided by 65,000 is 582. So in order for the PC to be an unprofitable enterprise, the project would have to require Rockstar hiring nearly 600 programmers for an entire year to port to PC and there would also have to be absolutely 0 digital sales.

The reality is that you could probably hire a team of 15 programmers and crank out a PC port in a few months. If we assume that it takes the team a solid year to create the port(which is doubtful) we still have less than a million in costs, and thus net 36.8 million in profits from retail sales alone. Or a 3,780% gain on the investment.

Saying there isn't an insane profit to be had by porting a finished product to PC is silly. The arguments they can use are 'our programmers have no idea how to code for PCs and we don't want to expand our company/profit margin by hiring new programmers because of vague philosophical reasons.' Otherwise they are just passing up on easy money to be gained by porting software that already has all it's textures finished, it's gameplay finished, it's voice acting finished, it's writing finished, it's... well you get the idea: most of the work is already done.

 

[devotedsniper]

Damn...there goes my dream of playing it, i thought it was actually coming to pc (you know cause the majority of games do come on ps3, 360, and pc). I don't really want to buy a 360 copy if i'm honest.

The problem with 4's pc version was it was a half arsed port, my pc which at the time ran any and everything on max would run it fine until it started raining then the game was near unplayable. If they developed it properly alongside the console dev cycle then there would be less bugs.

All i can say is i'm disappointed, I was really looking forward to this.

 

[Evil Smurf]

"Up for consideration"? Screw that. I'll just save my money for Saints Row 4. Volition can make a good PC version when they want to (Saints Row 3), and their games feel more like GTA games than GTA IV did. I'll bet the same will be correct for GTA V.

Amen brother, I'll buy Saints Row 4 for either WiiU or PC, whichever can run it the best. I just hope they keep the DLC prices lower this time.

 

[SilverUchiha]

Never played a GTA game before because it was before I really got into gaming outside of Nintendo. But I liked Saints Row 2 & 3 for PC and if they made it for either PC or WiiU (or both) I'd be inclined to get it. Give me a fair comparison to the wacky & zany saints.

"Up for consideration"? Screw that. I'll just save my money for Saints Row 4. Volition can make a good PC version when they want to (Saints Row 3), and their games feel more like GTA games than GTA IV did. I'll bet the same will be correct for GTA V.

Amen brother, I'll buy Saints Row 4 for either WiiU or PC, whichever can run it the best. I just hope they keep the DLC prices lower this time.

Full agreement there by the way. Hopefully Saints Row 4 isn't just another short game with multiple packs of DLC to gouge us for more money though. Fun as it is, if that's the case again, I'll be inclined to wait about a year like last time and just get a "GOTY" edition or Steam bundle for cheap.