Nvidia: PC Exclusives Are Dead

[Junaid Alam]

Nvidia: PC Exclusives Are Dead

PC-exclusive titles are gone forever because of the popularity of consoles, according to an Nvidia official.

"I think we have to face the facts - the value of consoles is such that no-one is going to make a PC-exclusive game in the future," said Roy Taylor, Nvidia's vice president of content business development.

"Why would they? Why would they ignore consoles?" he asked rhetorically.

Taylor said the majority of PC gamers also own a console, which he described as the new "baseline" for development.

He predicted that there would be "co-existence" between the platforms, with console games getting ported to the PC and seeing improvements from the transition. He pointed to Assasin's Creed and Gears of War as examples of games seeing PC-specific improvements.

"That's an exciting future, and that's why I don't see anything threatening about consoles at all," Taylor said.

Nvidia dominates the discrete graphics card market on PCs, but many developers have jumped ship or decided to prioritize development for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 first.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/no-future-for-pc-exclusive-games-says-nvidia]

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[Cousin_IT]

I guess RTS & any game that requires a mouse or more than 8 buttons arnt considered worthwhile "exclusives" then :-(

 

[LCM]

So when consoles are outdated they still won't develop PC exclusives stunting the evolution of games?

 

[JakubK666]

In other news, Starcraft 2 and Wrath of the Lich King are going to be f*cking awesome.

 

[Lance Icarus]

Let us keep in mind that he's saying there are no PC exclusives anymore. He said nothing on a lack of quality causing the non-exclusivity. As a matter of fact, he's pointing at PC ports of console games better. I have to agree with him though. You either make a game that's PC and console supported or you make a game that roughly 3% of all PC owners can play at it's fullest (see Crysis).

 

[fyrh56]

Let us keep in mind that he's saying there are no PC exclusives anymore. He said nothing on a lack of quality causing the non-exclusivity. As a matter of fact, he's pointing at PC ports of console games better. I have to agree with him though. You either make a game that's PC and console supported or you make a game that roughly 3% of all PC owners can play at it's fullest (see Crysis).

Crysis is a very bad example. Just because it's a PC exclusive doesn't mean it must have the ridiculously over-the-top graphics Crysis has. NCSoft's Aion (which is a PC exclusive) even uses the Cryengine, yet it's minimum specs are far, far lower than Crysis. Besides, you can simply NOT run the game at it's fullest. Customization and scalability are PC's greatest trump cards over consoles.

I don't mind the PC not having any exclusives tho, although i think Nvidia is referring to FPS's and such. I still don't see most RTS's being played on a console, at least without a completely revolutionary control scheme or a keyboard/mouse (C&C3 on the X360 is nearly unplayable if you ask me). Plus, RTS/RTT/TBS/god games and so on are pretty much PC exclusive genres.

 

[ShadeOfRed]

So, RTS's aren't good exclusives? Sorry Blizzard, Nvidia doesn't want StarCraft 2 unless it's on a console.

 

[UpInSmoke]

I really don't see why the current gen consoles choose not to give me optional mouse and keyboard support for my rts and fps games... jerkass consoles.

 

[Oh-Wiseone]

The only games that will be PC only are RTS, which for the last several years have all sucked.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Well, if Nvidia could make a graphic card that actually worked with DX10, then perhaps I'd find this threatening.

But they can't.

 

[shadowcode]

Look at it from a publisher point of view. Why invest into an RTS if it means that you can't reach a large portion of the (console) market?

Seriously, what are the chances of a new exclusive PC RTS being developed that isn't based on an existing IP or franchise. At some point the existing franchises will die, and any new ones will be released for multiple platforms, simply because that is the wish of a publisher. For existing franchises it's a different story, since the publisher already knows how many units the original sold and sequels tend to sell better than the originals (even though the sequel might be complete and utter crap).

It's all about the money, people.

 

[ccesarano]

Wow, so much stupid in this thread disguised as intelligence. Sheep in wolf's clothing, more like.

The problem I find with the guy's statement is that he's thinking of major titles, ones with really high budgets. For example, Bioshock and Unreal Tournament 3. It's the same reason people say exclusivity on consoles is beginning to die. The budgets are rising so high to reach AAA status, but one platform is unlikely to provide the necessary level of profit unless you're an established franchise (Halo, Ninja Gaiden and Metal Gear Solid, for example). I doubt Bioshock would break even on PC, particularly because I know a lot of people where DRM and things like SecuROM make or break a purchase. Bioshock's is/was pretty ridiculous, and so people wouldn't even purchase it as a form of protest (not even going to get into pirating, because I don't think it is as major a problem as the industry makes it out to be). However, even without SecuROM, Bioshock wouldn't have the sales because there are fewer PC gamers willing to purchase it (yeah yeah, I know WoW's numbers, but do you think a lot of those players have other games on their computer? Also, how long has WoW even been out to get those numbers?).

Considering how easy it is to port a game between Windows and Xbox 360, cross-platform is almost a no brainer. At the very least you get double the sales, if not more, and therefore make a greater profit.

However, there are still several games coming out as PC exclusive by smaller studios, and I'm not just talking RTS games either. I see plenty of games on GameTrailers simply listed for PC and nothing else. However, the glut of PC games that get attention are AAA titles that become cross-platform, RTS games or MMO's.

PC exclusivity is only dead in the high-budget realm. Otherwise, there are still titles available.

I guess RTS & any game that requires a mouse or more than 8 buttons arnt considered worthwhile "exclusives" then :-(

If you're only counting A, B, X, Y, L and R triggers and L and R bumpers, yes it's 8 buttons. However, plenty of games make use of the back button for gameplay functions, which makes 9, the D-Pad is used in a lot of games I play, so that's 13 (17 if you want to use all 8 directions), and the left and right analog sticks can also click down, raising to 15-19 buttons.

And what do you know, unlike a keyboard they are all comfortably reachable. Huh.

So when consoles are outdated they still won't develop PC exclusives stunting the evolution of games?

When consoles are outdated you'll be able to upgrade for $300-$500. Considering that both the Xbox 360 and PS3 haven't yet reached full potential, but can play all these PC ports at full detail without lag or framerate drop, I'd say we've reached a time where consoles can keep up with PC's (if you want an example, both PC and PS3 fanboys were determined that the original Gears of War was the limit of the Xbox 360's capabilities, hence a lot of the environments being "closed in", but now Gears of War 2 features graphical improvements, more going on at once and larger environments....oh, and it looks better than a lot of games coming out on the PC. Reached its limits my ass).

So yeah, when games move beyond the current era of consoles, I'll be able to pay $300-$500 for a new console that will be able to run all the latest games for the next five years at max settings without lag or framerate drop. Gee, in order to get that with a PC, I'd be paying about $200 for the graphics card alone, not to mention costs for a new Processor, which might require a new motherboard, which might not only mean upgrading RAM but REPLACING the RAM......wow, might as well just buy a new computer, and one that's going to play the latest and greatest games for five years without a hitch (nothing said of installation times, driver incompatibilities, etc. etc.) is certainly going to cost more than $1000.

Yeah, see, I know that the PC has benefits that the console lacks. It's a fact. However, anyone that thinks the PC is definitively better has their head so far up their own ass they are swallowing their own shit.

 

[Aernir]

While there are definetly doing to fewer PC exclusives, i highly doubt they will die out. There are games who simply wouldn't survive a move to consoles unscathed, atleast aslong as they don't start packaging in a keyboard and mouse setup with them. Anyways, yeah, as ccesarano said above me, there aren't likely to be any high-budget AAA titles going PC exclusive. The PC isn't something you want to make an exclusive for if you want to reach a broad enough audience to make the profits necessary to justify the expense.

The PC is will probably remain the number one platform for those who want to either a) Make games that pushes todays tech to the limit (Crysis) or b) Make a game which isn't likely to hold much mainstream appeal in the first place (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.).

 

[MrCrun]

This is silly. If we're talking about games without qualifying that (i.e AAA/big publisher games) the PC will always have more exclusives than any single console or even single console generation. The number of indie developers is increasing insanely quickly and PCGamerUK did a "free year of gaming" article with 365(!) free games. Many of them are broadly similar but then so are the AAA games.

I'm not upset about non-exclusive PC games because it means I'll get to try out every AAA PC game out there by renting the console version first.
Games bought in the last month: GTA4, Sins of a Solar Empire, Galactic Civilisations 2, Trials 2 and Gish. I'm not worried.