PC Exclusives Can't Justify Triple-A Budgets, Says Brink Boss

[Yokai]

Nah. I don't believe it. Developers are making "Triple-A" PC-only games, and don't seem to plan on stopping. Everything by Relic, everything by Blizzard, most RTS developers...Crytek...Creative Assembly...anyway, I definitely think he's wrong here. Take World of Warcraft as an example. They used the same voice actors they'd been using in all their games, and the musical score was performed by university students, if I'm not mistaken. And you know what? It sounded excellent. People loved it. If that's really what he's worried about, that a quality game must constitute hiring celebrities and having some of the world's most famous musicians perform the soundtrack, he might want to set his priorities straight.

 

[Ancientgamer]

Weasel words. I mean, I can't think of any Triple A games that are PC exclusives, like Crysis, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Audiosurf, NOLF, Black and White, Starcraft, American McGee's Alice...

Maybe he just meant TripleA [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TripleA_%28computer_game%29] games.

...Age of Mythology, Dungeon Siege, Unreal Tournament, Starcraft, Diablo...

Triple A

audiosurf

NOLF

American McGee's Alice

I don't think that word means what you think it means....

Not to mention half those existed before there was such thing as a "triple A" game.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I don't think that word means what you think it means....

I'm still unsure what it means. Googling "Triple A Games" gives me an open source strategy game, perhaps that's what I meant by weasel words?

Not to mention half those existed before there was such thing as a "triple A" game.

Oh, it's a recent development? Well how about... almost every MMO then?

The thing is, I've listed some damn good games that are/were PC exclusives that Brink didn't manage to do (And there's a lot more I could add). If he could just do them, then it'd be far better than Extreme FPS Action XXVI or Misogny Fighter XV, especially for us.

 

[Jandau]

...and this just proves what many of us have been saying for a while now: Development costs are so high because developers are wasting money on pointless minor aspects that add practically nothing to the game and yet cost a fortune. Music doesn't have to be done by the country's best orchestras to be good. There are plenty of excellent voice actors that won't charge an arm and a leg just because they starred in a popular Sci-Fi show a decade or two ago. You don't need a branch of development just to devise more realistic boob physics. The list goes on...

 

[JakobBloch]

He may very well be right. I don't really care whether or not pc-exclusive tripleA titles can get the required funding.
The reason why I don't care is simple: Exclusivity is evil. It is a marketing ploy that gives the publisher and console creator all the advantages while the consumer is left with the sour taste of spunk to comfort him... or her.
As a consumer being told "you can't play this game because you invested in the wrong console" really makes my blood boil. Case and point: Brutal Legend. As far as I can tell by looking at the game there is nothing in there that demands exclusivity. Add to this that the consoles despite having prices cut to a somewhat more reasonable level (I am looking at you PS3) they are still too expensive to warrent any kind of exclusivity.

I will however like to disagree to some extent with the article. I believe that there is a difference between a score performed by the London philharmonic orchestra and say Kansas U's orchestra and the difference will be noticeable. You could however try the Hungarian philharmonic orchestra. I am told they a quite skilled and considerably cheaper. Now I like to hear well known voices in the games I play HOWEVER if you are not going to use it for anything more substantive then a sidekick that dies in the first hour you might want to spend the money somewhere else.

 

[jamesworkshop]

well i agree to a point publishers wont spend as much on a pc exclusive than they would on say an xbox 360 exclusive.
However exclusive titles are marketing gimicks being a single platform title doesn't make the game better or more highly valued by the gamers

InFamous sold next to nothing and was a ps3 exclusive

 

[nevernow]

He (maybe involuntarily) highlighted a very relevant point: games do not need London orchestras, Abbey Road studios and Hollywood voice talent.

 

[bjj hero]

Leaving out the whole voice acting and music thing, lets look at piracy. how many millions did EA lose from the leak on Sims 3 a week before launch. hundreds of thousands of downloads, each meaning EA loses $50 a pop.

i always hear people complaining about how games dont come out for PC exclusivley any more, but its the same people who will go home and download the game for free instead of buying it.

if i developed a PC title, and only made back 1/4 of the development costs because everyone decided to steal the title instead, i'de be moving to consoles too

Amazingly it apparently still sold 1.4 million copies in the first week alone and 7 million "items" sold in their electronic shop making it the "Best launch of a PC game in the company's history". Till now it sold over 4 million copies worldwide...

Apparently a game isn't part of the "cool kids" anymore if it hasn't sold 5-7 million+ like "Halo 3" nowadays. It's not like anything changed for the PC market other than consoles becoming standardized PCs and eating away at sales while keeping the tech development down to a "console level" for most if not all games.
Back in the day selling 200-500.000 copies was an amazing accomplishment and they were happy about it...

Also see Blizzard... as much as I hate it that they're part of Activision now, they're still one of the best and most profitable game developers worldwide and they're completely PC exclusive for now.

200,000 used to be great but development costs were much lower back then. by triple A he's talking about the massive budget, huge development team, "star voice actor'd" juggernaughts that get dropped on us each holiday season (although developers seem to be running away scared because MW2 is dropping this year). You have to shift a lot of copies to claw back the costs of GTAIV.

Thats not to say the best games are AAA huge budget affairs, hence the amount of XBLA games I've bought. Similar to movies, huge budget doesn't translate into genius.

It makes sense that you can make more money with a multiplatform release. Exclusives are more affordable when someone like SONY or Microsoft drop you a wad of cash, this isn't an option for PCs. Then you get on to piracy, I know people who haven't bought a single game for their PC, they torrent everything. Whether the piracy issue is a real problem threatening the livelyhood of developers or just an exageration by greedy publishers, I can't be arsed to do the research. It has to affect sales though and shareholders only look at profit.

 

[rated pg]

Weasel words. I mean, I can't think of any Triple A games that are PC exclusives, like Crysis, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Audiosurf, NOLF, Black and White, Starcraft, American McGee's Alice...

Maybe he just meant TripleA [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TripleA_%28computer_game%29] games.

...Age of Mythology, Dungeon Siege, Unreal Tournament, Starcraft, Diablo...

Audiosurf is NOT Triple A, it barely even counts as fun. And Unreal Tournament isn't exclusive. And most of those haven't come out in, say, this console generation.

 

[CrysisMcGee]

I've said this before, I want more PC exclusive games. However, this is partly due to a large number of bad cross-overs. And it's happened when PC goes to Console as well. Now I Enjoy may games that cross platform, and I don't mind seeing more of them. However, they need to take the time to do it right.

I will wait 6 months for a decent port to come out, instead of playing a broken game.

Also Command and Conquer 4 will be PC exclusive. Halo Wars is console exclusive. Doesn't make a lot of sense if you ask me, I'm sure Halo Wars would do well on the PC. Not so sure about C&C 4 on a console.

 

[CrysisMcGee]

You may not like his reasoning but he's right though...If anyone truly thinks they can reach more people if they go PC exclusive then if they develop on a console they are sorely mistaken.

The PC market is smaller then the combined console market, period. Thats just a simple fact. It makes perfect sense that if given the choice to develop between a PC and Console a developer goes with a console. Thats just a sound business decision.

The PC market can be considered larger than all the consoles combined, if you count the thousands of free games available for download, Combat Arms to name one. They make their money by charging for the extras, and they make a boatload of cash with this.

Also the fact that PC games are Retroactive, backwards compatability and all that.

However, when speaking of 50 dollar games, then no one is larger than the others combined. Even the Wii.

Also due to Piracy, A game may go to console over PC. In fact, I fully support this decision. However, I believe that after 6 months or a year, they can move to PC. Just like GTA.

 

[CrysisMcGee]

I'm gonna chalk this one down to "Bad developer burns away his money clueless and then ditches the blame".

It's cool to blame the PC now.

Man we've been doing that to consoles for years. Everything goes full circle, I guess.

 

[Amnestic]

You may not like his reasoning but he's right though...If anyone truly thinks they can reach more people if they go PC exclusive then if they develop on a console they are sorely mistaken.

The PC market is smaller then the combined console market, period. Thats just a simple fact. It makes perfect sense that if given the choice to develop between a PC and Console a developer goes with a console. Thats just a sound business decision.

The PC market can be considered larger than all the consoles combined, if you count the thousands of free games available for download, Combat Arms to name one. They make their money by charging for the extras, and they make a boatload of cash with this.

Also the fact that PC games are Retroactive, backwards compatability and all that.

However, when speaking of 50 dollar games, then no one is larger than the others combined. Even the Wii.

Also due to Piracy, A game may go to console over PC. In fact, I fully support this decision. However, I believe that after 6 months or a year, they can move to PC. Just like GTA.

Piracy exists on consoles too, ya know.

 

[CrysisMcGee]

...and this just proves what many of us have been saying for a while now: Development costs are so high because developers are wasting money on pointless minor aspects that add practically nothing to the game and yet cost a fortune. Music doesn't have to be done by the country's best orchestras to be good. There are plenty of excellent voice actors that won't charge an arm and a leg just because they starred in a popular Sci-Fi show a decade or two ago. You don't need a branch of development just to devise more realistic boob physics. The list goes on...

Music is a huge part of games, and you need somebody good to write it. As for where it is recorded, the London Orchestra is probably money wasted.

But money spent on writing music is well-spent.

Get this, there are professional Voice actors! Yes, people that have never acted in their life, except with their voice. Don't cost as much as Patrick Stewert, and sounds just as good.

 

[DTWolfwood]

thanks for being honest. That's all i want from Developers to say that "its not worth it" XD which is totally understandable. What MW2 did anger me more cause they want to make stupid excuses instead of just saying it not worth it to change it up for the PC version (the arbitrary increase in price helped too)

 

[No_Remainders]

And we all know Diablo is designed for the PC, and as far as I'm aware, the iphone doesnt count as a platform in terms of ACTUAL gaming

Diablo was on PS1 as well as PC...

 

[JakobBloch]

Diablo was on PS1 as well as PC...

Actually it was a port that was released 1 year after the PC version. Speaking of which... whatever happened to the Diablo Spawn idea. I liked that one.

 

[rossatdi]

Whether or not the guy is coming from an established development studio he raises an important point.

1) The PC has the smallest market for new, non-MMORPG, top-line games (I'm thinking Halo / Resitance / Call of Duty etc, not the Sims). The number of consumers who have a) the right specs to run a new game, b) aren't just going to steal it anyway and c) have the money to buy it is a small market compared to everyone with a 360 or a PS3.

2) Games developers need to make money to survive. They want to make as much money as possible. This can be done by making sure your game will be released on multiple platforms.

3) The income stream from console games is liable to be larger than that of its PC brethern, so why the hell bother with PC exclusive.

PS. I prefer a mouse and keyboard, so why the fuck can't we mortals have usb support for this gen consoles? (I know the arguments, I just, you know, have a 360 and an old PC!).