And to publishers. Stop being so greedy. Out of the money it took to create a game for the 360 and PS3, the money to make it playable on the PC is hardly anything. Just becuase the PC does not give the billion figure returns you have come to expect on consoles does not mean it is not worth while. I think PC retunrs have stayed the same but when compared to the ever incrasing console returns they don't seem worth it, maybe the problem is you are actually not greedy enough.
Yeah, what kind of business just wants to make money? Oh wait.
The thing about PC games is they're REALLY easy to crack/pirate compared to console games. And if you can get a cracked version for free on a PC then you aren't going to pay RRP on the console version. If a game released a PC version and it was pirated heavily enough it could actually hurt overall profits due to less console sales. Plus PC people tend to refuse to pay more than £30 for a game, whereas console gamers will happily fork over £40...
Can someone explain to me why publishers are really needed? I would've thought you could basicly just port it, and then distribute it practically for free via steam for example.
Don't mean to fan any flames here, but I'm getting kinda sick of the sense of entitlement people have with expecting every game in existance to have a PC port. It's worse than console fanboyism.
Meh, PC had better sales last year then both the Xbox 360 and PS3 the only thing about the PC is that it has less of the big hit sales and generally PC users expect more from a game.
And if you look at any tracker it's easy to see that games are always leaked first for the 360 and are downloaded a lot, also it's not hard to crack at all, people are just full of it, and publishers get paid for exclusive deals by microsoft and sony.
Wasn't Brutal Legend kind of a let down? I never read one positive review of it. Another asshole going the "It's the fan's fault" route instead of having the balls to admit the truth.
And to publishers. Stop being so greedy. Out of the money it took to create a game for the 360 and PS3, the money to make it playable on the PC is hardly anything. Just becuase the PC does not give the billion figure returns you have come to expect on consoles does not mean it is not worth while. I think PC retunrs have stayed the same but when compared to the ever incrasing console returns they don't seem worth it, maybe the problem is you are actually not greedy enough.
Yeah, what kind of business just wants to make money? Oh wait.
The thing about PC games is they're REALLY easy to crack/pirate compared to console games. And if you can get a cracked version for free on a PC then you aren't going to pay RRP on the console version. If a game released a PC version and it was pirated heavily enough it could actually hurt overall profits due to less console sales. Plus PC people tend to refuse to pay more than £30 for a game, whereas console gamers will happily fork over £40...
And que the piracy argument. Since generally PC games are released months after the consoles versions I don't think PC piracy is hurting consoles sales.
And how is saying that publishers would rather sell to the saps who are happy to pay more for the same game not agreeing with my point that they are greedy. No-one is saying that they should not make money, I'm not a communist. But unless you are making zero profit or a loss then using it as an excuse is not on. I.E there is profit, but not enough for greedy people, that's my point.
Oh and that difference in PC to console game pricing is that the games makers don't have to pay license fees to Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo when they sell a PC game. But of course I am sure publishers begrudge passing even that saving on to consumers....
And to publishers. Stop being so greedy. Out of the money it took to create a game for the 360 and PS3, the money to make it playable on the PC is hardly anything. Just becuase the PC does not give the billion figure returns you have come to expect on consoles does not mean it is not worth while. I think PC retunrs have stayed the same but when compared to the ever incrasing console returns they don't seem worth it, maybe the problem is you are actually not greedy enough.
Yeah, what kind of business just wants to make money? Oh wait.
The thing about PC games is they're REALLY easy to crack/pirate compared to console games. And if you can get a cracked version for free on a PC then you aren't going to pay RRP on the console version. If a game released a PC version and it was pirated heavily enough it could actually hurt overall profits due to less console sales. Plus PC people tend to refuse to pay more than £30 for a game, whereas console gamers will happily fork over £40...
And que the piracy argument. Since generally PC games are released months after the consoles versions I don't think PC piracy is hurting consoles sales.
And how is saying that publishers would rather sell to the saps who are happy to pay more for the same game not agreeing with my point that they are greedy. No-one is saying that they should not make money, I'm not a communist. But unless you are making zero profit or a loss then using it as an excuse is not on. I.E there is profit, but not enough for greedy people, that's my point.
Oh and that difference in PC to console game pricing is that the games makers don't not have to pay license fees to Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo when they sell a PC game. But of course I am sure publishers begrudge passing that saving on to consumers....
Ofcourse PC pirating isn't hurting console game sales. Because they're phasing out PC gaming. If publishers didn't want to pass on the license savings on to players then they would just release games at the same price as console games and make a tidy profit, but people just refuse to pay £40 for PC games. Hell I'm guilty of it myself (Which is why I don't have SC2 yet).
Don't know any current console that will take a mouse without extra hardware to 'sort of' make it work.
This I definately want on a t-shirt. And on the back it would say 'Actually joypads are also good, as on my game system I have the choice, how about on yours?' Or something which is not such a mouthful.
Then I assume you don't know anything about consoles. PS3 supports any usual USB mouse (Logitech ones are good for example). For menus (XMB) etc. As for games it's up to developers. So far only UT3 on PS3 fully supports mouse. Other developers don't bother assuming that majority will use dualshock 3 anyway.
Don't know any current console that will take a mouse without extra hardware to 'sort of' make it work.
This I definately want on a t-shirt. And on the back it would say 'Actually joypads are also good, as on my game system I have the choice, how about on yours?' Or something which is not such a mouthful.
Then I assume you don't know anything about consoles. PS3 supports any usual USB mouse (Logitech ones are good for example). For menus (XMB) etc. As for games it's up to developers. So far only UT3 on PS3 fully supports mouse. Other developers don't bother assuming that majority will use dualshock 3 anyway.
Sorry? Are really going to counter with consoles support mice because you can use them to move around menus and on 1 game. Please....
Obviously all recent consoles can interface with a mouse since they all support USB. Obviously what I mean by support is not being forced to use a joypad for everything. You are allowed to use Wheel controllers for driving games on consoles after all.
Properly support mice on consoles and the PC gaming market will be dead over night.
Wasn't Brutal Legend kind of a let down? I never read one positive review of it. Another asshole going the "It's the fan's fault" route instead of having the balls to admit the truth.
You've never read any reviews of it, then. Apart from possibly Destructoid, but it's evident from that review that that guy was playing the game completely wrong. Basically, Brutal Legend was a hard game to wrap your head round, but because most game reviewers are skilled gamers, they generally managed to work it out. Most average players, on the other hand, kinda suck. So they were bad at Brutal Legend, but of course it couldn't be their fault they kept losing, could it? No, it must be the game's fault for sucking. So mention it on a forum and you'll get a ton of "it was ok but the rts bits were shit". Seriously, though, the reviews are pretty good.
They are saying that they would probably be more likely to make a loss rather than a profit. And if they managed a profit it would be too small to justify the investment, this is called being intelligent with the money that you use to live off (and feed your kids etc). Makes sense seing as piracy is a major issue on the PC platform. So if you want more pc games (especially the majors) buy more videogames, sounds like a win-win to me.
I freaking call shenanigans!
With all due respect to all his older work, this is pure bovine dung. His new publishers are EA and THQ... How can anyone really blame THOSE companies for not publishing and supporting PC games?
I lost every last bit of respect for this guy, tbh. Sure, not your fault, the dog ate your homework.
--------------------------------------Rant Alert------------------------Rant Alert------------
Oh come on!!! the PC is lucrative, just ask Nvidia, and AMD.
if they ported a game, any game, they would make at the very least, 150% of the original investment, and that's enough for any publisher to invest in the PC. imo, they don't release those games on PC, because if you take away the console exclusivity from the Console fanboys, they whine and whine and don't buy.
And why games don't sell? did anyone know that Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions went on PC a few days ago? neither did i! i just found out. it's not on any game news sites or anything.
And also, releasing a pre Playstation 1 game for consoles, and then just giving us a horrible port, or releasing it for pc a year later, isn't gonna make us feel special. (Also, console gamers are younger, so they can just nag their parents for some game. PC gamers are usually more mature, so we have to work hard for our money... and i'm not planning on wasting 60$ on some half-assed port. and games don't sell on pc? just ask Valve, they'll prove you wrong.)
Instead of complaining about stuff not selling, release it for PC. you'll get your money back + PC rep + 50% min guaranteed.
And to Tim Schafer. Instead of removing the money from the jar just give poeple the contact details of the publisher who's decision it was and team keyboard can vent there instead.
And to publishers. Stop being so greedy. Out of the money it took to create a game for the 360 and PS3, the money to make it playable on the PC is hardly anything. Just becuase the PC does not give the billion figure returns you have come to expect on consoles does not mean it is not worth while. I think PC retunrs have stayed the same but when compared to the ever incrasing console returns they don't seem worth it, maybe the problem is you are actually not greedy enough.
Of course you can always challenge my assertions with figures, I'll be waiting.
Never could understand why the device with the biggest install base (not counting buisness machines) was such a tough sell. I think more pleople have a PC in thier homes than have consoles. I know there is a lot of overlap. And maybe a lot of those PC's are not powerfull enough, but still.
I've heard it said, (and my own calculations seem to bear this out), that the PC graphics hardware is too unpredictable.
Back when PC games were really common, the fastest PC in general use was about 10 times faster than the slowest.
Now, the fastest is 100 times the speed of the slowest.
As you can imagine, not many people own the fastest of these computers, because they really only serve the purpose of playing games. As a result, you either have to target the slowest computers, and leave the people that spent a small fortune on their gaming PC's with nothing that makes use of their expensive kit, or somehow devise a way to make the performance scale across two orders of magnitude...
Which really isn't a trivial undertaking, assuming you can do it at all without essentially creating multiple vaguely similar games.
Developing for PC is like trying to hit multiple fast-moving targets with a single arrow.
It's possible to do it in theory, but in practice it's very difficult to get right.
Well, some professions need a pretty powerful PC (any that have something to do with any kind of design or architecture, image editing, 3d modeling and animation, engineering, coding 3d applications, running simulations and others). That's why the cost of the PC doesn't factor in the cost of my gaming.
P.S. And the number of people needing a gaming-ready PC for their job is increasing.
That's true. But to counter that, I recall stats for the graphics hardware in a typical laptop...
Now, desktop PC's have been marginally better, on average, and are easier to upgrade, but laptops have become much more common.
Turns out about 76% of laptops have intel graphics...
'Top of the range' intel graphics can typically cope with stuff from about 6-7 years ago quite well, but becomes useless pretty quickly... XD
So, if 75% of computers don't even have what in gaming terms would be considered 'minimal' graphics hardware, what does that leave?
And as for the few professions that involve PC's with high specifications, I guess the benefit from the more recent fad of GP-GPU coding, which means graphics hardware is starting to find uses outside of 3d grapics.
I mean, even 5 years ago, if you were running something like Maya on your computer, or Autocad, chances are it'd still heavily favour CPU power over GPU power, unlike games, which even now still tend to favour the opposite balance.
I call BS! lol Have you seen the pirate rates for pc games? The creators of World of Goo compared the number of people playing their game online to the number of sales and determined over 90% of the players illegally downloaded the games.
I love PC games. But frankly, PC games are a dieing breed. Their protections are hacked and the game is put up on The Pirate Bay within a week. Heck, the Sims 3 was released on the Bay weeks before the game even hit the shelves.
Can someone explain to me why publishers are really needed? I would've thought you could basicly just port it, and then distribute it practically for free via steam for example.
Publishers fund games. Porting a game to the PC, though easier than creating a new one, is still a shitload of work and therefore a shitload of money. It's even more expensive if you actually want to test the thing and make sure it works before unleashing it on the unsuspecting public. (Though a lot of devs seem to be skipping this step as of late)
I understand what your saying, and your right, it's pretty much what I'm saying. I just summarize it more usually.
Markets are what you make of them, and simply put greed is destroying gaming. The idea of the industry was always to make money, but when you see everything being designed from the perspective of maximizing profits, then the products themselves begin to suffer due to a "design by committee" process, and entire markets are left to die because while profitable they aren't profitable enough.
I've said a lot on the subject over the years, as have people a lot more well spoken than me.
There are no easy solutions for it, but simply put greed and profits maximization are behind a lot of the problems that we have with the industry right now. Rarely does anyone get to make a game they want to make, when they know it can make a profit (ie seeing the return of the investment capitol, and interest, with some money in excess) when releasing another "by the numbers" FPS type game is liable to make even more money. With little innovation happening for this reason, the gaming industry has dug itself into a rut. Simply it allowed itself to become too much of a big business, and big business has never played well with creative industries.
The rebuttal is one sentence: how else do you expect a multi-million dollar project like a video game to get funded?
Yes, creative industries do take a hit from the fact that they are profit driven. The other option is that the media -does not get made.- A backer thinks, "Show me the profit, and a reason to back your project, or GTFO." Either video games act like companies striving to make money, or the industry will be limited to what bedroom programmers do in their spare time.
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