Why are developers turning away from the PC?

[jamesworkshop]

[quote="Mariena"

Most people don't want to spend $1500 on a machine to play Crysis with all the graphic options turned up when they can pay $300 to play the exact same game without having to play with settings (other than difficulty) and never have compatibility issues.

If you make a game PC exclusive you cut out 70% of the market. Some people don't even realize that PCs still have games made for them more than occasionally (go to your local games retailers and see how many have a PC section that's even as large as their used Gamecube section.)

Piracy isn't the sole reason for lack of PC game development, a large part is lack of market.
How many of YOU could play a game like Halo 3 or Crysis with everything graphically and sonically turned all the way up to max quality and not experience slow down?

Not an issue for console games.

(Btw, I don't own a console. Only thing other than my PC in the house is my roommates DS.)

Firstly crysis is a poor exsample as their is no console release so lets take devil may cry 4 and does any console hit triple digit frame rates? or do 2560x1600 resolution?/DX10? and since crysis is far more demanding the $300 console is not going to match a $1500 PC.
Remember the lock-ups GTA4 had in multiplayer, consoles do not guaranty its going to work

Pc sales have moved from retail to digital distribution look at the consoles indivdually and most stores will have sizes near enough equal to the PC.

Halo 3 plenty but crysis no, its a tri-sli job to max that particular game (how many games are like crysis?) I can play crysis on high easily on a £130 9800gtx.
Crysis even supports the 6800 (low settings) and as of today console players can't play crysis its not a good exsample

 

[asinann]

Firstly crysis is a poor exsample as their is no console release so lets take devil may cry 4 and does any console hit triple digit frame rates? or do 2560x1600 resolution?/DX10? and since crysis is far more demanding the $300 console is not going to match a $1500 PC.
Remember the lock-ups GTA4 had in multiplayer, consoles do not guaranty its going to work

Pc sales have moved from retail to digital distribution look at the consoles indivdually and most stores will have sizes near enough equal to the PC.

Halo 3 plenty but crysis no, its a tri-sli job to max that particular game (how many games are like crysis?) I can play crysis on high easily on a £130 9800gtx.
Crysis even supports the 6800 (low settings) and as of today console players can't play crysis its not a good exsample

Neither is GTA4 multi-player since it was initially set up and was meant to be a single player game. And most people that have both will play MMOs and RTS games on the PC, and everything else on the consoles. Just to check numbers, I went to the local Gamestop. There were a total of 14 different PC games, of those 3 of them came out in the last 6 months: Spore, the new WoW expansion, and Fallout 3.

There were 4 midnight releases in the last month for console games though. Probably between 40-50 individual titles for each current gen system BFORE you get into the used stuff and instead of a single sided rack like the PC games, there was a wall and a double sided rack for the 360 games. And I used 2 games that weren't released on both as examples, Halo 3 isn't on PC yet. The only games that get crossed over to PC (although this has been turning around recently) are major third party titles.

 

[jamesworkshop]

GTA4 can be played multiplayer so I say its a fair point towards console not being a perfect system i.e PoP Warrior Within had game stopping bugs in the PS2 version.
Yes I got confused Halo 2 got a PC released and from what I can see tanked and to be fair Halo 3 is hardly night and day compared to Halo 2 and can't scratch crysis.

Yes but were they the same Console those midnight specials, true their wasn't one for the PC but still comparing many products to just one the console market is Highly segregated otherwise no console wars.

Most games are 3rd party titles? the turn around shows an interest in the PC market otherwise no ports

 

[superbleeder12]

PC gaming isn't going to die out any time soon. A person who knows a little bit about computers can make a decent gaming rig that blows any current gen console out of the water for less than a grand.

I think the real question is, why are a lot of games being ported between the two worlds. I think that draws away from PC gaming in a way. I mean when a developer releases a game for PC, but knows that the publisher will want the game to be ported to the console market; PC game's immersion suffers. Because lets face it, the last controller that had a standard of 108 buttons looks like this:

 

[Bluntknife]

so this has turned into another pc vs console war again and now everyone is looking at graphics again...yay?

Of course a console wont be able to run Crysis because console are old in comparison. But eventualy when the next generation of consoles hits the market their graphics will likely be on par to a high end pc rig. Just the 360 was when it wsa first realsed.

You cannot compare console to Pc's! It all comes down to what people prefer to play.
Did you guys buy a xbox for the console? or the games you'd be able to play on it?

If you chose the first one, you're an idiot. I use a pc because I prefer using a mouse and keyboard and prefer the versatility.

Now back on topic.

I'm pretty sure the reason some devs are turning away from the PC is that theres more money in it to develop for consoles.
Piracy is somewhat of a factor but I doubt its the main thing thats going through the devs minds. The thing that would be though is funding, I'm sure microsoft/sony helps fund the devs in order to get them to make an exclusive.

 

[The Shade]

Ultimately, I think it comes down to conformity.

If you have a PC, it might be ten times more powerful than Mr. A's PC, but a quarter of the power of Mr. B's PC. Everyone's PC is different depending on what components they've swapped out on it, and the cost is ramping up the whole way.

If you buy a console, developers know exactly how powerful that console is going to be and what their limits are. Each 360 is as powerful as the next. (Unless you're one of those weirdos that pulls your console apart and fiddles with it.)

Buying a console is a one-off thing, but buying a PC for gaming is a never-ending cycle of swapping out new parts.

 

[dekkarax]

I think it's because of one thing: Marketing.
Count how many PC game adverts you see, okay, now console adverts; yup, consoles are way ahead in terms of marketing. Want to know why? Because the stereotypical console gamer has no knowledge of gaming and the quality of games before the Playstation or the Xbox apart from maybe a couple of Mega Drive games. Because of this, they have lower standards. Who would you develop for? The guy who demands an involving well written game with very good gameplay mechanics and graphics; or the guy who will buy anything you put a tiny amount of hype and declare it the best game ever, no matter how poor it is in the eyes of pc gamers? Face it, console gamers are just easier to develop for.

But is that a bad thing? No, it isn't; because it attracts one thing: kids. Every major entertainment industry needs a steady stream of new blood, otherwise it dies. I know how hard it is to get into PC gaming as a child, I've been there; it is incredibly frustrating to buy a game you just can't wait to play, only to find that it doesn't work. I couldn't upgrade pcs or understand the system requirements back then, so I had to guess whether a game worked or not, if it didn't: tough, I would have wasted my money and there was nothing I could do about it. Therefore, playing on a console was my only option.

 

[Mariena]

The PC market is relatively small in reality and most people that own a computer and play games on it also own at least one current generation console.

So much bullocks in one post...

Let me end any argument that you may throw at me right here with this question:

"Source?"

Personal experience.

For every PC gamer I know that plays only PC games, I know five that exclusively play consoles and another seven that play both (but even they mostly play consoles.)

Also, their neighbors and a dog have also been spotted with a console. Or something.

Did you just blurt out some nasty false facts on an entire demographic on the grounds of "personal experience", in return based on ... 12 people?

Wow.

You don't count too good do ya?

1+5+7=13

Dear god. Yes, you won this argument. I missed out a person and forgot to count that, and by pointing that out, you win.

Please man, that's probably even worse than trying to retort with "It's you're, not your". What freaking difference does it make whether it's 13 people or 12?!

Urgh.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

The PC market is relatively small in reality and most people that own a computer and play games on it also own at least one current generation console.

So much bullocks in one post...

Let me end any argument that you may throw at me right here with this question:

"Source?"

Personal experience.

For every PC gamer I know that plays only PC games, I know five that exclusively play consoles and another seven that play both (but even they mostly play consoles.)

Also, their neighbors and a dog have also been spotted with a console. Or something.

Did you just blurt out some nasty false facts on an entire demographic on the grounds of "personal experience", in return based on ... 12 people?

Wow.

You don't count too good do ya?

1+5+7=13

Dear god. Yes, you won this argument. I missed out a person and forgot to count that, and by pointing that out, you win.

Please man, that's probably even worse than trying to retort with "It's you're, not your". What freaking difference does it make whether it's 13 people or 12?!

Urgh.

1/13 of a difference. There is a difference.

+10 captain obvious points.

 

[Baneat]

There's good money in the console games and generally people seem more satisfied with a mediocre game on a console. Also, PC games sell so cheaply compared to Xbox games.

 

[Mr_Czar]

I think, the high-profile PC games tend to be more cerebral than the high-profile console games. Stupid people outnumber smart people thus more people buy console games.

I'm not saying that everyone who plays PC is clever. I'm not saying that everyone who plays consoles are dumb. I'm just pointing out a trend.

 

[asinann]

The PC market is relatively small in reality and most people that own a computer and play games on it also own at least one current generation console.

So much bullocks in one post...

Let me end any argument that you may throw at me right here with this question:

"Source?"

Personal experience.

For every PC gamer I know that plays only PC games, I know five that exclusively play consoles and another seven that play both (but even they mostly play consoles.)

Also, their neighbors and a dog have also been spotted with a console. Or something.

Did you just blurt out some nasty false facts on an entire demographic on the grounds of "personal experience", in return based on ... 12 people?

Wow.

You don't count too good do ya?

1+5+7=13
That was the smallest possible number of people, but since I play an MMO, I know a few hundred of the first and third groups. The middle group is filled with people that don't want to spend the $600 every other year to make upgrades to their machines.

Seriously, most PCs are owned by businesses and most Macs by schools (colleges own tons of both.)

Most people don't want to spend $1500 on a machine to play Crysis with all the graphic options turned up when they can pay $300 to play the exact same game without having to play with settings (other than difficulty) and never have compatibility issues.

If you make a game PC exclusive you cut out 70% of the market. Some people don't even realize that PCs still have games made for them more than occasionally (go to your local games retailers and see how many have a PC section that's even as large as their used Gamecube section.)

Piracy isn't the sole reason for lack of PC game development, a large part is lack of market.
How many of YOU could play a game like Halo 3 or Crysis with everything graphically and sonically turned all the way up to max quality and not experience slow down?

Not an issue for console games.

(Btw, I don't own a console. Only thing other than my PC in the house is my roommates DS.)

Dear god. Yes, you won this argument. I missed out a person and forgot to count that, and by pointing that out, you win.

Please man, that's probably even worse than trying to retort with "It's you're, not your". What freaking difference does it make whether it's 13 people or 12?!

Urgh.

Fixed it for you by putting the whole quote in. You don't quote one line without something at the end to indicate that it wasn't the whole quote.

 

[Katana314]

I'll say right off the bat, I'm a PC guy. I don't even own a next-gen.

It's basically piracy. It's a heck of a lot easier on PCs, and it seems like there's no way to combat it.

Obvious counter: That's easy. Just make your games GOOD, don't overprice them, have a decent demo, and don't fill them with DRM, and people won't mind. Also put them on Steam. PC users have a conscience.

Counter-Counter: World of Goo has no DRM whatsoever, costs only $20, is on Steam, has a metacritic of 90 (and is pretty damn fun), and has a demo that gives you almost a fourth of the game...and has over a 90% rate of piracy. I've stopped accepting pirates' opinions after this. I don't even care if most of those aren't actually lost sales.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Steam is Hackable

 

[jamesworkshop]

Same with "Privatly" owned WoW servers or the non-piratable console games

 

[jamesworkshop]

Aside from that I don't believe that developers are ignoring the PC but instead Single platform releases no longer make fiscal sence just look at the number of ports and lack of system exclusives.
I do see that PC is on the back burner as GTA4 is a year late (not that I care), Mirrors edge has about a 2 month delay but I believe they want to avoid the xmas sales period due to the release of other more popular games GTA4/L4D/COD5-WaW than any sort of PC hatred.

 

[Bluntknife]

You could see this whole thread as something like this.

Why is Bungie turning away from the PS3?

Why isn't Resistance on the 360?

I'm telling you, it has to do with who is funding the devs!
We'll be getting alot more exclusives if Nvidia started funding games, then make sure it only runs on thier hardware. But that would piss alot of pople off.

Now for my final statement, if you want to play a game thats only for a console, then buy that console!

The Pc will never die, it'll always be the system for those who want to get away from the ramblings of prepubecant teens screaming over the mic, and also the bets platform for indie devs who are trying something new.

 

[742]

yes, a good gaming PC costs a few thousand dollars, but to be fair, a half decent cell phone costs 54 thousand http://www.engadget.com/2005/02/07/the-54-000-diamond-crusted-samsung-sph-e3200/

i propose the next person who says liquid nitrogen cooled copper-conductors-replaced-with-gold gem encrusted shiny internal LED having megacomputer=gaming computer gets beaten to death with frogs. i mean seriously, where does this 1500+ USD thing come from? i really wanna know.

consoles have less flexibility, for some that is a plus, for others it isnt. PC's have DRM though, and thats some real shit right there. people dont like DRM. especially not people who choose their gaming platform for the freedom. who woulda thought we dislike having our rights "managed"?