Will developers flood back to the PC as digital downloads take hold?

ben_j_davis

ben_j_davis

ben_j_davis

Associate
Joined
26 Sep 2005
Posts
1,853
Location
Tonbridge, Kent
Developers have been moaning for years about games piracy on the PC. Many started walking away from the platform supposedly because of the issue.

More recently they have been whining almost unceasingly about second hand sales (mostly console games) affecting their cash flow.

However, with digital download services like Steam, piracy is less of an issue, resales are not currently possible (might be in the future) and the distribution and licensing costs are almost zero.

Therefore, surely as digital download services improve and internet speeds increase, will more developers start returning to the PC platform?
 
ben_j_davis said:
Developers have been moaning for years about games piracy on the PC. Many started walking away from the platform supposedly because of the issue.

More recently they have been whining almost unceasingly about second hand sales (mostly console games) affecting their cash flow.

However, with digital download services like Steam, piracy is less of an issue, resales are not currently possible (might be in the future) and the distribution and licensing costs are almost zero.

Therefore, surely as digital download services improve and internet speeds increase, will more developers start returning to the PC platform?
Click to expand...

Resales are absolutely possible with steam and have been since day one, even if they are against the T&C's.
 
I hope so.
I also hope that with the massive redundancies that have occured/been reported in the gaming sector, we might see a meteoric rise in quality indy games. Games not restrained by the usual mega-corps who want 99 sequels of yet another standard fps/drive/golf, but more imaginary games like Darwinia, Defcon, Psychnauts, hell even L4D!
With digital downloads, the indy market is now available to the public.
 
Dano said:
Resales are absolutely possible with steam and have been since day one, even if they are against the T&C's.
Click to expand...

Only if you want to sell all your games at once.

I could sell my account, but I'd be getting rid of 70-odd games - it's not possible for me to sell one game I no longer play. I can't imagine anyone who'd ever pay the amount I'd want for my Steam collection :p
 
uvmain said:
Only if you want to sell all your games at once.

I could sell my account, but I'd be getting rid of 70-odd games - it's not possible for me to sell one game I no longer play. I can't imagine anyone who'd ever pay the amount I'd want for my Steam collection :p
Click to expand...

Well if you will add them all to the same account...
 
BUT THE PIRATES, THEY CONTROLZ THE INTERNETZ!11!11!!1!


I can't see many of the big developers coming back to the PC, they get too much money from both the console market and the companies that drive it. Companies are paid thousands to guarantee exclusives and make millions off them, why would they leave a stable market to come back to an audience they have repeatedly slagged off (I'm looking at you CliffyB) and hope that all will be forgiven.

Again, in the case of Epic its far easier to blame piracy on poor sales of games such as UT3 and Gears of War on PC than accept that they weren't very good games (and in the case of GoW, ports).
 
Last edited:
I.D.Software, a giant like Valve, still make PC titles but even they concentrate a little more on the 360. As Carmack says, its easier to write 360 games, faster too. The next Doom title, referred to as doom4 atm, John Carmack has indicated strongly that it probably won't run on a PC with all the bells and whistles much above 30fps. Where as the more mainstream version on the 360 may well be a cut down version but will better for sales. That title is just one example. I guess mainstream is where the money is. That's what it comes down to.
 
arc@css said:
As Carmack says, its easier to write 360 games, faster too.
Click to expand...

Hmm, thats inaccurate...

Besides, Carmack wrote a compiler for I.D a year or two ago that compiles the code they write for a PC game into the formats used on the PS3 and 360. All of their work is done primarily on the PC game and the compiler then helps them port the games across. Maybe the "easier" part is the porting itself.
 
I think you will see an upsurge of smaller indie developers making games for the PC thanks to DD, but the big guys developing games solely for the PC, not a chance. Consoles have enough power to make the games they want to make, they have solid online play, and the systems are widely available at a fair price. The budgets of games now are incredibly high, and the return from a PC version probably wouldnt cover the costs. You wouldnt of seen GTA IV made for the PC only, that would be suicide.

If hardware makers knocked there heads together and gave the majority of new PC's that come out SOME form of capable gaming GPU's in the systems, things could be a lot different, but most people these days are happy with laptops or super cheap PCs, and thats what there hunting.

I think what were mostly going to get in the future are games like Sins of a Solar Empire, im not a fan of the game myself, but the game was made in a small budget, a small team, and its made them buckets of cash. For now were just going to have to live with multi-platform games and hope the PC versions are upto snuff.

1 thing i will add is the PS3 is sort of in the same position. Many of its exclusive titles have gone multi platform and has very few exlusives now, and games are usually ported to it in bad states. Were sort of in the same boat :).
 
Maybe m8 but I have heard him talk on interview where he did say that some days he would rather concentrate even more on 360 stuff as its easier, much more straight forward. Was off the cuff sort of talk I think. He mentioned the other consoles too, the Wii not being powerful enough to really be fully in the picture and the PS3 - more potential than the 360 but a pain to develop for. Longer winded process. Love listening to him on the QuakeCon keynote speeches. Not that I understand all of it though,lol. :)
 
uvmain said:
Are you seriously telling me you make a new account for every game you buy on Steam? :confused:
Click to expand...

Not me, but that is how people do sell steam games without having to sell all their games.

Aekeron said:
That is quite a comical idea tbh....

I might start making a new email address for every email I send, too ;)
Click to expand...

You've not seen the disposable email address services then?
 
ben_j_davis said:
However, with digital download services like Steam, piracy is less of an issue
Click to expand...

LOL, are you serious?

I've spent some time looking into piracy and I can assure you that just because a game is on steam only doesn't mean it isn't pirated!

Every time the industry comes up with a way of stopping it the pirates just see it as another challenge. They will break it, eventually.

The only format yet to be pirated is the PS3 due to using Bluray and a closed OS.
 
Strife212 said:
I doubt it. I think mainstream PC gaming will be dead in a few years time.
Click to expand...

Every time someone says this to me I fail to see the logic in their words.

A few fun facts for you:

- Game sales charts rarely take in to account Digital Download sales, meaning that published sales are often much less than they actually should be.

- Surveys that look at PC Gaming revenue often fail to take subscription fees to MMO's into account. 10+ million World of Warcraft subscribers does not suggest to me that the PC is a dead format.

- The PC isn't actually the most pirated format! The main culprit is out little handheld friend, the Nintendo DS. Don't hear people saying that's dead though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom