Are the main publishers trying to kill off pc gaming?
- Thread starter Chronictank
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Apparently so
Would be nice if we had a ban trigger on creating new threads that had the following 4 words in. 'pc' 'gaming' 'dying' 'kill'
.Although though i do wonder if they (EA / Ubi) are planning to shaft consoles owners in the same way sometime in the future.
this tbh and the 2nd hand market for games kills developer profits so they are trying hard to kill that off too.
For most of the 'death of PC gaming' issues, all we're really seeing is the teething problems of multi-platform engine development combined with the intention of providing simultaneous cross platform release dates within the same limited time frames they ever had in the past.
It pretty much stands to reason that you're going to make an earlier version of your game on a single platform to serve as a blueprint for the others, in doing so the PC isn't going to stand up to the fixed hardware setups of consoles in the decision on which platform that would be. Which isn't developers turning their backs on anything, just trying to use their limited time to maximum effect.
If you intend to nail the PC, getting the most out of everything it offers, the LAN gaming, providing SDKs etc then you would probably also have to abandon the notion of being able to produce your title on all platforms come the shipping deadline. So whilst it is a shame that games now wield stripped down feature sets compared to what we have come to expect, it is just through necessity rather than some kind of malice towards the PC.
A prediction of my own would be as multiplatform engines mature over the coming years, minimizing various support and stability issues whilst providing better tools for developers to work with, that they will be left with more time to tailor their game to specific platforms.
It pretty much stands to reason that you're going to make an earlier version of your game on a single platform to serve as a blueprint for the others, in doing so the PC isn't going to stand up to the fixed hardware setups of consoles in the decision on which platform that would be. Which isn't developers turning their backs on anything, just trying to use their limited time to maximum effect.
If you intend to nail the PC, getting the most out of everything it offers, the LAN gaming, providing SDKs etc then you would probably also have to abandon the notion of being able to produce your title on all platforms come the shipping deadline. So whilst it is a shame that games now wield stripped down feature sets compared to what we have come to expect, it is just through necessity rather than some kind of malice towards the PC.
A prediction of my own would be as multiplatform engines mature over the coming years, minimizing various support and stability issues whilst providing better tools for developers to work with, that they will be left with more time to tailor their game to specific platforms.
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I just don't understand why the games industry should expect some sort of special treatment on second hand sales - unlike the car industry, book publishing, DVDs etc etc etc!
Sad but true. Everything creatve gets dumbed down in the end to cater for the masses.
Well you only need to look at how OCUK has started diversifying over the past few years to see that they know the rot has begun.
From buying my first riva 128 back in 1998 I religiously upgraded my pc once a year up until late 2008 where i bought my 280GTX... and 18 months later i still have the same machine with no intention of upgrading.
And I know I'm not the only one.
Soldato
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I think PC gamers come from a higher class of gaming and don't buy crap games as much as some consolers might.
PC gamers tend to be older as well, I am sure I read an article in the BBC last year when the average age of a gamer was 32. I believe the average age of console gamer is a lot less.
If a good game comes out of the PC, like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is at the moment, it will own the sales. I am sure the PC version is outselling both the console versions put together.
PC gamers tend to be older as well, I am sure I read an article in the BBC last year when the average age of a gamer was 32. I believe the average age of console gamer is a lot less.
If a good game comes out of the PC, like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is at the moment, it will own the sales. I am sure the PC version is outselling both the console versions put together.
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In the end the console second hand market will be stopped, i would expect that a company would lose more money based on the second hand console market then they would through PC games being pirated - they will find a way to add some DRM to consoles and to stop that as well, its only a matter of time
I don't see that developing a PC game is any more difficult than a console game. PC games are programmed to an API (Direct X) and not to individual hardware configurations.
In theory, but the vaired hardware inevitably causes problems I imagine.
You also don't have to work with different detail levels, worry about crossfire profiles, do different input device work, try to optimise your engine for as many driver configs as possible, worry about conflicts with other applications, and (if you're a decent developer) put in hooks for modders to work with or develop decent dedicated server support.
Too much hassle for too little return in the eyes of the bigger corps I'd imagine.
Thats why Direct X was developed in the first place,a standard API that removed the headaches of varying hardware configurations for the game developers. It's just a cop out to say the PC is more difficult to develop for imo.
They can happily get away with poor ports when the target platform they are aiming at just isn't that powerful anymore. I guess they just aren't earning as much money from the market plus there must be some nice incentives from Microsoft and Sony to target their platforms only/for the first x months like with GTA 4. There isn't that with PC's.
On the varying hardware front they don't really have to deal with it, hardware manufacturers deal with problems to do with hardware. It just all about money!
On the varying hardware front they don't really have to deal with it, hardware manufacturers deal with problems to do with hardware. It just all about money!
Then maybe they are simply testing the water by directing this at the PC market first.
Then at some future time, all consoles require an internet connection and an active account to play. When you buy a game and play it on your console it becomes attached to your console & account, and can't be re-sold.
It would make sense to test this out with the smaller PC market first, to iron out the kinks, before implementing this across all platforms.
I think you're really overestimating what Direct X can do if you think it waved a magic wand and configuration issues vanished. Plenty of current titles have varying arrays of issues, whether from the game developers end or from the drivers provided for whatever hardware is causing the conflict. Also, Direct X not only doesn't cover everything, there are also other APIs as well as entirely standalone peripherals.
That also doesn't address then the other things such as SDKs and whatever array of modding tools the developer chooses to provide, the after support given to those tools and the SDK, fully integrated LAN support and now more extraordinarily dedicated server support - the kind of things that if not present, PC gamers ask repeatedly why not. None of those things are options the developers turned off, or something that they can patch or provide after a couple of weeks work. They would require much time, effort and more so, expense for the developers.
Those consoles have been out along time now, the developers, whilst initially voicing concerns over how difficult it may be to produce games on them, have over the years become very good as well as very comfortable with it. The PC hasn't stayed still in that time, new operating systems, new versions of the APIs, endless driver releases for the several new generations of new hardware and then throw into the mix new facets such as SLI/Crossfire which are now popular enough for support to be expected.
Ignoring the idiots who hail the death of PC gaming at every opportunity, PC gamers themselves have to accept that multiplatform games are just what developers are doing now and various sacrifices have had to be made to ensure they can actually do that within the same periods of time. If anything I would see it as quite an amazing feat that within the same time-frame to develop a game now it can come out on potentially several of the consoles and PC near simultaneously, rather than a single platform and perhaps another a year or so later. Even with compromise and all, many of these multiplatform games today aren't ports so many brand them as, especially when you remember the the horrendous crap you would have had 5-10 years ago being re-released on another platform years later with clunky, barely workable UIs and shoddy, unplayable performance (or alternatively you could just play GTA IV, for a recent reminder).
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Totally agree. This latest DRM is the reason I won't buy those games. I blame piracy. Script kiddies have forced the publishers' hands.
I think though we were already getting the hard bargain when publishers released unfinished games and expected us to patch them within days of release
At the end of the day, gaming in general, has become a multi-million dollar market. Accountants, not developers, now run the show. And they only care about the bottom line.