why no games like crysis

it appears to have been a silly move 'business wise' because Crysis minimised their target market. It was a premium game but was priced at normal prices so if they really thought it was going to make them big bucks they need to sack their management team.

i think maybe they got carried away with developing a game that was so immense it would be 5x better than anything else out there (graphically) and forgot they needed to make money along the way. Then when it failed they wanted to blame someone else!

maybe the real reason they developed it was as a show case for the engine which can then generate them money in future. The game was just a big demo in reality and they never expected to make money out of it...

either way the answer to the OP is....because if you want to make money from selling games you need to maximise your potential market, and a game like Crysis does the opposite.
 
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MMOs are certainly not the only way of the future, persistent environments either for RTS, FPS, MMO or any other genre with subscription based models will be in my opinion.

Big persistent worlds, high player potential, co-op etc etc
 
In part because so many people who could afford to support gaming instead choose to torrent games, which cuts funds from the budgets that would go towards the devlopment of new games.
 
It's time we revised the whole notion that there some mysterious multimillion pound worth niche of international gamers who first spend several thousand pounds on top of the range hardware and keep their multiple graphics cards in constant rotation and then scrooge to spend £19.99 on a game, leeching it as hacked, cracked and sanboxed single player only version from torrents, thus propelling the whole industry downhill and bancrupting game developers.

That theory is, quite frankly, ridiculous.
 
As for pc games in decline, we all know they are. Look at the top 10 best selling pc games:

The Sims (16 million shipped)
The Sims 2 (13 million)
The Sims 2: Pets [expansion pack] (5.6 million)[
The Sims 2: Seasons [expansion pack] (1 million)
World of Warcraft (11.5 million subscribers)[
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade [expansion pack] (3.5 million)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King [expansion pack] (4 million)
StarCraft (11 million)
Half-Life (9.3 million,)
Half-Life: Opposing Force [expansion pack] (1.1 million)
Half-Life 2 (6.5 million)
Guild Wars (6 million in North America, Europe, and Asia; includes Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North)
Myst (6 million)
Counter-Strike (4.2 million)
Cossacks: European Wars (4 million)

Notice how many of them are recent games?

By comparison here are the top 20 console games

1. Wii Play (Wii – 22.98 million)
2. Nintendogs (DS – 22.27 million, all five versions combined)
3. Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green (Game Boy – 20.08 million approximately: 10.23 million in Japan,[45] 9.85 million in US)
4. New Super Mario Bros. (DS – 18.45 million)
5. Wii Fit (Wii – 18.22 million)
6. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES – 18 million)
7. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! (DS – 17.41 million)
8. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (DS – 16.81 million)
9. Mario Kart Wii (Wii – 15.4 million)
10. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (PS2 – 14.89 million shipped)
11. Mario Kart DS (DS – 14.61 million)
12. Pokémon Gold and Silver (Game Boy Color – 14.51 million approximately: 7.6 million in US,[19] 6.91 million in Japan)
13. Super Mario Land (Game Boy – 14 million)
14. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day! (DS – 13.71 million)
15. Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (GBA – 13 million)
16. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2 – 12 million)
17. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (GBA – 11.82 million)
18. Super Mario 64 (N64 – 11 million)
19. Gran Turismo (PS1 – 10.85 million shipped)
20. Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS – 10.79 million),

Also see here for the comparison of 2007 North American figures and you will see that only 14% of games sold were for the pc that year totalling $910m compared with $6.6 BILLION on console games. Roughly console games outsell pc games by over 7 to 1.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/50939

It just about sums up the state of the pc game industry when the fastest selling pc game of all time is Wrath of the Lich King and WOW has been the top selling game in 3 of the last 4 years.

So as a game developer do you spend millions developing a technology leap pc game and if you get it right, you might sell 3m copies or spend you money on consoles and/cross platform and sell 20m+ copies (at more money than pc gamers will pay for the games as well)?
 
Metalface Mark said:
PC games still have the ability to blow away sales for all others.

FACT.
Click to expand...

That is a fact if you look at the total number of game capable pc's in the world. There are estimated 1 billion personal computers in the world with 250million being used for gaming.

The problem is that out of those 250million users, a game manufacturer is doing very, very well if he hits 3m in sales for a game whereas console owners (although a smaller group) are much more likely to buy a game.
 
v0n said:
It's time we revised the whole notion that there some mysterious multimillion pound worth niche of international gamers who first spend several thousand pounds on top of the range hardware and keep their multiple graphics cards in constant rotation and then scrooge to spend £19.99 on a game, leeching it as hacked, cracked and sanboxed single player only version from torrents, thus propelling the whole industry downhill and bancrupting game developers.

That theory is, quite frankly, ridiculous.
Click to expand...

I honestly know someone like that.
 
v0n said:
It's time we revised the whole notion that there some mysterious multimillion pound worth niche of international gamers who first spend several thousand pounds on top of the range hardware and keep their multiple graphics cards in constant rotation and then scrooge to spend £19.99 on a game, leeching it as hacked, cracked and sanboxed single player only version from torrents, thus propelling the whole industry downhill and bancrupting game developers.

That theory is, quite frankly, ridiculous.
Click to expand...

You may find it ridiculous but I still think you'll find it happens.
 
Because having a PC that will play crysis is a speicialist hobby and 99% of PCs can't play it therefore it doesn't mean many sales.
 
Greebo said:
Also see here for the comparison of 2007 North American figures and you will see that only 14% of games sold were for the pc that year totalling $910m compared with $6.6 BILLION on console games. Roughly console games outsell pc games by over 7 to 1.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/50939
Click to expand...

That is retail only though. It completely ignores digital distribution, which on the PC is massive these days. I don't even want to think how many copies of, say, The Orange Box they sold through steam alone.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59764

Digital Distribution Sales Up as Valve Reports 97% Steam Growth
 
n1kunj said:
That is retail only though. It completely ignores digital distribution
Click to expand...

Exactly.

Demigod reported 3rd postition in sales in NA recently, and Stardock said that retail sales only accounted for a minor percentage of actual units sold.

Digital sales are massive nowadays, and the sales figures need to take these into account. I've bought only one retail game in the past few years, yet own ~110 games.

Using retail figures to show that PC gaming is in decline is laughable.
 
v0n said:
It's time we revised the whole notion that there some mysterious multimillion pound worth niche of international gamers who first spend several thousand pounds on top of the range hardware and keep their multiple graphics cards in constant rotation and then scrooge to spend £19.99 on a game, leeching it as hacked, cracked and sanboxed single player only version from torrents, thus propelling the whole industry downhill and bancrupting game developers.

That theory is, quite frankly, ridiculous.
Click to expand...

I too know several people like that. In fact, I find that with a lot of people I know, all with £1000+ pc's they will only buy one game a month (and normally cause they want the online facility) and the rest they just download. That then probably explains why they can afford to keep upgrading/swapping their pc around and keeping it up to date.
 
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I too know someone whose spent shed loads on there PC, yet buy very little games and get the rest elsewhere.

DD is deffinately becoming a big thing on the PC, Steam said there sales are up 97% more than last year, and Direct2Drive have said there up 56%. Would help if they released hard figures for there games, if only to shut people up :).
 
Greebo said:
As for pc games in decline, we all know they are. Look at the top 10 best selling pc games:

The Sims (16 million shipped)
The Sims 2 (13 million)
The Sims 2: Pets [expansion pack] (5.6 million)[
The Sims 2: Seasons [expansion pack] (1 million)
World of Warcraft (11.5 million subscribers)[
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade [expansion pack] (3.5 million)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King [expansion pack] (4 million)
StarCraft (11 million)
Half-Life (9.3 million,)
Half-Life: Opposing Force [expansion pack] (1.1 million)
Half-Life 2 (6.5 million)
Guild Wars (6 million in North America, Europe, and Asia; includes Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North)
Myst (6 million)
Counter-Strike (4.2 million)
Cossacks: European Wars (4 million)

Notice how many of them are recent games?

By comparison here are the top 20 console games

1. Wii Play (Wii – 22.98 million)
2. Nintendogs (DS – 22.27 million, all five versions combined)
3. Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green (Game Boy – 20.08 million approximately: 10.23 million in Japan,[45] 9.85 million in US)
4. New Super Mario Bros. (DS – 18.45 million)
5. Wii Fit (Wii – 18.22 million)
6. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES – 18 million)
7. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! (DS – 17.41 million)
8. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (DS – 16.81 million)
9. Mario Kart Wii (Wii – 15.4 million)
10. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (PS2 – 14.89 million shipped)
11. Mario Kart DS (DS – 14.61 million)
12. Pokémon Gold and Silver (Game Boy Color – 14.51 million approximately: 7.6 million in US,[19] 6.91 million in Japan)
13. Super Mario Land (Game Boy – 14 million)
14. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day! (DS – 13.71 million)
15. Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (GBA – 13 million)
16. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2 – 12 million)
17. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (GBA – 11.82 million)
18. Super Mario 64 (N64 – 11 million)
19. Gran Turismo (PS1 – 10.85 million shipped)
20. Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS – 10.79 million),
Click to expand...

Most of those console games are Nintendo and don't even compete with the PC market anymore anyway. You can't really use the portable game boy as an example to rival the PC as it's really not a rival. I'm interested in seeing the sales figures for the PS3 and XBOX 360 games tbh. Make sure digitally distributed figures are included in that too.

Also a lot of those games on there are ancient and can be from any time in the past decade or so. "Super Mario Land" being a good example. Being from the past it really doesn't show PC gaming in decline does it?
 
uv said:
Exactly.

Demigod reported 3rd postition in sales in NA recently, and Stardock said that retail sales only accounted for a minor percentage of actual units sold.

Digital sales are massive nowadays, and the sales figures need to take these into account. I've bought only one retail game in the past few years, yet own ~110 games.

Using retail figures to show that PC gaming is in decline is laughable.
Click to expand...

He actually claimed that digital sales accounted for a substancial amoutn fo the sales. Problem is the retail sales figures for demigod was 18,000 copies. Let's be generous and say there were 100,000 downloads so total sales is 118,000 for what is reported to be a superb game.

The problem they have is that there are more players online with a pirated copy than they have sold. In fact, on the first weekend the pirates outnumbered the sold ones (inc digital) by 6 to 1.

How does that compare with 2.8m retail sales plus god know how many digital sales for Wrath of the Lich King on just the very first day?

MMO's are still selling well on the pc and so are games like the sims/spore which appeal to a wider audience than the normal pc game buyer.

I still say that they have a lot of sales to go yet before they get anywhere near their development costs back.
 
LinktoInsanity said:
Most of those console games are Nintendo and don't even compete with the PC market anymore anyway. You can't really use the portable game boy as an example to rival the PC as it's really not a rival. I'm interested in seeing the sales figures for the PS3 and XBOX 360 games tbh. Make sure digitally distributed figures are included in that too.

Also a lot of those games on there are ancient and can be from any time in the past decade or so. "Super Mario Land" being a good example. Being from the past it really doesn't show PC gaming in decline does it?
Click to expand...

True, it was more to show how many games can sell on a console compared to the pc market even though the pc market is technically bigger.

The other reason to show the pc chart, was to point out that newer pc games just can't sell in the numbers they used to do (even I bet if you include digital sales).
 
Greebo said:
True, it was more to show how many games can sell on a console compared to the pc market even though the pc market is technically bigger.

The other reason to show the pc chart, was to point out that newer pc games just can't sell in the numbers they used to do (even I bet if you include digital sales).
Click to expand...

Fair enough, but my point still stands. Old PC games like Red Alert (YES I GET TO BRING IT UP :D) compared to console games (including retro ones such as the Megadrive and SNES) may well show the console still selling higher, proving that PC gaming is infact NOT in decline, as more children tend to play on consoles then they do on PCs, I know in my younger days I played on the megadrive a lot more often than my PC. Also, consoles have pretty much always been easier to set up, especially in the living room.

Please don't misread this anyone and think that I'm calling all console players children, that's not what I mean.
 
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