Firing Squad tackles Consolitis

[Ackmed]

Um, consoles have Piracy. You're very misinformed if you think that they dont. Saying that devs moved to consoles because of PC piracy is just idiotic.

So I just started to play Mass Effect 2 for the PC. I change my controls, because I didnt like their default controls. When starting the game it give hints on what to do. Yet it tells me to push they keys that are default, not what I changed them too. I go on mashing buttons until I figure out what key it wants. That, is just pure laziness on the devs. Read from the config file, not some templet on what they used to be.

 

[magomago]

This.




Its not that developers are money grubbing fiends, its that they need more money to make their next game.

We need to eat too.


The article doesn't really have any REAL insight to the problem. It really has more to do with large publishers like EA ruining the landscape. Too much noise and shitty games. Not to mention that the amount of money needed to make a good game with good graphics requires a very very large investment.



Meh, this is rather silly. nVidia/AMD get royalties from the xbox 360 and ps3. Will they completely ignore the huge revenue stream of those two consoles successors?

i think most of the article is bunk, but if the royalties that came from console gfx hardware was that great, I'm pretty sure nvidia wouldn't have settled for 1 billion in cash with intel....they needed the $$$ injection badly and i doubt that , compared to their core business, royalties from that are letting the company soak in cash. Its probably a lot of profit at this point, and its a nice chunk of change, but its most likely change.

 

[zinfamous]

Because the big companies are so focused on catering to the lowest common denominator and trying to emulate past successes, creativity has taken a nose-dive. Making money should be a side effect of game development, not the reason for doing it in the first place. While production values and advertising budgets for AAA games have skyrocketed in recent years, innovation and overall quality have come way down. Unfortunately, deficiencies in the latter are often covered up by overcompensating with the former, which is especially effective in the eyes of a consumer that cares more about outward appearances and celebrity endorsements than actual substance. The sweet irony of it all is that a genuinely good game with virtually zero budget and publicity can be as financially successful as, if not more so than, a AAA title. Corporations have corrupted the industry with their greedy habit of minimalizing risk, and if they don’t change their ways, they will come crashing down in the wake of the indie game revolution.

Dead on.

I hold the exact same to be true of the film industry today.

 

[NoQuarter]

Um, consoles have Piracy. You're very misinformed if you think that they dont. Saying that devs moved to consoles because of PC piracy is just idiotic.

Beyond that, used game sales are a much bigger "problem" than piracy because those are people obviously willing to pay money for a game, but the only one profiting from it is Gamestop, the game developer doesn't see a dime of that.

PCs may have higher piracy than consoles but consoles have much higher used game sales than PC used game sales + piracy combined, and that's clearly missed revenue whereas pirated copies are hypothetical revenue.

That's why there's been a recent push for one time use keys that come with the game and unlock some extra content.

 

[reallyscrued]

Well written article. Thanks for sharing.

Need not worry guys...there will be some sort of interactive entertainment renaissance. These things work like pendulums, once the masses stop buying shovelware, indie devs or even the multi-million dollar ones will go back to focusing on content.

I really think its sick I can go and play games 5 to 10 years old and have a better time than by playing 90% of the games being produced now.

The general public is definitely to blame. You know what happened? The mass widespread adoption of video entertainment systems and the drones that buy software for them. Hell, every AT forum member is partly to blame, for getting that one extra friend interested in this hobby. Haha, spreads like wildfire. Then what? Games are made so the average person won't find it "too hard". Holy shit, remember when games actually used to pose a challenge?

Anyway, the mass adoption is the biggest thing. When the movie industry realized everyone would see a movie just because it is advertised well, what happened? All the trailers kick ass but movies blow. Back in the '90s, all the trailers blew but the movies were great. Interesting turn of events. Now we're getting our digital interactive equivalent of "Meet the Spartans" trying to be sold to us.

The collapse and revolution will come, just wait. Goodnight all.

 

[Annisman*]

Don't worry, the Stalker series will help kee ...... Oh wait, Stalker 2 is going to consoles.

I really wished I was a PC gamer before this 'era' of mediocrity.

 

[darkewaffle]

ITT a big old bandwagon

Average game quality only appears to have gone down because the number of games produced has increased absolutely. Of course there's a ton of crap out there, there always has been, but the high points are still the high points. I don't buy into "old great games" are better than "new great games" because I've fallen in love with games from every generation without fail, PC and console (well mostly PC in recent years). It's just hip to dismiss anything produced since the year 2000 as crap.

 

[Ackmed]

O'rly? Care to guess the number of games with a console port FOV of 75 or less now, than 10 years ago? We sued to get free maps/perks all the time. Now they mostly cost cash, and have gone down the drain.

 

[ibex333]

Nice article, but sounds more like plain ol' bitching to me. Life is a flux. Everything changes. You cant expect things to stay the same. Right now, it makes sense for consoles to dominate, but it doesn't mean that computers will not take over again in the future. I cant believe that the writer is talking about how the technological progress is being slowed when we are using $250 graphics cards over $500 cards. Hell, he must be a rich boy that guy... I am very much willing to spend more money on a good computer as opposed to playing on a console, but If I had to pay $500 for a video card to be able to max out my graphics in most games, I'd think twice about gaming on a PC. Luckily it is not so, and has never been so to my best knowledge. I like progress, but sometimes I fee like progress is going too fast and needs to be slowed down a little. Maybe devs need to concentrate a little more on gameplay as opposed to graphics. Graphics are very important for me, but gameplay - more so.
Also, I want to point out that people are dramatizing and blowing this problem of consolitis out of proportion.

I see NO SHORTAGE of GOOD PC games coming out in the resent years. In fact there's way too many of them. I wish the devs would slow the fuck down a little, and capitalize on the profits from what is already out there instead of rushing sequels.

Some good examples are Mass Effect 2, Witcher 2, Dragon Age 2, and Deadspace 2. These games are HUGE, and have plenty of replayability. I havent even finished the originals yet, and here they are coming out with sequels already...

Why is it that everyone is ok with Blizzard taking their damned sweet little time to release Starcraft II, yet they demand, and are ok with, other companies pumping out new titles like mad? And no, it's not like Blizzard games are somehow "unique" or "special". At least not anymore. Not after the garbage that Starcraft 2 is.

Anyway.. It's like I said, there is no shortage of PC Games right now. I don't even have time to play HALF of what I want to play. No innovation? There's plenty. Just take a look at "other" game companies for a change. Like 1C for example. Men of WAr, Theatre of War, Space Wolves, and many many others by 1C show plenty of innovation if you're willing to look for it. Anyone why says there's not enough PC Games seriously needs to get a life. There... I said it. Go outside, get some fresh air. Get a friggin' job, a real job. And if your job allows you to play games every day or several days a week, I am real jealous of you, rich boy, cause I'm working my ass of here, and the only thing I can think about when I come home is going to sleep. but yeah, I know how some people are. I been that way in High School and early College. Maybe if I was actually taking anything seriously back then, and care about anything other than Diablo II, I would be doing much better in life right now.

To sum this up, I will say that yes, off course there are less good games nowadays, and less innovation, but there is no shortage of such!

Now... MineCraft? Seriously? That game is garbage. Yeah, I value gameplay over graphics, but not when we are going back to the era of 486 DX graphics wise. And if we're going to go there, I rather play Doom, Blood, Hexen and all that other stuff. Props to that guy for making that game all by himself. Good for him. A real programming god he is, and I can see why many people flock to this game, especially those interested in programming. But I just want to play a good fun game where graphics dont look like squares - not test out this guy's beta phases. I'll leave that for those with too much free time on their hands.

 

[HunterDT]

So I just started to play Mass Effect 2 for the PC. I change my controls, because I didnt like their default controls. When starting the game it give hints on what to do. Yet it tells me to push they keys that are default, not what I changed them to.

I noted this and was going to save it for the next "how do you know when a game is consolized" discussion. In game tips NOT referencing the actual key assignments is #1 for me.

 

[reallyscrued]

Why is it that everyone is ok with Blizzard taking their damned sweet little time to release Starcraft II, yet they demand, and are ok with, other companies pumping out new titles like mad? And no, it's not like Blizzard games are somehow "unique" or "special". At least not anymore. Not after the garbage that Starcraft 2 is.

...What? No.

O'rly? Care to guess the number of games with a console port FOV of 75 or less now, than 10 years ago? We sued to get free maps/perks all the time. Now they mostly cost cash, and have gone down the drain.

Jeezus. Fuck you for reminding me. I had to change Fallout's FOV every single time I started it up on my PC because the default of 75 never failed to give me a headache within half an hour.

But that was a great game.