PC Games - Console 'Tax'

[s1njin]

Hey Gang,

Just wanted to open this up possibly for a more focused conversation.

Is it me, or are more and more PC games ported from consoles and given to us as a afterthought? Taking away dedicated PC games like SC2, Crysis, and the upcoming Diablo, I just don't see a whole lot of 'get out of your seat and whoot' type of differences between the consoles and the PC.

Now, from a economic standpoint I get it. MW3 at launch sold something like 13.5 million copies, of which only 250k were for the PC. Clearly you develop for your paying audience, and the paying audience is not on PC.

However, it seems to me that most times the PC variants are true after thoughts. Many don't utilize more than 2 cores, the graphics might be a smidge better but don't seem to be a world of difference. Often times the interface is clearly console oriented w/ mouse bolted on. Etc.

Am I missing something here?

 

[n7]

Nope. You're not missing anything.

The current PC gaming future looks pretty bleak, particularly if you are a mainstream FPS kinda person.

Luckily there are lots of up and coming smaller developers making indie games on PC, and in spite of the consolitus infecting everything, there are still many great games to be played, albeit with some consolization to deal with.

 

[pontifex]

blah blah blah blah....


queue "console is killing pc" thread # 10383444454657879213124140171790170451274172407210758045043757594

why do we need to have several threads like this a week?

 

[gorcorps]

blah blah blah blah....


queue "console is killing pc" thread # 10383444454657879213124140171790170451274172407210758045043757594

why do we need to have several threads like this a week?

No kidding. They're bad when they start with "is it just me or..."

Given that one of these types of discussions is always going on on the front page, you can rest assured it's not just you.

This one is especially bad because the OP says "taking away all the PC exclusives...". Well duh, take away all the things going against your argument is a pretty easy way of proving your point. You know, ignoring every single movie since The Sixth Sense, M. Night. Shyamalan makes really good movies.

 

[darkewaffle]

Here we go again.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

We just have to deal with it, really the only things we have going at this point is higher resolution and faster loading times.

 

[FuryofFive]

blah blah blah blah....


queue "console is killing pc" thread # 10383444454657879213124140171790170451274172407210758045043757594

why do we need to have several threads like this a week?

+1

 

[Bateluer]

Look on the bright side, you won't have a reason to spend lots of money on fancy computer hardware, or purchase Windows. Should be just fine running a considerably cheaper thin&light net-top or notebook with a Linux distro as your OS.

Seriously, it blows. The quality of PC games is dismal, and the quality of the console games that sell en masse is dismal. Sooner or later, the console kiddie's parents are going to figure out that they've been paying 60+ for the same game every year, and the market will crash. And by crash, I mean, correct itself by flushing the crud.

 

[s1njin]

No kidding. They're bad when they start with "is it just me or..."

Given that one of these types of discussions is always going on on the front page, you can rest assured it's not just you.

This one is especially bad because the OP says "taking away all the PC exclusives...". Well duh, take away all the things going against your argument is a pretty easy way of proving your point. You know, ignoring every single movie since The Sixth Sense, M. Night. Shyamalan makes really good movies.

Here we go again.

+1

Jeez ... I'm not a frequent poster on this forum - sorry for offending so many feel free to ask for this thread to be deleted. Seriously - I meant no offense.

 

[darkewaffle]

Jeez ... I'm not a frequent poster on this forum - sorry for offending so many feel free to ask for this thread to be deleted. Seriously - I meant no offense.

Fair enough, but just about every other thread here already degrades/derails to a "consolization" bitchfest at one point or another as it is

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Jeez ... I'm not a frequent poster on this forum - sorry for offending so many feel free to ask for this thread to be deleted. Seriously - I meant no offense.

We take pc gaming real serious around here.

 

[s1njin]

We take pc gaming real serious around here.

That's why I posted the question here. I just wasn't aware that this has been run into the ground ad nauseum. I was hoping I was missing something b/c, as my sig indicates, I dumped decent coin on my box.

 

[Tweak155]

My tower is aging but still plays everything I feel like firing up at really high settings:

i7 920
6gb tri-chan Mem
5770 1gb
256gb SSD

I keep feeling like I'm supposed to upgrade because its been so long. I did the hard drive just for space (had 160gb SSD before).

 

[paperfist]

You guys ever visit http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ ? I swear all the PC coverage they have will put a smile back on your face

Anyway why isn't it viable to sell on the PC? The games are developed on one to begin with and if your numbers are right for MW3 then 250,000 copies x $60 = $15,000,000.00.

 

[gorcorps]

That's why I posted the question here. I just wasn't aware that this has been run into the ground ad nauseum. I was hoping I was missing something b/c, as my sig indicates, I dumped decent coin on my box.

We didn't mean to attack you, but yes it's been covered many many times...

You'll have people that think it's the console's fault PC gaming has declined, and you have people who think people are just over-blowing it as consoles have existed for decades already, or those who just blame lazy developers because some have shown you still CAN make a good PC game if you care enough.

But anyway, let's not start that again.

 

[Arkaign]

Hey Gang,

Just wanted to open this up possibly for a more focused conversation.

Is it me, or are more and more PC games ported from consoles and given to us as a afterthought? Taking away dedicated PC games like SC2, Crysis, and the upcoming Diablo, I just don't see a whole lot of 'get out of your seat and whoot' type of differences between the consoles and the PC.

Now, from a economic standpoint I get it. MW3 at launch sold something like 13.5 million copies, of which only 250k were for the PC. Clearly you develop for your paying audience, and the paying audience is not on PC.

However, it seems to me that most times the PC variants are true after thoughts. Many don't utilize more than 2 cores, the graphics might be a smidge better but don't seem to be a world of difference. Often times the interface is clearly console oriented w/ mouse bolted on. Etc.

Am I missing something here?

MW3 is kind of a red herring, because by and large PC gamers know it's pretty much trash. For the consoles there's little better, but I'd like to see numbers of :

BF3 and Skyrim

Of which there probably isn't nearly as drastic an imbalance in sales. As a matter of fact (completely anecdotal, but still), I was at Wal-Mart last night suffering while the GF shopped, and strolled over to the VG section.

They had stacks of MW3 unsold for all platforms but 360, had like two copies of Skyrim for 360, none for PS3, and sold out on PC as well. Same was true with the strategy guides, all the Skyrim ones were gone.

Anyhow, it's largely true that developers (iD, EA, etc) have largely followed the $$, which means consoles. Consoles have less picky players, and the hardware is old and relatively cheap to develop for. PC gaming is still a huge market though, billions of dollars worldwide annually, and it's a ripe place for smart companies to make bank.

 

[RiDE]

Consoles + Casuals of Duty = $$$

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Fair enough, but just about every other thread here already degrades/derails to a "consolization" bitchfest at one point or another as it is

We must be on to something then.

 

[TakeNoPrisoners]

Consoles + Casuals of Duty = $$$

Until people realize it is the same game year after year, then they stop buying COD. I already have.

 

[greenhawk]

on the game count side, it is a little hard to tell as all the numbers I have seen have been for PHYSICAL copies of the game. Electronic appear not to be counted. Taken that way, seeing a far lower PC count for games becomes a joke when working out "popularity".

 

[StinkyPinky]

Yeah it sucks ass, but there is still some bright points. Skyrim sold about half a million PC copies in its first few days. The Witcher 2 sold about a million after a month.

 

[s1njin]

Well, for what its worth I'm still buying Skyrim for my PC. I want the best that can be run, so its PC for me. I'm interested to see if Arkham City is appreciably better on the PC than console. Consoles actually did a good job w/ it as far as I can see. But, if it looks and plays better on the PC, that's enough to pull me off my comfy la-z-boy.

Of course I'm going to use the 360 controller *ducks*

 

[Smartazz]

Look on the bright side, you won't have a reason to spend lots of money on fancy computer hardware, or purchase Windows. Should be just fine running a considerably cheaper thin&light net-top or notebook with a Linux distro as your OS.

Seriously, it blows. The quality of PC games is dismal, and the quality of the console games that sell en masse is dismal. Sooner or later, the console kiddie's parents are going to figure out that they've been paying 60+ for the same game every year, and the market will crash. And by crash, I mean, correct itself by flushing the crud.

This. I think that that games in general have been crap on both console and PC. The games that are crap on PC are just as crappy on console imo. Console gaming isn't all that and this is coming from someone with all three of them. I think I'm going to play BF3 and Super Mario Galaxy 2 for a while.

 

[shingletingle]

Look on the bright side, you won't have a reason to spend lots of money on fancy computer hardware, or purchase Windows. Should be just fine running a considerably cheaper thin&light net-top or notebook with a Linux distro as your OS.

Seriously, it blows. The quality of PC games is dismal, and the quality of the console games that sell en masse is dismal. Sooner or later, the console kiddie's parents are going to figure out that they've been paying 60+ for the same game every year, and the market will crash. And by crash, I mean, correct itself by flushing the crud.

The "console kiddie" term is getting really tired. As if kids are the only ones playing on consoles. But I'm aware you say it because you think it makes you sound cool.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

I have no interest in MW3, but that 250k number is retail. I'm willing to bet for every retail copy sold, there was 2-3 digital copies sold as well.

Publishers use low retail PC sales as a reason to shit on PC gamers a lot of times, but most PC gamers I know rarely, if ever, step into a brick and mortar to buy a game, they always go to Steam or Origin or Greenmangaming or some other online DD site to get their games. Those games are never counted towards total sales, and are hidden from consumers.

There's a reason my Activision keeps putting Call of Duty games on the PC, and it's not because they're selling 250k copies, it's because they're selling a lot more in the digital channels.