If you mean Loki games they shut down a while ago. Guess all those Linux users who wanted games never put their money where their mouth was.
Alan Wake: Microsoft preparing to leave PC gamers behind (again)
- Thread starter Richard
- Start date
If you mean Loki games they shut down a while ago. Guess all those Linux users who wanted games never put their money where their mouth was.
That's exactly the point I don't understand. The game mostly takes place at night, it's supposed to be scary. So where do you think the atmosphere will come across better? Right in front of the PC, lights off, with your nose right up in the action or 4 meters away sitting in a comfy couch? Very, very, very weak argument (from ms, not you). Shame on you microsoft!
Silent_Buddha
Legend
That's it, for the life of me, I couldn't remember their name. I remember a couple stores in my area carried some of those titles in a Linux section (tiny compared to the also tiny Mac gaming section) and I don't recall a single title selling.
Regards,
SB
green.pixel
Veteran
Haha, we have couple of winners! 
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Doesn't MS own the IP for Alan Wake? In which case Remedy would have to buy back the IP before they could find another publisher.
Regards,
SB
Regards,
SB
green.pixel
Veteran
And we have a suspect! This is probably where that MS PR got it from.
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Interview-Remedy-Entertainment-22847.html
The first bolded part IMO speaks everything about the state of the game.
http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Interview-Remedy-Entertainment-22847.html
The first bolded part IMO speaks everything about the state of the game.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Aye, it's no great mystery. The game, while never having a set release date prior to this year, is widely considered to be hugely delayed.
And as said, MS basically stopped all PC related work last year to focus efforts on trying to at least get the game out the door.
Considering how long it has been in developement, and how over budget it must be, I just don't see any way MS is going to make a profit off this unless it surprises me and sells a LOT better than I expect it to.
Which ultimately means it's incredibly unlikely MS is going to sink even more money into finishing the PC version.
It'll be interesting to see if MS even bothers to sink any money into a TV advertising campaign for this.
Regards,
SB
And as said, MS basically stopped all PC related work last year to focus efforts on trying to at least get the game out the door.
Considering how long it has been in developement, and how over budget it must be, I just don't see any way MS is going to make a profit off this unless it surprises me and sells a LOT better than I expect it to.
Which ultimately means it's incredibly unlikely MS is going to sink even more money into finishing the PC version.
It'll be interesting to see if MS even bothers to sink any money into a TV advertising campaign for this.
Regards,
SB
green.pixel
Veteran
No, Remedy owns the IP, while MS only owns the publishing rights.
http://forum.alanwake.com/showthread.php?t=2830
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Gotcha, looking at that thread, it appears that ADM person is implying Remedy might be thinking about an Alan Wake 2, in which case they could seek another publisher for that.
Unlike something like Gears where MS has publishing rights for the entire series.
Regards,
SB
Unlike something like Gears where MS has publishing rights for the entire series.
Regards,
SB
I think scary or suspenseful games in general are better suited to the close up style of the typical PC set up myself. FEAR, Doom 3, STALKER titles, etc. It's so in your face, especially when you take note of the fact that you're completely consumed in what's in front of you and then you realize that the lack of quick eye adjustment to looking away from your monitor makes you pretty blind to the dark. It's kind of freaky........lol........and I like it that way
As for Alan Wake, if it turns out to be a dud, I'm sure many PC gamers will be as such "see! it was crap, and we wouldn't want crap on the PC!" but as a manner of principle we should all be a bit pissed whether it turns out to be good or not. Maybe had development not taken so long, Remedy could've saved some money, and still could afford to release it on PC. It's amazing how long games can take to finally come to fruition (Duke Nuken Forever anyone?), and in some ways it alienates potential buyers by 1) taking so long, gamers lose interest and 2) development becomes so prolonged that focus has to shift to a single SKU in order to guarantee that there is a profitable and "gold" level release candidate. I cared about Alan Wake back in 2006 when it was being talked up heavily, but I honestly don't give a shit anymore really. I only care about it's relation to MS's somewhat anti-PC gaming behavior.
Sure, but Apple seems to show little interest in pushing OS X for games and Linux might have the interest, but not the unity to offer a proper platform. Windows sorta wins by default, and I think they know that.
If Steve Jobs and Apple in general took a higher interest with OS X as a gaming platform, I bet MS would feel threatened. With current Macs all shipping with a decently powerful GPU in baseline models (9400M, and I'm sure they'll be the first with it's successor) there are plenty of users our their who could game. GPU aside, they have all the power they need. The issue is, how many customers would be interested in OS X as a viable mainstream gaming platform? If the idea/capability was promoted, and developers got on board with real OpenGL usage, not just Wine or Cedega we could see a resurgence of the Mac as a leading game platform before DX8 and 9 pretty much made Windows the de facto computer gaming platform.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
BTW - this isn't a reply to you specifically, but to the general sentiment that MS doesn't care about PC gamers or wins PC gaming by default.
MS while not itself publishing games for PC anymore, does go out of it's way to take developer requests, IHV requests and limitations, and then form a working compromise between what is desired and what is possible.
MS does far more for PC gaming than any other company in existence. They act as a crucial itermediary in balancing the needs of the developers with the realities of the IHVs.
And then to top it off, they actually manage to make any of a few hundred thousand different hardware configurations work out of the box with virtually any game released. All the while providing for mostly standardized installation procedures for games negating the need for developer's having to provide extensive instructions on how to even install a game as they had to to for quite a while.
It's still not quite as plug and play as a console but it's pretty close. Which is amazing when you consider a console is a closed infrastructure while a PC has to deal with numerous possible hardware configurations. Numerous memory architectures, random CPU speeds, random memory speeds, random memory amoounts, random core counts, etc...
The day I see MS abandon updating DirectX and most especially Direct3D, is the day I think MS no longer cares about PC gamers. MS invests a ton of time and money in making sure gaming continues to advance on PC and that the user experience continues to get more painless. Dx10 with enforced features for example. Dx11 with the ability to write to one Dx level and have it work with multiple Dx levels as another example.
And considering MS doesn't get royalties from all games released on PC means they are basically doing all this for free.
Regards,
SB
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You have to go back to DOS, Amiga, and Apples to see things working differently IMO.
Oh I don't think that's the case really. The direct result of this is complete dominance of the computer gaming market and that has obvious benefits for them in many ways.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Yes, absolutely, I think that's a major part of what helps them maintain dominance in the home PC world. But they still get no direct revenue from it. And they spend a ton of money and manpower to make sure PC's are gaming friendly not only for consumers but also game devs...
If PC gaming dies, that opens up a much larger window for alternate OS's to start taking chunks of marketshare away.
Regards,
SB
A 9400M doesn't make a gaming platform. I think that's why Apple doesn't give a shit about games except for the iPhone and iPod Touch. They simply don't have a competitive hardware platform for gaming since most of their computer sales are iMacs and MacBooks.
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