Reasons why it’s worth to be a pcgamer by Adrian Werner

Judging by that list, PC has the edge when it comes to exclusives. No doubt about it.

 

I can honestly say I don't give a rat's ass about any of those games listed.

I just want Battlefield 3. Like right now.

Hell, I'd even take BF3142 (or whatever they'll call it).

 

Yeah just like there's a ton of commercials on TV right now for Halo Reach, Grand Turismo 5, God of War 3, Alan Wake, Final Fantasy XIII.

Oh wait maybe it's because NONE of those games just like Starcraft 2 have been released yet? Nooooo, that can't possibly be the reason.

Regards,
SB

 

I think using unreleased, essentially unannounced games as part of list wars counts as a technical foul.

 

I think I remember seeing a lot of the games in that list in the 'reason to be a PC gamer', 2009 edition (or was it 2008?). JA3 was one of them. Has JA3 even been announced? Last I heard it was using the Silent Storm engine, which is okay... but any of the Sir-Tech Canada folk actually working on the sequel?

 

All this thread is is list wars. It's okay to be excited for unannounced/unconfirmed games, I guess, but they don't make for a credible argument when talking about exclusives.

Project Offset is, last I heard, a Larrabee vehicle. I'm pretty sure we won't see that before we do LRB, wherever it surfaces. Last I heard of Guild Wars 2, it was 2011. Starcraft 2 is a very legitimate entry, though and, if it's out this year, will quite possibly the biggest game of the year. (The Last Guardian is also probably not a 2010 game.)

But if we're going from 'games I can reasonably expect to play within the next 12 months' to 'games to look forward to', why not add Battlefield 3, Diablo 3, L.A. Noir, Wardevil, Gears of War 3, the first 343 industries game?

 

Make those ads links so we dont make free advertising for foul companies.

 

That needs to be shouted out loud everytime someone comes up with "PC games don't sell well but console games sell like hotcakes".
Long gone are the days when you could sell in couple of hundrend thousands in sales to recoup the costs and call it a day. You need to do marketing for your games in order for masses of potential customers to know about them and buy them. Just look at Apple and its marketing success.
Simply put, PC in its current state, can never have the mass market "sex appeal" and accesibilty as consoles do. You bring your console home, plug it in to your telly, put your game disc in, and it works! PC has always been looked at as the platform for "geeks" and other "weird" folks, "nah man, that's for nerds. I'll stick with my playstation.” (j/k)

Consoles have and always have had the upper hand when it comes to sales, there's simply no solution to it. It's a natural thing when you think about it and when you consider all the factors that contribute to that. One of the most important, if not the #1 one is the price, next also big one is accesibility. When you add it all up, you end up with money making machines. Just look at Wii.

PC as a gaming platform develops on its own. I don't see Intel/ATi/nV/HP/Dell/whatever owning gaming studios as subsidiaries and providing them finnancial support in developing commercial AAA title exclusively for PC and also marketing them. And giving developers enough money and time is one of the most important aspects of game development. When you have a "luxury" of throwing $60+ mil. at a project, and not worrying about ROI due to the large enough user base AND marketing AND hype, you can do anything . The only studios in the PC space nowadays that I can think of, which can enjoy that sort of "freedom" is Blizzard and to some extent Relic. A sad fact, really.

It's like a child with no parents to nurture it, guide through life, give financial and every other possible support. Needs to make it on its own, no matter what.


P.S. I don't want to start any kind of "war". I think we can have a sensible discussion on this topic on B3D, unlike other (noobish and fanboyish) forums.

 

Didn't we see figures last year from the likes of Activision that showed profit from PC games was equal to any one of the consoles? Even with WoW sucking 10 million gamers out of the market every month.

There's a massive installed base of PCs, and even though only a small portion of them are used for gaming, that's still a big potential audience if you make the right games and market it properly.

 

The problem with the Activision numbers is that it includes WoW which brings in a fairly steady and unpiratable monthly income. It's basically like releasing a good selling profitable game every month with a developement budget of an expansion once every 9-12 months + server farm + bandwidth costs.

Regards,
SB

 

You guys need to realize that this debate has been going on since FOREVER. You can go to Google Groups right now and look up flame wars over SNES vs. Amiga vs. 386 PCs. Whatever. That might be good for opening up perspectives a bit.

Step back and look at the bigger picture. Instead of worrying about your favorite comfortable current platform, consider what kinds of games you want and like. That's all that matters. Really. Don't get all fanboyish about one of the platforms.

 

Absolutely.

 

Man they really need to figure a way around the piracy on the pc. IT really sucks that its dieing out.

Though in some cases like batman i had to install so many patches and hacks to get it to actually use my system as it should that i may have been better off pirating it instead of buying it.

 

Cant find the words to describe my face right at this moment...

 

I've been hearing that for the last 20 years, but it's not happened yet. In fact, every year the games get better. Just look at the great games we've had on the PC over the last year or two, not just the PC games, but also the multi-platform games that we've had come over from the consoles.

 

Well, I'd say quality of PC games have been declining for at least the past 5 years in addition to not only the quantity of PC games (way down) but also the quantity of PC games worth playing.

There was a time when new games (plural) for PC were coming out every month. And not just small pop-cap/stardock type games. Or games noone had ever heard of before and were generally poo.

Meh. I'm just being pessimistic. But there just aren't as many releases now as there was 5, 10, 15, or even 20 years ago.

Regards,
SB

 

Isn't that also true for all consoles bar mobile phones and handhelds? Cost of development?