The whole point of console exclusives is to get impatient PC users like our digital friend here to "jump in"... four months, especially in the summer, when part of long wait might be eaten by vacation and other unhealthy (for gamers) and unnatural (for gamers) activities, is not enough. Now one year is much more appropriate... then you'd be hearing of "should I get a 360 or a PS3", not a "seriously thinking about"...
The old and unwieldy GTA4 thread*
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Not at all, the previous GTA's took so long because they first ported to xbox then to PC. Things take time, doing consoles first is natural cuz its where the most money is.
The reason its only 4 months now, is probably thanks to microsoft dev tools
Are those the gamers that matter to either console company, the people who only consider purchasing a console just for one game?
Actually... GTA 3 and Vice City came to Xbox at least 1.5 years after each respective PC release. San Andreas was released first on PS2 (Oct. 2004) and simultaneously on Xbox and PC in June 2005.
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What matters is the huge "PS2 owners who still haven't migrated to next-gen" demographics. These are 60-80 millions of users, and GTA4 is as good a reason as any to pull them to your side; letting Rockstar release a PC version only 4 months later is not the way to do it.
Except GTA4 doesn't have pull to 60-80 million users. You'll have to take a cut off GTA's 4 potential console-selling power as being existing hardcore early-adopters too. The number of consoles this game can help shift is likely single digit millions. Which isn't a bad feat by any stretch...just not whole-console-user-base wide appeal!
No single game can pull 60-80 millions (maybe Wii Play and Wii Fit will make me eat my words in a couple of years ;-) ), but every million-seller counts, and is in the best interest of the console vendors to keep it away from other platforms and especially the torrent-happy PC.
Anyway - where does the August quote come from?
Anyway - where does the August quote come from?
Are you guys kidding? Four months is fucking TORTURE for us GTA PC faithfuls!
I'm seriously thinking of getting either a 360 or PS3 just to be able to play it at launch.
Console yourself (no pun intended
) with the thought of 1080p and/or 60fps goodness :smile:Maybe we'll get improved textures and other goodies too. At least this time there will be no worries about how the game will control. Its bound to use the same control scheme as the 360 with the 360 pad.
Overall, the consoles would lose some audience to the PC edition, yes. But my question is still: "Does it matter if the PC is pulling people from buying either console?"
Between MS and Sony, neither has really gained or lost a significant lead in console unit sales (for this game) due to the PC Edition's apparently sooner release. Unless for some reason a vast majority of those PC buyers are biased towards one console, in which case, the PC buyers are doing a favour to the company they are not biased towards, then I still don't see how MS or Sony are losing much if they aren't gaining significant numbers in console sales relative to one another.
Relative 360 vs. PS3 install bases are all that matters in forum warz, but to vendors and third parties, absolute install base is also very important. Especially for Microsoft, for whom GTA4 is arguably the "pearl in the crown" in 2008, every sale lost to a patient PC enthusiast with a 8800GTS should be a tragedy. They have shown they are able to engage their players, to hardcore-ize them and to get them buy a game a month - but they still have a lot to do on their ability to initially draw people to the platform, and this is where games like GTA4 (should) come.
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digitalwanderer
Legend
Not to mention AA & AF, as well as the big MOUSE AND KEYBOARD thing.Console yourself (no pun intended
Yeah i got the same feeling from watching the trailer, still the game looks very impressive. After the first look, i turned down the volume and watched it a second time, this time with the framerate in mind, not that mindblowing
.I dunno if we should expect more to be honest, i don´t know if this is the type of game where it just is very hard to tune the engine . Or if it´s the 3 different platforms that gives us a nice solid average instead of the best possible. How does Rockstar Norths developers measure up to the other top shops? Like Naughty Dog, Insomnia, Ninja etc?
And with Rockstar we will not learn anything before another 7 years.
R* isn't exactly known for their technical superiority... Some have looked okay when they came out, most did not, and the framerate has never been anything to write home about
scooby_dooby
Legend
Looks pretty damn good for a GTA game IMO, the framerate has never been a huge problem for me in previous GTA's.
Why I can not edit my post?
GTAIV: Is the Xbox 360 Version Superior?
http://techspyblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/gtaiv-is-xbox-360-version-superior.html
More Developer Insights: PS3 Fill Rate Problems
In doing our research we came across this explosive expose from former Harmonix Developer Jason Booth. In his blog he reveals the truth about the alleged power of the PS3. What he says may directly effect the performance of GTAIV on the PS3. Here is what he had to say:
"The fill rate on the PS3 is significantly slower than on the 360, meaning that games either have to run at lower resolution or use simpler shader effects to achieve the same performance. Additionally, the shader processing on the ps3 is significantly slower than on the 360, which means that a normal map takes more fill rate to draw on the ps3 than it does on the 360."
GTAIV: Is the Xbox 360 Version Superior?
http://techspyblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/gtaiv-is-xbox-360-version-superior.html
More Developer Insights: PS3 Fill Rate Problems
In doing our research we came across this explosive expose from former Harmonix Developer Jason Booth. In his blog he reveals the truth about the alleged power of the PS3. What he says may directly effect the performance of GTAIV on the PS3. Here is what he had to say:
"The fill rate on the PS3 is significantly slower than on the 360, meaning that games either have to run at lower resolution or use simpler shader effects to achieve the same performance. Additionally, the shader processing on the ps3 is significantly slower than on the 360, which means that a normal map takes more fill rate to draw on the ps3 than it does on the 360."
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