Vivendi and Activision merge to form Activision Blizzard

[AlNom]

Reminder: Take it to PMs if you must, please.

 

[Dresden]

- Consoles can allow you to game adaquately in the comfort of your sofa, sat a good distance away from your TV (argueable but generally true..)

This is completely subjective, so what "general" audience are you pandering to?

- Consoles can provide high end performance hardware & high end, cutting edge software to the mass market consumer at mass market prices..

Once again, this is subjective. Take any game whose settings can be manipulated in the PC, ala GoW, or CoD4, there will be obvious and very blatant differences.

- Consoles provide better anti piracy measures.. (not so good for the consumer, but great for content providers whom, if you want them to keep developing the games you'd better make sure their best interests are preserved..)

I don't know how in tune to piracy you've been lately, but piracy exists on every front of digital media humanly imaginable, consoles are no exception. So the process is different, but that hardly means it's nonexistent.

Well if your so-called stock games never live up to your expectations then why do you care about Blizzard's IP so much?

You obviously prefer playing content that they didn't provide (mods) over the ones that they did!

Blizzard's games are some of the few games that don't actually mandate mods. I've been playing a modless WoW for months now, and I've never needed to download anything outside of official content for any of their other games.

 

[archangelmorph]

< snip..>

PM'd..

 

[Florin]

I like this merger. It will be a nice counterbalance to EA domination. Especially since 80% of EA's big releases are meh games and 60% of Activision big releases are good games IMO.

World of Guitarherocraft. Imagine the possibilities. I'm SO there.

 

[archangelmorph]

World of Guitarherocraft. Imagine the possibilities. I'm SO there.

"World of Duty: Modern Hero III.."

Even Better!!!!

 

[scooby_dooby]

I don't know how in tune to piracy you've been lately, but piracy exists on every front of digital media humanly imaginable, consoles are no exception. So the process is different, but that hardly means it's nonexistent.

Don't tell me your honestly trying to compare the piracy that is rampant on PC, to the tiny niche of modders on next-gen consoles.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Lastly, as a platform for gaming the console is inferior in potential to the PC(you can't argue that, it is FACT, there is nothing a console can do that a PC cannot and there are things a PC can do that a console cannot).

While consoles may be more limiting on a technical level, PC games are more limited in terms of budget and scope.

So pick your trade off.

The console market offers FAR more potential for profits, which equals bigger development teams, higher quality assets, cinematography, acting, soundtracks and production values.

PC offers better GFX, better control...and not much else.

In the end the superior gaming platform is the platform with the superior games. Not the one with the most 'potential'.

 

[slider]

While consoles may be more limiting on a technical level, PC games are more limited in terms of budget and scope.

So pick your trade off.

The console market offers FAR more potential for profits, which equals bigger development teams, higher quality assets, cinematography, acting, soundtracks and production values.

PC offers better GFX, better control...and not much else.

In the end the superior gaming platform is the platform with the superior games. Not the one with the most 'potential'.

Finally - I hope this means we won't have too many more discussions about PC v. Console; (I'm neither pro nor anti either path).

Well put scoob. I'm going to bookmark this post.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Excellent indeed.

 

[Dresden]

Don't tell me your honestly trying to compare the piracy that is rampant on PC, to the tiny niche of modders on next-gen consoles.

Actually, I was. Are you denying there's level of piracy on consoles? My post wasn't depicting how grand a scale either theater is. I was merely stating it does exist. And to claim that niche of console modders is "tiny," I'm probably one of the only people I know that doesn't have a modified console of some sort. I'm not saying this is marshal law, more of my own personal experience, so please spare me the interventions talking about so-and-so.

 

[dubyateeeff]

Don't tell me your honestly trying to compare the piracy that is rampant on PC, to the tiny niche of modders on next-gen consoles.

Consoles sold as premodded and being advertised in magazines, yeah... they are probably about equal. Also, I would say it is the same bunch of people doing both. Unless in a country where you can buy pirated discs, the people who download and burn console games... yeah, they will pirate on their PC. But since there are more interesting games worth pirating on a console someone like that probably pirates more on a console than on a PC.

 

[archangelmorph]

Actually, I was. Are you denying there's level of piracy on consoles? My post wasn't depicting how grand a scale either theater is. I was merely stating it does exist. And to claim that niche of console modders is "tiny," I'm probably one of the only people I know that doesn't have a modified console of some sort. I'm not saying this is marshal law, more of my own personal experience, so please spare me the interventions talking about so-and-so.

Scooby's point is a valid one.. He merely stated that the modding demographic for next gen consoles is much much smaller than for any other platform (whether it be PC, PS2, Xbox etc..)

There are a number of reasons for this which by and large don't only relate to the better security measures the platform;s implement:

- Older (core) demographic with more disposable income mean the dependency on piracy as a means to lower the cost of entry (so-to-speak) is nullified as individuals can comfortably afford it as a part of their everyday life..

- Download-based firmware updates prevent software modification & network communication allows the hardware to detect whether itself has been tampered with and if necessary can take appropriate action (self-destruct.. Not sure if they actually do this but the scope is there should they wish to..)

- Greater protection measures & dependencies on DRM protected content force hackers & modders to "jump through hoops" to open up the system whichmakes it much less desirable for consumers who would have otherwise considered it if it was as easy as mounting a boot disc (DC) or dropping in a £5 mod chip (PSX) or downloading free warez patches (PC)

- Face it, who wants to spend an age to download, crack and burn 45 GBs worth of Blu-Ray image file data??

All of these factors make piracy much more difficult & reduce the viability of individuals making money from "black market" operations to the extent that they did in the past..

 

[scooby_dooby]

Consoles sold as premodded and being advertised in magazines, yeah... they are probably about equal.

No, they are not.

Now I agree it "does exist", however the argument you were responding to was: "Consoles provide better anti piracy measures..", and they certainly do.

The fact of the matter is, console piracy requires you to take significant risks and costs, you void your warrantee, you risk bricking your console, and you have to pay the up front cost.

PC piracy requires nothing. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why PC piracy is much much higher...

Two people close to the industry, who declined to be identified, said publishers might be complacent because business is good and because piracy is far more prevalent in PC-based games, a declining business, than with consoles. That's because of the difficulty in hacking consoles and the ease of circumventing copy protection on PC games.

http://www.forbes.com/2005/07/18/videogame-piracy-worldwide-cx_ld_0718piracy.html

 

[Skrying]

While consoles may be more limiting on a technical level, PC games are more limited in terms of budget and scope.

So pick your trade off.

The console market offers FAR more potential for profits, which equals bigger development teams, higher quality assets, cinematography, acting, soundtracks and production values.

PC offers better GFX, better control...and not much else.

In the end the superior gaming platform is the platform with the superior games. Not the one with the most 'potential'.

Budget and scope? No, there are a number of highly expensive PC games. Though budget means nothing, just look at the majority of games that have vast budgets. They're hardly ever that much better than their "low" budget counterparts. Scope? No clue what you're trying to pull there. Genre types? Actual game scope? No clue, wrong on both points anyway.

The superior gaming platform is the one that offers the best experience. I'm not tied to what a game developer makes. I have many other avenues for gaming. Be it indie games, mods, or otherwise. If you really want to argue some of this years heralded games on console are worth it then go ahead, I've played the vast majority for at least over a couple hours. Beat some that have transitioned over to PC. You can keep those games to be frank. The only one worth my time has been Call of Duty 4s multiplayer (its SP is horrible).

Big explosions and graphical splendor means nothing as well, I would love to see the awesome variety of strategy games the console offers, real time or turn based games.


As far as piracy goes, it is a major issue for the PC market. One that will simply never go with the way its currently "combated." For example, to even play the Call of Duty 4 single player campaign required me to download and use a no-cd crack, even after contacting support it was simply blamed on copy protection and I'd have to deal with it, so I did. Not all games, but a number of them, that have left out piracy protection have been well received by the PC gaming community. That is the fault solely on publishers for not having a clue how to handle their audience. You can't combat piracy with strong arm tactics, it only fuels the flames.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Scope was poor wording on my part, I knew that would get me! I meant in terms of the team size and project possibilities, given the larger resources(money) available.

For example, I'm not sure a project like Assasin's Creed would've been viable on PC, the budget required to pull it off was so high, it needed a huge return on investment that could only be offered on a console.

There's no denying that the money for publishers is in console gaming, look no further than EA & Activisions profit breakdowns per platform, PC is doing horrible. As a result the number of quality console games is going to rise, while PC continues to shrink and gets more and more cheap, subpar games/ports.

 

[Dresden]

There's no denying that the money for publishers is in console gaming, look no further than EA & Activisions profit breakdowns per platform, PC is doing horrible. As a result the number of quality console games is going to rise, while PC continues to shrink and gets more and more cheap, subpar games/ports.

Nobody is questioning why console games are being made. Personally, I think it's a crappy business move when devs who created games specifically for the PC audience, then dumbed their games down to make more money, i.e Bioshock, or what was originally coined as System Shock 3. EA has more money then God, yet sees it fit to make the latest installment of the BF series a 360/PS3 exclusive. And who decides what "quality" games are aside from the player themselves? To say, definitively, console games will continually produce better games is purely subjective. I bought a 360 and only found, thus far, 5 games worth buying, two of which were disappointing, and two of which ended up being released on PC, and were outdone.

 

[Skrying]

Scope was poor wording on my part, I knew that would get me! I meant in terms of the team size and project possibilities, given the larger resources(money) available.

For example, I'm not sure a project like Assasin's Creed would've been viable on PC, the budget required to pull it off was so high, it needed a huge return on investment that could only be offered on a console.

There's no denying that the money for publishers is in console gaming, look no further than EA & Activisions profit breakdowns per platform, PC is doing horrible. As a result the number of quality console games is going to rise, while PC continues to shrink and gets more and more cheap, subpar games/ports.

Hope you realize a port to PC is in the works for Assassin's Creed. It'll work just fine on PC as well baring someone learns that an extra month could easily double sales. Probably won't happen that way, since publishers don't have a clue about the PC audience.

 

[StefanS]

Folks, this is getting hugely off-topic. I am more than willing to tolerate general talk about publishers and their approach to different platforms, their responses to piracy etc as long as it relates to the fact that big publishers are merging creating less than half a dozen super-publishers.

The whole PC vs game console WRT keyboard 'n mouse vs gamepad, comfort level, etc. has been done to death and is considered off-topic. Anyone bringing that up again might be subject to some mod activities. Moreover, a few people might wanna take a chill pill and calm down.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

The cost and risk of making big budget games is mitigated by eliminating the competition with mergers. Big budget PC gaming would barely be viable without the console ports that fund their development.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Activision has COD4 at 1.5 million X360 + .44 million PS3; GH3 1 million on the PS2 and .42 million on the Wii. Combined with WoW they're going to dominate all the important platforms, all they need is a good game on the Wii.