Chris Taylor complaining

[manored]

Actual there is piracy on consoles too... at least on Brazil, where the govern taxes 240% on video games...

[Neddie]

There has always been and will always be piracy on consoles.

[Licho]

Well he (Taylor) actually speaks truth. PC games are not selling well. Our publisher was pressing us hard to make everything for console. And all publisher wanted was some mainstream genre game for console. They killed great RPG in advanced stage because it was deemed it unprofitable. For PC game, they forced us to use intrusive starforce copy protection and release before finishing, and guess what, I found the game pirated in usuall timeframe with enough leechers to fix company debts and perhaps let it repay me and 30+ other devs part of our missing salary (company still owes me nearly 1/2 year of salaries, but its now bankrupt and no way to get it..)

My friend is working for another gamedev company and they are too switching to console away from PC. Making a game today is extremely expensive and PC gamers usually cannot make it profitable alone so you need to make game for console as well. Also developing just for console is much cheaper than for PC (once you get the know-how).

[Peet]

PC games aren't selling well because the latest ones require $1500+ to be spent on a PC (at least prebuilt ones) in order to play properly.

[KDR_11k]

I think Epic put the blame on Intel for producing integrated chipsets that don't really do 3d well. Most PCs come with those so most PCs can't play videogames even though their owners might think otherwise. Games that do run on integrated seem to sell like hotcakes (Sims or Anno, for example).

Though I think it's also a regional thing, from what I've heard PC games are pretty much ignored in the US with retailers almost not selling them at all. Here in Germany the PC still holds the majority of the sales AFAIK.

Also consoles are restrictive since you aren't allowed to publish games that got the highest rating in a region on them (e.g. AO rated in the US, rating denied in Germany, ...)

[SwiftSpear]

PC games aren't selling because free software principles are winning.

Titles that provide expansive content and abstract user approaches rule the market. Valve games for example have huge hobbiest communities, huge modding communities, and huge competitive communities. Something there for every type of market audience. You can't compete in the PC market with a title like madden or 007. The PC market expects you to sell them an experience, an engine, and a hobby. Products that fail to be the total package fall behind. The PC market isn't as big as consoles, but it where all the big boys play, and these little pampered triple A studios who don't know the game are only comfortable dropping down into the safe console market.

I don't fault them, most of them don't make games good enough to warrant a 50 dollar purchase anyways.

[TheRegisteredOne]

it is a matter of demographics. console gamers like to waste their money (why else would they buy consoles?).

[SwiftSpear]

it is a matter of demographics. console gamers like to waste their money (why else would they buy consoles?).

Well... the console market is like the inkjet of the games market. Easy to use, looks pretty, and eats up your money on ink like a sumo wrestler on rice. You have to invest more for something more worth having. But most people just aren't willing to invest more.

[PicassoCT]

So how about Spring going Console, beatingup the whinnys?

Me just imagines Spring:Comando - the Linuxversion of Spring, on the LInuxversion they got running on the X-Box. One PC-Player per Team, and the X-BoxedOnes (per Springlive) are allowed to do Micro only in Squadsized Multiplayer"missions", getting as Reward more or stronger Units...
(we even have a Experiencesystem)...

Here at Spring only those are sad who don´t get pirated enough! (And Flamerant has never ocurred )That´s the Spirit...

[KDR_11k]

I don't think the PC market is somehow the playground of the "big boys" or more discerning than the console market, it's just smaller.

Also consoles are cheaper overall until you buy maybe 30+ games for them, a Wii is 250├óÔÇÜ┬¼ and each game is between 0 and 10├óÔÇÜ┬¼ more expensive than an equivalent PC game. My last PC upgrade to get something that can run games was about 600├óÔÇÜ┬¼ total. Plus consoles have more genres than the PC.

[hunterw]

uhh chris t is pretty damn dumb because MULTIPLAYER pc games are unpirateable.

the only pc games pirateable are single player games.

rts are heavily focused on the multiplayer element. rts require mouse input. rts are on pc's to stay.

[TheRegisteredOne]

most people dont care about multiplayer. and multiplayer can be pirated. It is called lan games. Within a day of supcom beta, the game was pirated and distributed with a lan hack, which allows you to play over the internet with the help of hamachi

[Neddie]

You gave us so many different reasons for why PC games aren't selling, people - just see them all together!

[SwiftSpear]

It's highly nonbeneficial for us to go to console.

A: RTS controls don't work on consoles
B: We'd need a console distributable format
C: Compatibility work
D: An increasingly vacant PC market pushing PC gamers more towards free alternatives, IE, us.

[rattle]

I've been playing a lot of games through VPN, as long as they support LAN play and multiple NICs you're fine.

Make better games and I'll spend my moneys on them. There's so much half-assed shit out there, promoted as if it was the next XYZ - yet it's only mediocre at best. So what do people expect...

A: RTS controls don't work on consoles

That's actually not true, they do work though different... cut down to the minimum and a lot more sluggish.

[hunterw]

most people dont care about multiplayer. and multiplayer can be pirated. It is called lan games. Within a day of supcom beta, the game was pirated and distributed with a lan hack, which allows you to play over the internet with the help of hamachi

why not have a central multiplayer server that everyone must log in to like cs

[KDR_11k]

Make better games and I'll spend my moneys on them.

You made me laugh.

[Forboding Angel]

Why I would rather pirate a game than get it in the store (even tho I never actually do, unless it's a really old game, which generally means that I owned it at some point):

Because the ppl that made the game, also made it damn near Impossible to play the game because of stupid requirements related to copy protection. They shove me to the point where I would rather have a pirated version so that I don't have to have the CD, or a code every time I start it or somesuch similar thing.

I love bf1942 and by extention Desert combat.

I stopped playing several years ago. 1 Year ago I decided I would like to play it again... Found 1 of the two cd's and no jewel case with a code. So even now that I have owned this game for fucking ever, I can't play it because some idiot in an office somewhere thought that this was a great restriction (btw cd1 is required to be in the drive while I play, and it's the cd I couldn't find).

WHich is why I LOVE VALVE. Steam is the shit. I love it. I bought hl2 years ago, at any point I can uninstall, go fuck off for 5 years, come back, dl and install. That is why steam is fucking awesome, if you don't agree then you are simple and misguided.

I'm happy the PC games industry is phailing. Down with them, I fucking hate copy protection. I would be perfectly happy to buy the shit in a store just like I have for years, but not with all that bullshit attached. It's a good thing I don't care for supcom too much, cause I have no Idea where the DVD and code for it are. Worst 55 bucks I've ever spent tbfh.

[Gota]

I think many Developers spend too much on marketing and creating hype than actually making gams with fun innovtive deep and long lasting gameplay both single player and mutiplayer.
Also GFX has becme such an issue.
I wanted to buy Crysis but FFS i can hardly run it.
I Wanted to buy Supcom but guess what i cant run it whn maps of more than 5x5 are played.I also tryed the multiplayer and it is no where close to the potentail of spring games when playing with good players.

Thats why i love Blizzard.
Less GFX more gameplay and fun.
Thats why their games are bought in big numbrs.
You get your moneys worth and they are "considerate" of people who cant buy Super computers.

[Crayfish]

Crysis is good, but I had to spend £600 on upgrading my PC just to make it play...

And now I usually play Spring anyway...

Yeah, the system requirements thing is an issue. Although on the other hand, consoles couldn't do a Crysis and we all know about console RTS.

I'm sticking with PC anyway. The only way to really compete with consoles though would be cheaper hardware or better optimisation (I refuse to accept making less pretty games as an option!).