I Swear Developers are trying to kill PC Gaming

[LutherSloan]

I'm more convinced than ever that PC gaming is coming to an end soon, which is sad since I have pretty much been a PC-only gamer my whole life.

The fact is, most games now are made for consoles, and then they half-ass the ports to PC.

Case in point: GTA IV, Saints Row 2, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and now apparently Red Faction: Guerrilla.

I just went out and bought RF3 since I finished everything in Batman:AA. Unfortunately after installing the game earlier, I found loads of slowdowns for no reason, even in the tutorial videos, which stutter horribly. I also have major slowdowns/borderline crashes when you blow up a building, even on Low settings. My system meets the requirements, so that's not the problem. Apparently this is a game problem, because the boards on GameFAQs and the official game boards are littered with people having this same issue. I realized too late that this company (Volition) also had a horrible port to PC of its other game, Saints Row 2, which I would have bought except that I heard it had a billion issues, not too different from Red Faction.

What's even more aggravating about this whole thing is, PC gamers had to wait an extra 5 months to get this game, and it STILL doesn't work. That's unacceptable. I don't understand why they would release a game that doesn't work, unless the company just doesn't care.

But this is becoming a pattern now, with more and more PC ports nearly unplayable. At least Volition is going to try and patch this game properly, which Ubisoft never bothered with when it came to Splinter Cell: Double Agent. They released a couple of superficial patches for the game shortly after its release, and then wiped their hands of it and stopped listening.

 

[Canadave]

Eh, gaming journalists and gamers alike have been predicting the "death" of PC gaming is right around the corner for at least a decade now. I don't think it's in any real danger, honestly.

 

[Arrqh]

The fact is, most games now are made for consoles, and then they half-ass the ports to PC.

In some genres, sure. But this is far from an absolute and PC gaming isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

It's also unfair to blame this on "developers." You can more likely blame the managers who give their staff a finite amount of time to do a port, and then don't push the deadline when it becomes obvious they're having issues with said port.

 

[Rii]

The fact is, most games now are made for consoles, and then they half-ass the ports to PC.

The triple-A action blockbusters from Ubisoft/EA/Activision/etc. sure, but I'm over that stuff anyway. The PC market is evolving, it's not going anywhere.

 

[Jim Steele]

The PC market is evolving, it's not going anywhere.

Absolutely agreed.

Unfortunately, if you want to play the majority of those big AAA titles, you really need a console... and I say that as a previously die hard PC gamer who didn't own a console for the entire 6th gen. Still get that GASP of disbelief when I tell people I never owned a PS2, so I haven't quite penetrated that stuffy fucking boorish Console Fanboy Elite yet.

However, there are some exceptions. Bethesda's support for the PC market is exceptional, despite the misguided whining that goes on in their forums (some PC gaming snobs would appear to think that putting their favourite RPG series onto consoles counts as a personal insult - ugh).

 

[LeadHead]

I think that PC gaming is in danger to be sure, given that it's easier to get a new console every few years than to have to make your computer match differing specifications, depending on the game. I think if they ever manage to get MMORPG's like WOW over to consoles, PC gaming could buy the farm and kick the bucket.

 

[Skywalker]

The developers aren't trying to kill PC gaming, it's just that consoles are where most of the money is nowadays. The casual gamers dominate the market now instead of the hardcore gamers.

To be honest, I'm not entirely upset by it. I like not having to upgrade my PC so I can properly enjoy the latest big release.

 

[Nerroth]

As long as games like Empire: Total War are not console-bound, at least one portion of the PC gaming market won't be going anywhere.

(Which reminds me - I might need a machine capable of running that game one day... sigh.)

 

[Zulu Romeo]

Gaming for one platform generally tends to die when the platform itself dies or ceases to become useful in the face of advancing technology. Computers (PCs and Macs) have been around since the late 70s, and given the state of today's industry, will continue to do so with no real sign of decline (unless this "cloud" computing phenomenon changes the current local vs. network paradigm). So long as there are people with PCs, and people capable of upgrading their hardware, there will be a market for PC gaming.

People want more accessable gaming, though, and I feel it is the consoles that have paved the way with good marketing and inventive games that has changed the focus of today's gaming from one to two players in a bedroom to several players in the living room and, via the online feature, many living rooms. Yet, with online support and the ability to download things, and with some platforms offering multifunction abilities like web browsing and high definition DVD playback, I feel the consoles are trying to be more like PCs, trying to become the premiere media centre of the household.

As for those who don't want to upgrade their PCs, maybe some developers have realised that and focused on smaller, inventive games that pull in critical acclaim, instead of the big blockbusters which will always sell millions of units. Thus, a niche has been created for indie gaming, which has taken off in a big way in the last 2 years or so.

 

[Trubinator]

Not to worry. PC will always be a niche market, but it won't die out any time soon. Yes, ports like Saint's Row 2 suck, but not all of them do. And the GTA4 complaints really aren't valid because the game looks ten times better than the Xbox 360 version at full detail. You can't expect to get 60+fps while running at those settings. That's the beauty of PC gaming ... you can really see awesome FX, but you gotta not have a shitty computer.

 

[firehawk12]

The PC is for indie and small publisher games now. Most developers are too lazy to properly optimize the big games for PC because they don't see a reason to.

It's sad, because I used to consider myself a hardcore PC first gamer, but I find myself giving up on the platform for shooters, action adventures and RPGs. We'll always have Company of Heroes I guess.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

The PC is for indie and small publisher games now. Most developers are too lazy to properly optimize the big games for PC because they don't see a reason to.

And that's just fine with me. There is essentially zero barrier to entry for PC game developers. The same cannot be said of consoles. If PCs become the domain of independent gaming, I don't have a problem with that.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, but there's also more exposure on the consoles (at least on the PSN side).
The PC side has it's own gatekeeper though - Steam - and I'm part of the problem, because I almost never buy games from the developers themselves. I know I'm screwing them out of at least 50-75% of their revenue by going with Steam... but, that's how it is I guess.

 

[LutherSloan]

It's just ridiculous that PC games are MORE buggy now than they were a decade ago.

 

[Jim Steele]

It's just ridiculous that PC games are MORE buggy now than they were a decade ago.

Not really, it's actually to be expected. Ever changing hardware and software environments coupled with the trend for massive dev teams/relatively shorter dev cycles mean the chances of bugs getting through increase dramatically.

 

[Jadzia]

From a development perspective, consoles are arguably easier because you only have one hardware specification to consider. One operating system also. All of your customers have that one same specification, so your game doesn't need to be dumbed down to suit older technology, and then have extra detail bolted on to give a bit better experience to those with newer systems.

The factor that's really most important nowadays is graphics cards because of the prevalence of hardware accelerated 3D. Ten years ago it was more likely to be your cpu speed which determined whether a game would run or not.

In a way, there's a lot of variety in PC systems nowadays. People don't need to worry as much about upgrading, because even 6 year old machines are perfectly capable at being computers. Some people prefer the older operating systems, and don't bother getting the new ones. These older operating systems may not always support the features demanded by some games. PC game developers have to make hard decisions about what hardware/operating system features they will use. And they possibly have to cater for more technological diversity now than ever before.

 

[Arrqh]

There's some rose-colored glasses involved here too.

Anyone else remember the days of spending hours tweaking a config.sys on a bootdisk to try and squeeze that extra few k of memory in to run your DOS game and still have things like the CD-ROM driver in memory? EMM386 ringing any bells? That wasn't exactly an easy process

 

[Zulu Romeo]

There's some rose-colored glasses involved here too.

Anyone else remember the days of spending hours tweaking a config.sys on a bootdisk to try and squeeze that extra few k of memory in to run your DOS game and still have things like the CD-ROM driver in memory? EMM386 ringing any bells? That wasn't exactly an easy process

Those were the days. Back then I actually felt like a proper computer user.

Getting X-Wing and Frontier: Elite II and SimCity 2000 to work under different setups was tough work but highly rewarding in the end.

 

[zakfa]

I've been pc gaming for a long time, and things are a lot different now. Like the OP said, the bulk of games are just watered down console ports now. Just 10 years ago you had awesome pc exclusive games like fallout2, thief, baldur's gate, planescape torment, starcraft, half life, etc. Nowadays not so much.

The technology has really been stifled too. One of the best looking pc games out right now is Crysis, a two year old game. Two years used to be an eternity PC gaming wise.

The market has changed, and there is just more $ to be had console wise. At least Blizzard is still a shining beacon of PC Gaming (can't wait for the new sc and diablo).