Across the hour-long discussion, two things were abundantly clear. First, things need to change, and they're not going to do so overnight. Second, "Honestly, I think PC gaming isn't where it was ten years ago and it's never going to be there again."
Those are the words of John Abercrombie, Lead AI Programmer at BioShock creator Irrational Games.
The Advantages of PC
Joe Kreiner: "If you look at it from a giant publisher perspective, then the numbers on the PC just really don't make financial sense for you to bother with it. But if you start out with the mindset--you know, you're targeting that group, you make a niched product that's going do well, if you look at a lot of the titles on Steam, Torchlight's a really good example--as long as you know that's your audience to begin with, and you make something inside of a budget that you know you're going to be selling those kinds of numbers, you can be very successful. I think it just takes a targeted developer."
Joe Kreiner: "Development for the PC is a lot cheaper. You're not buying development kits and going through a party to get to your customers. You go through something like Steam, you get direct access to your customers. It's easy to sell the game at a lesser price. That's the beauty of PC. That's why a lot of smaller teams that don't have a lot of development experience start out there."
John Abercrombie: "I think [console licensing costs are] above ten percent of the full cost of the product or title."
The Problems of PC
Those are the words of John Abercrombie, Lead AI Programmer at BioShock creator Irrational Games.
The Advantages of PC
Joe Kreiner: "If you look at it from a giant publisher perspective, then the numbers on the PC just really don't make financial sense for you to bother with it. But if you start out with the mindset--you know, you're targeting that group, you make a niched product that's going do well, if you look at a lot of the titles on Steam, Torchlight's a really good example--as long as you know that's your audience to begin with, and you make something inside of a budget that you know you're going to be selling those kinds of numbers, you can be very successful. I think it just takes a targeted developer."
Joe Kreiner: "Development for the PC is a lot cheaper. You're not buying development kits and going through a party to get to your customers. You go through something like Steam, you get direct access to your customers. It's easy to sell the game at a lesser price. That's the beauty of PC. That's why a lot of smaller teams that don't have a lot of development experience start out there."
John Abercrombie: "I think [console licensing costs are] above ten percent of the full cost of the product or title."
John Abercrombie: "Publishers are honestly making 10% to 15% of their revenue from PC gaming...I love PC gaming...I don't think it's going away, but it's not ...I don't think it's growing in the way of triple-A games. Consoles are the way to go [there], because that's where the money is. You can buy a piece of hardware, and it's good for five years now versus having to upgrade your PC every two years."
Joe Kreiner: "There is no [PC] platform, really. It's just a mish-mosh of hardware, an operating system that kind of supports games. The problem with that platform is, there's no standards and piracy is rampant, so why would we want to make a video game for that platform unless you had some sort of draconian DRM thing to keep it from being stolen?"
John Abercrombie: "I think there's just too many options out there, honestly. Too many options for people to buy. With the consoles, there's just one. You just go to the store and buy the one."
John Abercrombie: "If everybody would stop pirating, if everybody would stop doing DRM, it would be a much happier world, wouldn't it? We'd have a lot more PC games sold and a lot more happier customers."
Motion Controls on PC?
Joe Kreiner: "The PC market for the next five years is probably going to be more of what we have now. Like I said, as that hardware differential pulls away, you'll have killer apps on PC...MMOs and certain styles of gaming, or games that are targeted to the hardcore...I'm not saying that PC is dead, don't get us wrong, it's just going to be different. The platform's going to be more of what we have now versus what we had years ago when it was in focus."
John Abercrombie: "PC gaming isn't dead, it's just in a partially vegetative state. There is a market for it, and I'm certainly part of that market. You're going to have games that come out that are going to look much better than consoles do right now. Eventually, the consoles will catch up and we'll start the race again. Personally, I'd rather a first-person shooter on the PC than I would on a console, and that's just where I come from and how I grew up. On the flipside, game developers that are coming into the industry these days did not grow up playing PC gaming. They grew up playing consoles. So you're going to see that affect the way they make games today."
John Abercrombie: "I'm not sure that's going to be the case, unfortunately. The revenue is just so much higher on consoles, that's where the money is."
its a long read ,, i highlighted some important things which they have discussed , i know these will not matter for many ppl but they are part of this n they do love pc gaming
to read everything head over the source
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/63152
Joe Kreiner: "There is no [PC] platform, really. It's just a mish-mosh of hardware, an operating system that kind of supports games. The problem with that platform is, there's no standards and piracy is rampant, so why would we want to make a video game for that platform unless you had some sort of draconian DRM thing to keep it from being stolen?"
John Abercrombie: "I think there's just too many options out there, honestly. Too many options for people to buy. With the consoles, there's just one. You just go to the store and buy the one."
John Abercrombie: "If everybody would stop pirating, if everybody would stop doing DRM, it would be a much happier world, wouldn't it? We'd have a lot more PC games sold and a lot more happier customers."
Motion Controls on PC?
Joe Kreiner: "Most of the innovation right now, console-side, is designed around a living room environment. That's not typically where you have your PC. That's the reason why mouse and keyboard is still the main interface there--it's because it's sitting at a desk, not your living room, typically."
Could 3D Visuals Save PC?
The Next Five YearsCould 3D Visuals Save PC?
John Abercrombie: "It could be helpful for PC gaming. A lot of the consoles, you really can't do that yet...You need to do 120 updates per second, and that's double the consoles. Just getting 60 is tough on a console."
Joe Kreiner: "The PC market for the next five years is probably going to be more of what we have now. Like I said, as that hardware differential pulls away, you'll have killer apps on PC...MMOs and certain styles of gaming, or games that are targeted to the hardcore...I'm not saying that PC is dead, don't get us wrong, it's just going to be different. The platform's going to be more of what we have now versus what we had years ago when it was in focus."
John Abercrombie: "PC gaming isn't dead, it's just in a partially vegetative state. There is a market for it, and I'm certainly part of that market. You're going to have games that come out that are going to look much better than consoles do right now. Eventually, the consoles will catch up and we'll start the race again. Personally, I'd rather a first-person shooter on the PC than I would on a console, and that's just where I come from and how I grew up. On the flipside, game developers that are coming into the industry these days did not grow up playing PC gaming. They grew up playing consoles. So you're going to see that affect the way they make games today."
John Abercrombie: "I'm not sure that's going to be the case, unfortunately. The revenue is just so much higher on consoles, that's where the money is."
its a long read ,, i highlighted some important things which they have discussed , i know these will not matter for many ppl but they are part of this n they do love pc gaming
to read everything head over the source
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/63152
