Ok ever since Alan Wake got pulled

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/02/12/alan-wake-pc-officially-cancelled/1

I have been noticing a lot of PC only developers have completely quit PC

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/05/19/epic-pc-piracy-drove-us-to-consoles/1


My question is why are devs only noticing PC piracy, there are plenty of pirated consoles

(remember when Microsoft bricked over 600,000 360s (http://www.dailytech.com/Microsoft+Bans+600000+Xbox+Live+Users+For+Modding/article16795.htm))

Why are devs only looking at PC Piracy problem and using it as an excuse to be lazy and go with consoles. We all know how easy it is to port games, so what is the big deal? People have been pirating games for way longer than 6 years (talking about the Epic link).


Computers have always been at the forefront of game technology and now devs are using piracy as a reason to go the easy route (console).


Maybe when the next gen consoles hit it wont be as noticeable



Alan Wake was rumored for PC only for over 8 years; it was supposed to be the first DX10/Vista only game.

Now we have to sit and wait to see how EA/DICE treats BF3; the game that will either save or kill PC gaming.

5/30/2010 12:55:48 PM

I see their point about PC gaming and piracy, but the PC has one trump card, and it's a very good one.....

5/30/2010 1:00:47 PM

yea but most people playing WoW don't play any other PC title

5/30/2010 1:03:26 PM

The point is that it's continuous revenue. Whereas console developers create one big title every year, Blizzard has made.. what.. two titles? in the past 5 years and still gets $15 million USD in continuous revenue each month.

5/30/2010 1:05:24 PM

Oh I'm not disputing the amount of money WoW brings in for the PC market, but there are a lot of people out there (including myself) who can't stand the game.

For those people shit in the OP really piss us off. I mean hell I still buy games, especially multiplayer ones.

I really think the only chance PC gaming has to move forward is Valve/Steam games and BF3 (over a year away though).

Source 2 is in the works, but no announced date.

5/30/2010 1:07:52 PM

I guess I'm saying that you can't really pirate MMO games, due to the strict account/registration and the fact that you have to pay for a subscription.

If developers complain about PC piracy, they should just develop an MMO title.

5/30/2010 1:10:13 PM

what really needs to happen is Nintendo needs to start releasing PC titles, even if they just port classic games

5/30/2010 1:11:15 PM

EA is still pumping out PC games. Then again they have draconian anti-piracy stuff and most have to be online at all times but its not totally dead.

5/30/2010 9:43:31 PM

Quote :

"We all know how easy it is to port games, so what is the big deal?"

easy eh? trying doing it on an engine designed for the pc.

5/31/2010 2:26:24 AM

PC Gaming was supposed to die 10 years ago.

Never gonna happen.

5/31/2010 2:28:12 AM

Honestly, what has "killed" PC gaming lately is fucking Microsoft shutting down all of their gaming studios who couldn't be transitioned to the X-Box 3560. They shut down multiple studios who made lots of money creating PC games like Flight Simulator, Age of Empires, etc. and moved the rest of the dev teams to X-Box exclusives. Microsoft is trying to bury PC gaming by shifting everything to X-Box. I think this was the start to the pullout of developers who have switched to console exclusive development.

And yes the answer to PC gaming is Steam and the digital marketplace. I still game a lot, buy a lot of PC games, and do not ever go to a store anymore to get my games. The Steam service has enough DRM to keep users legitimate without being so intrusive as to detract from the gaming experience. It has all of the convenience of the torrent scene, but is legal. Several years ago I use to pirate all the time, justifying it by the fact that I lived 30 miles from the nearest place I could buy a game and that it was impossible to find games on sale. But now with Steam, I get to pick up games on sale all the time.

Steam will probably eliminate 95% of in-store PC games sales in 5 years. This is one big advantage over the console that I forsee taking a generation or two for the console to catch up with. You can download piddly shit classic games now on all the consoles, but I don't think they will have the capacity necessary for downloading all the games for years to come. This may become the renaissance for PC games, as more indie developers find ways to make small budget titles that can be released to the masses with little cost. Its a win-win situation.

5/31/2010 8:10:08 AM

Yes I forgot to mention Steam; it is how I buy 90% of my games also. Steam is the last hope for PC gaming and Valve is the only dev that has really stuck by PC gaming. All other developers release PC and console games in tandem.

I don't think PC gaming will ever "die", but what I meant in the OP was PC originals; like Global Agenda (a somewhat new one off the top of my head). They are becoming more and more rare and that is a clear sign of devs running to easy money and fast development.

Sort of like the Walmart of gaming.

5/31/2010 2:07:39 PM