| This shows confidence in the PC platform! I see so little of that from all the loudmouthed PC developers flapping gums about Nintendo's deficiencies while either being owned by a publisher who makes its money mostly on consoles (Maxis—owned by EA, DICE—owned by EA, BioWare—owned by EA, idSoftware—owned by Bethesda/ZeniMax) or being self-owned but going to the consoles to make their money (Bethesda, Epic Games, Telltale Games, Avalanche Studios, Funcom/Red Thread Games, GSC Game World/4A Games, & yes EA). These PC guys had become salty when their games didn't sell enough on PC alone & they were forced to go to the consoles to stay alive. Some even let themselves be bought out to stay afloat & be subsidized. Problem is that subsidization comes from the consoles. Let's see if Star Citizen can make it solely on the PC. If they do, at least they actually believed in their platform unlike these loudmouths & made success from it. |
The problem with the developers of "old" on the PC, is that they blamed everything on the market, rather than innovate to keep up with gamers tastes.
The demographic of gamers on the PC compared to say the Wii U is as different as you can get, this is why Kickstarter has been so great, gamers now can choose the games they want, rather than have horrible console ports forced upon us.
That's not a bad thing either, that means that Nintendo and the PC doesn't really compete on any real level.
And if you port a game correctly on the PC and have PC centric-features like modding support, it's going to sell well, Skyrim being a prime example, it's almost a completely different game after some modding.
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Next, League of Legends. Developed by Riot Games, a subsidiary of China-based internet services house Tencent Holdings. Ah that's the situation. The game is free to play. There it is. |
That's the business case for that game, $150 million doesn't seem like allot with all those users, but if you consider that the game might be around longer than any of the next generation consoles... That amount of money is going to build up, should easily earn over a Billion dollars.
Of course they also have ways to earn other sources of income, like advertising.
The legs on PC games are stupidly long.
Another example is Fable, 10 year old game, sold moderatly well on the PC, then it was re-released on Steam, it hits the top of the sales charts and moves 10's of thousands of more units, that's free income for no effort. - The other great part is over the years everytime it goes on sale, it will probably hit the top of the sales charts again.
Another example is the origional StarCraft, it only sold a couple million units on launch and a few months after, but after many years it's hit almost 11 million copies sold, it helps that it's still actively played, patched and supported even today.
So generally a PC game might not move as many units on day 1 when compared to the consoles, but unlike consoles, the games don't fall into obscurity never to be heard from again and over time, more often than not, will move more copies over time.
| Star Wars: The Old Republic. Developed by Electronic Arts' subsidiary BioWare. Co-published by Electronic Arts & LucasArts. Game released on December 20, 2011. This game, the most expensive video game ever made, was originally subscription-based by times between 30-day to 180-day spans & prices between $14.99 to $77.94. Co-publishers EA & LucasArts expected to beat World of Warcraft's record of 11 million subscribers with this game. After all it's the Star Wars universe full of Billy Dee as Lando, Princess Leia in a bikini for Jabba the Hutt, "Luke I am your father!", Ewoks, Wookies, Death Stars, Boba Fetts, Yodas, R2-D2s & C-3POs, Darth Mauls, Samuel L. as Jedi, Lightsaber Fights, Clone Attacks, Millenium Falcons & Darth Vader not to mention Jar Jar & the Expanded Universe. What could go wrong? |
What wen't wrong, is it's EA, They're not exactly loved in the PC space. :P
However, they saw a business case and tried to go for it, however the game was under-developed, not supported well, heck they even closed down the Australian servers, that's all I needed to know to keep away from it like with all EA games.
| Star Wars: The Old Republic. The PC market just can't compare to the console market even at its best. I don't wish the platform harm but business-wise I have broken down & detailed everything you just mentioned. And these are the results. |
Except that it's not it's best.
The Sims is the best selling PC franchise of all time with over 150 million copies sold.
That still pales in comparison to Mario with 450+ million units sold in it's entire franchise, however considering Nintendo has had a couple decades head start and dozens of games compared to The Sims merely "3" games, it's actually not bad. :P
| Star Wars: The Old Republic. Well, Nintendo hasn't left their bread & butter market & it has gone well for them. |
Agreed and I honestly hope they are around for another 100 years, many other companies do however expand into other markets to ride out any bumps in their main market, it's smart business sense really.
| Star Wars: The Old Republic. Listen, I have used Steam before. Nice service. Lots of games to choose from. Decent prices. My cousin got me to use it this summer. It's a great option for videogaming. They're already on the smartphones & tablets—a natural fit being that those devices are the new PC market. Why did Valve put it on the PS3 though? Doesn't the PS3 already have an online service. the PlayStation Network? Is Valve trying to turn the console into a PC? Keyboard & mouse controls for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive through Steam?? Seems strange to me all this hanging around consoles from these PC guys. Especially if PC's supposed to be the superior platform. |
Steam is PC exclusive, it's not available on other platforms in it's entirety, not even mobile.
However, you do have "counterparts" to the service, for example I have a Steam App on my phone so I can buy games, trade items and chat with my friends, same goes for the Playstation 3.
The funny part is, the PC market as a whole is in decline, no one disputes that, yet the PC Gamers/Enthusiasts are on a rapid increase.
| Star Wars: The Old Republic. If PC games are cheaper, look better, sound better, run smoother, & have a better & larger choice of controls... ...then why do consoles exist?If PC is superior, why do consoles exist? Why haven't consoles ended up like the 8-track by now? At the end of the day, the traditional desktop PC is a work device. It comes from the office world. You sit upright in a stiff computer chair & look at an upright monitor with arms cocked at about 90° to type on the keyboard. With TV & computer monitor merging (inevitably) over the years this is alleviated somewhat but the PC just doesn't scream FUN. The laptop is not comfortable for gaming with its flatter set-in buttons that can cause you more mistakes than the desktop keyboards. Laptop is a portable work device & while it can be more fun than a desktop based on its portability, it's still awkward with that big hot lower half with all the buttons. |
No one can really answer this, everyone is different, has different tastes and wants different things.
However, my view of why consoles exist is because of that. Everyone has different tastes and wants different things, lets not forget that Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have a financial incentive to support their respective consoles for financial reasons, hence why every platform has different exclusive games, which is a great thing, people get choice.
And for that old "Can only game in a chair, with a keyboard and mouse on a computer monitor" is completely false.
You can hook a PC up to a TV, whack in an Xbox 360 controller, throw Steam into big picture mode and play games just like a console.
Nor do you even need a big giant noisy box to run games on anymore, small, cheap can be done in the PC space.
Besides, 10's of million of gamers must love the platform, otherwise there wouldn't be 10's of millions of gamers playing.
| That's what gets me. If it's such a strong platform then why not publicize your power? Show the world why they would want to bring their games to Steam. To be fair none of these online marketplaces share their info INCLUDING Nintendo with their DSiWare/WiiWare/eShop situations. But I would think Valve would do it just to show the strength of the PC games market while showing that Valve rules a big part of that market. |
Valve is a private company, that means they are under no financial pressure from shareholders to forever be increasing profits.
That also means our lord, Gabe Newell doesn't answer to anyone.
That also means, they don't need to announce anything.
If a company is publicly traded like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, they need to announce such things, it's not about who is bigger.
THIS WAS ALSO WAY TO MUCH TO READ AND TYPE FIRST THING IN THE MORNING! *Runs off for coffee*
--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--
