Are Pc-Gamers graphics complainments against consoles justified?

[Bofferbrauer]

JNK said:

So scince last year on youtube and on many other gaming related forums people argue about "downgrades" and "bad graphics" and in their opinion, they suffer from the "bad consoles".

 

I tried to think about this blame from a neutral/developers viewpoint and i came to the conclusion, it isnt justified. Here are my arguments:

 

1. Pc gaming is relativly unrelevant. More People do play multiplattsform games on consoles. Developer should focus on their biggest market

That would be the PC then, since it takes both Playstation and Xbox together (and that's between 2 hardware Generations) for them to get past PC, which had been rising again since 2013. So, all but irrelevant, especially in mainland europe, where PC gaming always stayed strong.

2. Actual AAA-titles (like Witcher 3) wouldnt be possible at all in this quality without console versions, because the pc sales would never fit the developement costs.

Looking at Star Citizen's 100 Million $ PC only development, not sure this is true anymore. Also PC only series like Total War, Civilizations, Hearts of Iron and their high production values prove they could do without the consoles, it just would be more risky. And since publishers have become so awfully risk-averse...

3. There are already alot pc exclusive games but they are mostly looking even worse then multiplattform games on pc.

Most of them are strategy titles, where graphics are much less valued than on your typical console game. Their high amount of units stress hardware in different ways, however: High CPU power is needed for their AI routines and things like pathfinding, and their sheer numbers of units and size of maps tend to stress RAM, both the standard one and the video RAM. Games like Star Citizen, on the other hand, while rare, leave consoles in the dust.

4. PC gamer dont pay alot for software. Some do pirate, many do use VPN´s/Keystores, Steamsales and co to buy cheap digitally. So when a console gamer pay 60 bucks for a game like witcher 3, a pc gamer will pay only like 10-30 bucks. Even if you substract sonys/microsofts licensing costs, a developer will still earn more money per sold console game as per sold pc game.

I also pay such low prices on my consoles, believe it or not. In both cases, I just wait for sales or buy used copies.. I do agree however that I'm in the minority on console gamers which do so, but it's still possible

 

So why should PC gamers get a better experience as a console gamer if they buy less copies at all and also pay less per copy? PC gamers should be thankfull that they get mostly slightly better graphics at all. There is no justify for this at all. Scince they pay less for their software, it would be more fair if they get a inferior product.

Now that would make the games an incredibly tough sell on PCs. The prices for games on PC at launch is roughly the same as on consoles, with all the royalties and other fees on consoles deduced (if they even deduce them, not always the case at launch), so they are not actually earning any less money for the same amount of sold games. Also, pc games have an advantage in sales consoles have not: Older games keep on selling for a long time (ie years, not just weeks or month like on consoles) if their quality is good. downgrading them from the get-go would kill those sales right away.

If a game development have a Budget of 10 mil. Why should anybody  spend anything from this budget to make a graphical superior pc version? The money should be used to make a as good as possible experience on all plattforms which is similar on quality on all 3 plattforms. Because: For each graphical pc upgrade, you have to cut off ressources for the consoles versions. There is no infinite budget and anytime when you put ressources/money into something (pc graphics) anything else will suffer. That wouldnt be fair.

PC already gets screwed over when it comes to quality, just check the PC ports of most "AAA" titles released in last 2 years. PC versions are more buggy naturally because of the staggering amount of different possible configurations, but quality control has still gone worse over the last couple of years., resulting in such barely playable ports like Arkham Knight or Assassin's Creed Unity

But more to the point, asking a PC gamer to play multiplat games at console standard would be like asking a PS4 gamer to be content with PS2 or 3 graphics. Try justifying that to the consumer.

Your thoughts?