Why do game devolopers still make PC exclusive games?

I love PC gaming a thousand times better than consoles.  But with piracy it makes no sense.  Also I was told (could be wrong) that porting to the 360 is easy from PC.  I understand some games (Crysis) could only be on the PS3 (maybe) but it makes no sense to me otherwise.  Financially speaking.  Please inform me of your opinions..

Thank you

For indie game developers it is infinitely easier to start up on PCs. One torrent is all one needs to distribute the game if they really wanted to get it out there at any cost.

For developers in general, I can fully see why developers aren't porting to the PS3 (Valve explains this fairly well), but the 360 should and does have more ports. Also some games just won't work well on consoles without a decent amount of work on the mechanics so they would be manageable on consoles. That is also the reason why I don't like games that go to consoles as well. Some developers avoid mechanics which could work perfectly fine on a PC, but be horrible for consoles, thus we end up with a less satisfying game on the PC. Unreal Tournament is the best example of this. So many of the changes and mechanics in UT3 just scream CONSOLE in your face that it's disturbing. Epic completely ruined the UT franchise with UT3 imo.

Because Piracy isn't a PC exclusive game =)~

Fallout 3 is a great example, it was leaked for the 360 a week ago (might have been longer) and only launches this upcoming week.  It has already had tens of thousands of downloads across some of the more popular sites and it hasn't even officially launched yet, which means even more people will come flooding in looking for their free copy this week =/ 

Honestly I can't really blame folks for DL'ing a game they've been looking forward to for months when it gets leaked weeks in advance...doesn't make it right, but still =P

PS - Crysis would need a lot of work to port to any console at even med/high settings, they took advantage of hardware depth simply not available on consoles...and it still ran poorly on some very nice systems.  I'm confident that very high would be literally impossible on the 360 or PS3...and the Wii would explode before the disc spun up...which ironically would mean it did better than the PS3 and 360 by managing to create at least one lifelike explosion =P

PC devs will move over to consoles after devs like blizzard port MMO RPG's like WOW over to HD consoles. If this sells well, then well....it's going to light a fire under the console industry.

i dont think world of warcraft is coming to hd consoles btw but i gess things like the agency on pc and ps3

Some games only work on PC: World of WarCraft, Star Craft, Diablo 2 and Crysis. PC is best for MMORPG's, Strategy and shooters work brilliantly on PC.

Only real market for certain games like RTS, Sim, or MMORPGs.
Larger market for casual games.
Lower development cost and more control.
Much better graphics, if you do not want to limit yourself to working on 3 year old technology.

Crysis on the PS3 would be about as easy as MSG4 on the Wii

Ignoring the fact that it was developed for the PC, and thus porting to the PS3 would decrease performance -

Crysis recommends 2gb of Ram under xp - PS3 has a quarter of this
2.2 Ghz Intel core 2 duo - The Cell can probably meet this (that's a gut feeling, anyone got proof either way?)
Recommends NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB or ATI 2900XT 512MB the PS3 has a decent 256 mb card = fail
requires a 12 gb install, which is fine for those of you with 80gb systems

PC development is cheaper:
Consoles require a royalty payment which various depending on console.
Console gaming does not yet have a full game digital distribution medium yet which is cheaper than dealing with physical distribution and retail.
Development kits are the same PC's you already use for development instead of purchasing expensive console development kits as well as your PCs.


PC development is easier:
Games are built on an architecture that doesn't change every few years but expands on an already existing library of knowledge. You're not having to learn a whole new architecture and environment with every 2 new games.
All development takes place on the same PC environment instead of fighting with a console development kit as well.
The volume of 3rd party middleware for PC's far outnumbers that of consoles.
No TRC's. Console companies demand that every 3rd party game follow a TRC (Technical Requirement Checklist...even though not everything is specifically technical) which can skew game development in a direction the developer may not want to go in and put undo strain to ensure it meets those demands. This is not a quality control manner for those wondering.
Controls are easier to map and develop.

And action games when done right.