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JaggedSac on 06 November 2009
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noname2200 said:
JaggedSac said:

Nowadays is the KEY qualifier here.  Compare the number of PC only AAA titles that are getting released now, to 5, 10, or 15 years ago.  Sure, there are some, but they are few and far between.

 

And as I said, MMOs have yet to be proven effective on consoles so of course they will be PC centric.  The same can be said of strategy games like Total War(although Halo Wars and LOTR:BFME2 were most likely profitable).  Until they are proven effective, why would someone bother making them.  Even listing these, there are a sad number of PC only AAA titles.

 

So maybe it is only for FPS, the PC bread and butter for the past 15 years, that has started to wain on the AAA PC exclusive front.  There is now STALKER and Crysis.  And Crysis is now going multiplat if I am not mistaken.

 

And I wasn't saying Blizzard doesn't count.  I am saying Blizzard is an exception that has the fan following and coffers to make PC exlusive titles.  They don't need to go to someone and ask for money.  If you think they rely on Vivendi or Activision to handle anything other than distribution, I believe you are mistaken.  Other devs are not relying on only distribution cost handling, but development cost handling as well.

This is a better position. Sarcasm aside, I agree that the number of big-budget PC exclusives is declining: who could deny it? (A personal note: big-budget games are as hit or miss in my book as small budget ones, so I'm not too fussed myself). What I took issue with is your implication that going exclusively PC isn't viable. It is, and not just for a small handful of developers.

The thing is that developers and publishers know they can add more with the PC-lites that are the HD consoles with only a minimum of effort (especially on the 360), so they opt to do that instead. Wouldn't you? Valve is the premiere example of this: it's absurd to think that Valve abandoned PC-exclusivity out of necessity. The PC remains just as viable a platform for big releases as the consoles, and I haven't read any hard figures that indicates otherwise. (Note: this excludes sour-grape statements from analysts and failed developers. I'm talking about actual dollar figures, which are harder to fudge).

Perhaps my previous posts did not indicate my position on this matter.  Regardless of why publishers are not giving money to developers for big budget pc-only games, the fact is that they are not.  I am sure there are many developers who would like to make use of the PC platform specific features in a big budget graphical extravaganza, but they just cannot finance it for whatever reason.  The only thing that I am talking about throughout this entire discussion is the end result.  That of which we can both agree on apparently.  That not many pc-only big budget games are being made anymore due to monetary reasons.