I can't help but notice that the most successful PC developers (Blizzard, Valve) don't push their customers into buying expensive new graphics cards to run their games. They build their games to run well on a mid-spec PC and let the graphic options slide to accommodate people with 3 year old machines and over-engineered super-rigs.
I think Epic, and many other PC developers, simply overshot the PC market. They tried to sell to people who willingly shell out $200+ for a new graphics card instead of trying to sell to the many millions more people who have crummy integrated graphics.
So Epic has to go to HD consoles, where the expense of a fancy GPU is offset by bulk purchases and hardware subsidies. The PC profits are left to those with more humble production values, such as Valve, Blizzard, Pop-cap and Zynga, simply because more potential customers can run their games.
"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event." — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.
