Who is good at coding PC games these days?

[Scoobes]

twesterm said:

Scoobes said:

I'd like to see some sources and numbers to back up that claim as whilst I hear people say this all the time I don't see any evidence for it. The big studios still release multiplats on PC and there are a ridiculous number of small, indie and casual studios releasing more and more games on PC.

If you'd like to see the numbers, find them yourself.  If you simply think about it for a moment and realize it's by far the easiest to pirate a game on the PC and not everyone has a PC that can even run the newest games, it's not hard to just assume I'm right.

As for small studios, it's easier for them on PC because Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony has to give you the privilege of making a game on their console.  If you can't afford the dev kit or even prove that you really are going to make a game, you're SOL.  Luckily Nintendo and MS both made it a bit easier with WiiWare and whatever the Xbox Indie thing is (and I think Sony has too with the micro games, never looked at those).

Still though, for small Indie studios, PC is generally easier or cheaper but if you think those are going to be uber polished and as flashy as the big games...

So what? They're not available publicly or you just can't be bothered to prove your point with references and reliable info?

Piracy on PC is quite high, but without numbers for sales, revenue and profit it's impossible to guage just how profitable a PC game vs console game is. If the big studios thought there was no money to be made on PC they would stop releasing games on PC and concentrate solely on the consoles. As it is they still release on PC so there must be some value in it.

Then their is the fact that they don't have to pay for platform royalties, dev kits etc. Especially with digital download where all the profit goes directly to the publisher (e.g. EA Store, Battle net) completely cutting out the retailers... cut (of the profit). 500,000 sales from DD on PC will bring in more profit than 500,000 retail sales on console.

It's also worth remembering that those smaller studios that are successful on PC will usually expand into the console scene. A lot of the current big console devs started off on PC making smaller budget games.