The mobile market shows the danger of parity

[VanceIX]

outlawauron said:

gergroy said:

PC is a TERRIBLE example to use.  Are you saying that PC games should be optimized for only the high end systems?  That would eliminate like 95% of the pc gaming market.  Developers are smart to keep their requirements lower on PC's, it doesnt really have anything to do with consoles at all...

This seems to make more sense to me.

It does, if you aren't a PC gamer. PC games aren't optimised for high-end graphic per se, but for PC in general. The entire argument is flawed.

gergroy said:

Again, bad comparison.  Crysis 3 is not on current consoles, it is only on last gen consoles.  If you had a pc with the specs of a last gen console, good luck getting crysis 3 to run at all on it.  

Also, there is a reason pc games list an optimal specs required and a minimum.  The games are optimized at certain specs, but you can play a gimped minimal requirement if you want.  If they werent optimized for a specific spec, they wouldnt list it.  

Anyway, we can go round and round all day, so Im just going to end the conversation by saying it is smart for developers to make pc games optimized for lower specs.  It is much easier to find your audience that way.  I mean look at Blizzard, most successful pc developer there is and none of their games are optimized for high end PC's.  Just some food for thought for you. 

Trust me, the current consoles are already far outpaced by PCs and it's just going to get worse from here, so the Crisis comparison is very accurate.

Yes, there is a reason they list optimal specs. That's what I'm saying. You will always have the option of playing a lower-quality version of a game on PC if your hardware can't run it. Doesn't mean that the high-end option needs to be held back at all, so I don't see your point.

And I agree that Blizzard sells a lot, but their most iconic game (World of Warcraft) is very old, so of course it will run on low-specced PCs. Also, their second best-selling franchise is a hack-and-slash up-view RPG, a genre that was never taxing in the first place. You chose a poor developer to mention. Why not RSI, who have a high-end game that has already raise $45 million from crowd funding alone? Or the Witcher series, which has consistently pushed out amazing visuals on PC? Both games push out incredible visuals, regardless of whether you play ultra or medium. 

That's being optimised for PC.