It couldn't outsell Battlefield BC 2 preorders on Steam? It couldn't outsell a bunch of games I've never even heard of on Impulse? How exactly is this suggesting that it will be a huge seller on PC? 2 out of the 3 lists don't suggest it being a big deal at all, and the vast difference between the D2D and Steam buying habits suggests to me these lists aren't worth a damn to determine sales.

When preorders were open, it was at the top for a few weeks, IIRC.

It won't sell half of what the 360 version sells.

There's a reason publishers and developers have shifted to consoles. Some games will always sell better on PC (MMOs and RTSs), most of the triple A stuff will be much bigger on consoles. No way does ME2 sell as much or more on PC than 360.

Masakari said: There's a reason publishers and developers have shifted to consoles. Some games will always sell better on PC (MMOs and RTSs), most of the triple A stuff will be much bigger on consoles. No way does ME2 sell as much or more on PC than 360.

Huh?! It seems to me that the opposite is happening. Japanese publishers have been releasing more PC games than ever, including Square Enix, with Konami seeing the potential now on PC and are releasing the next Metal Gear Solid on PC. EA is also giving more and better support to PC than ever, with amazing PC exclusives coming to PC, among them Command & Conquer 4 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Consoles declined 8% in 2009, while Steam increased 205% and China's Online Games Revenue increased 30%. Consoles significantly declined in 2009, while PC Gaming most likely increased heealthily.

 

I do not think ME2 will push more units on PC than on 360. However, when you consider both Platform Royalty, and Retailer markup - combined with the fact that so many PC DD sales are Delux edition, it seems very possible that the PC version will achieve parity with the 360 version in terms of revenue for the publisher.

Publishers make a lot more money per unit on a PC DD sale than they do from a console retail sale. Exact numbers I do not have, and TBH they vary according to many factors , but my best educated guesstimates put it at close to 2x the revenue for a PC digital sale of the same retail pricing. No, I cannot conclusively prove that, and yes it depends on a lot of factors including what the particular game is wholesaling for at the time. I will say that it is at least a 50% increase without a doubt though.

I doubt it'll outsell the 360 version, certainly not at retail anyway. However, digital downloads contribute at least 50% of total sales these days, so it'll still sell very well indeed and, as Xelloss points out, the actual PC revenue (which let's face it, is all that really matters) could quite easily be on a par or even exceed the 360 revenue.

Yep, games cost way too much to make these days to confine them to a single platform.

shio said: Masakari said: There's a reason publishers and developers have shifted to consoles. Some games will always sell better on PC (MMOs and RTSs), most of the triple A stuff will be much bigger on consoles. No way does ME2 sell as much or more on PC than 360. Huh?! It seems to me that the opposite is happening. Japanese publishers have been releasing more PC games than ever, including Square Enix, with Konami seeing the potential now on PC and are releasing the next Metal Gear Solid on PC. EA is also giving more and better support to PC than ever, with amazing PC exclusives coming to PC, among them Command & Conquer 4 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Consoles declined 8% in 2009, while Steam increased 205% and China's Online Games Revenue increased 30%. Consoles significantly declined in 2009, while PC Gaming most likely increased heealthily.

Yeah RTS and MMO for PC, rest for consoles.

Look, there were some developers that really defined the PC market.

• Valve (Half Life)
• Epic (Unreal Tournament)
• iD (Quake / Doom)
• Blizzard (Starcraft / Warcraf / Diablo)

I think those were the very best PC developers that gave the PC a face as a gaming platform.

Today, Valve pushing Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 for the Xbox 360 was a huge success.
ID bringing RAGE on PS3 / Xbox 360 as well
And Epic made by far much more money on the 360 than on the PC this gen.

The last one that supports the PC exclusively is Blizzard. They do make great games, and earned a lot of money with WoW, but even Blizzard said that a console release might be possible in the future. The PC as a gaming platform is almost dead. Blame pirates.

DirtyP2002 said: shio said: Masakari said: There's a reason publishers and developers have shifted to consoles. Some games will always sell better on PC (MMOs and RTSs), most of the triple A stuff will be much bigger on consoles. No way does ME2 sell as much or more on PC than 360. Huh?! It seems to me that the opposite is happening. Japanese publishers have been releasing more PC games than ever, including Square Enix, with Konami seeing the potential now on PC and are releasing the next Metal Gear Solid on PC. EA is also giving more and better support to PC than ever, with amazing PC exclusives coming to PC, among them Command & Conquer 4 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Consoles declined 8% in 2009, while Steam increased 205% and China's Online Games Revenue increased 30%. Consoles significantly declined in 2009, while PC Gaming most likely increased heealthily.   Yeah RTS and MMO for PC, rest for consoles. Look, there were some developers that really defined the PC market. Valve (Half Life) Epic (Unreal Tournament) iD (Quake / Doom) Blizzard (Starcraft / Warcraf / Diablo) I think those were the very best PC developers that gave the PC a face as a gaming platform. Today, Valve pushing Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 for the Xbox 360 was a huge success. ID bringing RAGE on PS3 / Xbox 360 as well And Epic made by far much more money on the 360 than on the PC this gen. The last one that supports the PC exclusively is Blizzard. They do make great games, and earned a lot of money with WoW, but even Blizzard said that a console release might be possible in the future. The PC as a gaming platform is almost dead. Blame pirates.

You have not seen the 2010 PC Exclusives lineup, haven't you? PC has the most amazing lineup since I can remember, maybe even better than 1998. PC is going to have high profile Shooters, RPGs, Strategy games, MMOs, some highly anticipated adventuer games, amazing Simulations, etc...

Only RTs and MMOs?! You must be dreaming. Maybe you should do some research before spouting such thing.

As for your argument about developers that "defined PC", that's crap. All 4 devs you mentioned never stopped supporting PC:
- Valve is supporting PC more than ever, and is only using consoles for some extra bucks. And Steam has become such a juggernaut that it now can compete against any console all by itself, and increased 205% in unit sales last year.
- Epic's main source of revenue comes from their Game Engine, not games, and they have already felt the wrath of PC gamers when they released the consolized UT3. It hurt them so much that they were forced to release a huge Update on the game to make it PC-centric, even adding Steam integration and achievements.
- iD has always been a multiplatform studio. However, their last game was a PC exclusive, mostly due to the fact that uses a business model that consoles so far have failed to grasp.
- Blizzard so far has given nothing more than total attention to the PC platform, and they will definitely keep doing so because of the unveil of Battle.net 2.0

Then we have hundreds and hundreds of PC developers coming out, so many have risen in the past few years due to the rise of digital distribution. Infact, PC has more developers than all consoles combined.

And I don't even know how you say that "PC gaming is almost dead". Isn't it consoles that declined 8% last year?! And PC has only kept rising and rising, so much that Steam tripled the amount of games sold last year, and China's Online Games increased over 30%!!!

 

 

DirtyP2002 said: shio said: Masakari said: There's a reason publishers and developers have shifted to consoles. Some games will always sell better on PC (MMOs and RTSs), most of the triple A stuff will be much bigger on consoles. No way does ME2 sell as much or more on PC than 360. Huh?! It seems to me that the opposite is happening. Japanese publishers have been releasing more PC games than ever, including Square Enix, with Konami seeing the potential now on PC and are releasing the next Metal Gear Solid on PC. EA is also giving more and better support to PC than ever, with amazing PC exclusives coming to PC, among them Command & Conquer 4 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Consoles declined 8% in 2009, while Steam increased 205% and China's Online Games Revenue increased 30%. Consoles significantly declined in 2009, while PC Gaming most likely increased heealthily.   Yeah RTS and MMO for PC, rest for consoles. Look, there were some developers that really defined the PC market. Valve (Half Life) Epic (Unreal Tournament) iD (Quake / Doom) Blizzard (Starcraft / Warcraf / Diablo) I think those were the very best PC developers that gave the PC a face as a gaming platform. Today, Valve pushing Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 for the Xbox 360 was a huge success. ID bringing RAGE on PS3 / Xbox 360 as well And Epic made by far much more money on the 360 than on the PC this gen. The last one that supports the PC exclusively is Blizzard. They do make great games, and earned a lot of money with WoW, but even Blizzard said that a console release might be possible in the future. The PC as a gaming platform is almost dead. Blame pirates.

Of course, PC gaming is dead, Nintendo is doomed, and Sony is, and always has been since the launch of the PS3, poised to take first place.  It just makes sense!

How about devs like Capcom and Square Enix, who are traditionally console-exclusive devs, pushing more games out for PC?  I guess console gaming must be dead as well?

Here's a thought: maybe it has nothing to do with one platform being "dead," and more the fact that it just doesn't make financial sense to stay platform-exclusive.