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Forums - Gaming - Delaying multi-platform ports is stupid.

Rock_on_2008 on 10 May 2008
shio said:
Rainbird said:
Rock_on_2008 said:
Assassins Creed, Mass effect, Gears of War, Burnout Paradise City, Devil May Cry 4, GTA 4, delayed for PC. PC versions would of sold more if released at same time as console versions of the game. Excitement for the game would have faded when the game does make a re- appearance . Cosmetic improvements do little to enhance sales of the game, that has been delayed.

Wow, you are so right about the delays for PC Rock_on, in fact I will go so far as to say most of them should never even be made for PC.
Mass Effect, Gears of War and partially GTA IV should be on PC as the only ones you've listed here, and I don't even see why you put Burnout Paradise on your list as it was never ever intended as a PC game, and is in fact the first PC version of a Burnout game, you should be happy that they are at least doing.

And GTA IV hasn't even been announced for PC yet, Rockstar might as well not do the port and do something else.

And the hole thing you are nagging about here is what we normally know as 'timed exclusives', which is essentially (for this generation) Microsoft or Sony making a deal with a given game developer to delay the game for the opposing console and/or PC. If that isn't the case, then the developer most likely will have another version follow the essential releases due to time restraints. This can prove important for the sales of the PS3/X360, which is why it is so used as it is, and so I think that instead saying that it is stupid here, I think you should try and explain to Sony and Microsoft why it sucks so much and see what will happen.

 

Whew, sorry about all that, guess you caught me in a bad mood :P


GTA: San Andreas sold 2.5 millions on PC (without counting digital distribution), so I don't think 'not porting' is a good option for Rockstar. There have been heavy rumors about GTA IV PC being released in October

 Regardless if you are a PS3/360/PC owner, gamers get screwed by lazy developers who fail to meet deadlines.



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shio on 10 May 2008

@Rock_on_2008:

Most PC gamers don't mind if the PC version comes just a few months later, we have always endured delays from games for years, especially since many PC games are usually announced earlier in development and we often wait 2/3 years before the actual release. Think Blizzard.

But it definitely hurts sales a bit because some people are not that impatient and just buy the console version, and others just lose complete interest in the game.

It's understandable some companies are afraid of piracy which would force them to delay the PC versions until the console versions have been sold initially; but some delays don't make much sense, like UT3. Epic doesn't need to please Sony just because Gears of War was exclusive. That's bad management Imo.



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FJ-Warez on 10 May 2008
Rock_on_2008 said:
 

 Regardless if you are a PS3/360/PC owner, gamers get screwed by lazy developers who fail to meet deadlines.


 Errr. I'm sorry but since you have zero experience developing anything this post is very ignorant... are GG lazy for the constant delays of KZ2?? or are the dev of Home lazy??? or R* for those months of delays because GTA???

 Any dev team (from almost any kind of software) knows how wrong could end up any project, no matter how much time you spend planning the d@mn thing, sometimes things go wrong very easy and very fast..



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darconi on 10 May 2008
Rock_on_2008 said:

I believe that multiplatform ports of games should all be released simultaneously at the exact time. Delaying the port of console or PC game ports of multi-platform titles adversely affects sales, time and time again.

I will give a couple of examples. Oblivion on PC/360 was released 14 months before the PS3 version came out. Oblivion PS3 version looked better but sales of the game were poor due to excitement of the game had well and truly died off and people moved onto something new.

Poster: Discuss this and give example to highlight that delaying ports of multi-platform titles adversely affects sales.


 That's a pretty stupid example using Oblivion.  Oblivion came out on 360/PC a year before the PS3 was even released.  Its not their fault the PS3 was launched late.  Do you expect them to just hold off on releasing a finished product for an entire year just because the PS3 was late to the party?

 You can always argue that the loss in sales from the late port is made up by a higher than normal sale in the early release as well. 

 



Rock_on_2008 on 10 May 2008
darconi said:
Rock_on_2008 said:

I believe that multiplatform ports of games should all be released simultaneously at the exact time. Delaying the port of console or PC game ports of multi-platform titles adversely affects sales, time and time again.

I will give a couple of examples. Oblivion on PC/360 was released 14 months before the PS3 version came out. Oblivion PS3 version looked better but sales of the game were poor due to excitement of the game had well and truly died off and people moved onto something new.

Poster: Discuss this and give example to highlight that delaying ports of multi-platform titles adversely affects sales.


That's a pretty stupid example using Oblivion. Oblivion came out on 360/PC a year before the PS3 was even released. Its not their fault the PS3 was launched late. Do you expect them to just hold off on releasing a finished product for an entire year just because the PS3 was late to the party?

You can always argue that the loss in sales from the late port is made up by a higher than normal sale in the early release as well.

 


 Either release the ports on time or in that case do not even bother releasing a port more than 6 months later.



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darconi on 10 May 2008
Rock_on_2008 said:
darconi said:
Rock_on_2008 said:

I believe that multiplatform ports of games should all be released simultaneously at the exact time. Delaying the port of console or PC game ports of multi-platform titles adversely affects sales, time and time again.

I will give a couple of examples. Oblivion on PC/360 was released 14 months before the PS3 version came out. Oblivion PS3 version looked better but sales of the game were poor due to excitement of the game had well and truly died off and people moved onto something new.

Poster: Discuss this and give example to highlight that delaying ports of multi-platform titles adversely affects sales.


That's a pretty stupid example using Oblivion. Oblivion came out on 360/PC a year before the PS3 was even released. Its not their fault the PS3 was launched late. Do you expect them to just hold off on releasing a finished product for an entire year just because the PS3 was late to the party?

You can always argue that the loss in sales from the late port is made up by a higher than normal sale in the early release as well.

 


Either release the ports on time or in that case do not even bother releasing a port more than 6 months later.


 Why not?  The sales of Oblivion on the PS3 shows that they were able to make some money off it since porting is relatively cheap.  Why should they just give up on that little bonus money because people like you don't like it?

It also builds brand awareness of the game so that in the future, in case they make a sequel which was released simultaneously, they'll already have an install base on the consoles. 

 



disolitude on 10 May 2008

Also...some(not all) delayed ports are delayed because the game is not turning out to be as good on a desired console. Alone in the dark is coming to ps3 in november as the devs prolly don't have the resources to work with ps3 to make the game turn out as good as 360 version. We all know of the difficulty learning curve when it comes to ps3 programing...