This is my second knoll that is not so much about knowledge but about an important question for the computer industry. I am a pc enthusiast that loves his modding and although I have a vast collection of video game consoles, generally the first machine I will play games on is my Pc.
The pc was always the first platform that games were released on. It was always the case that console owners had to wait for at least 6 months before they got their conversion of a quality game that us pc owners had been playing for months. Granted, we had to pay through the nose for the hardware but you can’t beat the feeling of your platform taking priority over others.
Crysis is a perfect example of a top quality game that came out on pc first. Crysis was amazing at the time, although a little overkill to be honest; there was no machine in the world that could run it at its highest settings. I remember playing crysis for the first time, pushing the settings to their limits, trying to get the most from the monster games engine, it looked jaw dropping at the time and still looks as good as anything else you will see in today’s gaming market. My console owning friends had to wait the best part of a year before seeing this game released for their consoles and the conversions couldn’t compete with the pc version.
These were the days, we were prioritised and you could actually justify the cost of a new graphics card, but now things have moved on. Here are some great examples;
Gears of War 2.
Apparently the second instalment of this game wasn’t released because of CEO of the company said it was a complete waste of time releasing the game for pc as most people will just download it illegally anyway. To be fair he has a point, but not all of us are peer to peer addicts. I would have bought it and I know a lot of other people that would have as well.
Far Cry 2.
This game would have never been released cross platform 2 years ago. It would have been released on the pc first and then ported over to consoles afterwards. Instead we got it at the same time as everyone else and a shoddy console port at that.
Grand theft Auto 4
If ever there was a perfect example of a rubbish port over from a console version then this is it. We had to wait the best part of a year to get the game AFTER it was released by Rockstar and then once it was released, it was a rubbish port over from the Xbox 360. Poor, poor, poor.
So where do we go from here? I think that piracy is the main reason why games are not released on the pc as a priority now. That and money. Anyone with a gaming pc knows how to download form a peer to peer site so most of them do. For this reason no one has to buy the game and if no one buys the games then no one will release them. Also, the financial muscle of someone like Sony means they either buy up all the software development companies or buy the exclusive rights to a title.
It looks like this situation will get worse before it gets any better, I only hope that some solution will be found and the pc gaming industry can be saved.
Resources;
IT Support London based company that I work for. This topic is hot conversation at the moment and most of us agree that the pc market will have to change soon otherwise the graphics card companies will no longer produce the latest hardware for the platform as it will not be required.
