Epic Games, turning its back on the system that made them a success?

 Well after watching the video review with the President of EPIC GAMES and his opinion on PC gaming, its quite obvious he has taken a liking to the $$$$$$ he has made from Gears of War, so a massive company like Epic Games will be going to the console as thier priority quite clearly by what he said.

 So what does this mean for us PC Gamers? He knows Gears of War will not sell 5 million like the Xbox360, he knows many will torrent it for singleplayer mode because the Online mode was rushed so whats stopping them making a half-assed Gears of War port for us?.

Unreal Tournement 3 while having the mod and tournements on PC ... will they be less and less than past games? What will we be left with? MMORPGS? oh freakingjoy ...WoW clones R US.

 I was so hyped about getting a new rig in October, playing UT3 / Quake Wars / Crysis (2/3 consoled). but my faith is shattered a little, console gaming is alot more appealing to developers from the $$$, now clearly the EPIC GAMES president is jumping ship, in a not so subtle manner, a gaming rig is expensive to the normal consumer, thus they buy consoles.

 Who will follow? VALVE? CRYTEK?

 Something needs to change in our industry, we might have a decent line up for 2007, but no matter how decent it is, we are losing more and more to consoles, something that wasnt seen in past generations ... and its pretty damn worrying.

 Whats your thoughts on this (yea probably not original, but im losing faith so I'm posting this, go figure :roll:)

i've never been fond of epic - i thought the singleplayer unreal games were dire and the tournament games, while great, never appealed to me like quake 3 did

so as far as epic's games go, they've never even been a pc developer as far as i'm concerned - but what epic has done for pc gaming is create utterly amazing technology - and that won't stop... even if they don't intend to put out any more pc games (and don't ask me for a link, but i read an epic interview just a few weeks or months ago where the interviewee, whoever he was, claimed that the pc was still epic's primary development system - though i presume this was in reference to unreal engines, rather than actual games) - they will continue to develop pc technology... even if they don't use it themselves, licensing out unreal technology is pretty much what epic does - how many dozens of companies have deals with epic?

tons

besides, as much as we'd all love to think that they owe us because we're loyal fans, or whatever - money is largely the motivating factor behind any enterprise - and it always will be, as long as money exists - which is exactly why epic is joined by: id, valve (valve is already multiformatting ep2, say bye bye to half life as a pc exclusive), bioware, ensemble, irrational and several other "pc developers" who are multiformatting now - crytek is maintaining that the consoles just don't have the power they need to put out stuff like crysis, and that's true - but it's probably just a matter of time till ubisoft buys them out and we see crysis instincts

it's not the best case scenario, but it's far from being the worst case scenario - i can live without epic, especially when unreal was dire, unreal tournament isn't to my preference, and gears was totally mediocre after the wow factor of the technology fades

About UT 3/Quake Wars/Crysis, all of them are coming to consoles. Quake Wars to X360, Crysis to X360, and UT3 to PS3 and X360.

Well I think a major reason is the misconception about the actual price of PC gaming and its perplexity. Most people are lazy and would rather just buy a console in which they don't have to mess around with configurations/settings and just play right out of the box. There is also many ridiculous rumors that PC gaming costs many thousands of dollars to enjoy, which is probably created by morons getting conned into buying overpriced chunks of metal from Dell and other companies.

Ugh......You do realize this has been brought up at least a dozen times in the last few days alone right? PC gaming is NOT..in competition with console gaming. There will *always* be developers such as Valve, Crytek and Monolith who will not give into money alone. SuperBeast

 The thing is we are in competition with Console Gaming, because lets face it, this Gen they are closer to us than ever before, now theyre snatching some of our best developers, you will say Crytek wouldnt switch platforms now, but the same could of been said about Epic long ago.

 Games are Games, if we dont have the mainstream developers backing then we are eventually doomed to inferiority( if thats even a word), the Niche market doesnt help much when the Genres we play best in are still going to the consoles due to sales, obviously sales > Gameplay in thier eyes.

to the rest I agree, but the worry down the line is, by the time Xbox720 is released (example) we will have less of the mainstream developers backing, the X720 would have games in the works from the greatest PC developers that will annihilate the PC scene for 2-3 years.... hell Gears of War (Graphics Wise) has set us back until what october/november? the GPU to run it good 8800 series atm is the price of the bleeding console .... why is that btw? -.-

About UT 3/Quake Wars/Crysis, all of them are coming to consoles. Quake Wars to X360, Crysis to X360, and UT3 to PS3 and X360.

xTRIGGER092x

Crysis isn't coming to consoles. And even if it did it's much more likely to come out for the PS3 as they already have job openings asking specifically for programmers to work on the development of a cryengine 2.0 game on the ps3.  

Lets use Crysis as an example, it wont sell as great as gears of war on the xbox 360, nowhere near, despite more than likely being a much greater game, and crytek will take note of this, even though they are selling thier engine, whats stopping them making a game for the 720/PS4 completely ignoring the PC in order to get much better sales?

Lets use Crysis as an example, it wont sell as great as gears of war on the xbox 360, nowhere near, despite more than likely being a much greater game, and crytek will take note of this, even though they are selling thier engine, whats stopping them making a game for the 720/PS4 completely ignoring the PC in order to get much better sales?

 

Meu2k7

Um, nothing.  And if they do that and make more money by doing so, then so much the better for them.  After all, this is a business.

Why are PC gamers so vehement on letting others enjoy PC games on consoles? Not everyone can buy a $1000 machine and then use it just to play games; that's why consoles exist. G4mbl3

 -.- not what I was getting at, problem is they sell much better o nthe console, because of the current poor system, thus killing us off?

 "Why cant Console gamers realize that PC --> Console Multiplats are slowing causing the death of PC gaming" ? 

Well after watching the video review with the President of EPIC GAMES and his opinion on PC gaming, its quite obvious he has taken a liking to the $$$$$$ he has made from Gears of War, so a massive company like Epic Games will be going to the console as thier priority quite clearly by what he said.

So what does this mean for us PC Gamers? He knows Gears of War will not sell 5 million like the Xbox360, he knows many will torrent it for singleplayer mode because the Online mode was rushed so whats stopping them making a half-assed Gears of War port for us?.

Unreal Tournement 3 while having the mod and tournements on PC ... will they be less and less than past games? What will we be left with? MMORPGS? oh freakingjoy ...WoW clones R US.

I was so hyped about getting a new rig in October, playing UT3 / Quake Wars / Crysis (2/3 consoled). but my faith is shattered a little, console gaming is alot more appealing to developers from the $$$, now clearly the EPIC GAMES president is jumping ship, in a not so subtle manner, a gaming rig is expensive to the normal consumer, thus they buy consoles.

Who will follow? VALVE? CRYTEK?

Something needs to change in our industry, we might have a decent line up for 2007, but no matter how decent it is, we are losing more and more to consoles, something that wasnt seen in past generations ... and its pretty damn worrying.

Whats your thoughts on this (yea probably not original, but im losing faith so I'm posting this, go figure :roll:)

Meu2k7

The xbox is basically a paired down PC, and even uses direct x, if i'm not mistaken. The core game should translate very easily. The only real issue should be the controls, and that should not be a problem if they just let the user have the power to assign any action to any key/button.

I would be more concerned if they developed from the PS3 as their main platform, xbox to PC should not be difficult for epic.

if YOU were a dev or a pub, and YOU had a business to run, and you saw the numbers the consoles were generating, you saw the revenues, you saw the risk/reward models, you saw the age and income demos, you saw the micro-purchase revenues, you saw how people line up for DAYS to get the newest console, therein buying games in the process, where would you focus your energies? your r&d? your capital?

and before you start, i am not saying PC gaming is dead or dying. but right now, it's not a growth market. that is the key. the consoles are THE growth market in gaming.  they are getting in because they have a business to run. staying "loyal" doesn't pay the bills.

if YOU were a dev or a pub, and YOU had a business to run, and you saw the numbers the consoles were generating, you saw the revenues, you saw the risk/reward models, you saw the age and income demos, you saw the micro-purchase revenues, you saw how people line up for DAYS to get the newest console, therein buying games in the process, where would you focus your energies? your r&d? your capital?

and before you start, i am not saying PC gaming is dead or dying. but right now, it's not a growth market. that is the key. the consoles are THE growth market in gaming. they are getting in because they have a business to run. staying "loyal" doesn't pay the bills.

bonejester

 But whats gaurenteeing us top Quality / big community games in the future? 

I hate the fact that Consoles are getting our games the same time, while we have to wait a year for thiers, why are we not getting Halo 3 around the same time? Because they dont care about us.

they care, otherwise you wouldn't get it at all. they just don't care as much, because the market doesn't support it. if the pc gamer world spent their monies on things other than strategy games and rpgs (go ahead and look at the top ten games on the pc splash page), they might care. they just don't make it their top priority, because it isn't about warm fuzzies. it is a business in the truest sense of the word. 

if anything, it is the pc gamers fault. they didn't want to pay for anything (hence their scoffs at the micro-purchases console gamers make for maps and such), and they wanted to freedom to mod the games, thus changing the nature of the game, possibly in a way that the designer didn't intend for. i mean, many games have artistic qualities. those are preserved in the console world, because the games can't be hacked. or, at least, not easily. 

LOL, listen up buddy, VALVE has been making console games since day 2 (half-life ports) and now they are making the pc AND 360 versions of episode 2, TF2 and portal (another studio is doing the PS3 port), also announced half-life episode 3 will be done by them for 360 aswell.

so valve is already "giving into money".

what is wrong with you guys? do you hate consoles that much that you wont play a pc game that is ported to consoles??? why does it bother you that devs want to make money??? whats the big deal??? just buy your games and enjoy them. stop crying. 

"buy the pc game and dont torrent it"

 brilliant example. if you want the games to come your way, stop sharing copywritten software for free. end of discussion. 

i totally agree with the topic starter... i made a post similiar to this a while ago but the words i used were right to the point more to what is going to happen then when is happening at this stage. Pc gaming is dying.. im sick of people who are sayings its not... im not a freakin console fanboy, and seriously shut your mouths about crysis. Crysis alone wont help the pc stay alive... Epic games could care less about the damn pc when they know they will make twice as much on the 360.. why in the hell will the company care about pc... THERE IS NO LOYALTY people.. its called business companies will go where there is money. THE only reason crysis is still on the pc not the 360 is because they cant make the game for the 360 and have it look the same.TORRENTING Needs to stop like i posted in another thread of mine it is a huge part of why developers rather do 360 games or console stuff.

 It doesnt matter if the PC has more power... what good is the power when no games are on it ???? or at least much as 360?????

NO DEVELOPER WILL MAKE A GAME ON THE PC, just to showcase the power because no matter how good one game is (crysis) it won't make the platform a huge hit unless, there is noting like it, and it makes sense to spend  $1200 on it just for it. right now 360 is way more promising, you will see way more games on it, and ps3 will have amazing stuff for it too, just its taken them longer.... SO SERIOUSLY SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE!. Like a vista patch where torrents cant be spoted and shutdown or  you buy the game from the store and pop it in and there is an online server that checks the game, and makes sure the game is the real thing. this is something vista should offer to game developers promising there game will not be torrented and i think alot more game developers will work for pc again and im 100% sure the game platform will take huge turn.  

i totally agree with the topic starter... i made a post similiar to this a while ago but the words i used were right to the point more to what is going to happen then when is happening at this stage. Pc gaming is dying.. im sick of people who are sayings its not... im not a freakin console fanboy, and seriously shut your mouths about crysis. Crysis alone wont help the pc stay alive... Epic games could care less about the damn pc when they know they will make twice as much on the 360.. why in the hell will the company care about pc... THERE IS NO LOYALTY people.. its called business companies will go where there is money. THE only reason crysis is still on the pc not the 360 is because they cant make the game for the 360 and have it look the same.TORRENTING Needs to stop like i posted in another thread of mine it is a huge part of why developers rather do 360 games or console stuff.

It doesnt matter if the PC has more power... what good is the power when no games are on it ???? or at least much as 360?????

NO DEVELOPER WILL MAKE A GAME ON THE PC, just to showcase the power because no matter how good one game is (crysis) it won't make the platform a huge hit unless, there is noting like it, and it makes sense to spend $1200 on it just for it. right now 360 is way more promising, you will see way more games on it, and ps3 will have amazing stuff for it too, just its taken them longer.... SO SERIOUSLY SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE!. Like a vista patch where torrents cant be spoted and shutdown or you buy the game from the store and pop it in and there is an online server that checks the game, and makes sure the game is the real thing. this is something vista should offer to game developers promising there game will not be torrented and i think alot more game developers will work for pc again and im 100% sure the game platform will take huge turn.

maden2004

The PC is already a huge hit stupid. 

Its always like this when new consoles arrive. It will pass in a year ore so, when the PC is the hardware platform again.barlienb

People say it's always been like that but i don't remember that happening b4. At the same time consoles were being released in 2000 and 2001 there were loads of amazing games that i remember more than Consoles. Before that when Playstation and that released, PC's wern't very big anyways and good games were few and far between.

Also whats effecting PC development today is Piracy more than ever because it's sooo easy to do. Developers.publishers are spending more and more money per game now they just don't get their money back. It's true in the coming years it'll get better as hardware prices go down however.... it's becoming for of a issue.

 Publishers need to create Steam and EA Link platforms and sell online and make it so you need to activate over their services to stop these issues. As time goes on aswel this will become easier as like more and more people get faster broadband lines and more harddrive space. They also need to create more and better online gameplay with their games so people will want to buy it for multiplayer aswel as single player.

The way i see it though is the PC market will always be niche because of the costs of upgrading hardware and the fact it takes longer to learn how to use a PC + all the errors that come with them. It doesn't help Microsoft saying "you need to buy Vsta for this" and making us spend more money. Consoles are just easy to use and most people are casual gamers with their busy lifestyles anyways.

You'll see the PC trend go more and more towards the online game and the mmorpg genre.

First off, Epic has been very faithful to the PC.   They are discouraged  of all the  hoops people need to jump thru to play their games legally.  Computers can get viruses.  Games can be pirated.  Optimizing for a limitless amount of setups is challenging and much more difficult than optimizing for one standard system (a console).  Consoles are a billion times more user friendly.  No tweaking is required.  No installation.  The KB & M can be scary to some players.  Sports, fighting, and racing games are practically non existant on the PC.  I haven't even begun with costs and building computers.  Drivers, drivers, drivers...  

Regardless, I don't care and forever will be a PC gamer.  These obstacles are well known and if a console is technically capable of handiling their games (atm) then I say let them.  UE3 can port games so easily I don't think the PC version will suffer in the least.           

Am I the only one that doesn't get some of Epics piracy remarks?

EPIC said that the only real reason they are bringing UT3 to consoles is because of piracy! Maybe I'm just way off here, but I was under the impression that muliplayer focused games that require keys for online are not significantly hurt via piracy.

I know it's possible to play games like UT2004 online over hacked servers and such, but from what I've seen the portion of players taking it that far make up a very, very small percentage of the players (less the 1% I'd imagine.)

Am I the only one that doesn't get some of Epics piracy remarks?

EPIC said that the only real reason they are bringing UT3 to consoles is because of piracy! Maybe I'm just way off here, but I was under the impression that muliplayer focused games that require keys for online are not significantly hurt via piracy.

I know it's possible to play games like UT2004 online over hacked servers and such, but from what I've seen the portion of players taking it that far make up a very, very small percentage of the players (less the 1% I'd imagine.)

RequimRex

There are ways of beating piracy too like Steam :P Most PC users do not know how to hack Steam and probally only a small amount can. Also theres Hamachi to play online but thats only really gd against friends and most the time you'll want to play and they don't.

First off, Epic has been very faithful to the PC. They are discouraged of all the hoops people need to jump thru to play their games legally. Computers can get viruses. Games can be pirated. Optimizing for a limitless amount of setups is challenging and much more difficult than optimizing for one standard system (a console). Consoles are a billion times more user friendly. No tweaking is required. No installation. The KB & M can be scary to some players. Sports, fighting, and racing games are practically non existant on the PC. I haven't even begun with costs and building computers. Drivers, drivers, drivers...

 

Regardless, I don't care and forever will be a PC gamer. These obstacles are well known and if a console is technically capable of handiling their games (atm) then I say let them. UE3 can port games so easily I don't think the PC version will suffer in the least.

Phabiuo3

Umm it costs much less to make a PC game than to make a console game.  

For 1) I only care if the same good game comes to the PC. Don't forget, what makes a PC good for gaming, is the fact you can simply adjust the game itself. Heck, look at oblivion. It was a console to PC port, and the PC edition looks better due to the add-ons and such as.

2) when the game is released to PC, a SDK pack is also released. For instance, Half life 2. Yeah, it will be great on console, but the PC verson will always be better, because we get to mod it, and play it. There are non-official patchs that allows HDR effects in Half life 2 single player game.

3) PC gaming can be much cheaper or not in the end, it all depends. A game of the same for the PC and Xbox, is always gonna be cheaper on PC.

4) buying the latest and greatest hardware isn't everything, a good game can still be very enjoyable on medium quailty. Don't forget, you can always tweak the game.

OK, so UT3 will be on Console, but it too will be on PC. For 1, the PC verson will look better, and 2, the PC verson will also have TONS more mods. Yeah, they allowed mod making to then submit it for xbox360, but good luck on optimizing the mod, changing controls around, and such as, to fit the mod. So the majority of mod makers will obviously stick to the PC platform. So, allow Xbox360 and PS3 have their games, it only matters that the game comes out on PC. Then when your friend comes and says "hah, i saved (insert price here) on my console over your PC, and I can play the same game" you can say: "Yeah, at least I can play every other game you play, I got a keyboard + mouse, I have better visuals, and finally, I can adjust the game to my liking. Not just that, but I got a much larger range in terms of mods to choose from and play, adding many more hours to the same game, while you are stuck with the same game, with no additions or very little."

Edit: Also the guy above me is right.  Most Xbox360 titles have been pretty mundane.  I have played Gears Of War from start to finish on an overnight bing with my friend (no, not drinking but playing hard (controller and wank lawl jk, but yeah, controller)) and it is just another game that has an OK driven story line, and some good key elements (chainsaw the enemy is indeed fun) but it is NOT fun to play over and over again.  Online portion of it is pretty basic too.  But with PC, our online community is HUGE (look at BF2, and WoW) and maybe the PC players will indeed look forward to buy a game, if companys know how to fricking optimize the game, or properly port it, unlike Capcom. 

About UT 3/Quake Wars/Crysis, all of them are coming to consoles. Quake Wars to X360, Crysis to X360, and UT3 to PS3 and X360.

xTRIGGER092x

Me thinks the pc needs some more pc exclusives to begin releasing. For example,  another warcraft/starcraft rts, a stalker expansion (or some other game made with its engine), a heroes/heroes of m&m game ect. If blizzard could stop the focusing on only wow thing, we'd be alot better off.

Epic hates PC gaming!
Make something Unreal.. That's all I have to say.

This topic is old and soggy.

PC gaming WILL live on.

 THE only reason crysis is still on the pc not the 360 is because they cant make the game for the 360 and have it look the same.TORRENTING Needs to stop like i posted in another thread of mine it is a huge part of why developers rather do 360 games or console stuff.

maden2004

Well maybe Crytek are loyal to pc. But dont you think Crytek is getting $omething in return for getting people to upgrade to Vista sooner as well as all the hardware upgrades? Crysis is as important to Microsoft for the pc as Halo 3 is for 360.

yep epic games has been really good to us pc gamers, as well as us console gamers. dont forget that gears is coming to pc, just give it some time. I GAURENTEE it will have DX10 additions too, it may just take a couple years like halo and halo 2 did. lol actually maybe DX11 by that time, LOL. buy the 360 version of all those games anyway. why spend $3,000 (pc) on a gaming machine when you can spend $300 (xbox 360). you get the same graphics and better gameplay. plus LIVE. THE GAMES RUN PERFECTLY!!! take OBLIVION for example: on most PCs it runs **** and you have to TURN FEATURES OFF. on X360 it runs perfectly and you get the best of all the pc visuals with no slowdown. SAME with fear, quake 4, call of duty 2, condemned and all the other great 360/pc games. the fact remains that if you want to play the game at its best without spending $3,000, just bite the bullet and get the 360 version.cheesyone

How do you get better gameplay on console?

Quake 4 runs horribly on 360.

Oblivion has a ton of mods for the pc. 360 version has no af, stutters more and loading takes longer.

$2k could easily match the 360's performance. No monthly fee to play online and I'll take Stalker and Crysis over Halo 3 and Gears.

why single out epic??? valve (half life ORANGE BOX, 360), infinity ward (call of duty 2, 360), id software (doom 3 and quake 4 for xbox,360) CRYTEK has ported FAR CRY to EVERY CONSOLE imaginable. WHAT BOTHERS YOU GUYS ABOUT PC GAMES BEING PORTED TO CONSOLES???? if your fanboys that much, then just buy the pc game and dont torrent it. by the way does anyone remember a game called STARCRAFT GHOST????cheesyone

Who will follow? VALVE? CRYTEK?

Meu2k7

Well technically Valve has already made the leap (thought not an outright "jumping-of-the-ship") since HL2 came out for the Xbox and it's set to come out for the 360 and PS3 (although the PS3 version is handled by a different dev), along with Episodes 1 & 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. But I really don't see any reason in getting worried just yet. This is the new face of the industry, games cost so much, going multiplatform is the only way. When people talk about exclusives, they almost always forget that the PC is losing them as well, simply because development costs are so staggering. But that doesn't mean devs are abandoning the PC, or that it's dying as a viable gaming platform.

As a final note, I think your header displays rather clueless fanboyism as well. Going multiplatform does not mean a developer is turning it's back on a particular system. You just need to realize this is a business, and people are in it to make money. Don't make it personal!

[QUOTE="Meu2k7"]

Who will follow? VALVE? CRYTEK?

monco59

Well technically Valve has already made the leap (thought not an outright "jumping-of-the-ship") since HL2 came out for the Xbox and it's set to come out for the 360 and PS3 (although the PS3 version is handled by a different dev), along with Episodes 1 & 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. But I really don't see any reason in getting worried just yet. This is the new face of the industry, games cost so much, going multiplatform is the only way. When people talk about exclusives, they almost always forget that the PC is losing them as well, simply because development costs are so staggering. But that doesn't mean devs are abandoning the PC, or that it's dying as a viable gaming platform.

As a final note, I think your header displays rather clueless fanboyism as well. Going multiplatform does not mean a developer is turning it's back on a particular system. You just need to realize this is a business, and people are in it to make money. Don't make it personal!

 Its not fanboyism, but think about Gears of War & UT3, both UT3 now has a single player which is a good thing I suppose but if it wasnt going to the consoles would we have even gotten it? UT3 is also dumbed down in terms of gameplay, you cannot do crazy jump tricks/super fast paced BECAUSE of the consoles, again, we are thier main platform I see? pffft.

Multiplatform one way and not the other is bad, if we dont get things the same time as the console, but they get ours, then whats the point in gaming on a PC?

Nothing to do with sales on PC, nothing to do with whos the best, it has everything to do with developers and the future, I'm not the first to say this, hell google "PC Gaming is dying" and read the endless articles about it.