.. errr not to pc it would seem..

Cliff Bleszinski Aug 2008:

"Gears of War is a great franchise first and foremost for Xbox 360, and therefore we're focusing on that platform for Gears of War 2. We've decided we're not going to do a PC version this time around."

Taken from an interview with Totalvideogames.com in Sept 2008:

TVG: Do you see the Xbox 360 as the main platform as opposed to the PC? During the whole Unreal time it was very much PC focused.

CB: The PC right now is a fair amount different to what it was back in the day, with all the badly integrated video chips. Here's the problem right now; the person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know bit torrent to know all thee lements so they can pirate software. Therefore, high-end videogames are suffering very much on the PC.

TVG: So piracy was a main point for you...

CB: Right now, it makes sense for us to focus on Xbox 360 for a number of reasons. Not least PCs with multiple configurations and piracy.

TVG: But when the dust has settled, is there any possibility of Gears 2 on PC?

CB: No.

Judging from his comments you'd think piracy was non existent on consoles.

So there are two reasons Gears 2 won't be coming to the PC - the difficulty of porting to multiple configurations and piracy. I'll ignore the multiple configs problem because that's something that every developer has to face and therefore redundant, and focus on the piracy factor instead.

If piracy affected Gears so badly you'd imagine it would be amongst the most pirated games of last year.

Top ten pirated pc games of 2008 according to website torrentfreak:

1 Spore (1,700,000)

2 The Sims 2 (1,150,000)

3 Assassins Creed (1,070,000)

4 Crysis (940,000)

5 Command & Conquer 3 (860,000)

6 Call of Duty 4 (830,000)

7 GTA San Andreas (740,000)

8 Fallout 3 (645,000)

9 Far Cry 2 (585,000)

10 Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (470,000)

This table only lists torrent downloads and its accuracy is, perhaps, questionable, however it has been quoted by many reputable websites including gamespot, so we can at least use it to give us an approximate idea of the situation. And gears doesn't even feature.

I've not been able to find sales figures for the pc version of Gears but i'm guessing they weren't impressive. So, reading between the lines, it seems piracy is being blamed for poor sales. But as far as poor sales goes, Epic have no one to blame but themselves, here's why:

1. The release of GOW PC came a full year after the 360 version. The hype simply had fizzled out.

2. For a game that relies heavily on its eye candy to entice people, it was released at the same time as the best looking game ever, (and brand new IP) Crysis. It simply couldn't compete.

3. And also at the same time as mega popular franchises COD 4 and The Orange Box. Chances are it just didn't show up on peoples' radar.

4. The compulsary use of Games for Windows LIVE. Ill advised and not popular with the majority of gamers.

5. Widespread technical issues such as no sound and saved games disappearing. News of these bugs travels fast, look at GTA IV. Result = people put off.

Now factor in the disappointment with Unreal Tournament 3 from earlier in 2007 and you have legitimate reasons as to why Gears of War on the PC failed to make an impact and ultimately failed to sell.

The lesson Epic need to learn is a simple one - to give your games a better chance of selling release them on multiple platforms on the same date. That way no one loses out.

..shame because it did look and play great on the pc..