Epic Games is "Targeting the PC Again"

[ASnogarD]

I figured Epic would be trying to get the PC crowd back... but in my opinion you cant knife a person, then try be nice later when that person unexpectedly survives your attack.

Oh, someone remember that genius of PR, CliffyB on twitter... demo for Bulletstorm for 360 and PS3, PC gamers gonna be mad... ?? Ring any bells ?

... sorry Epic, go and ask your prefered market, you know the 360 and PS 3 fans to support you... least till the next big market comes and you stab them too.

 

[Waaghpowa]

Jazz Jackrabbit HD for PC

That would be truly Epic!

And would make me more happy than any manshoot they can come up with anyway...
Used to love that game

I still have it on floppy disc...

 

[Twilight_guy]

Given the Unreal Engine [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109302-Epic-Takes-Newbie-Game-Designers-to-School] is still in use, guys, why don't you just try and improve on that to beat the Source engine?

I Think them releasing a new beta version of UDK every month is them trying to improve their engine.

I support the idea of lower budget smaller games. Everyone know that you shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket and when you make a AAA game it kind of ends up that way. Good for them. Now if they can just stop making AAA about giant guys with giant guns...

 

[Kushan101]

I figured Epic would be trying to get the PC crowd back... but in my opinion you cant knife a person, then try be nice later when that person unexpectedly survives your attack.

Oh, someone remember that genius of PR, CliffyB on twitter... demo for Bulletstorm for 360 and PS3, PC gamers gonna be mad... ?? Ring any bells ?

... sorry Epic, go and ask your prefered market, you know the 360 and PS 3 fans to support you... least till the next big market comes and you stab them too.

It seem to be fairly unanimous: They fuck the PC market over, we'll them over back. Will hurt them more than it hurts us.
Seen too many companies make a good name for themselves on the PC market, create a strong fan base who ultimately pay their wages for years, further expand themselves as developers: only to leave us at the drop of a sony/microsoft branded hat.

Edit: just found this after a quick googly search: http://www.gamefront.com/epic-shifting-focus-to-consoles-due-to-disarray-in-pc-gaming/
Yeah, they can go fuck themselves

 

[RA92]

Given the Unreal Engine [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/109302-Epic-Takes-Newbie-Game-Designers-to-School] is still in use, guys, why don't you just try and improve on that to beat the Source engine?

I have a lot of respect for Valve devs and modders, because they are capable of making amazing content with such shitty, shitty toolsets.

Last I looked, you needed to use a command line interface to import assets, and Valve devs were actually using community-made third party tools while using the engine.

http://www.digitalurban.org/2006/09/half-life-0-oblivion-1-half-life-update.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20071227044928/http://www.dirigible-games.com/diary/?p=15
http://www.mail-archive.com/hlcoders@list.valvesoftware.com/msg28135.html

I think the only non-Valve AAA game I played made in Source was Vampire: The Masquerade ? Bloodlines.

Epic might be shit at making games these days (though I would really love a Shadow Complex port), but there's a reason why <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games#Unreal_Engine_3>so many AAA companies use their engine. And with UDK, Epic has been awesome to the indie developers (UDK is basically the latest version of the UE3 engine complete with DX11 features, which developers can use to make and sell their games by paying Epic the cost of $99, and 25% of all income above $50,000).

 

[kebab4you]

So we are getting some more focused PC titles again(from the bigger developers, we sure got plenty of indies). Should be fun... just not a shooter, please ._.

 

[Vonnis]

And just like every other time a big name in the industry has mentioned "targeting the pc again", I have not a single fuck to give. Seeing is believing.

 

[Wing Dairu]

I WANT A NEW ONE MUST FALL GAME!
Seriously, OMF 2097 was the best PC fighting game EVER. I want either a new one or a remake.

 

[paketep]

Yeah, Epic, sure. You've been insulting PC gamers the last 5 years, and now you want us to stand up and clap after some empty PR BS?.

Hell no.

 

[Foobula]

Look who came crawling back.
Yay! Someone cares about us? Now make me U3. And a sandwich.

 

[Traun]

I wonder if they'll release a public apology for all the shit they talked about PC gamers.

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Oh right Epic you desert us for your new cool friends and talk shit about us then expect us to just welcome you back? Well you can shove it up your ass!

 

[Jake Martinez]

It's just good business sense, especially for smaller studios that are not backed by a big publisher. They can invest a relatively modest amount of money into a game and expect a realistic return on investment if they go with digital sales.

Just look at Torchlight- started off as 17 people, took them 11 months to make. 2 years later it's still selling and has passed the 1 million units sold mark. Runic more than made their money off of that game and will continue to get some income from it over the next few years (admittidly less) and it'll be bundled with Torchlight II collectors edition or some garbage like that, you know the drill...

All that being said, if I ran an independant game studio this is pretty much what I would be doing as well. Spread out the risk across a few smaller games, focus on making them fun, fast to develop and cheap to buy. If people feel like they are getting a lot of fun for their 5 or 10 dollars, then it's really a no brainer and you'll more than make your bones back.

Also, and I can speak to this because I run a large software department, getting your team experience like this across a lot of smaller projects is very valuable. It helps smooth out the work process and gives the opportunity for a lot of skills to develop - techniques can be tried out in different ways across projects and then the learnings from those activities form the basis for your future plans. Hell, sometimes just having one extremely experienced developer on a team can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars just by having them suggest the correct approach to tackle a problem.

One of these days I swear I'm going to quit my cruisy job and dive into this... one of these days.

 

[The Lugz]

EXCELLENT

ok, maby not but it's a step in the right direction at least
i fully intend to endorse and buy these games for all my friends even if they suck
why?
because i want developers to get the idea that pc users aren't aliens and we like games too.

 

[Doom972]

Like other people here, I'm also still pissed at Epic for not releasing GOW 2&3.
I think they should release them both as a single game for the PC.
They are not getting my money until that happens.

EDIT: Oh, and since we are making a list of demands: I want a new Tyrian game

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

another Unreal (canon, not Tournament) game

Or just a good Tournament game. Hell, just do a re-skin of 2k4.