John Carmack: PC Is Not the "Leading Platform" for Games
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Um, a couple points:Laxman9292 said:
1. My rig cost $600, and it plays every game I throw at it maxed out.
2. The whole point of using DirectX or OpenGL is that it's standardized. Sure, not all PCs have the exact same parts, but a vast majority implement the same APIs.
3. Almost EVERYONE has a PC (or a Mac), and even a cheap PC these days has more horsepower than a PS3 or 360. Sure, they can't all handle CryEngine 3, but something like UE3 or Source shouldn't be a big hurdle, especially since, as "graphics aren't everything", you can turn down the settings to get it more playable.
4. Actually, Minecraft pretty much proves my point. PC exclusive, runs on almost any machine you can find, and it's a huge hit. And it's not even out of beta yet!
Seriously, is he just trying to troll everyone??D0WNT0WN said:
Clearly this latest statement from him is just a load of bullshit to cover for the fact they done fucked up the version.
"We knew our game was going to be shit on PC at launch, but we don't care because they aren't our primary market."
Right. I'll keep that in mind next time I consider buying one of your products, id.
If you don't give a fuck about your product then why should I?
You used to drive the market; push the tech boundaries and give us a rippin good time; your profits and fame were the results of you wanting to do better; not just because you wanted to make a quick buck.
One blandly bad or buggy game does not break a developer in my eyes (I even stupidly gave Bethesda another shot after the combined HOURS of crash-time from Oblivion), but come the fuck on. This is ID SOFTWARE; the fucking KINGS of game engine programming tech! They have one of the absolute best coding-corpus in the entire gaming world.
Right. I'll keep that in mind next time I consider buying one of your products, id.
If you don't give a fuck about your product then why should I?
You used to drive the market; push the tech boundaries and give us a rippin good time; your profits and fame were the results of you wanting to do better; not just because you wanted to make a quick buck.
One blandly bad or buggy game does not break a developer in my eyes (I even stupidly gave Bethesda another shot after the combined HOURS of crash-time from Oblivion), but come the fuck on. This is ID SOFTWARE; the fucking KINGS of game engine programming tech! They have one of the absolute best coding-corpus in the entire gaming world.
I don't think PC gamers really have any problem with that. I love titles like Mass Effect and Arkham Assylum, even though they're basically console ports. Just because Shadow of the Colossus and Red Dead Redemption never even had the PC in mind doesn't make me not want them to play on my platform. Eidos showed us recently how developing primarily for the consoles doesn't mean a shitty PC version.Abandon4093 said:
The problem here is that he is implying that just because it's not the lead platform it is okay to be in a broken state. He should have just apologized and left it at that. After all, people spent quite a bit of money on this borked product. Red Orchestra 2 was also massively buggy on release, but just look at how they handled it. It's all a matter of tact.
And unlike the thinking of some <url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.317229-John-Carmack-PC-Is-Not-the-Leading-Platform-for-Games?page=3#12914201>unsuspecting<url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/7.317229.12914270> gentlemen, PC sales aren't necessarily insignificant. FarCry and Crysis each sold in excess of 3 million (with the expansion pack Warhead selling another 1.5 million) on the PC, which is roughly the same amount Crysis 2 sold on all platforms combined. Bad Company 2 sold more copies on the PC than the consoles. The Witcher 2 has sold over a million copies. Portal 2 sold more on the PC than consoles. And of course we have successful companies making PC-exclusives like Tripwire, Bohemia, Stardock, The Creative Assembly, GSC, Runic. Even console-exclusive publishers are now publishing for the PC - Capcom (Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Dead Rising, DMC), Sega (Total War, Aliens, Universe at War), Sony (Planetside... 'nuff said), Atlus (Trine, Rock of Ages, Xenoclash). Again and again indie games have sold better on Steam than XBLA.
Sure, consoles have outgrown PCs by a wide margin, and you can't expect CoD's 20 million sale on the XBox form the PC. But it's far from dead and is the spawning ground for new developers.
While I am a PC gamer myself, I have a hard time feeling sorry for PC gamers as a group. Rage is right now the number two bestseller on Steam and will certainly far outsell Hard Reset. This essentially means that PC gamers are voting with their wallet in support of the company that considers the PC a very decisive afterthought rather than the company that actively cares about the PC audience.
The real question is how many of those are pre-orders and how many of those pre-orders regret pre orderingCBanana said:
Fix'd that for ya. Blizzard is now just milking their old franchises without bringing anything new to the table, with outrageous DRM to boot.SonofSeth said:
Mind it though, Rage was pretty high on preorders as well on Steam. Who expected the makers of Doom and Quake to turn to this?CBanana said:
i dont think id will go out of business whats gona happen is iddiots boycotting the game caus they %&%*ed up id will continue making games and people will continue buying them
I think this close after launch we are still in the "its id, lets buy it" category.CBanana said:
I dont think PC gamers in general voting with their wallet for the product, its more that id's reputation is generating sales, not everyone is as interested in reviews and game-news like I (/we on this site) are.
People that have bought the game and have problems with it will take away bad things about id with it. In the same way I bought Dark Messiah of Might and Magic way back when, only to find its completely buggy and unplayable. I bought it because Arkane Studios made Arx Fatalis, a magnificent game.
In the same way i was very cautious about Bioshock 2 after Dark Messiah, and I am now very cautious about their next game Dishonored.
Developer reputation is very important for initial sales in the market. Release one good or excellent game, and you have almost guaranteed sales on the next one, even if you release a subpar or broken game (see Bioware).
No shit, sherlock. It would have been nice to have the chance to...y'know, be able to tweak your graphics settings besides the paltry options provided.
It's pretty much official. If a developer with such esteemed history like id makes a console port like this then you know that the future quality of console ports is going to be very bad in general.
Didn't id say they were developing for all platforms seperately? :/
Isn't that an odd way to test a game? Wouldn't it be more practical to test on a diverse range of systems to make sure the largest percentage of customers experience the least amount of bugs possible? Unless the time/money budget wouldn't allow for it, but that should be an important part of quality assurance testing...Andy Chalk said:
Guys, guys, don't fall for it! This has nothing to do with PCs vs. consoles and more like coming up with an excuse for rushing a title out of the door. You release any game half-assed, and it'll run like shit no matter what system it is.
While I will accept that PC is not the "leading" platform, you developed the game for Xbox 360 and PS3. I am sorry to say, by definition only one of those is the "leading" platform. Unless you ment consoles in general, but then where is the Wii love?
As consoles become more and more like PCs, I find the "we will just port to PC" more and more BS. It stands to reason and practicality (though I may be wrong) building a game for PC which is more powerful and more complex, then simplifying it for console in the later stages would be an easier task.
But consider the complete BS Id gave us in RAGE (even though they were in love with using PC for all the press footage) I guess it is easier to build for PS3/Xbox 360 and take a giant dump on PC.
PC is not the leading platform because we spend our money on game and companies that don't opening say, "Screw the millions of PC gamers. They aren't important enough to consider."
As consoles become more and more like PCs, I find the "we will just port to PC" more and more BS. It stands to reason and practicality (though I may be wrong) building a game for PC which is more powerful and more complex, then simplifying it for console in the later stages would be an easier task.
But consider the complete BS Id gave us in RAGE (even though they were in love with using PC for all the press footage) I guess it is easier to build for PS3/Xbox 360 and take a giant dump on PC.
PC is not the leading platform because we spend our money on game and companies that don't opening say, "Screw the millions of PC gamers. They aren't important enough to consider."
