Poll: Porting

[Death Wolf113]

Games that are made today are made for the core three consoles (360/Ps3/wii) and later ported to the pc this has become common place in the gameing industry. I am aware that all game's are built useing pc but that's not the point that im trying to make hear. so my question to you Escapist people is this with the growth of the consoles and decline of pc excluse content will we be seeing more and more ports to the pc insted of ports to the consoles.






If this is confusing im sorry im not trying to get people made i just want an open discussion im not in any way trying to entice a flameware between pc gamers and console gamers

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

Games that are made today are made for the core three consoles (360/Ps3/wii) and later ported to the pc this has become common place in the gameing industry. I am aware that all game's are built useing pc but that's not the point that im trying to make hear. so my question to you Escapist people is this with the growth of the consoles and decline of pc excluse content will we be seeing more and more ports to the pc insted of ports to the consoles.

If this is confusing im sorry im not trying to get people made i just want an open discussion im not in any way trying to entice a flameware between pc gamers and console gamers

Just by mentioning "PC" and "Console" in the same sentence you're enticing a flame war.

Anyway, ports never bothered me. Then again, I play on a console and we almost never get ports of PC games, at least good ones. GSC Game World have been saying they'll port S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to the consoles since '07 when they got their 360 certificate but I doubt they ever will. Just saying.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

This whole "consoles will supplant PC" thing seems especially quaint at the moment, given we're near the tail end of a console life cycle so even average gaming PC's can run laps around them, and because fucking Facebook and tablet games are currently outselling both by a hilarious margin. You want the future of gaming based purely on sales and popularity? It's FARMVILLE and ANGRY BIRDS.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

I was never really bothered by ports so long as they are at least done decently. I don't mind playing console ports to PC so long as they at least put half an effort into making it playable on PC. In a perfect world, every game would be on every gaming platform and optimized for it. I don't believe in exclusives.

 

[SirDoom]

Um... I don't know exactly what the question is here, but... I prefer ports from the PC to consoles, personally.

If you make the PC game, you can put in so much extra. PCs outclass consoles in pretty much every way as far as the individual parts go (More RAM, faster processors, better cards, etc...)

So, if you build a game with a PC in mind, you can ramp up the graphics to levels you couldn't achieve in consoles, pack more into the game, throw in a LOT of extra customized options, and even allow modding support. Then, when you go to port it to the console, all you'd have to do is disable the features that wouldn't work on the console. That way, PC gamers get to get the full use out of their thousand-dollar machines, and console gamers get to have fun with a quality product as well.


The other way around works, but isn't exactly the best way to go about it. If you make the game to run on a console then port it to the PC, you're going to run into the generic problem of "This game could easily support hundreds of standard PC game features, but doesn't because it's an exact copy of the console version". There's really no excuse for putting the same limitations on the PC version of a game as the console version. That's just laziness.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

I don't mind ports, as long as they're done well, instead of being just a quick cash in.

 

[evilneko]

I hate console to PC ports. Porting from console to PC often results in shit like a lack of reconfigurable controls, lack of options to change resolution, terrible UIs, and in the most lazy cases, game mechanics that just don't work on a PC (Bully, I'm lookin at you).

I couldn't care less about PC to console ports. I haven't owned a console since the 16-bit generation.

 

[veloper]

Console to PC ports don't even make sense. Taking something from inferior hardware to convert it to a wider base with generally better specs just doesn't seem financially viable. I would assume the amount of time needed to upscale something is double the time it would take to downscale, considering PC games are already probably pretty ready to be ported to the 360.

Game companies make it worthwhile by simply NOT upscaling anything, except what already comes for free with more powerful hardware anyway: higher resolution, AA, AF, framerates, etc.

360 to PC is the easiest and therefore the cheapest port to make. To make the game run, developers don't need to cut any content and even optimization isn't a big deal, because most PC gamers have overkill specs.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I don't care. I honesty don't have an opinion on either and I personally don't see any reason not to develop for all at the same time. Unless your dicking around with hardware or your using an IDE that doesn't compile to different platforms then its not an issue. Why don't we just work on developing IDEs that do everything rather then fighting over which way ports should go.