What exactly is it about PC ports?!

[NinjaDeathSlap]

It seems Arkham Knight is the latest, and perhaps greatest, example in a long like of games that, regardless of their other qualities, have been completely let down by piss-poor, downright unplayable PC ports.

Now, not being an avid PC gamer myself, I'm not so clued up on what exactly is so difficult about porting a game made mainly with consoles in mind onto the PC. I know that PC's tend to be more powerful, and that PC gamers expect certain features that are often fixed on consoles to be adjustable. What I don't know, is why any of that is proving so hard for companies as big as Warner Brothers to do? I doubt they lack the resources, so is it just down to a lack of care and attention, or perhaps a lack of expertise within the development team, or is there something else I'm missing?

 

[Doom972]

There are several reasons why so many PC ports get poorly made. The usual reason one is that the code is given to a contractor developer (Like Nixxes or Demiurge) to port the game with minimal cost and at a timely fashion. As we all know, fast and cheap service usually ends up mediocre or worse.

Another possible reason, is that sometimes the original developer of the game does the porting, but that specific developer has little to no experience with PC game development - such was the case with Dark Souls.

Another possible reason, which doesn't apply to the PS4 and Xbone, is the vast difference in CPU architecture. This was a problem with the previous generation of consoles, and it required optimizing the game from scratch to work properly on x86/x64 architecture.

Bad PC ports are either the result of incompetence or hardware difference. Sometimes both, usually the former.

 

[Las7]

Publishers hate to make money

 

[Metalmacher]

1) Console market is more lucrative for game developers. If you want some profit, you gotta go console.
2) As a result, PC becomes second priority. So it is handled as such, usually being given to an outsourcing company to do the dirty work as fast as possible. Time is money, as they say, and a good port takes time, especially with the complexity of today's games. Due to that, companies feel entitled in releasing piss poor ports of console games on PC, with the promise of fixing them later.
3) Because the PC port is so abysmal, it acts as a sort of a marketing demo for the games, to be properly played on consoles, further increasing sales. Also, it pushes people to buy better graphic cards and stuff, so there's that too.

TL;DR - It's all about the money OP.

 

[Doom972]

1) Console market is more lucrative for game developers. If you want some profit, you gotta go console.

Tell that to Valve, Blizzard, CD Projekt Red, Firaxis and Riot Games. This claim has been debunked several times.

2) As a result, PC becomes second priority. So it is handled as such, usually being given to an outsourcing company to do the dirty work as fast as possible. Time is money, as they say, and a good port takes time, especially with the complexity of today's games. Due to that, companies feel entitled in releasing piss poor ports of console games on PC, with the promise of fixing them later.

See my previous post on this thread.

3) Because the PC port is so abysmal, it acts as a sort of a marketing demo for the games, to be properly played on consoles, further increasing sales. Also, it pushes people to buy better graphic cards and stuff, so there's that too.

So because it's terrible, it's supposed to get people to purchase another copy for another platform? I don't see why anyone would spend more money on a game after he had a terrible experience with it.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Publishers hate to make money

Close. They hate to spend money. They'd rather have a bunch of chimps and freshman audio/visual majors make a shitty port for cheap and them maybe patch it later after the sale numbers are in and they get bonuses instead of making a good port in the first place.
It simply costs them less to make it shitty and fix it than it would to make it good in the first place.

 

[WouldYouKindly]

As we know, many corporations are nearly incapable of seeing any consequences beyond short term profits. A faster port released with the console version brings in more profit quicker, so they do that. I'm beginning to think that this is part of the timed exclusive release. A game gets developed primary for one system, making the process quicker and then a month of intensive labor goes into making a solid port rather than trying to work on both at the same time. But I'm getting off topic.

Either through outsourcing or just plain rushing it, it will probably end up with it's fair share of problems. This is why I only buy from companies I trust on day 1(CDPR Paradox Firaxis). Even if there are serious problems, I trust they will be relatively few and will be solved in a timely manner. I didn't need a new Batman game, so I didn't pick it up and now that I've heard that the problems are so great that Steam removed it from the store(this should happen more often) I'm not going to touch it with a 20 foot HDMI cable.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well PC is the most technically demanding, the user base is the most demanding, but the sales are usually behind consoles which means less time/money spent on devs who port to PC. So the devs need to hurry up and cut corners to get that deadline.

Solution, don't buy on day one because that product is most likely months away from completion.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

1) Console market is more lucrative for game developers. If you want some profit, you gotta go console.

Tell that to Valve, Blizzard, CD Projekt Red, Firaxis and Riot Games. This claim has been debunked several times.

LMAO, Consoles Made Witcher 3 Possible [http://gamingbolt.com/cd-projekt-red-consoles-made-witcher-3-possible].

That's not saying you can't make a PC game and turn a profit but the fact is most multiplatform games sell more on a console so why wouldn't you as a businessman want to sell more of your product? And Witcher 3 has sold more PS4 copies than PC copies...

 

[Doom972]

1) Console market is more lucrative for game developers. If you want some profit, you gotta go console.

Tell that to Valve, Blizzard, CD Projekt Red, Firaxis and Riot Games. This claim has been debunked several times.

LMAO, Consoles Made Witcher 3 Possible [http://gamingbolt.com/cd-projekt-red-consoles-made-witcher-3-possible].

That's not saying you can't make a PC game and turn a profit but the fact is most multiplatform games sell more on a console so why wouldn't you as a businessman want to sell more of your product? And Witcher 3 has sold more PS4 copies than PC copies...

If you're claiming this to be an absolute fact, I expect to see some reliable data backing it. Witcher 3 sold more on consoles and XCOM:Enemy Unknown sold more on PC. Neither of them represent all games out there. Each market can be lucrative if you know how to cater to its needs.

 

[Redryhno]

I think it's a mix of a few things. Quick and fast being cheap and dirty, wanting ot keep consoles competitive by any means necessary to the point of gutting the PC release in multiple ways, not really caring about the PC market until recently because refunds are now a thing they have to watch out for.

That and optimization for consoles is different for optimization for PC. Console you're working with a set list of components, PC you've got to account for at least three different manufacturers, a dozen lines, and sixty billion combinations of parts. Complications arise when you do it cheap and, as Rocksteady and WB are finding out, much more expensive to do it that way for PC.

Hopefully this'll get them to wake the hell up and stop skimping, but it may just gut PC releases for games if they can't get it done cheap anymore. Hopefully the former happens. I stopped consoles because it started being more trouble than it was worth to not just make my own damn rig that'll run most things reasonably well faster and looking better at the same time. Also exclusives

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

1) Console market is more lucrative for game developers. If you want some profit, you gotta go console.

Tell that to Valve, Blizzard, CD Projekt Red, Firaxis and Riot Games. This claim has been debunked several times.

LMAO, Consoles Made Witcher 3 Possible [http://gamingbolt.com/cd-projekt-red-consoles-made-witcher-3-possible].

That's not saying you can't make a PC game and turn a profit but the fact is most multiplatform games sell more on a console so why wouldn't you as a businessman want to sell more of your product? And Witcher 3 has sold more PS4 copies than PC copies...

If you're claiming this to be an absolute fact, I expect to see some reliable data backing it. Witcher 3 sold more on consoles and XCOM:Enemy Unknown sold more on PC. Neither of them represent all games out there. Each market can be lucrative if you know how to cater to its needs.

Witcher 3 sales figures:
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-witcher-3-out-of-its-4-million-sold-copies-1-3-million-were-from-the-pc-version/

Both markets is more lucrative than one.

Plus, it's just common sense that the console versions usually sell more. If PC games had the most sales, the PC wouldn't get shitty outsourced ports. Why would you prioritize versions of the game that will sell less vs the version that will sell the most?

 

[CritialGaming]

Plus you can't really use the console sales figures for Witcher 3 as any indication. Sure the PS4 version sold the most, but also remember that PS4 outsold the shit out of Xbone so of course more console copies for any title will probably verge toward PS4.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It comes down to how enlightened the publishers are. And they mostly aren't. They still think that PC gaming is a small market, they think that they can prevent piracy and they think that they can get away with trying to minimize the cost of producing a PC version because they think it's not as important as the console version. Publishers are businessmen. They don't really know the gaming industry nor do they care. They care about the numbers. So if they see PC gaming as a less important market, they will try to save money by doing what WB did with Arkham Knight. And the worst thing is, their continued ignorance is what's slowing down PC gaming. If not for Valve and Steam, god only knows if PC gaming would even exist today. If more publishers were as smart as Valve, people would claim that consoles are dying.

 

[Redryhno]

Plus, it's just common sense that the console versions usually sell more. If PC games had the most sales, the PC wouldn't get shitty outsourced ports. Why would you prioritize versions of the game that will sell less vs the version that will sell the most?

Considering there's been a huge amount of piracy scare-mongering around PC gamers the last few years vs the console "buy it and you're lucky to get half your money back for it if you don't like it" business model, I wonder why one is more lucrative?

 

[Darks63]

1) Console market is more lucrative for game developers. If you want some profit, you gotta go console.

Tell that to Valve, Blizzard, CD Projekt Red, Firaxis and Riot Games. This claim has been debunked several times.

LMAO, Consoles Made Witcher 3 Possible [http://gamingbolt.com/cd-projekt-red-consoles-made-witcher-3-possible].

That's not saying you can't make a PC game and turn a profit but the fact is most multiplatform games sell more on a console so why wouldn't you as a businessman want to sell more of your product? And Witcher 3 has sold more PS4 copies than PC copies...

If you're claiming this to be an absolute fact, I expect to see some reliable data backing it. Witcher 3 sold more on consoles and XCOM:Enemy Unknown sold more on PC. Neither of them represent all games out there. Each market can be lucrative if you know how to cater to its needs.

Witcher 3 sales figures:
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-witcher-3-out-of-its-4-million-sold-copies-1-3-million-were-from-the-pc-version/

Both markets is more lucrative than one.

Plus, it's just common sense that the console versions usually sell more. If PC games had the most sales, the PC wouldn't get shitty outsourced ports. Why would you prioritize versions of the game that will sell less vs the version that will sell the most?

One thing you are forgetting about is that with PC games, especially new ones, people may not be able to run the game even with min requirements. With that in mind it makes getting a console version more attractive since it is a one size fit all scenario.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I've always gone with the excuse that the Dark Souls development team used:

We have no idea what we're doing.

Yeah, there are companies out there that know how to make games for the PC, but that doesn't mean that all game companies know how to do it, or even do it well. As other people have pointed out, the task is sometimes handed off to another company, and then it's anyone's guess as to whether it will work.
I also think that PC has to deal with a lot more stuff that can go wrong. On a console, you just pop the game in and it goes, hopefully. PC games though, a lot more hoops to jump through, and if any one of those things conflicts with the game, well...have fun with that.

 

[Doom972]

1) Console market is more lucrative for game developers. If you want some profit, you gotta go console.

Tell that to Valve, Blizzard, CD Projekt Red, Firaxis and Riot Games. This claim has been debunked several times.

LMAO, Consoles Made Witcher 3 Possible [http://gamingbolt.com/cd-projekt-red-consoles-made-witcher-3-possible].

That's not saying you can't make a PC game and turn a profit but the fact is most multiplatform games sell more on a console so why wouldn't you as a businessman want to sell more of your product? And Witcher 3 has sold more PS4 copies than PC copies...

If you're claiming this to be an absolute fact, I expect to see some reliable data backing it. Witcher 3 sold more on consoles and XCOM:Enemy Unknown sold more on PC. Neither of them represent all games out there. Each market can be lucrative if you know how to cater to its needs.

Witcher 3 sales figures:
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-witcher-3-out-of-its-4-million-sold-copies-1-3-million-were-from-the-pc-version/

Again, it's one game. Many games show the exact opposite. XCOM:EU sold poorly on consoles according to Firaxis, so that's one game to refute your "fact". Also, those numbers still don't include GOG sales. Only retail and Steam. This game sold like hotcakes on GOG and resellers who offered GOG keys.

Both markets is more lucrative than one.

Again, the conversation you replied to had nothing to do with this. You're just stating the obvious, and nobody argued the opposite.

Plus, it's just common sense that the console versions usually sell more.

Just because you say that, it doesn't make it so.

If PC games had the most sales, the PC wouldn't get shitty outsourced ports. Why would you prioritize versions of the game that will sell less vs the version that will sell the most?

There are several reasons for that. See my first reply in this thread.

 

[lacktheknack]

Publishers hate to make money

Sentences like this is why consumers and producers will simply never get along, ever.

 

[LutjaSuki]

There is a very good chance that nothing more malicious than error is the cause of the problem. The new consoles are very, very like pc's. It is therefore easy(even for the programmers of the console versions) to think that a pc port would be easy, cheap and fast so they give their port contractors little money and little time to do the job. This is the result.