Unreal Engine Creator Sez: PC is good, not for games though.

[Siva]

http://www.gametrailers.com/viewnews.php?id=5655

"You cut me Tim, you cut me deep!"

PC gaming has had it rough recently. First, Epic Games announced that it was shifting development from the PC to consoles, and today Unreal creator Tim Sweeny all but condemned the platform to a life of spreadsheets, web browsing and heated sessions of Scrabulous.

And the worst part? PC game developers have only themselves to blame, he said.

In an interview with TG Daily, Sweeny piled on to comments Epic comrade Cliff "CliffyB" Bleszinski had made earlier this year about the "disarray" of the PC market, saying today that the industry has shifted for the worse to cater only to those PC gamers with the biggest, baddest systems.

Sweeny said the shift leaves mainstream PCs high and dry with only a selection of Facebook, MySpace, music and video to keep them company. As a result, he said, those applications are the only ones that computer will ever see.

Filling the void are consoles like the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, which will thrive in these conditions because, unlike PCs, they are designed mainly for one purpose only: to play games.

On a related note, there's also that rampant 75%+ piracy rate to consider too.

Well fuck me sideways.

That's like your best mate turning you around, kicking you in the balls, and stabbing you in the mouth.

Oh well, reap what you sow Epic.

[Tonnochi]

I HATE console gaming. I will always buy PC games, that's it.

[clyzm]

today that the industry has shifted for the worse to cater only to those PC gamers with the biggest, baddest systems.

QFT

[VodunLoas]

Everything he said is true, sadly. Most people have computers that cant handle any new game, which is why consoles are raking in the money. Most people suck at computers, so they don't know to buy stuff like graphic cards and ram.

[xProtocol Rain]

Yeah blame piracy

nuff said.

[Siva]

You can only blame piracy for so long.

Alot more people bought BioShock because they were too impatient to wait for the crackers to crack it. Most of the people crying about the copy protection are the same people who pirate games. There was nothing to cry about.

2 installs (which was increased to 5), is fair, and you can uninstall to get one of those installs back ANY TIME anyway.

COD4, brilliant online game, not ONE person who is playing it online could have pirated it, simply because it just DOESN'T work.

I remember being able to get 100fps in some places with my 6600.

You want to what's slowly killing PC gaming?

Ignorant developers who don't optimise their code, resulting in tons of bugs, then blame it on "todays PC's can't handle it". That's no reason why TWO guys with the EXACT same rig get 40 fucking FPS difference. Crytek need to balls up.

Ignorant developers who don't make strides to protect their own games in the slightest. "OH HURF DURF I KNOW PIRACY IS RIFE BUT I'M JUST GOING TO ACCOMODATE IT ANYWAY".

PC World, shifting crap, after crap, after crap on people. I played PC-Repairman yesterday with a few friends, as all their PC's broke down after trying to install games they'd seen me play. Why? Because they'd been sold abominable shit like 7300LE's and 8400GT's and told that these are "great for gaming". When I see that PC world advert come on advertising that laptop it makes my blood boil.

If everyone involved on the developing side of the PC scene took some god damn responsibility for their games rather than spending all these years making mediocre ones and crying when people steal it.

IF YOU LEAVE YOUR FRONT DOOR OPEN SOMEONE IS GOING TO TAKE YOUR STUFF.

You know what'd make me smile once in a while?

A news story not blaming everything else for the colossal failure that was their game (UT3).

PC World advertising a mid range Intel C2D processor, with a gigabyte of ram, and a 9600GT or a 3870\3850. Stating that this is all you need to run the latest games.

A gaming PC for little over the price of a console can be done, it's just not publicised often.

[~M3GG4~]

Well said.

[James]

Blame piracy, I tried to post this 3 weeks ago but couldn't be arsed.
Thanks for reminding me.

You see what you kids need to do?, 3 things, buy games you WILL enjoy. If you want to try something, try the demo, if there is no demo, demo the full game at a friends.

I'd also like to remind everyone that you can get a 2006-2007 top end computer for the same price as a 360. Please don't complain about upgrades.
Think like me, buy a console and only upgrade your console every 2.5 years then backtrack on ALL the games that came out that you couldn't play at the same time!

But it is true, developers are lazy and expect everyone to run their game smoothly after 3 months... This has got to stop. Valve and Blizzard are the only smart ones on the market right now letting their new games to be playable on old systems. (I get 40-60fps on a FX 5500 for TF2, seriously)

[VodunLoas]

I personally know Valve optimize, because I beat HL2 with no graphic card, just integrated graphics. The game still looked good, I saw bumpmapping!

[Siva]

Valve are one of the few that aren't guilty. They simply don't hide their mistakes with blames due to the fact they have no mistakes.

[Dex]

I'm for PCs! Consoles can't and will never beat PCs!

[James]

I'm for PCs! Consoles can't and will never beat PCs!

...Actually for the last 2 years consoles have been beating game sales.

[Mastakilla]

Blame piracy, I tried to post this 3 weeks ago but couldn't be arsed.
Thanks for reminding me.

You see what you kids need to do?, 3 things, buy games you WILL enjoy. If you want to try something, try the demo, if there is no demo, demo the full game at a friends.

Not all kiddos can buy games, or have friends! Haha, anyway, I prefer to spend my money on other stuff rather than computer games... Like clothes and outgoing and holidays and stuff like that. That's why for the most part I download games, why pay if I can do it for free? I recently spend around €600 in total to upgrade my PC (new duo core CPU, more RAM, new motherboard, 8800gts videocard, power supply, so I'm no cheap bastard either) after this I don't really feel like being a new game for €60 when I can just turn on my computer and download a game over night... Oh demo's suck in my opinion, and most come out rather... bugged

[James]

The only way "why pay if you can do it for free" applies for sex.

[Tantalus]

Face it, consoles and PC's are colliding. With more powerful processors (not a great breakthrough in RAM though). By the next-next gen, Sony Microsoft and Nintendo will probably shift to software.

[Mastakilla]

The only way "why pay if you can do it for free" applies for sex.

If you say so, still not paying for games though

[James]

Enjoy no games.

[Mastakilla]

Music is being downloaded aswell, do artists stop making music? No. That's because they make money in a different way, touring etc. Same-ish with games, if people want to play online they have to buy the game. And alot of people do buy the game to do so. The gaming industry still makes more then enough money.

[James]

WAIT
DO YOU SERIOUSLY KNOW HOW MUCH MUSIC ARTISTS MAKE?

[Mastakilla]

WAIT
DO YOU SERIOUSLY KNOW HOW MUCH GAME DEVELOPER GAYS MAKE?

I don't to be honest, but I guess it's more then enough

[James]

WAIT
DO YOU SERIOUSLY KNOW HOW MUCH GAME DEVELOPER GAYS MAKE?

YES
YES I DO
NOTHING COMPARED TO THE BUDGET THEY'RE OFFERED
WHICH THEY HAVE TO PAY BACK BY THE WAY
UNREAL TOURNAMENT 3 FOR EXAMPLE?, FLOP.

MUSIC ARTISTS BARELY MAKE ANYTHING, PHIL ANSELMO FOR INSTANCE IN MY AVATAR, HE HAD THE BEST SELLING METAL ALBUM OF ALL TIME, IT WAS NUMBER ONE IN THE CHART IN AMERICA, THEY FRANTICALLY TOURED THROUGHOUT THEIR CAREER UNTIL THEY BROKE UP
HEY
HE LIVED IN A SHACK IN NEW ORLEANS.

Music artists don't make shit without sponsors and independent shit, which is rare as fuck to make a profit from.
I posted a list of how much a top selling album got 2-4 million from Sony, and they're still paying it of in debt. Guess what?, tours also cost too much.

[Mastakilla]

Alot of money was made though, it just didn't go to the artist.

[James]

Then why make either talent at both ends' life worse?

[Mastakilla]

I got enough expenses as it is, I'm not rich either y'know.

[James]

Nor am I, and I ain't a thief.

[Mastakilla]

I know what you mean though, I guess I'd get pissed off if my shit got pirated. But hey, that's internet for ya. If something is really good I'll still buy it, I bought Deus Ex even though I broke the disc like 10 times, and I buy albums I really like, because of some extra's you get with it, booklets posters or whatever. I guess they're gonna have to give cool extras with games them aswell to attract more buyers. Instead of offering a "collector's edition" that costs like 70 quid...

[VodunLoas]

Pop artists get all the money.

[Spiderbot01]

I only buy the albums of artists I really like, like C&C, FoT, PTH, Dredg, Mars Volta etc.. In my mind theyre the only ones who really deserve my money.

[synthetic]

On a related note, there's also that rampant 75%+ piracy rate to consider too

"There's also that"?? Lmao, that IS what it all is about.

You see what you kids need to do?, 3 things, buy games you WILL enjoy.

you can buy all the games in the world and theyd still go ahead with consoles until consoles' high-time is up again. $$$ is where its at.

Perhaps its for the better, with major players out of the way we may have some quality again, and I dont mean insane textures and models.

[James]

Yeah but the thing is, no one is making games.
75% games are pirated.

There will be NO quality with no games and the fact no one will bother to develop with the lack of income. Face it you're only going to get sequels upon sequels and FPS games from now on.

Plus we add the fact that most American and Japanese games end up shite, remember the 90's when the U.K and France churned out the greatest video games ever?

Some of the best racing games, Psygnosis with the original F1 games and Destruction Derby
One of the best action games, Edios with Tomb Raider
The BEST FPS game, Rare with Golden Eye
One of the best horror games, Infogrames with Alone in the Dark
The BEST concept games, Eric Chahi's Another World and Psygonosis' Lemmings
One of the best novelty games, No Cliché with Toy Commander
Some of the best simulators, Bullfrog with Theme Park, Theme Hospital and Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2
The BEST crime games, Rockstar GTA, GTA London and GTA2

Do you know what happened to them?
Most of them, bought out by other companies and forced to repeat shit that will never have soul, rehash after rehash. Others not bought out went bankrupt. Rockstar are still alive thankfully, Edios is trying to live out of the U.K but will die one day.
This was the time when pirating got large. Why should they have to make great games when they don't get paid much to do so?
Theres a government petition going about for the U.K to lower taxes so independent companies can bloom again for a refresh, but I guess there is no real point in that if ignorant people are so naive to pirate the new singleplayer games, the ones that are worked on so hard.