Epic Games Focusing on Consoles

CliffyB says "PC is just in disarray"

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/02/13/gears-of-war-creator-update//
from Stardock Forums
Epic Games' Lead Designer Cliff Bleszinski stated during an interview with MTV Multiplayer that the company is now focusing on consoles as their main platform. CliffyB feels that the PC market is in transition from AAA hardcore gamers to more casual players as evidenced by the proliferation of The Sims and various web-based games.

Cliff tells MTV Multiplayer that, "I think people would rather make a game that sells 4.5 million copies than a million and 'Gears' is at 4.5 million right now on the 360. I think the PC is just in disarray… what’s driving the PC right now is ‘Sims’-type games and ‘WoW‘ and a lot of stuff that’s in a web-based interface. You just click on it and play it. That’s the direction PC is evolving into So for me, the PC is kind of the secondary part of what we’re doing. It’s important for us, but right now making AAA games on consoles is where we’re at."

Does anyone else feel that Epic Games whines an incredible amount?
419 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

He seems to infer that Gears should have sold better on the PC, which is somewhat silly.  Many PC gamers also own Xbox 360's and Gears hit that platform well in advance of PC; so of course it's not selling on PC - they already got most of those players!

Put the game out on both platforms simultanously and then you can draw accurate comparisons.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
What seems to be often left out of the discussion is that PC Gamers want PC 'style' games - not console ports. Console games have a different feel than PC games and are (in general) more "arcade-like" while (good) PC games tend to be more "in depth". Knowing that a game was designed for a console and it's gamepad and then ported to the PC is a big turn off for me.

I know that developers are motivated by money and that consoles sell well. I get that. But, I also get the feeling that developers have lost touch with what PC gamers want. We are a different demographic. We (I'm willing to bet) are now an older demographic and want more adult oriented content. That's not to suggest that console gamers don't want quality too, of course they do. But, the same type of game is not always going to appeal to the different demographics. How well do stratgey games do on the console for example?

So when developers make games with primarily the console as a focus because that's where the money is, it is not surprising to me that the PC adoption of the title isn't so hot. Then the developers use this rationale to justify their decision in the first place: "See, PC games don't sell well - good thing we designed for consoles!". And the spiral continues.

Yes, the PC game market is evolving just as consoles market is - and these target markets are different. I believe that designers need to acknowledge that game design requirements for each platform is not always the same. They need to get their finger back on the pulse of PC games and realize that one size does not always fit all. It's easy to blame piracy or a dwindling market but I believe the issue also involves basic design focus not being tailored to PC gamer as much as it used to be.

My $0.02 for what it's worth.
DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
Well the PC market isn't dwindling really, although I do know what  you mean by that.  There are still way more people with PC than all consoles combined, just many have gone to consoles for their gaming fix.  I have always used both to get the best of both worlds.

As for your other point about designing for each platform, I could not agree more.  I think that developers are realizing this on the console side of things due to the unexpected success of the Wii, hopefully they will turn around and see the same idea will apply to PC games.