Comments on: EA Aren’t Giving Up On PCs, Pessimism

By: Kanakotka

Kanakotka — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:14:25 +0000

While the “no major releases” is absolute bullshit, how can they compare sales of everyone with only their own sales as data? Even 10 year old children know that EA’s rep isn’t very… good.

By: vic

vic — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:11:47 +0000

The more majors that leave PC gaming the safer hands it is left in.

By: SwiftRanger

SwiftRanger — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:34:58 +0000

“Swift: That raises an interesting question: is PC gaming better off without MS’s heavy-handed involvement?”

Well, the points you raise would suggest a big “yes!” to that answer but if it isn’t MS then some other big company will probably move in to squeeze the dollars out of our pockets with poor products we never really asked for (Vista, Live). I think MS has always been trying to impose a console-like business on PC but even now they fail to understand that that just isn’t working on an open platform. If they’re serious about “saving” the PC as a games platform (it doesn’t need saving imo but all help is welcome, isn’t it?) then they should be willing to accept that they’re not the only ones holding the cards and they should get rid of the “sell it first, make it work properly later”-mindset. All that probably won’t happen, I really can’t imagine that the Games for Windows- and Windows OS-guys would ever sit together with the hardware side or the likes of Valve or any other publisher/developer just to do something for the greater good. Their glorified “Vista+GfW Live connected to all things made by MS”-hype never took on (and definitely didn’t furfill all promises) and they should be asking themselves “why?”. It’s their own fault (again), they’re just not trying to do anything about it.

By: redrain85

redrain85 — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:02:24 +0000

This seems to be the week for game execs to say incredibly stupid things . . . first the producer on Force Unleashed at LucasArts with his “you need a $4000 PC to play our game”, and now this.

/facepalms

By: RichPowers

RichPowers — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:05:01 +0000

Swift: That raises an interesting question: is PC gaming better off without MS’s heavy-handed involvement?

MS’s effort to unify PC gaming collapsed under the combined weight of half-assedness and gimmicks. No one wants to pay for Windows Live!, or have GFW become an extension of the Xbox sandbox, and personally I don’t like DX10 being used as a carrot for Vista, however much that benefits MS’s bottom line. And the GFW label is supposed to mean certain standards are met, none of which are enforced or accurately represented. Outside of Flight Sim and Age of Empires, does MS even deal with PC gaming anymore?

On the other hand, some small part of me hopes that PC games OF THE FUTURE! use OpenGL and focus on OS interoperability, MS be damned.

By: cyrenic

cyrenic — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:28:57 +0000

According to wikipedia half life 2 has sold more than 4 million copies.

I think it’s also a reasonable assumption the orange box sold more than 2 million copies (if you count steam sales as well).

By: c0wb0ys7y13

c0wb0ys7y13 — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:56:26 +0000

WTF are they talking about “The state of PC gaming has seen a disappointing trend of no major releases in the last couple of years.”

Would someone like to tell me what orange box is if not a major title release?

By: UncleLou

UncleLou — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:16:40 +0000

Actually, have there been any PC exclusives (or even PC versions of multi-plat games) that came out in the past couple of years that broke 2 million in sales

I am not sure many PC games managed to sell that much in the last 20 years, to be honest.

By: hmmmm

hmmmm — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:46:42 +0000

Actually, have there been any PC exclusives (or even PC versions of multi-plat games) that came out in the past couple of years that broke 2 million in sales? AFAIK BF2 managed it, and there are the WoW expansions and maybe HL2:E1 and Bejewelled 2? Compared to the numbers Halo/Gears/Zelda and even crap like Mario Party etc regularly get that’s not a very good showing.
Of course, if you can’t manage to make a profit on your game when you only sell a mere million copies then you’re probably in the wrong business.

By: SwiftRanger

SwiftRanger — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:35:40 +0000

I think he is a bit confused about why the EA high-profile autumn/holiday titles of 2007 didn’t make the same splash (on PC) as some other titles did on consoles. MoH: Airborne, Hellgate: London, Crysis, The Orange Box… they probably made some good money on PC but that’s likely not enough for EA when they see what CoD4 or Halo 3 did. They’re just jealous and are only thinking about making a lot more money instead of just making money. Not surprising to hear that from a business guy.

Anyway, C&C3 also didn’t do that bad at retail, isn’t it? The PC version outsold the Xbox360 version in the US and despite being the “pinnacle” of RTS mediocrity that game is still selling like cupcakes there. Ah well, the man doesn’t want to believe I guess…

EDIT: about it all being Microsoft’s fault; well, just look at what exactly MS is promoting right now at the MS Gamer’s Day, barely a mention of Games for Windows, all Xbox360 stuff (with maybe a PC port later but they sure won’t tell you that now, Rockstar-style). No, I don’t think we have to look at the big guns to take the PC seriously.

By: Lavitz

Lavitz — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:19:55 +0000

OKay i am waiting for one more developer to come out trash the pc before i go and pick up a console. Why do these people even need come out and say shit about the pc? I think its all microsoft fault. If mircosoft didnt own windows im sure theses companies would’t trash the pc so much. Anyways guys should move to consoles even thinkin about it is painful :S
Edit:
Why do you guys care for idie gaming seriously im sorry but the reason you buy a pc is to have to have bleeding edge tech running on it. Indie games well they are indie games and steam won’t fullfil all our needs. IDK what i am going to do :S

By: sigma83

sigma83 — Wed, 14 May 2008 16:57:52 +0000

Whee anti-pc sentiment in the mainstream games industry. Where are my fries with that shake?