Cancel NBA Live 09 for the PC? Take Two just released NBA 2k9 with NEXT GEN GRAPHICS for $19.99!!!!!!! It beats your worthless POS game in every which way but loose. I will never ever buy another EA developed or published game again. And you know what, you just encouraged me to download your worthless games in the future so you better freaking cancel all PC versions of every game. And pssst you know what? I know how to download and pirate console games too. Cancel those too you worthless bastard.

Unsincerely and with utter contempt for your @ss,

14 year customer of EA who will never again buy another EA game.

That is such a sad commentary. To say that PC’s nowadays can only reproduce the shitty PS2 graphics is just insane. What era do you live?

For your information, do you know why Crytek didn’t port their game “Crysis” to the console platform? Because nor 360 or PS3 are capable to reproduce the graphics and amount of processing. Yes, the graphics and CPU.

Consoles are only more powerful then PC’s the exact moment they are launched, and this superiority has a life span of maximum 6 months, until the latest hardware for PC’s are available. They are more expensive at this moment yes, but since you don’t buy a new console every 6 months, in the end the PC’s just surpass the capabilities of any “next-gen” console with a very affordable price.

To don’t port a game from console to PC’s with a excuse of “graphics” is just BS.

Do I think that without piracy these games might sell better? Not really. For me, piracy would be the only way to get one of those games onto my PC and I doubt it would ever even be installed.

I suppose this is the “hidden cost” of piracy – it gives companies something to blame to excuse a lack of innovation.

It would be interesting if more companies tied into the valve/steam encrypt-the-content-allow-preload-or-physical-install-but-only-decrypt-on-release-day steamworks system. My gut feeling is that the group of people who download a pirated copy before official release day will contain a larger proportion of people who would otherwise have pre-ordered or bought the game.

And I’m becoming increasingly convinced that the splitting up of EA was a really smart move… it appears to be driving innovation. Let’s face it, consoles are better for physically-present multiplayer, and traditional sports games are best played like that. So having the consoles concentrate on that while maybe doing something different on the PC could be a plan.

I’m glad you said that. The hint of a sense of entitlement from some companies simply because they invested money and time is pretty farcical.

EA, for all their faults, do seem to be acting in a fairly interesting fashion here. If they do come back with a fresh take on their regular sport games instead of just dropping them on the PC altogether, the results could be very interesting. My cynic sense is telling me that they’re EA and will continue to just release more rehashed football crap on the consoles and more rehashed Sims/Spore crap (I like the Sims 2, and Spore looks great, but give them time and they’ll fun them into the ground as they did with everything else. The Sims in particular was already sloppily coded by the second game) on the PC. Less time porting = more time bugfixing, or, more likely, working out how to fit in more adverts.

On the plus side, there’s a small window of opportunity for someone else to bring out some new games without FIFA et al instantly crushing them to paste. Right?

As for Mass Effect in particular I just wanted to point out that the long elevator rides were pretty much the only bad artefact of it being a console game; pretty much everything else was improved with the port.

I did wonder if all that horrid driving around was an attempt to flirt with the console crowd though.

I’m not expressing a ‘problem’ with Microsoft, I’m merely highlighting how some short term decisions made by them with regard to the design and of the 360 have impacted in a detrimental manner on the development of a lot of games, which is something that I believe is pretty relevant to gamers and developers alike. It seems I’m not a lone in this viewpoint, though you seem to disagree with it, so I’ve argued my corner accordingly. You don’t seem to have presented any counter arguments to support your assertions so far. The only criticism I’d level at Microsoft is that it’s clear there was never a long term strategy for the 360 and that’s a shame for all the people who bought one.

Of course ME is going to suffer as a result of a console port. If it wasn’t the lack of HDD, it would be (as Skalpadda said) the different control schemes (see: Gears of War). Or the differences in RAM. Or … etc, etc. All it comes down to is that a game will work best on the platform it was designed for.

Also, if ME on PC should load faster than the xbox360 version, since it’s loading off HDD as opposed to DVD.

My point is that compromises that the hardware limitations of the 360 forced upon the games original development still resonate in the PC version (which probably wouldn’t suffer them if it was developed initially for it). My issue isn’t with ME and its lifts, but I’m merely citing it as an example of a wider issue of game design being hamstrung in terms of how they operate in order to accommodate inherent console limitations.

Do the employees get royalities now? I doubt it. They will be paid the same amount whether the game is heavily pirated or not.