Eurogamer conducted a live interview with Mr Tim Schafer this afternoon. You can read the results over here, but a couple of points more pertinent to our fields are highlighted below. The major headline would be: Brutal Legend definitely isn’t coming to PC, despite all our mewling and whining. There’s also some interesting comments about his thoughts on the potential for a Grim Fandango sequel.
So this will probably be the last time we’ll crowbar a reference to Brutal Legend onto the site. Our plan at first was to just assume it would be annouced for PC so nonchalantly that Double Fine would assume they’d made this decision at some point and get on with it. Then it turned to pleading. But when directly asked during the EG live chat, he confirmed it would not:
Gurrah asks: I’ll keep it short: No PC version, why? I’m sad.
Tim Schafer: Well it’s really an action game, that when you play it you’ll see that it was meant to be on a console.
My question is, ‘Why all the hate for consoles?’ If you hate consoles, that means you hate Katamari Damacy, Okami, ICO, and you are in fact a bad person. A bad person who should send all their hate mail to Eurogamer and not to me.
Super Moderating Hero: Cheeky! Will there ever be a PC version? Is there hope?
Tim Schafer: We are really focused on the Xbox 360 and PS3 version right now.
It’s perhaps not the most fortunate reply. While we recognise that some games just are built around a gamepad, and don’t map to mouse/keyboard in a way the developer can support, it would have been perhaps more tactful to explain it like that. There’s no question that PC fanboys have made a loud and unpleasant sound around the subject, and reading through such vitriol and hate can’t have endeared anyone at the developer to considering a port. But such loud-mouthed morons are by far in the minority amongst those who hoped the game would be coming to their chosen platform. I’m sure those who simply don’t own 360s or PS3s would prefer not to be lumped in with the haters. We entirely agree with Schafer’s remarks – people who hate glorious console games are rubbish-faces. They’re just not representative of most PC gamers.
However, let’s not get worked up. The reality is, Brutal Legend is not for PC, which is a shame. The lessons here are: If you believe something enough in your heart it isn’t any more likely to happen, and wanting something enough isn’t enough. And fairies aren’t real.
Later Eurogamer asked how Tim would feel if someone were to remake something like Grim Fandango. It’s awesome to see the passion he still has for the game in his reply.
Super Moderating Hero: Would you like Telltale to remake any other of the games you had a hand in? What about Grim Fandago? Is that a decision you have a say in?
Tim Schafer: I don’t have any say in that, really, since I don’t own that properly. Even though I like those guys, anybody but me making a Grim Fandango game would really make me very sad. Whenever I hear a rumor about someone making Grim 2, I literally can’t sleep that night.
Hard to explain. I feel a very personal connection with those games. That’s one of the main reasons I started Double Fine. So I could have a say in what was done with the characters and worlds we make up. And so with Psychonauts or Brutal Legend, if anything happens with those stories, you know it will come from us!
You can read the rest of the interview here.
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I don’t HATE consoles, I don’t HAVE one, there’s a difference! D:
“Publishers are colluding with console manufacturers to lock down the player’s experience as far as they can, in order to look for more cash.”
That may be true, but it’s a damn shame because the PC is alwasy the first home of mods; it’s easy to create mods on a PC, it’s easy to test mods on a PC. Ask anyone who’s tinkered with the ability to run mods on the PS3, it’s a huge pain in the arse to develop a mod for the PS3 UT 3, the best thing to do is to ignore the PS3 until you’re done with the mod then wrap up a final version.
Fallout 3 is a great example of this; Bethesda first saying that there wouldn’t be an SDK was harrowing, it meant that their games were going the way of the consoles, and that’s bloody criminal because the right mods can make a Bethesda game better, invariably.
A fine example of this is the J3X bikes. Yes, you can now drive the nuclear-powered bikes in Fallout 3, it’s all very mad max, you can even attach dual-chainguns to ‘em, that not enough? How about duel lasers, duel flamers, and the likes? And they can be modified to an almost insane degree, and there’s really nothing like driving a bike through the wastes, try it and see!
The funny point of all this was that there were comments on the video along the lines of: “Bethesda better continue to support us console users and give us bikes, that’s all I can say.” And that’s being polite, there was much envy there, much, much envy, and user-created content will continue to make Fallout 3 great. Just like it’s made so many other PC games that can be modded great.
Imagine, if you will, a World in which Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines had been a console only release.
But thank goodness it wasn’t, that meant that we had community patches and custom content which greatly improves the game. The same will be true of ArmA II soon (I’m personally hoping some mad-hatter will introduce ridable Dragons to ArmA II just to screw with people, marines versus the out-heavings of a rift to a fantasy Universe, what could go wrong with that?), and will be true of any game at all, ever, for the PC that can be changed.
The reason I never really got into the consoles is because barring a few titles (like LittleBigPlanet, LBP was freaking awesome) they tend to completely lock out user creativity and content, and I won’t lie, there are games that were simply built for user-content and I couldn’t have had fun with them any other way. The first Neverwinter Nights is a great example of this, it had a shit campaign, and rather boring expansions, but the player created multiplayer campaigns (that required a DM) I have fond memories of, very fond memories.
Often, I’ll be playing a console game or a locked-down PC game and think to myself “Sigh, if only this were moddable, I could fix that or someone else could.”, I’ve done my fair share of modding too and eventually it becomes ingrained and when a game is broken it becomes a 100 times more jarring when it’s all locked up. Because you might be able to see how it’s broken, and you might know how to fix it, but at the same time you have this feeling of helplessness because you know you can’t mod it, you can’t fix that decent game and do your bit to make it a great game.
And some games are really broken, look at Return to Chernobyl, that’s another game that probably would’ve been left and forgotten if not for mods fixing up the parts that needed to be fixed.
And modding just opens so many doors. There was one module in Neverwinter Nights where I wanted to play it as a half-Dragon, and thanks to various modders (blessed modders) I could do just that, and I had an enviably higher-res model than any of my other party members too.
And there are mods for NWN2 too that add all sorts of things, new weapons, armour, and items (of all descriptions), new scenarios, even new races to play (I’m particularly fond of one mod that has fully fleshed out Lizardmen). And that just extends the life of the game by giving one the desire to go back and play some new content, or some old content in an entirely new way.
Every console game in my opinion is lost potential, because it’ll never be modded, it’ll never be remembered, there won’t be a community of people looking to shine up a decent game into a glowing gem, and that… that is a crying shame. And that’s why I really don’t care for consoles, and probably never will.
There are a couple things about this whole PC vs Console debate that I think need to be fleshed out a bit more:
a) This is a PC gamer website. Thus, all the comments are biased. Also, so am I.
b) Consoles are PCs. No, seriously. They’re just pre-packaged PCs with standardized hardware and exclusive cartridge systems, thus bringing us to point c:
c) As such, any exclusivity on a console is solely the product of the marketing efforts of that console’s home company. M$ bought and moved Bungie Studios from the PC market to console market exclusivity for the expressed purpose of selling xboxes. This brings two others points:
d) Don’t believe a damn word any gaming rag says about the relative worth of consoles vs PCs (see b&c), because journalistic integrity hardly exists in the real world, let alone the gaming industry, and ten times outta ten the rag in question is in the pocket of whatever company that needs products sold, and
e) the “division” between consoles and PCs in terms of culture, custom or gaming style are by definition solely the product of the marketing efforts of companies that want to slice off and control their corner of the market. If a company says that Katamari plays better on a console, that company isn’t saying that consoles are better at playing Katamari. That company is saying “we’ve bought the rights to this game in order to sell our consoles.”
In conclusion, I’m not buying a console for two reasons:
1) I already have a PC.
2) I don’t want to be beholden to a single company’s marketing engine. Imagine if GfWL was your only source of content…
Dear lord, what an outburst for what essentially was a gentle Schaferesque jab. The latter part he’s messing with you, folks. Although, those console games he mentions are gems.
Well it’s really an action game, that when you play it you’ll see that it was meant to be on a console.
Mind you, he didn’t say action games don’t belong on the PC. He is just saying his action game was made for the consoles, not the PC. He probably means controls, which is a weak argument, but there’s a billion other reasons Double Fine is probably not doing it for PC out the box. Most of them have already been mentioned.
I have both a PC and 360, and I honestly tend to play very specific things on both. Action games that involve the need for quick reflexes and strung together combos I always get for 360. Things like Prototype is okay for PC, but it just feels better with a controller in my hand. Same with sports games and especially fighting games. Also, certainly, there is more robust an online community for these games on the consoles.
FPS, RTS, and RPG games all go on the PC for me. Hating either one for whatever reason other than their actual problems and limitations (hardware failure, cost, etc.) always seemed silly. They all bring benefits, and no one gaming crowd is more intelligent than the other.
I also have a hard time thinking Schafer will NEVER bring it to PC. And if he didn’t I wouldn’t be surprised if one of his next titles was something that was far more suited for PC, like an adventure game.
@ CarltonS
“but there’s a billion other reasons Double Fine is probably not doing it for PC out the box. Most of them have already been mentioned.”
Yes. Just not by Tim Schafer.
The funny thing is that if Schafer admitted they weren’t going to do it because of time constraints or because they thought it wouldn’t sell as well, PC enthusiasts would still probably be just as angry at him.
People are already claiming he turned his back on his roots, which is hilarious, because it’s not like he said the PC is a terrible platform, he just doesn’t feel this game is right for it. What’s the problem with that? I don’t blame him for that, especially considering I’ve heard juggernaut companies such as Blizzard say the exact same thing about their PC products porting to consoles.
The idea is that consoles have inherent limitations, whereas PCs are only limited by what parts the owner has/hasn’t bought.
@Zyrxil
Other than some online limitations, mostly focused in MMOs and active online platforms like Steam, I don’t see how this argument works. Many of Blizzard’s RTS games could be ported to the consoles without problems. Other people that have had bigger more dynamic RTS games have done it, and done it rather successfully.
I actually think the only strong excuse for not porting for either side is they just think one platform crowd will make them more money and appreciate it more than the other. Even though there have been RTS games gone to consoles, just like fighting games for PC, it never turns out well in sales.
Of course the argument works. Mouse/keyboard don’t work well when you’re on a couch without a desk. Complex GUIs don’t work well when you’re sitting 10 feet away from the screen.
@CarltonS
“The funny thing is that if Schafer admitted they weren’t going to do it because of time constraints or because they thought it wouldn’t sell as well, PC enthusiasts would still probably be just as angry at him.”
“I actually think the only strong excuse for not porting for either side is they just think one platform crowd will make them more money and appreciate it more than the other.”
You make a lot of grand assumptions about the nature of gamerdom. The demographics of PC and console gamers aren’t divided – indeed a large swath of gamers own not only multiple consoles but a computer as well. The division is created by the manufacturers of consoles, because if you could play every game on the PC, why would you fork over the dough for a console?
1987 Maniac Mansion, tools programmer, SCUMM (LucasArts)
1990 The Secret of Monkey Island, co-writer (LucasArts)
1991 Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, co-designer, co-writer (LucasArts)
1993 Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle, co-designer, co-producer, co-director, co-writer (LucasArts)
1995 Full Throttle, writer, designer, project leader (LucasArts)
1998 Grim Fandango, project leader, writer, designer (LucasArts)
2005 Psychonauts, creative director, co-writer, designer (Double Fine, Majesco)
Every other Schafer game was on PC, this is complete bullshit.