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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Thing is, some people aren’t elitist, they just don’t own a console. I am one of those people, and I don’t feel I suffer because of it.
@Dominic
Comments like these are always targeted at PC gamers. You don’t hear game devs saying that every gamer should have gaming pc.
Hell, this is what Capcom PR guy said, when they announced RE5 PC
“Although I personally am no longer a PC gamer (turns out that 7-year-old Alienware rigs don’t run 2009 games that well) there are still lots and lots of you console haterz out there. Good news, Windows nerds, Capcom is finally gonna give you some love for those dual $700 3D cards you shelled out for. Starting in July, we’re going to roll out Street Fighter IV and Bionic Commando on PC, followed in the fall by… wait for it… Resident Evil 5!”
For all those who wanted this game for PC too only because they don’t wanna spend their money for videogames they’d rather buy the new cellphone… shame on you, forever.
Wow, this is pretty sad. After Walker went to all that trouble of putting in a nice disclaimer saying “there’s some people who don’t own consoles, but also aren’t bile-spewing haters”… It seems like the forum attempts to prove him wrong.
Add me to the list of those who love PC gaming, but also buy consoles and console games.
“it was meant to be on a console.”
What a load of rubbish, the only thing a console has going for it is the controller and since the xbox 360 controller also plugs straight into a PC it doesn’t even have that anymore. I believe that applies to all games, not just the new Jack Black vehicle or whatever it is.
Flimsy excuse for a developer not to develope on the PC, if he had said “too hard” and “not enough money in it” then I would have accepted that as it’s probably true. “meant to be on a console” is just rubbish.
The message is that in such times of flat games made for a MASS of homogeneous-headed robot players, the 2 platforms must instead hold on to their healthy differencies… different attitudes, different commitment… and both good, for different reasons.
Wonderful, a lesson to live by.
Damn. I really wanted this to be on the PC too.
“Well it’s really an action game, that when you play it you’ll see that it was meant to be on a console.”
Hello?!? Ever play Prototype on the PC?? Absolutely ROCKS.
Perhaps Grim Fandango was on the PC because it was the best platform for it and this is being published for the consoles because they’re better suited for it?
So action games are only for consoles?
Then…. adventures, rpg, mmorpgs, simulators, shooters and rts are only for PCs, right?
Oh well. I’m not really sure what the action game reference is all about, seems like a really weak excuse. I would ask him, “Why all the PC hate?” I’m not against this on console, but I see no reason not to make a PC version other than somebody is paying them a truckload of money to make it exclusive.
If it is released for PC, I’ll get it. Otherwise, not so much (because I don’t have any consoles).
While I’m definitely not advocating jumping on the console hate bandwagon, let’s have a little reality check here. There are a metric fuckton of console gamers out there with the exact same attitude toward PCs and PC gamers, and they seem to be getting their way (games released on consoles but not PC) more often than the console bashing crowd does. Juvenile behavior is not a platform-exclusive release. :P
Also, you can easily pick up a used third party 360 controller in fine working condition for $15 these days. I have one connected to my PC and it works beautifully for games where it is appropriate. So yeah, whatever else you might think, saying that somehow gaming PCs can’t handle an action game or that PC gamers are unable to get ahold of the proper controller at a reasonable price is just flat-out factually incorrect. It is not a matter of opinion, it’s just wrong.
There are some games which feel better on a console. I’ll never feel comfortable playing Final Fantasy on a PC, it’s just not right on some level. In the same way, the only decent FPS I can recall on any console was Timesplitters, though it’s been a long time since I had any console, the PS3 being expensive and useless, and the Xbox being… well, evil.
But if Devil May Cry 4 can be made into a playable, indeed excellent, game on PC, so can damn near anything. All it takes is work. And money. And time.
In many cases it makes more sense financially to ignore a PC release. That’s true, no matter what you might like to think. The extra dev time needed for a pc port may well just not be worth it.
Nonetheless this feels like a body blow. I’ve been looking forward to Brutal Legend from the moment I first heard of it, and now… just… damn. :<
I thought it was established by this point that Mr Schafer had, in fact, lost it?
I mean, dodgy platformers? Beat-’em-ups? Way to hide a knack for writing behind completely the wrong genres, dude. The Psychonauts demo was most amusing, but the actual game part was a massive turn-off.
In other news, “Teacup Shitstorm” is a fantastic band name.
What is this idea that Action games don’t exist on PCs? You do realize that FPS games fall under that heading as well and with the likes of Arm A 2 , Crysis, Farcry 2 , Halflife 2 ect there are TONS of action games on the PC. Over Lord 2, Ghost Busters, all the Battlefield games, call of duty games so on and so forth (some of which are 3rd person some of which aren’t, being 3rd person has nothing to do with action)
I don’t understand why it’s cast as a “hating consoles” issue. I have all systems, PC, 360, Wii and PS3 but I buy 90% of my games on the PC as it’s my preferred platform. Much better graphics (compare PC Mirrors Edge to PS3, massive difference), easier to keep in touch with everyone through things like Xfire or Steam overlay more flexible save games and best of all, it’s £10-20 cheaper than console releases.
Dys is right too. Capcom are putting their games properly on the PC now, Capcom! You can’t get much more console hardecore than that and they manage to treat the PC properly as a platform.
I’ve never understood the ”this was made to be on a console” lines. You have hundreds of choices when you’re picking a controller/arcade stick, etc, for PC… the consoles have just the ‘regular’ stock ones and some (mostly rubbish) 3rd party ones.
Whereas some games like RTS/FPS are much better on the PC due to mouse/keyboard.
So honestly, in actuality, every game ‘fits’ the PC… and some don’t fit consoles.
(No fanboy, i have a PC/360/Wii/DS)
I’ll never feel comfortable playing Final Fantasy on a PC
This is a perfectly good opinion which I respect. The only problem is when people (you didn’t say this) turn around and make the ridiculous statement, “Therefore no one should ever play Final Fantasy on a PC.”
What a utopia the internet would be if people realized “I don’t like it.” =/= “It is bad.”
I will be really annoyed if the next special edition Lucasarts releases is Grim Fandango and that they make an XBox360 version. It is not supposed to be on console.
Really, aren’t games, games? Does it matter what platform they are on? Why can’t action games be on the PC? Wasn’t Doom 2 an action game? I can’t undertand that a guy that I consider so smart is saying that crap.
I don’t think Tim is dumbing down the game so much that he thinks that us PC gamers won’t like it, contrary to less selective console owners. No, Tim always cares about the quality of his games. Doesn’t he?
I have a PC connected to an LCD TV, and a PC gamepad. What exactly about Brutal Legend makes it unsuitable for PC, again?
Well, I don’t usually join in on discussions that are likely to turn into a 3,000 comment bitch-fest, but I have to say, despite owning a 360, I was extremely saddened by this news. I’ll still play it, but there will surely be some horrid anger brewing in the back of my mind the whole time. I love Tim Shafer’s games, but he hasn’t endeared me with those remarks and I’m certain many others – besides the aggravating lunatics – will feel the same.
Jack Black Pidesco, Jack Black just doesn’t feel right on a PC . Or any where.
TBH if the game doesn’t do as well as they hope I’m sure a port will knocked out down the line. Personally I have deep reservatiions as to whether the game is quite the money spinner they think it will be on the 360. Jack Black and Heavy Metal aren’t to everyone’s tastes after all.
Seems like I’m the only person on here who does agree that “action games” are for consoles. There’s something about them that is just more amenable to playing from a distance on a TV with a pad. Same with sports games and fighters. Everything else – PC every time. But if I could have played, say, Beyond Good and Evil on a console at the time, I’d have bought it on console. As it is, I picked it up for PC because the Gamecube version was impossible to find. I’m almost certainly going to get the console version of Overlord II for similar reasons.
“I will be really annoyed if the next special edition Lucasarts releases is Grim Fandango and that they make an XBox360 version. It is not supposed to be on console.”
I’d say if any adventure game is supposed to be on console, it’s Grim Fandango. No point and click, a fairly cumbersome movement system that would be much improved by analogue turning control, and a simple inventory. What about it is unsuitable for console?
Ginger – So your argument is that action games are better for consoles because of the distance you sit from the screen and the pad? You DO know that there are pads for the PC and you actaully have direct control over how far away you are from the screen O.o right?
From a UK perspective at least, multiplatform titles generally sell like shit on the PC (or at least, those without a strong online multiplayer component do). The PC version of Prototype, for example, didn’t even scratch the individual formats top 40, whereas the 360 and PS3 versions debuted at 2 and 6 respectively. If Schafer’s jokey comments are actually masking the fact that Double Fine and/or EA don’t feel that the return they’d get from a PC version is worth the investment then who can blame them?
Not to jump on ya, Ginger, but I do have to say, I owned the Gamecube version of Beyond Good and Evil and when it showed up on a weekend deal on Steam I snagged it there. I much prefer the PC version. It’s cool that you think otherwise, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a difference between preferring action games on a console and making the blanket “factual” statement that action games belong on consoles only and not the PC.
“What is this idea that Action games don’t exist on PCs? You do realize that FPS games fall under that heading as well and with the likes of Arm A 2 , Crysis, Farcry 2 , Halflife 2 ect there are TONS of action games on the PC”
Yeah and they should get the fuck off of PC’s.
I only want Europa Universalis(wargames) and Age of Decadence(old school turn-based rpgs), plz send everything else the fuck off of me.
Well fuck you too Tim.
I wish Katamari Damacy was on PC. :(
Now I’m kinda glad it looked so bafflingly shite in the trailer, that way I’m not missing much.
I love the notion that my wanting to blow 300-500 bucks on something that has about, oooh, three games I’d want to play, when I have a perfectly good gaming PC with plenty of games to recommend it means I must be a mean petty haterrr!, rather than, y’know, just not willing to compulsively blow hundreds of dollars on a trifle. When you’re spruiking a game, I guess you do have to indulge in that sort of misleading rhetoric to put a happy face on your limitations (compare the Ubisoft guys saying that “Microsoft is Splinter Cell’s spiritual home!” when there’s no PS3 port; at least that one gets a PC port…), but seeing actual punters parrot that bullshit is… well, I wish the English language had a single word for “so sad it’s funny”. I’ll have to coin one…. “Funnysad!” On the other hand, it’s sad before it’s funny, so… “Sadfunny”. But then, really it’s sad, then it seems funny for awhile, then it goes back to sad and stays there, so… *rubs chin*
Oh Boo Hoo. It’s funny to see people here saying they’re going to pirate it if a PC version ever comes out as ‘payback’ for this. Ever wonder why developers don’t give a crap about the PC anymore? Look no further than your resident PC elitist blog comments.
Also amusing is people coming out of the woodwork now to claim Schafer doesn’t make good games, showing that PC gamer support is just as fickle as everyone expected it to be. The guy practically carried PC gaming on his back through the 90s and now because he dares making a console-centric action game for consoles he’s suddenly ‘washed up’. Get over yourselves.
I’m sure the real reasons for not bringing it out on the PC is they don’t want everyone pirating it and then not buying ANY versions (console or otherwise). And also because they’d have elitists on here whining about how the gameplay doesn’t work with a keyboard and mouse like they did devil may cry.
squadman confirms no purchase of Brutal Legend for any console.
a bit sad they aren’t considering a port at this stage. i’d love a steam version to be considered at some time. don’t mind xbox 360 gamepad required to play – at all!
maybe they’ll release a wii version (my only current gen console, not counting psp and ds) in the future, so I at least get to play some version of the game. speaking as someone who has bought every single game he has ever developed on pc, it’s a really disappointing announcement… even if the decision has been made for purely business reasons.
money talks, but I don’t like what it’s saying!!!
Extra sadfunny points for people cheering about and encouraging lack of choice, by the way. “Fewer games, fewer games! Games with graphical interfaces are meant for consoles! FEWER I say!” Excellent trolling from ‘Quests’ here.
“I will be really annoyed if the next special edition Lucasarts releases is Grim Fandango and that they make an XBox360 version. It is not supposed to be on console.”
I’d say if any adventure game is supposed to be on console, it’s Grim Fandango. No point and click, a fairly cumbersome movement system that would be much improved by analogue turning control, and a simple inventory. What about it is unsuitable for console?
@Ginger It was a sarcastic comment about genres be solely intended for one kind of machine. And Grim Fandango is also a Schaffer game, so I guess it suited the sarcasm well.
Yes, I agree Grim would be perfect on console and it also would show that consoles can have intelligent games too, so it would be quite good to have a special edition with HD graphics on X360 (and PC too of course!).
It was just to show how absurd I think is the idea of PC=no action games.
Person.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
@GibletHead2000 Try The Wonderful End of The World for Katamari-alike on the PC.
They probably were hoping to make some money on this one.
To say that Tim Schafer carried PC gaming on his back through the 90s is insane. Maybe he carried Adventure gaming on his back, but that’s about it since he’s never done anything besides make adventure games for Lucasarts up until Physconauts O.o
To be totally honest don’t give a crap what he is or isn’t going to do. I haven’t played a single one of his adventure games. Nothing he has produced has impressed me what so ever and the only reason I wanted this game to begin with is that I like the art design and heavy metal.
I’m really angry at him or even offended in the least, but this false idea that he is some sort of PC gaming God is getting on my nerves. If you want to turn someone into an Idol why not pick someone who is actaully a PC Legend like say Sid Meier who made 23 games for the PC in the same time Tim made 7.
There are games I’d love to see ported from consoles to the PC, perhaps even with a touch-up on the graphics side of things, and Okami is actually one of them. Brutal Legend is not. The more I see of Brutal Legend, the more depressed I become, and the more ready I feel to turn to some sort of illegal chemical compound for comfort. Well, probably not, but still… what happened to you, Tim?
There seems to be a brain virus jumping from developer to developer. Who ws patient zero, I wonder? Was it, perhaps, Cliffy “Don’t call me CliffyB” B? And which of our few good developers will it leap to next? I have to say that this always gives me pause for thought, because I can’t see any logical reason to not do a PC port.
After all, look at the 360 hardware and what s it but a shitty, mid-range PC? (Sorry 360 fans.)
Are they just scared of having to put in the level of effort for support that they would with a PC release? That’s all I can think of, and the only logical reason, after all, there are only two logical reasons here, and it’s either that or money. That they believe the PC is so rife with pirates that games won’t make money for it.
Firmware hacks are becoming easier to do with the 360 all the time, and there’s far less risk involved because once you’ve got the firmware done, you have a Universe of free games without any kind of risk involved. I wonder when it becomes easy enough for any idiot to do whether developers will abandon the 360?
It’s all very depressing, really.
And the mere idea that it’s a “console designed game” is just pure bunk, complete and utter bull. I mean, if you look at the history of home computers, we’ve had plenty of console-like games. And today, if you hook up a computer to a HDTV television and plug in a Microsoft Games for Windows pad, then… oh look, you have pretty much an XBox 360 that does everything that’s able to, but better!
So that notion I find to be truly baffling, and as arse-pulled as any spindoctored tale is, whatever the true reason for not developing games for the PC is, that’s most certainly not it. And please let’s not entertain the notion that the PC isn’t capable of doing everything a console can, and even being as good at being a console as a console is. Because consoles these days are just Computers for Idiots, with firmware that feels very much like a dumbed down OS.
Hell, you can even install Linux on the PS3 and that works really well, so the PS3 can be a computer!
fffff
In case I’m not making my point clearly here, making a game solely for one platform has always been bullshit, for whatever reason. Exclusivity, laziness, whatever. But to do so because it’s “better on a console” or “better on a computer” both seem ludicrous these days because the lines of console and computer are so blurred that they don’t even matter.
A console can be a computer, and a computer can be a console.
So let’s not buy into that particular form of hyberbole, we’re not that undereducated, surely.
But anyway, I don’t really care about Schafer’s motivations because this isn’t really a game that interests me, I jus thope that no other developers will jump on this bandwagon of games being better suited to just one format or just one type of format.
^ I’m liking this guy more and more with every megapost.
I don’t hate consoles, I just don’t have one.
Wolf, that’s not hyperbole! And you spelled (or “spelt”) it wrong!
…And I think we are decidedly undereducated here… Oh well!
Hey good thinking Serondal, 23 games, that’s a bigger number than 7. I guess that makes Ed Wood a better film director than Kubrick too huh?
…And I got your name wrong. Witcher on the brain!
So “Ripsteakjaw”, you’d compare Meier’s work to Schafer’s as you would Wood’s work to Kubrick’s?
Yeeeeeeah, pretty sure my 360 controller (among a number of others I have) works OK on my PC. Bad excuse. I’m also pretty sure my computer can run any game the 360 can at much higher resolution and AA settings, so that’s where I prefer to play them =/
Yeah that’s exactly what I said wasn’t it James T?
To Tim Schafer:
I own a very powerful PC. It is hooked up to the HDTV in my living room. I have wireless keyboards, wireless gyroscopic mice, and wireless gamepads that work just fine with it. Some even have “rumble.” I have a wireless [i]guitar[/i] controller.
I do not want to pay three hundred dollars and an extra $20 per title to play slower, laggier, less easily modded versions of your games. I understand that you might be contractually obligated to provide your games only to fratboys and soccer moms, and understand that the primary vendor of my operating system has done precious little to encourage you to remain with my platform of choice, but I am nevertheless disappointed by your decision to limit my access to your content.