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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Personally I doooon’t care
I thought Psychonauts was funny at times and conceptually neat but gameplay wise it was rubbish. Nothing about this game had me excited, especially not the bad jokes Jack Black keeps doing
(Boy, it’d mean a lot fewer posts if the edit thing was behaving).
“Ripsteakjaw”: You misrepresent Serondai by assuming that he was basing what he said purely on numbers; does he have to spell it out for you that he considers Meier’s output to be as good or better than Schafer’s? (Plus he was talking about who did more for PC etc etc, that’s quantitative as well as qualitative).
Why all the hate for PC, Tim? :(
Ripsteakjaw – I was responding directly to someone who claimed that Tim carried PC gaming on his back through the 90s. Number of games DOES matter here when you consider that Sid made and sold more games than Tim and hence kept PC gaming alive. When we talk about quality I don’t think you can even come close to comparing them since they make two totally different kinds of games. Sid mostly war games and Tim 100% adventure games. (Though they both made at least 2 games with pirates in them which I highly approve of)
But consoles are expensive and hard to justify due to the lack of real utility. :(
My problem with consoles is that I probably need to own all of them in order to play all of the console games that I am interested in. Admittedly, there are not many that I am interested in, but they are scattered across the different platforms.
How can I obsessively pour money into my desktop and support a console and fancy tv habit? :(
Man, this comment thread is depressing.
Nice bit of Trolling and personal attack Ripsteakjaw, well done. But you obviously have no idea what you’re talking about since only 4 out of the 31 games he made where Civ games. I’ll actaully go so far as to throw you 2 more with colonization and Alpha Centauri. He also made some of the first flight Sims, Railroad Tycoon , SimGolf, and Pirates! (Pirates alone is better than all Tim’s games put together but that is a matter of opinion and not fact)
If he can give me a single way in which this game would suffer from a mouse+keyboard control system, I will buy it for 360.
Otherwise, fuck it.
:(
As 360 games are just generally not for me, I suppose I’ll just have to wait .till when the PC port inevitably comes out at some point.
Translation: We’ve made a game about “rawk” which doesn’t ship with a plastic guitar and spent loads of EA’s money on voice talent. Whoops! Please buy our game at full price on console because there will never be the option to get it sans-console-licensing fees on PC. Ever ever ever (until the console version is knocked down to budget price).
if you want the game so bad just rent a console and the game or get an emulator and play the game.
It goes to show how much the game devs don’t care about their fanbase so why even supoort them. This one game that shoud be pirated to hell and back and I hope it does.
by the way it really looks like a dum game
I suppose it’d be a bit more bitter sweet if Tim had said something nice about the PC, but no. It seemed he was both criticising the perceived limitations of genre, and a group of PC players who’d prefer to only play on their PCs. Like a few others, I found it surprising that he reacted quite coldly to a question which seemed, and was, perfectly innocent. Someone wanted to play his game on their platform of choice.
I’ve got no chance of getting the game now, and it did appeal to me quite a bit. Tim has garnered a lot of love from his PC gaming fans over the years, and I doubt he’ll be able to replicate that with a console public more interested in the Kojimas and Bungies of the world. I understand that Double Fine is a company first and foremost, and as such needs to make as much money as possible, but hells, even Epic still make games for the PC.
Ignoring potential markets = smart.
Seriously though, what is this game going to do that can’t be done on PC?
I honestly have no problem with that. I’ve seen too man crappy ports to “demand” a PC version at this point, it would probably be lame.
Developers: Decide whether you want to make an awesome PC game or an awesome console game, then stick to it. Few things are as frustrating as half-assed “cross-platform” releases.
Perhaps Schafer sees himself as the ‘Brutal Legend’ of the title…
The only thing I can say is: F U T.S
Well, there’s a first for everything, i guess this is the first time I’m not going to be counting the days to go buy the newest Tim Schafer game.
I don’t hate consoles, in fact i play a lot on my pals’ consoles, and that’s nice and all, but my genres of choice are FPS, RTS, Sims and (at up until Grim Fandango) Adventure, the only thing consoles do remotely well is FPS, and i will admit i despise gamepads on FPS (or anything that requires heavy aiming). I literally feel as awkward as playing basketball on a wheelchair. So with that the main draw the consoles have for me it’s lost.
Also, i’m just not about to spend 300-400 + 60-70 dollars even if it’s for the latest Schafer (which is one the only 2 console exclusives that i really want to play), only to have the console sitting there collecting dust afterwards. Man, with that money i could totally pimp my PC. New graphics card, proc and memory, and still have enough left for 2 or 3 games. (Or like the entire GoG library!)
So sick of people, especially devs, deciding what’s meant and not meant to be played on what. Get a controller, an HD-TV, and a sofa, and you can easily emulate the console experience on a PC. Sort of doubting that’s even the real reason. Probably decided the sales revenue would be outweighed by the cost of a port.
I love all the incredibly immature comments coming from so-called “sophisticated” PC gamers.
Also, I love all the personal hate for Tim Schafer. Just to reiterate, this man is a fucking legend. He played a pretty big role in defining PC gaming in the 90s. And this is the respect PC gamers have for him? For shame.
Eh, of course some people have gone over the top, but he was clearly baiting his fans a bit. He deliberately avoided answering the question in a meaningful way, and twisted ‘I am sad that this game will not come to PC’ into ‘I hate consoles’. Sure, that’s not a hanging offense, but it was deliberately provocative and rather disrespectful.
Well, Tim… Now I want Grim Fandango 2. I hope they make it and don’t ask for your participation.
Whoever do it will destroy the franchise undobtly, but you have Brutal Legend on your console, don’t you?
Yeah, I know. That’s cruel. It’s exactly how I felt after reading your PC bashing.
You’re all silly billies if you think this was actually his decision (he’d probably release the thing on the damn Game.com if he could get away with it)
Wait, so everyone thinks Tim is bashing PCs and not just joking around like he always does?
Well, then, it is true: Tim Schafer is a dickless pedophile bastard who eats baby panda hearts for breakfast.
In all seriousness, his excuse is ultra-lame. Psychonauts was an action game too, but it came out for the PC. Also…
USB CONTROLLERS, DUMBASS!!!!!!!!!!!! This “not adequate for PC” bullshit is ridiculous. With a controller, you can play anything on the PC. I don’t hate consoles, BUT I ALSO DON’T HAVE A 360 OR A WII!!!
…or a PS3
Mo says:
“Wait, so everyone thinks Tim is bashing PCs and not just joking around like he always does?”
He was obviously joking around, but personally I can see why he rubbed people up the wrong way. There seemed to be a derisive edge there, if only in the fact of giving such a flippant and empty response to a question that is important to a lot of his biggest fans. Having a joke is one thing, but doing so while also dodging the question is bound to piss off the people who genuinely care about his creations and are disappointed to be missing out on this one. Again, I don’t see this as some terrible insult, and personally the whole situation doesn’t worry me in the slightest, but I don’t think it’s fair to be quite so harsh on those who were offended.
I think Citizen Parker and Stu are right: consoles are the better home for adventures nowadays, and I don’t believe that’s due to piracy.
World of Warcraft changed the PC landscape; it led to feelings of detachment in some of the older PC veterans. I drifted away from the PC earlier this decade because I felt left behind, but that’s another debate.
Tim is primarily a writer – an excellent one, and the consoles offer by far the best shot at gaining recognition for his latest project. He’s going where he hopes to be the most appreciated. Recall the old story about Grim Fandango bidding farewell to the classic adventure genre.
It’s like if my favourite musician was doing a world tour, but I’d just found out that he wasn’t coming to Australia. Disappointed, I politely ask him why. He tells me that “there aren’t any suitable venues in Australia, this tour is really more of a European and American thing” before jokingly accusing me of being racist for refusing to travel internationally to see his show. It’s not that the latter comment is a problem in itself, but it’s a bit of a kick in the guts after the ’serious’ answer he gave appeared to be nonsensical and evasive. It would have gone down much better if he’d either taken the time to clarify his original answer and explain why it actually made sense, or alternatively shown some honesty and admitted it was a financial decision.
But do we really need clarification? I think people forget how tiring it is to answer the same *obvious* question over and over again. It’s like Kojima being asked, “Will MGS4 come to X360?” every single interview.
Here’s clarification:
Publishers dictate what platform the game comes out on. EA, having done the math, have determined that the cost it’ll take to port, QA and support Brutal Legend exceeds their estimated revenue for the sales on the PC platform.
Tim doesn’t hate PC, this isn’t a big conspiracy. It’s just business.
Of course, but nobody likes being lied to, and claiming that “it’s really an action game, that when you play it you’ll see that it was meant to be on a console” seems more like a deliberate attempt to avoid admitting that it’s just business than a tired response to an obvious question.
No hate here too.
But yeah, I wonder how does that say for “PC Elitism” when they simply cannot afford consoles and would enjoy a work of one of the greatest of that platform.
It’s fine. Someone (possibly Tim, probably not) thinks that because I have a 360 and because I want the game, I’ll buy the 360 version.
That someone is wrong.
I want the PC version and am not interested in this game on consoles in the slightest. If there’s no PC version, then there’s simply not a game here that I want to/intend to buy.
“Well it’s really an action game, that when you play it you’ll see that it was meant to be on a console.”
Why Tim why?
I just got boxed set Streetfighter IV for PC yesterday and it worked like a charm, lag free, bug free, controls are easy and is really cheap too and a fighting game is definitely as intense or more so on the controls than an action game. Capcom is primarily a arcade/console game developer and yet they release PC versions all the time even after complaining about the lack of sales on DMC4. So why give this excuse. I’m sad, I played all the adventure games since Day of The Tentacle. And I consider Monkey Island and Grim Fandango to be some of the best games of all time, then why leave us loyal PC gamers in the dark, Tim? I’m not angry, just heavily disappointed.
Also — and I’ll drop the whole thing after this post rather than banging on indefinitely — when I mentioned ‘clarifying’ I wasn’t referring to a detailed explanation of how business decisions are made. I was suggesting that for the answer that WAS given, clarification is required to make it seem like anything other than a misleading copout — the alternative being a simple, straight and not-very-tiring answer of ‘unfortunately it’s not financially viable’.
Yay, reasonable answers! :) Okay, I can work with these.
Yeah, but that’s just not Tim. He’s just incapable of uttering those words. In the near-decade of reading the Double Fine ACTION NEWS! I can recall maybe two or three serious posts. Given the amount of drama Double Fine has been through, that says something about Tim’s character. It would’ve been nice to get a straightforward answer, but it’s just not Tim’s style.
And besides, let’s be honest here, the AIM rage would be just as high if he gave the straightforward answer.
I love our hate orgies.
Hmm Psychonauts seemed to work just fine on a PC and it was quite certainly an “action game” so if action games are something that’s meant to be only on consoles… well, it seems PC can do just fine things it’s supposedly not meant for.
Oh and there’s quite a large gap between “hate for consoles” and willingness to shell out few hundred bucks on extra piece of hardware that one could do perfectly well without, but then i think Mr.Schafer does know it. And given that the flippant response… well, not sure what’s supposed to accomplish really.
I blame QTE’s for this haha
“We are really focused on the Xbox 360 and PS3 version right now.”
Yeah, right now.Six months later, we will have PC version, better than the console one.
Warning: this comment contains REFERENCES!, ümlaüts and sympathy.
First of all, it’s a shame that the PC isn’t getting Brütal Legend. I was kind of looking forward to playing it on my nine year old antiquated rig. I really need to upgrade this baby.
Second of all, I can sympathise with Tim Schafer here and the design team. I can honestly see the reasoning behind wanting to design the game for the console. Presumably the game was designed for console with a port to PC later on. Currently of course the PC port has been cut. Why? Well, not everyone owns a gamepad or wants to buy one, even if they would just for Brütal Legend. Also, it takes a lot of work to port a game. PCs, XBoxes, PSes, all use different libraries which can be hell to code, resulting in some infamously poor ports over the years. PCs are also, at the end of the day, a hell of a lot more customisable than consoles, and that also means they’re a lot more finnicky. Soren Johnson, the lead designer/director/or something of Civilization 4 was reported as expressing his frustration in designing a game flawlessly for the PC, especially after the horde of bug reports came in, and considered migrating to consoles in the future. Later that year, Civ Revolutions for the consoles came out. That’s from Firaxis (or whoever they are), a big strong company.
So, am I disappointed? Yes. But I can sympathise with them here. I don’t hate you, Tim. Rock on, my man. Rock on.
“Why all the hate for consoles?”
I can say the same thing about PC
why all the hate for PC?
@MO
So you believe that TS is somehow beyond criticism? I hate to break it to you, but the man eats and shits the same as everyone else and is just as fallible.
A pity. Several PC magazines had it covered before the switch to EA and the latter almost always tries to make a PC version as well so I think this really is Double Fine’s own decision. Talk about forgetting where you came from idd. Not gonna buy a console for this as well, tsk, silly people.
Well, at least RPS still is on PC. It’s an exclusive even. Consoles can’t even touch that.
Ah well, this will be lumped with Ico, Shadows of the Collosus and so on in the (rather short) list of games that almost tempted me to buy a console. however one or two games (no matter how good they look) aren’t enough to justify spending the money. I guess I’ll just soldier on with the PC and Wii combination and try to persuade a friend to buy the potentail awesomeness that is Brutal Legend (shouldn’t be too difficult!).
I wonder how big the interest of console gamers in this game really is. Eurogamer is a very console-centric site, and yet articles about Brütal Legend hardly generate any comments, and half of them are people asking for a PC version.
I am primarily a console gamer, my pc is rather old and cannot play a lot of high end games. But to be honest I don’t think most console gamers are excited about Brutal Legend and the game will probably suffer for not having a PC Version, and a proper PC Version not a lazy port. The people that excitedly cover it in console magazines and websites keep harking back to the PC adventure games that Schafer is known for. So sort it out Schafer and don’t end up with another Pschonauts i.e okay game but sold bugger all except on PC.
Yes I realised my spelling in the last line is terrible. Me hates the lack of edit button!
The amount of screeching denial in this thread is hilarious. It seems that half the comments are “Tim Schaefer is shit anyway”. Or “Nobody will buy the game. It’s terrible.” or “I never wanted it anyhow.”
I’ve probably been a playing games on PCs longer than most of you. In fact, I started back in the days of CGA displays. Rogue (that which spawned the entire Roguelike genre) taught me to read. But y’know what? I’m glad that I’m not a ‘PC gamer’ anymore, just someone who likes videogames.
Because those who label themselves as specificially PC Gamers are among the worst fanboys on the net. Sure, the Nintendo crowd can get a bit obnoxious at times, and the PS3 fans will try waaay too hard to defend whatever title Sony are marketing heavily, but it’s only occasional bursts of retardation there.
With PC geeks, it’s all the goddamn time.
And again, I’d like to remind people that Devil May Cry 4, despite being a more-than-perfect port, and an improvement on an already excellent fighting game, got shat on by the PC gaming press because it was a console port, because it wasn’t completely redesigned to work with the (completely unsuitable) mouse and keyboard configuration.