This has nothing to do with ideology. I think what you guys repeatedly fail to comprehend is that ultimately everyone's goal in the game industry is to make money.
Of course everybody wants to make money.
Schafer is doing what he needs to do to ensure the success (and survival) of his development company. Releasing on consoles is the easiest (and best) way to get this game that many people are busting their asses on out to the public. DoubleFine NEEDS this game to be successful.
Of course DF needs this game to be successful.
About releasing this game on consoles being the best way to get this game out there to sell copies, sure -- namely b/c there is not even as much piracy on the PC as there is on the console. It's not even close.
I really wonder how many copies a game like ACPC would've sold on the PC, if say not one copy was downloaded the pirate way -- b/c that pirated count from BitTorrent ALONE was very high. In the millions.
The title won't sell nearly as well on PC. Period. Like it or not the platform focus in gaming has shifted, and you guys just absolutely refuse to accept that fact.
First off, we don't have enough quality adventure game titles on the PC. No wonder that genre is dead on the PC -- very few make them.
The inevitable shitty EA DRM is not Tim Schafer's fault.
Of course not. That's EA being EA.
But by Tim joining up with EA, he is also becoming a part of the problem that is facing PC gaming -- publishers pushing DRM that is killing PC games from selling -- if there is a PC release in the cards at a later said date.
It's a catch-22. Either way, you look at it, the PC gamers lose.
Again, he is simply doing what he can to stay in business. And if that means having a game published by EA, so be it. Don't fault the guy for trying to feed his family. Yeah, Schafer's PC legacy is a mile long. But does that mean he should stick it out with a dying (yes, I said dying) platform and ignore the massive amounts of sales he would garner in the console market? Fuck no! He'd be an idiot to do so.
For any company releasing a PC version at a later said date, you are possibly not going to sell a lot of copies -- especially if your game already sold like hotcakes on the console. Take that and then throw on top of that all the piracy problems the PC has, controversies over DRM, and the chance of a PC port suffering from "the port syndrome," well -- we're likely screwed again.
I think the ideal answer is to do the X-360, PS3, and PC versions at once -- and yes, release them all at once -- BethSoft proved how successful that can be with Fallout 3. This way, no version really suffers from sales -- it's more about the "game's overall sales" here than the usual "Well, the console version was out first and sold 12.2 million (for the PS2), but the PC port that came out later only sold 180,000 copies." (GTA: San Andreas sales, anyone?)
Look at Valve's sales for L4D -- it did most of its sales on the PC. So, I really don't think PC gaming is "dead", as you so put it. I just think that these BIG companies need to learn how to adopt to the new ways the PC gaming model is actually working. And it seems to be more so headed for -- yup, you guessed it, digital distribution, for a better or worse, thanks to such avenues like Steam and Impulse. Even G4WL is going to have a marketplace for digital distribution.
Also, any of the WoW products also will tell you how "dead" PC gaming is. Same goes for -- as much as I kind of hate to say this -- Spore's sales (which sold like crazy despite the piracy insanity) and The Sims series of games (and their expansions).
So yeah, why not focus your efforts (and monies) on developing a good game for the platforms you're most likely to have success with? If you don't want to deal with the DRM, don't buy the game on PC. Simple as that. It's not like you don't have other options. And if you like Tim Schafer and his games, why you wouldn't purchase his game on a console is just flat out beyond me.
I think b/c many feel, in most cases, the PC version of a game has more to offer than a console -- when the PC version's done correctly and not half-assed, of course. And when companies take advantage of the PC's strengths; which would be modding, the Internet, and ever-changing horsepower of the PC.
I mean if the PC was the only gaming platform you had access to, then I could see where shitty DRM would be a problem.
I don't own a console -- and I don't plan on jumping ship to the consoles anytime soon.
About DRM on the PC, it's a problem -- and if companies want to use DRM, they should find a business model that works. B/c this current install limit bullshit is a deal breaker for many PC gamers. It forces gamers that own both the PC and console version to do one of the following: go buy the console version b/c it has no DRM, pirate a cracked copy of the PC version, or just boycott the company completely.
But most of you own consoles. But it seems that you (and others) would rather sit here and bitch about the DRM on the PC version repeatedly than buy the console version and enjoy it.
Console gamers don't have to deal with that BS -- not yet, anyways. I wonder when it'll come, as console versions are getting pirated more so than before (but nowhere even close to a PC version's extent) and with more and more emphasis on games supporting XB-Live and PS Network.
Questions:
How would you feel if the console version got riddled w/ DRM to the point that it required activation over X-Box Live or PlayStation Network?
How would you feel if the console version allowed you to be able to run said game on ONE X-Box or ONE PS3 tied only to YOUR very own XBL or PSN account?
What if you could not run YOUR disc copy of some X-Box game on your friend's X-Box?
What if console games were no longer able to be rented at stores?
I wouldn't be surprised, if that day comes...especially with consoles getting more and more PC-like in nature...
