Alexios
Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Tetris was made for the Electronika 60 computer first, then for IBM PC and then PC/NES in Japan etc., GameBoy was 5 years later.
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Why aren't there more AAA PC exclusives?
- Thread starter 64bitmodels
- Start date
- Opinion Poll
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Because there’s no hardware maker that needs to create content, to push their hardware.
It’s an open platform, so we just get all those console exclusives.
PC is however ground zero for the big indies that you’ve heard are popular.
It’s an open platform, so we just get all those console exclusives.
PC is however ground zero for the big indies that you’ve heard are popular.
Guilty_AI
Member
Optimus Lime
(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
And the Electronica 60 was a microcomputer - a personal computer. I didn't say it was made for an IBM PC.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Why would there be? The only reason for console exclusives is money hats and first party developers. The only PC exclusives are things that just don't work on consoles because of inputs or lack of hardware power, but even then you get things like MS flight sim ported to xbox even though it suffers in both cases.
SF Kosmo
Al Jazeera Special Reporter
Exclusives in general are becoming less common, and they happen more because of partnerships than because of technical limitations, and obviously there isn't a real business incentive to limit a game to PC, nor a third party to pay for it.
The main advantage to making a game PC exclusive is the lack of gatekeeping, which isn't something AAA games have to worry about.
The main advantage to making a game PC exclusive is the lack of gatekeeping, which isn't something AAA games have to worry about.
Laptop1991
Member
There hasn't been for a long time, and it started to change when MS got into making a console and competing with Sony, Crysis was the last real big PC only title way back in 07, then the cost of the hardware gradually went up to today's prices,
i've only owned 4 gpu's in the last 10 years, between 2000 and 2010 i had double that and enjoyed buying a new gpu, they didn't cost a lot either and there were games to use them on, i see no need to buy a new one atm with the lack of big games being released that wont use the power anyway, and the cost of making games is a lot higher as well, no way PC only gamer's would make the money back in today's market, i miss those days personally.
i've only owned 4 gpu's in the last 10 years, between 2000 and 2010 i had double that and enjoyed buying a new gpu, they didn't cost a lot either and there were games to use them on, i see no need to buy a new one atm with the lack of big games being released that wont use the power anyway, and the cost of making games is a lot higher as well, no way PC only gamer's would make the money back in today's market, i miss those days personally.
Edgelord79
Gold Member
Most games make more money being designed for consoles primarily I would think.
Mister Wolf
Member
When spending that much money it doesn't make since to limit yourself to one platform if your chief concern is profit.
Optimus Lime
(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
Depends on the game, doesn't it?
Which console game pulls in more money than League Of Legends, for example?
Edgelord79
Gold Member
Sure that’s why I said “most”.
Optimus Lime
(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
What does 'most' mean? Multi-plats? Depends on the multi-plat, and when you're taking your numbers from - PC game sales have much longer tails, for instance.
There are plenty of Indie exclusives for PC.
Honestly I think its just a result of the effect that piracy has had on PC gaming. I'd argue its only been within the past 5-10 years that PC gaming has made sufficient DRM to combat piracy. Before that you could get any single player game for free off the web with relative ease. That was a major liability for many AAA developers- millions of copies of Spore, The Sims 3, and others were downloaded when these games launched. That is a load of revenue lost from these downloads. https://gamerant.com/most-pirated-video-games/
Honestly I think its just a result of the effect that piracy has had on PC gaming. I'd argue its only been within the past 5-10 years that PC gaming has made sufficient DRM to combat piracy. Before that you could get any single player game for free off the web with relative ease. That was a major liability for many AAA developers- millions of copies of Spore, The Sims 3, and others were downloaded when these games launched. That is a load of revenue lost from these downloads. https://gamerant.com/most-pirated-video-games/
Edgelord79
Gold Member
Maybe I’m wrong I don’t know. Never read that deeply into it. It’s got to be a cost benefit thing though.
amigastar
Member
Phil Spencer is much more likeable to me than this guy.
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Optimus Lime
(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
Not really. We aren't in the Gamespy era now, let alone the DOS era. PC gaming ceased to be an afterthought many years ago. Hence, the platform being embraced by Sony and Microsoft.
Optimus Lime
(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
The mainstreaming of digital distribution platforms has helped a lot with that, too.
Edgelord79
Gold Member
That’s a really good point. PlayStation embracing the PC market does indicate money to be made there.
MAtgS
Member
All games are developed on PCs, we're talking about where they're released to the public that matters.
Optimus Lime
(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
And Tetris was released on microcomputers and IBM PC's before it went anywhere near a console. To the original poster's point.
ScHlAuChi
Member
It doesnt matter how many players own a PC that is powerful enough for high end games.
What matters is how many of those players are willing to pay full price for such AAA games.
The majority of those PC players think:
"I just spendt thousands on this machine, I buy the games cheap in a Steam sale!"
This obviously doesnt finance modern AAA games which need to make back their investment quickly.
PC works well as an aftermarket where you still make money by selling large volumes at a lower price or when you do a multiplatform release with lots of marketing.
Optimus Lime
(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
I suspect you don't actually know much about the current PC marketplace.
JoeyWestSide
Member
New games would push people to get the right hardware. At this rate a calculator could run csgo but there is just no new game. I don't like to watch pros play anymore because the graphics are SO bad now.
JoeyWestSide
Member
Also there's literally no point to withhold pc games on console (if the hardware can keep up, of course) because now you can easily use m+k on console1. Dev funding
2. Who's gonna make them? And for what grand scheme(like selling hardware)?
3. Won't sell much copies.
As a PC gamer I loved PC exclusives which pushed the boundaries. Innovated things that were adopted by consoles later. It was fun.
But now I look at it and see that there's no point anymore. You can run Star Citizen on new consoles. You can adapt Flight Sim on Xbox. You can play TBS games with gamepad.
I mean, I even kinda consider that AAA PC titles are handled by XGS now. Hardware boundaries are blurrier than ever.
There was a time when this picture was right. But devs said "wait a minute" and huge amount of these games found their ways to consoles.
I still do respect Valve for Alyx tho. That's exactly what PC exclusive should be about.
Optimus Lime
(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
That's how I feel about $70USD console exclusives being released which run at 4k/30 in 2022.
Red Crayon Aristocrat
Member
Nobody wants to admit this, but the answer is piracy, nobody can release an exclusive when people can pirate.
As soon as everyone pirated the shit out of Spore to "protest" it's DRM, booya, say goodbye to the PC AAA market.
I remember /v/ types in the 2000s used to laugh about pirating everything, fucking morons not realizing they were murdering the AAA market in the process, so funny you guys! What is this "buy" you speak of? What is this "AAA PC game market" you speak of? There sure ain't any such thing anymore.
Hope it was fucking worth it.
I'm not even 100% anti-piracy, it has it's place for preservation and the like, but anyone that would pirate a new release they can easily buy is a dipshit.
As soon as everyone pirated the shit out of Spore to "protest" it's DRM, booya, say goodbye to the PC AAA market.
I remember /v/ types in the 2000s used to laugh about pirating everything, fucking morons not realizing they were murdering the AAA market in the process, so funny you guys! What is this "buy" you speak of? What is this "AAA PC game market" you speak of? There sure ain't any such thing anymore.
Hope it was fucking worth it.
I'm not even 100% anti-piracy, it has it's place for preservation and the like, but anyone that would pirate a new release they can easily buy is a dipshit.
Optimus Lime
(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
Posts like these are so mystifying to me.
Spore was released 15 years ago. Piracy on PC is in a radically different place now to what it was then. The claims that get made in these posts are just so ignorant and wrongheaded, it's incredible. Yes, piracy happens on PC. Piracy on PC is also a shadow of what it once was due to a wide range of factors.
The reason there isn't an 'AAA PC game market' is that there is only a 'AAA game market' - unless a platform holder springs for exclusivity. That's it.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I know people like to trot this out but the only reason this is the case is that there are hundreds of different cards and as many use cases. There are still approx 10 million active steam users with a desktop with a 3060ti or better. Roughly 25 million or so with a 3060 or better laptop/desktop.
And this is after the worst generation for prices of gpus and computers in general.
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cinnamonandgravy
Member
would love to see some AAA PC exclusives w/ ridiculous hardware requirements.
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Guilty_AI
Member
AREYOUOKAY?
Member
Because the big two (Blizzard and Valve) have gotten lazy or lost most of their talent over the years so they can't pump out quality PC titles like they used to. The Valve writers for Half-Life and Portal have lost all hope for actually having games made especially since the story for Episode 3 was basically leaked.
"In the recent interview, Wolpaw (the creator of Portal) strongly hints that Valve doesn't make games anymore because they're not profitable enough."
As for Blizzard... The less said about the current state of their writers the better.
"In the recent interview, Wolpaw (the creator of Portal) strongly hints that Valve doesn't make games anymore because they're not profitable enough."
As for Blizzard... The less said about the current state of their writers the better.
ScHlAuChi
Member
Regardless of what I know - it doesnt matter what I think - what matters is what the AAA publishers think!
Good luck convincing them with your "you AAA publishers dont know much about the current PC marketplace" argument!
No wonder every single one of them is currently investing in big PC AAA exclusives and dont treat it as secondary market, right?
MAtgS
Member
The point was the notion that PCs deliver experiences impossible on consoles, which Tetris proved ain't true.
BennyBlanco
aka IMurRIVAL69
do you think games like Valorant are made with small budgets? Civ? Total War?
Some of you guys are so locked into your bubbles
The_Mike
I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
The reason why consoles has exclusives is because they need you to have a reason to buy them.
No one owns pc as a platform. There's plenty of games though. Strategy games, mmos, moba games.
Also games like Escape from Tarkov.
You just don't notice them because on Gaf we mainly talk about Sony's exclusives. Sony puts a huge amount of money in ads and do on, while the casual gamer doesn't even know that games like Escape from Tarkov exists.
No one owns pc as a platform. There's plenty of games though. Strategy games, mmos, moba games.
Also games like Escape from Tarkov.
You just don't notice them because on Gaf we mainly talk about Sony's exclusives. Sony puts a huge amount of money in ads and do on, while the casual gamer doesn't even know that games like Escape from Tarkov exists.
Thaedolus
Member
I don’t understand the appeal of exclusives to any consumer. I get why a corporation would want to have something exclusive to their platform to increase its appeal, but something being exclusive provides zero value to gamers. Put everything out on as many platforms as possible and let people play on their preferred choice.
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PC is full of great exclusives. PC exclusive franchises started being ported to consoles as consoles became more powerful and moved away from proprietary architectures. Modern consoles are functionally PC. Xbox apps run in a windows VM with different profiles for Series X/S. Porting PC games is easy so publishers do it for the extra revenue. Crossplay has also proliferated making platform increasingly irrelevant.
Good PC games tend to be played longer because there is no real concept of a generations. Counterstrike is always one of the most played shooters on PC because its gameplay is basically perfect. Why play a different shooter if you already have access to the best? SIngle player games tend to last longer since you can mod them and keep getting enjoyment. Multiplayer games which are abandoned by their developers find new life in community run servers. "AAA" is console war lingo. The hype cycle on PC is different and the market is more diverse. PC Gamers don't have as much of a need for big tentpole releases.
Good PC games tend to be played longer because there is no real concept of a generations. Counterstrike is always one of the most played shooters on PC because its gameplay is basically perfect. Why play a different shooter if you already have access to the best? SIngle player games tend to last longer since you can mod them and keep getting enjoyment. Multiplayer games which are abandoned by their developers find new life in community run servers. "AAA" is console war lingo. The hype cycle on PC is different and the market is more diverse. PC Gamers don't have as much of a need for big tentpole releases.
TGO
Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Publishers make Game Exclusives for Game Platforms, not devices that "can" also play games.
Plus who is the Platform holder on PC?
Who is footing the bill for the exclusivity?
Who pays for the marketing?
As great as you can make them, they not the same as Console and never will be.
Cue people quoting me now because I suggested PC isn't a games platform
Plus who is the Platform holder on PC?
Who is footing the bill for the exclusivity?
Who pays for the marketing?
As great as you can make them, they not the same as Console and never will be.
Cue people quoting me now because I suggested PC isn't a games platform
Guilty_AI
Member
Publishers make Game Exclusives for Game Platforms, not devices that "can" also play games.
Plus who is the Platform holder on PC?
Who is footing the bill for the exclusivity?
Who pays for the marketing?
As great as you can make them, they not the same as Console and never will be.
Cue people quoting me now because I suggested PC isn't a games platform
quoting you to show this todd howard meme
Optimus Lime
(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
Publishers don't choose exclusivity. Platform holders do. That's what you don't understand.Regardless of what I know - it doesnt matter what I think - what matters is what the AAA publishers think!
Good luck convincing them with your "you AAA publishers dont know much about the current PC marketplace" argument!
No wonder every single one of them is currently investing in big PC AAA exclusives and dont treat it as secondary market, right?
Stuart360
Member
Its been quite a funny thread to read this, especially the posts from salty console fanboys trying to stealth troll.
But the fact is like i said in my earlier post, AAA games dont cost $5mil to develop anymore, and no one owns PC, so why would a third party publisher spend $100mil developing a AAA game soley for PC?, well they wouldnt of course, just like they dont for console.
AA and Indie devs though, well they make tons of PC exclusives.
Fact is PC gets more games than any other system. More exclusives, most console games, pretty much any game from any console through emulation. PC gamers arent hungry console guys, so your trolling just comes accross as dumb.
But the fact is like i said in my earlier post, AAA games dont cost $5mil to develop anymore, and no one owns PC, so why would a third party publisher spend $100mil developing a AAA game soley for PC?, well they wouldnt of course, just like they dont for console.
AA and Indie devs though, well they make tons of PC exclusives.
Fact is PC gets more games than any other system. More exclusives, most console games, pretty much any game from any console through emulation. PC gamers arent hungry console guys, so your trolling just comes accross as dumb.
TGO
Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
ProgenitorCastle
Banned
For the most part, the exclusive is dead these days
TGO
Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
ScHlAuChi
Member
That is not correct, publishers do exclusive releases too - depending on platform and game.
Just Dance is such an example that (outside of 2017) never got a PC release.
So which platform holder forced Ubi to not do a PC version?
Who forced Square Enix to not release Octopath Traveller on PS4 but on PC?
Who forced Capcom to release Onimusha 1 and 3 on PC but not 2 and 4?
Who forced SEGA to release Mad World only on Wii?
Who forced THQ to release Devil´s Third only on WiiU?
The list can go on and on!
Isnt it just more logical and plausible that they determinded that there just wasnt a market for that specific game on a specific platform?
It is pretty simple - if there is a lucrative market you can bet your ass that those publishers that ONLY care about money would be there.
And the market for AAA exclusive games on PC simply doesnt exist - otherwise you would see them!
What you see instead is service games that have a good chance to make their money back, your Fortnite´s, Destiny´s Valorant´s, Warzone´s etc.
Those have AAA budgets too, but their business model is completely different from the more story heavy SP games that need to make back their money fast.
And then you have Star Citizen - the only PC exclusive AAA game - but their business model is completely batshit insane - people give them money on empty promises....
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Nocturno999
Member
"PC has no exclusives" is classic peasant's myth.
Yes even PC has AAA exclusives and an endless list of experimental, high quality indies.
Yes even PC has AAA exclusives and an endless list of experimental, high quality indies.
