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Gears of War PC... Eventually

[Feb 15, 2007, 12:37 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

The Mark Rein Q&A on TeamXbox follows up on a couple of long-debunked rumors (story and story) with the first semi-solid confirmation of plans for a PC port of Gears of War, which the Epic veep now says is inevitable, eventually (thanks Joystiq). After answering one question reaffirming the game as an Xbox 360 exclusive, Mark offers the following response to the question of whether it will stay that way:

’Til there’s something else. (chuckles) People ask me, “Are you going to do it on PC?” Yeah, eventually…I don’t think that’s any great secret that we would like to do it on PC, but for now it’s a 360 game. Eventually we’ll get around to a PC version. I just don’t know when.

That’s worked successfully for Halo. Halo was a big seller on PC long after it kind of peaked on the original Xbox, and they’re doing the same thing now with Halo 2. We work at the pleasure of a publisher who thinks both of those are their platforms, so I think it’s ultimately inevitable, and obviously we’re a PC company.

The big challenge is to make a game that was designed solely for the console…to take advantage of every last little corner of that console, to fill every little crack and run as many threads as we could and do as much to exploit the power of that machine, and make it run well on enough PCs to be worth releasing. That’s a challenge. UT will help us there, because Unreal Tournament 3 will be kind of our vanguard PC product, and it’s helping us get optimization on the PC. So it’s just a matter of, now, can we make Gears run on enough PCs that it’s worth selling…or do we have to wait in five years until everyone has a PC that can run it?

It’s inevitable, but it’s just not there today.

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84.

Re: Crysis again--

Feb 20, 2007, 02:11

Riley Pizt

not sure why you list the physics in fear since its not like it actually uses it much like hl2. I mention it because the combination of the Havok physics on the character models and the environment along with the slow-motion effect makes for some really interesting and unique gameplay visuals and situations. And im pretty sure there are max payne multiplayer mods. There are no multiplayer mods for Max Payne. The game lacks any multiplayer functionality at all. Speaking of PC game mods that is one area where a great deal of innovation in PC games can be found. Many features that later show up in mainstream game releases are first found in PC mods. Uhh...there are more innovative games, and since there are more you get a better value buying a console. The existance of more innovative games in terms of numbers doesn't make consoles a better value if the consumer can't afford to buy all of those games. PC games generally cost less and fall farther in price sooner. Therefore if a consumer has a fixed amount he can spend on games, he may get more of those innovative games by buying PC games than those for consoles. That would make PC games a better value. This is a very odd question as there aren't exactly chess hits on the pc either. It's not odd because someone must be buying them for those games to keep being made. How exactly is fear more complex any fps? FEAR has a lot of controls especially when you throw in the ones for multiplayer (though admitted not as many as some of Monolith's other FPS games). I couldn't play FEAR the same way on just a game pad. Or quake 4? The console. The console allows for game command macros and scripts, and that is something which is head and shoulders above console FPS games in terms of control. And considering not many kiddy games make it into top sales for consoles I seriously doubt the demographic has anything to do with it. I am not just talking about children's games. Consoles tend to have a lot of cartoon and more youthful oriented games which are never released for the PC. Demographics has to be the reason why because no developer or publisher would turn down the money from those buyers if there were significant numbers of them. Gears of war is hardly kiddy. Gears of War is the exception not the rule because like Halo it is a showcase title designed to sell a particular console. For every one Gears of War you will have dozens of Mario, Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, Rachet and Clank, etc. games and their clones. Also sometimes pc games sell well for the consoles(like oblivion). Sure but Oblivion was more of a simultaneous release from the PC rather than one delayed by many months such as a FEAR, Doom 3, or Half-Life. That, and there are alot more people with consoles then a good enough comp to play the latest games, make the idea that its because most played it already unlikely as well. It depends on the game. Major PC game releases like FEAR, Half-Life 2, and Doom 3 which showcase the latest in PC technology and don't have imminent releases planned for consoles are going to get console gamers attention if they like those types of games. Even if many of those console gamers can't play those PC games on their own PC's, they will find something to play them on be it a friend's PC or a work PC. So, the demand for those games will definitely be lessened when they are finally released onto consoles and as such sales will reflect that. Hell resident evil 4 sold well for the ps2 a year after the gamecube version was released. That is an apples and oranges comparison because you are comparing one console to another. The real question is would it have sold as well if it had been first released on the PC. Plenty of duds have recieved sequels. Not when development of the game is costly as next-generation game development is. I think you are seriously underestimating the size of the console industry compared to the pc. I am not underestimating it. However the console market has much more competition for games than the PC. Therefore a single-player only game like FEAR which had been released much earlier on the PC would be at best a rental not a purchase for most console gamers who are interested in it. Fear is no less mainstream then halo or resident evil are. FEAR is far less mainstream than Halo. Halo is like standard mainstream American science fiction like a Star Wars or Aliens movie. FEAR is Japanese anime horror like The Ring. But why would they want this if the game itself sucked? XBOX users like the game. So, of course they would still like it on the PC since it was predominately the same game with the minor improvements of the PC platform, e.g. mouse control and Internet multiplayer. It was PC-only gamers who generally did not like Halo or found it to be unexceptional. This comment was edited on Feb 20, 02:20.

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