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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
| Console vs PC return on investment |
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First off, this thread isn't intended as a generic console-bash (though they can be fun  ).
Feargus Urquhart (ex Black Isle president, now Obsidian - probably working on KotOR2) has posted some interesting comments in the RPG Codex forums about console/PC sales vs costs of development.
quote:
2) All console games require about a $10 licensing fee, which includes your packaging and DVDs. This can be two to five times the cost of packaging for a PC. When the Whole Sale Price is around $36 (most people will say $40, but I've never found that to be true with all the special dealing that happens). The PC game can start out 20% ahead on the actual net cash you get.
Interesting, no?
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Sat Jan 03, 2004 1:42 am |
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Remus
Overgrown Cat
Joined: 03 Jul 2002
Posts: 1657
Location: Fish bowl |
Interesting post by Feargus. But it still didn't provides complete picture of current rise of console games/gaming. If the PC game can gets more profit than developing a console game, why Interplay and Ion Storm also jumped on the console bandwagon?.
It's just another "pendulum swing" between console and PC game markets?
Another possible reason, i think, is when developer making a game, they always prefer bigger market for their products. E.g, if you can sell a same title/game in more than one type of market - it's certainly better (PC & console[s]; like GTA: Vice City and DXIW, 2/3/4 markets in one title/project development). The cost is smaller, you share contents (thus console-like quality in texture, cut-scene, user-interface/control, etc can be found in PC version) and manpower developing one title for multiple markets.
But that didn't explain company like Interplay now (almost/temporary?) only developing console games.
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Sat Jan 03, 2004 2:51 am |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
You're right, it didn't.
Feargus has commented on this topic (briefly) before. My interpretation is that there's several financial hurdles to overcome with console development whereas a small studio can potentially start a PC project with minimal expense (and perhaps at least get a tech-demo up and go shopping for a publisher.
With the consolidation of the industry, console entry costs aren't an issue for the big publishers who want to chase the biggest numbers possible. I guess Blizzard, id, Valve and so on are doing big enough numbers without the costs of console licensing to worry about it.
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Sat Jan 03, 2004 7:45 am |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
Not only finacial hurdles. Sony, MS and Nintendo do not sell dev kits to small developers. Without a proven track record you can only go through one of the bigger publishers. Of course those have a strong negotiation position because devs are replaceable.
The console manufacturers are only interested in mass market products.
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Sat Jan 03, 2004 6:45 pm |
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TheMadGamer
High Emperor
Joined: 03 May 2002
Posts: 487
Location: Southern California |
licensing fees are a cost hurdle for the console market.
But over the years, I've heard a lot of b!tching by developers regarding Q.A. costs for PCs given the huge amounts of different PC peripherals out there.
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The Poster Previously Known As NeptiOfPovar |
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Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:25 pm |
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Joeman
Protector of the Realm
Joined: 03 Jan 2004
Posts: 254
Location: USA |
Exactly. Console games didn't require hardware support, but PC sure hell does. That adds to the cost for those extra engineers, programmers, technicians, ....
If you make a game for xbox and afterwards try to port it to PC in a half-assed fashion without much testing, like Deus Ex 2 for example, you get loads of hardware errors. According to an online poll I saw, the game so far is totally unplayable for 20% of PC users. They don't even support gforce4 MX cards. I was in shock when I saw that considering how common it is. That game has been a huge disappointment. Not only that, the game is super short. People finish the game between 7-10 hours.
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Arguing over the internet is like competing in special olympics. Even if you win, you are still retarded. |
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Mon Jan 05, 2004 10:49 pm |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
DX:IW was disappointing but don't blame it for not supporting GF4 MX cards - they don't have a Texture & Lighting engine (T&L) and are essentially a reworked GF2 card. They're completely below par for today's games and lots of games don't support them.
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Tue Jan 06, 2004 8:38 am |
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goshuto
Wanderer
Joined: 29 May 2002
Posts: 1142
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quote:
Originally posted by Dhruin
DX:IW was disappointing but don't blame it for not supporting GF4 MX cards - they don't have a Texture & Lighting engine (T&L) and are essentially a reworked GF2 card. They're completely below par for today's games and lots of games don't support them.
[whisper] pssst, Dhruin, they do have hardware transform & lighting. What they lack are the pixel shaders. 
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"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards."--Soren Aabye Kierkegaard |
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Tue Jan 06, 2004 11:38 am |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
Just like I said - they don't have pixel shaders...bugger, long day etc etc. What the hell was I thinking? Thanks, goshuto.
Despite my ridiculous slip the point remains - the MX440 etc doesn't really cut it for latest generation games.
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Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:34 pm |
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