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Epic boss: consoles will choke PC gaming for years to come

Epic Games' vice president has said that he reckons the limitations of home consoles will choke the graphical progress of many PC games for years to come. He said:

"...I don't see people going way, way over what these consoles can do because then they can't sell the game... they have to dumb the games down for the consoles. Consoles will pretty much define what the next five years of games look like on the PC."

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shuandrew - contributor
Published: 882 days 16 hours ago | News | PC

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AllroundGamer - 882 days 16 hours ago

1 -

is it the same boss responsible for the lame buggy U3 engine? well if someone can't optimize, its fault of the consoles...

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Azures - 882 days 15 hours ago

1.1 -

The same engine that has already proven to work brilliantly and is now optimized for ps3 as well you mean?

Oh yea, that engine.

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Jason 360 - 882 days 13 hours ago

1.2 - So your both saying it's buggy and it works

so your both right, it is buggy and it does work

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Rooted_Dust - 882 days 16 hours ago

2 - ...

This is probably true for games made by Developers who use consoles as their primary platform, but I don't think this is true for primarily Pc developers. Part of developing a PC-first game is that you have to optimise it so that it is compatible with lesser hardware(older computers,consoles) while still making the best possible game fully utilizing the newest hardware and features. I have full faith in developers like Epic, Valve, and Crytek to keep pushing the PC envelope.

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kingjkv - 882 days 16 hours ago

3 -

Well u can either buy a 500$ video card or get urself a game console for the same price or lower and will suit you well. PC gaming is coming to a dead end. The next gen of video card is gonna cost like 800$ when they come out. No point, the PC is just slowly falling behind.

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Rooted_Dust - 882 days 16 hours ago

3.1 -

9 million gamers on World of Warcraft alone. Think what you want.

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tplarkin7 - 882 days 16 hours ago

3.2 - WoW doesn't have great graphics.

Also, WoW is overly dominant. Nobody can compete. The PC is a Sims and WoW machine with Dreamcast graphics. This isn't the fault of console development, either.

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xmod - 882 days 16 hours ago

3.3 - @rooted_dust

9 million WOW players vs. 150 million console gamers (ps2 + wii + ps3 + xbox 360)

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Rooted_Dust - 882 days 15 hours ago

3.4 - ...

How many console games sold 9 million copies? I wasnt' relating the total number of PC gamers to WOW, just the fact that it has sold more than any console game I can think of including Halo and Halo2. I'm not sure how many PC gamers there actually are, but it's probably more than you think.

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xmod - 882 days 15 hours ago

3.5 -

'How many console games sold 9 million copies?'

Mario, Zelda, Madden, Final Fantasy. I could go on but you get the point.

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Rooted_Dust - 882 days 15 hours ago

3.6 - ...

None of those games mentioned are currently out on a next-gen system(Wii is not a next gen system), or are known for their graphical prowess, besides FF, graphics being the subject of this article. I never ment to show that PC games sold more than all games, just that PC gaming is not a dying industry.

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xmod - 882 days 15 hours ago

3.7 -

of course pc gaming is not dying. if some chick is at the office playing solitaire, hey she's a pc gamer.

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FordGTGuy - 882 days 16 hours ago

4 - Hah!

Thats funny as hell!

If consoles are choking PC Gaming then what about Crysis? I used to kind of like Epic but now with this UE3 dispute and now this I have lost all respect for them.

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PS360WII - 882 days 16 hours ago

5 -

Well guys come on. We should all know seeing how consoles are not able to upgrade that they are just snap shots in time of what a good PC is at. After 2 years all of the parts are basically outdated we already know this of the Wii but the 360 and PS3 are also part of the snap shot. While PC's always continue to grow and get better with every year and sometime more the consoles will stay the same. He's not to far off saying that Consoles set the pace of gaming for they are a 5 year plan and it won't be getting any better till then.

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Rooted_Dust - 882 days 15 hours ago

5.1 - ...

Couldn't agree more.

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6 bootsielon | 882 days 15 hours ago - User only got 1 bubble - Show

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Azures - 882 days 15 hours ago

7 -

PS3 suffers from the same thing. The two actually can help each other when it comes to games.

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razer - 882 days 15 hours ago

7.1 - haha

Whatever... Yea all the other consoles are holding the PS3 back.. How do you explain first party titles that are built specific for the PS3 getting low scores. Early scores for Heavenly Sword are in the high 6's to 7's. While you have a game like Bioshock for the 360 getting close to perfect 10's.

Nobody is holding the PS3 back, just the over-the-top expectations of it.

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JCDenton - 882 days 15 hours ago

8 -

I know I would get a lot of "disagree" on this, but the fact is that consoles have dumbed down gaming in some aspects. For example, Point&Click adventure games practically disappeared mostly because consoles took over, and majority of console gamers won't buy those kind of games. Same goes for, for example, flight simulations (anyone remember NOVA LOGIC's F-22 Lightning series, MiG-29 Fulcrum...), and 3D fighting games (like Virtua Fighter and Mortal Kombat series) are not for PC anymore (the last two "serious" games were VF2 in 1998. and MK4 in 1999.)...

Also consoles practically "killed" the sequel of one of the best games of all time - DEUS EX! Deus Ex: Invisible War (the sequel of Deus Ex) was dumbed down because of hardware limitations of consoles (Xbox 1), and couldn't even touch the original in terms of gameplay, story, atmosphere... The only thing that was improved was graphics...

The most popular genres of today are FPS games, racing games and some form of RPG games (adn those RPGs are practically FPSs with swords or something else...).

Consoles made graphics/effects more important than the game itself. I mean, whatever you call your "new and revolutionary" game (Killzone, Crysis, Resistance...) it's just the same old FPS (rap with pumped-up graphics to make you forget how many times you actually played games like this...

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ulath666 - 881 days 18 hours ago

8.1 - Agreed

Couldnt agree more.
Most of you are talking about graphics when its not really the main point.
What hes talking about is game speed, precision, aiming, gameplay, GUI, story and more.
Just look at Oblivion. It has the one of the worst menu systems ever on PC. Why? Because it was made to fit consoles.
Deus Ex 2 is another fine example. Instead of the interaction of the first game we are left with a semi linear shooter, where all problems are either SHOOT IT, Hack the security bot and shoot it or Sneak by it by crawling in the ventilation.

Casual/console gaming is the bane of epic games. there is a few companies that still "got it" though.

Epic is one of them, The Speed of UT3 gameplay is quite insane and really fells PClike.

Bioware, The last big RPG maker(along with Obsidian that kinda floats along with bioware). Mass effect looks awesome( a little more action/twitch oriented than i would like, consoles again probably) and Dragon Age looks like the RPG ive been missing since BG2

Blizzard, Selfexplanatory. A PC developer.

Valve. Have to this point never comprimised PC gameplay.

Dont get me wrong, i really like many of todays console/casual/party games. I love guitarhero, play quite alot on my PSP and Xbox 360, but when youve been basking in the sheer awesomeness of games like Fallout 1/2, Baldurs gate, quake and halflife it feels kinda sad seeing todays gamemakers raping the old systems, turning everything into fps hybrids and "easy to play" games with little or no depth.
Fallout 3 looks like its going to be the prime example of that. I have serious doubts about bethesdas ability to capture the feeling and depth of the original games. Everything shown so far points toward a severe consolization. Tabbed menu (although they have promised to build the PC Gui from scratch), Fps/tps, realtime with pause that mimics the aimed shot mode in the original series.
I hope they will have dialogue, something Oblivion lacked.
I guess i would have such a big problem if they didnt call it "sequel" and said things like they made it the way they think is most "immersive" or that the original developers probably would have walked the same path if the tech would have been up to it.

The last game i played when i truly felt like i was playing a PCgame with something special was Stalker. A truly underrated game and sadly bypassed by many since most gamers tend to have the attentionspan of a goldfish nowadays.

I read somewhere that the market got about 6% "Hardcore" gamers, but they spend Alot more per person than any of the other groups (think it was about 15-20% of game sales and game related hardware).
I think we will se a decline in those numbers. PC gaming isnt dying, serious gaming is dying, slowly poisned by arcadish party games and "accessable" gameplay.
Am i the only one who wants a 150 page manual with a vast number of skills, abilities and possibilities? Am i the only one willing to spend more than thirty minutes learning the game mechanics before discarding it as "retarded" or boring?

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CrazzyMan - 882 days 15 hours ago

9 - well, is more then obvious,

that in next 2-3 years games will be on UE3.0, Far Cry Engine2, and id software engine..
so, if somehow consoles will be able to hold those engines with good quality, it`s most like what we will see on pc in next 2-3 years, we will see and on consoles. :)
and only in some 2011-2012 we will see something beyond consoles compabilities, but by that time we will have already ps4 anx x720 probably. :)

anyway, i am pleased with killzone2, GT5, Ratchet and FFXIII graphics.
So, for near future Art will be most important in gaming, because quality of technologies is already good. =)

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kingjkv - 882 days 15 hours ago

10 -

Somehow i feel like Nintendo and Sony will team up and release a next gen console called the PSwii in 2012. Then MS will be scratching their heads. LOL

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MC_KOOL_K - 882 days 13 hours ago

11 - WELL THAT MAKES A CHANGE

Its about time we can get high end pc games for the concoles

there will be plenty for the high end pc market but the games still have to have a minimum spec which will be the 360 spec

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Jason 360 - 882 days 13 hours ago

12 -

He is right though every gen of new consoles you do see PC games dumbed down for profit reasons. I come from PC gaming thats why I love the Xbox and 360 so much because of MS PC games roots (that is not a Sony digg so don't start, Sony has nothing to do with anything I just said) Anyway PC gaming is in a tough spot right now and have alot going against it. A new gen of consoles, new CPU tech, New GPU tech, New Operating system and new hardware popping up daily, it's kinda a transition period for the PC IMO.

But... once the new harware price goes down and when consoles come close to the end of thier life cycle you will see PC games explode untill the next gen consoles. I mean yeah you will have a few PC games that take the chance but for the most part MMOs will be what you mostly see. PC gaming is and will always be the most expensive way to game and only a slect few can realy enjoy these high end games at first do to PC cost.

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VirusE - 882 days 12 hours ago

13 -

HEY MARK!!! Maybe if a 8800gtx didnt cost 500 bucks more people would play pc games and this wouldnt matter! DDR3 ram cost more than a ps3 right now for god sakes!

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