For the rest of the developers on the list read the full article here: http://www.collegenews.com/index.ph...rs_who_still_love_pc_gamers11092009123456789/
Times have changed. With next-generation consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 established as the preferred platform for mainstream gamers, developers who used to wholeheartedly support the PC in the past have jumped ship for greener pastures. Their reasons for shifting their focus to console gamers, however, isnt entirely without reason. Traditionally, console games reach a much larger audience which results in bigger sales.
Some have more or less abandoned PC gamers in favor of more console friendly titles. Others seem content to humor the PC with table scraps in the form of unoptimized, month old ports of console games. Even Infinity Ward, a developer that became famous for PC titles like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (back when the studios founders worked for 2015) has more or less turned their back on PC gamers with Modern Warfare 2.
Developers dont necessarily hate PC gamers, but its not unreasonable at all to say the PC clearly is no longer their number one priority. However, there are still developers out there that recognize the inherent strengths of the PC platform and know how to take advantage of them to make some truly awesome games. These are five of the top game designers who see opportunity where everyone else sees lackluster sales, and have helped keep the PC gaming community alive and kicking.
5. DICE
For a little while, it wasnt hard to believe that DICE, the developer behind the popular Battlefield franchise, had left the PC for greener pastures. After their amazing work on Battlefield 2 (and to a lesser extent, Battlefield 2142, DICE abruptly changed tracks and made the console exclusive Battlefield: Bad Company. Additionally, Battlefield 1943 launched on consoles while the PC version is still slated for 2010, and Mirrors Edge also suffered from a small delay. However, it seems like DICE is finally coming back around to support the platform that helped them achieve fame with their original first-person shooter Battlefield 1942.
Maybe theyre just trying to piss Infinity Ward off, but DICE has been very vocal about the PC version of their upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company 2. A beta for the PC version is scheduled for December, and when the game launches in March, itll ship with dedicated servers. Unlike Modern Warfare 2. Whether or not DICEs commitment to support the PC is sincere remains to be seen, but for now its safe to say that the Swedish development team is willing to show PC gamers some love once again.
After having played the L4D2 demo and Fallout 3, I question how much either Bethesda or Valve love PC gaming anymore. Both games seem very much like a port of a console game.
I absolutely LOVED Fallout 3 on the PC, but in my mind they didn't exactly go above and beyond when it came to the PC version of the game, sporting low res textures all around and oversized UI, and, regardless of what the article says, I do believe the gameplay was dumbed down to meet the requirements of a gamepad. Also, the PC version was and remains to be problematic, with patches usually making a bad situation worse.
Again, with Left4Dead 2, I feel like Valve is taking the focus very much off of the PC release of the game and putting it on the 360 version. Yes, the game looks better, but there are some choices, like not being able to see your own legs/feet in the PC version, and also the game just feels very console-ized, at least in the demo. I have it pre-ordered on Steam and I'm pretty excited about it, but I don't think it's stepping over any boundaries to state that it does seem designed more to cater to a console based audience.
I totally agree with Bioware and DICE tho. While Dragon Age seems kind of pushed out the door considering the stability issues with it, Bioware has gone out of their way in both Mass Effect and Dragon Age to redesign the UI to fit the platform.
Blizzard makes their money on the PC, WoW has had them rolling in cash for years, and Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 will sell massive amounts of copies no matter what platform they're released on.
I can see where the list is going with all of these companies, but I do think we've seen both Bethesda and Valve take pretty strong steps towards other platforms, sometimes at the detriment of their PC development.
I don't feel L4D is consolized at all. It was designed from the beginning as a 4v4 or 4vAI game. Because of the way the game plays, I think the lobby makes a bit more sense, as it's not a drop-in drop-out kind of game like CS or TF2. Face it, if you're playing 4v4 in L4D and one person drops, you're more likely to hang out until an eighth joins because the AI is painfully easy to kill off. I just can't see myself browsing through servers looking for a 6/8 L4D game in progress. . . the game is probably already a foregone conclusion.
That said, it had plenty of teething problems at the start, as far as finding good servers goes. But at least Valve gave us the ability to choose the dedicated server we wanted to play on. And I think today Valve released the team of four versus team of four matchmaking. This will make things much more fun and competitive, instead of 4 friends always having to pub-stomp.
Any of you guys played the Penumbra series by Frictional games. They're PC-only and indie, but damn if Penumbra 1 & 2 wasn't as good as any AAA game out there. If you like Horror Survival at all, I highly, highly recommend checking out Penumbra.
My only problem with Penumbra rest in the immortal dogs that eat me every-time I do not stealthily move about. I would like to be able to kill them with my pickaxe or something to remove the massive annoyance.
Given Blizzard's track record, I think they are the only ones who still love the PC. If Blizzard ever switched Starcraft 2 to consoles, I think both Koreas would immediately patch things up and would declare war on Blizzard.
I wish you were right, but according to this article, Activision Blizzard don't give a rats ass about you or even the games they make. Sorry that you had to receive it like this my friend.
I'll take a different viewpoint on this and point out that anthropomorphizing companies like this is slightly silly. Developers "love" consumers regardless of platform. The employees are there for their salaries and the companies exist to strive for profits, so it becomes the responsibility of the consumers to convince software companies that there are profits to be had in releasing high quality titles on the PC.
Perhaps there is merit in analyzing which companies are specifically attempting to target PC gamers, but it shouldn't be surprising if companies that specialize in PC-centered genres come to the top of this list. Rather than running through every single comment that annoys me in this thread I'll leave it at two responses:
1) Blizzard's focus on the PC platform has a lot more to do with their RTS and MMO strengths then it has to do with the purity of their souls.