EA Showed More Love To PC And DS Last Year

If you can't afford $1000 every two years, why not go budget? Also, you don't have to get a PC to play a game like Crysis when it comes out. You could wait a year or two and then the video cards will be $100 like the current Radeon 4830.

Shin-san

@CockroachMan:I think only two actual The Sims 2 expansion came out in 2008. And many EA PC games are multiplatform games as well as some ports like Mass Effect.

syafiqjabar

@Powerslave:

500 dollars a year to upgrade your PC? If I wasn't a moderate videophile, I'd be able to play games quite well on my current machine (about 800-850 $$) for the next 4 years... and I've had it for almost a year. And yeah, games tend to look A LOT better than their console equivalents.

After that, and upgrade will only cost around 400 dollars, which is about equal to a newly released console.

Either way, PCs do a helluvalot more, and you likely already have one in your house. In reality, most people just need to buy some RAM, a video card, and maybe PSU. Most machines come equipped with good CPUs these days.

You're right. Most games on the PC are multiplatform... but so what? What makes playing Deadspace on PC any worse than playing Deadspace on console? I'd actually prefer it on PC, as I get... better visuals... and I simply enjoy sitting right infront of the screen. Keeps me more alert!

Just as well, two of those multiplatform games you mentioned, Fallout 3 and L4D, are PC games. I hate to break it to you, but Bethesda and Valve are primarily PC devs, and if anything, the console versions are same-day release ports.

Anyways, you may get a couple good exclusives every year, but the PC has two entire Genres all to itself.

Yes, piracy is bad, but it's not hurting PC gaming as much as execs claim it to be. The demigod issue is not an issue. They released an online-central game without any form of restriction. That was just stupid.

No reason not to own a 360/ps3? If you already have a good PC, what's the point? Halo? Screaming Ten-yearolds whose parents don't pay attention to their online activity?

ReconToaster.

@Strangelove:

Yeah, but nobody cares about Sports games on PC. Deadspace wasn't a port. That came on PC... I think only a couple days after everything else.

Mirror's edge was a port, but it was a great port, done by Dice themselves, and we got PhysX (as useless as it may be) added in!

EA also published the retail versions of Valve games, like L4D.

Oh yes, and EA announced that Mass Effect 2 would come to PC, and implied a day & date (or very close timed exclusive) release on 360 and PC.

So yeah, they're not slacking like a lot of folks are. I've gained a lot of respect for EA in the past couple of years.

ReconToaster.

@Powerslave: You don't take into account Steam and other download services?

Also, graphic cards is the only one that need upgrading every 2 years, and cost half the amount you stated (or less).

syafiqjabar

Despite this article, I think PC gaming is going the way of the Wii, which is a Niche market. How many of EA's titles were "Sims" related? Just a look at the top titles each month on PC we have "WOW, and add-ons", Sims and add-ons (EA), a couple RTS (Sometimes EA), Spore(EA), and occasionally an exclusive shooter or MMO (Sometimes EA) . But most are multi-platform.. Oh and then we have Warcraft and Starcraft Battle Sets in the top 20 year after year, why is that? 1. they kick ass, 2. they still run on 10 year old computers! Blizzard knows it's about game play first, and graphics second.

I'm not saying this because I'm a console fanboy, my last console before the 360/PS3 was the Atari 2600, since then I gamed on C-64, Amiga, and PC. I just see very little new, interesting stuff on PC. I'm now at that point that after Diablo III, I probably will switch to Ubuntu as I'm sick of Microslop's insecure over priced OS'es, DRM, Keycodes, driver updates, and all the bullshit that comes from PC gaming.

But back to "GAMES"... The console scene has so much more to offer, all the good multi-platform Gaming like COD, L4D, Fallout 3, and so on, to awesome exclusive stuff you only see on consoles such as MGS4, LBP, Flower, Ratchet & Clank, Fable II.

And if you haven't noticed just recently 2 more PC Developers bit the dust, because they failed to release on console first or at least the same time, you know and make some money. Was it DemiGod that had more pirated copies slamming their servers than legit copies? That's pretty pathetic. (18,000 legit 100,000 pirated)
[kotaku.com]

With this economy, many people like myself just can't justify dropping $1000 every 2 years to keep my system capable of playing Crysis. I'm on year 3.5 on my 360, and 2.5 on the PS3, I fully expect them to do well for another 5+ years. 2 of my friends now also game exclusively for the most part on PS3.

The PC will always have superior graphics & CPU, but at this point so what. Console gaming is BEAUTIFUL. It's not like a Playstation 2 or Original Xbox on a Standard Def television. The new consoles have graphics on par with a GOOD PC, hard drives, awesome online play, soon MMO's, and even RTS, and if they started using the Keyboard & Mouse capabilities of the PS3 it could rival PC RTS.

There's no reason not to own and love a PS3/360 now a days if you're a gamer.

@CockroachMan: Oh please. They're nowhere near as bad as anyone makes them out to be. They only released like 18 packs for the game last year.

@jrhawk42:

EA Sports makes horrible ports, that's for sure. But I forgive EA for those transgressions because it also put out Crysis.

Just because a company is putting out PC titles doesn't mean they are supporting the future of PC. Often these titles are under budgeted ports that are solely aimed for profit rather than quality.

Here's a typical breakdown of the PC gaming industry when it comes to multi-platform games (excluding companies like Valve, and Bethesda) using hypothetical companies.

The publisher ABC has just green lit Studio Awesome's latest IP, Kill Smash, Death. Studio Awesome is a 10 year old studio w/ several talented employees, and 7 AAA titles under their belt. Kill, Smash, Death has a multi-million dollar budget, and Studio Awesome will develop the game on 360, and PS3. Newb Studio is offered the bid to do a PC port of Kill, Smash, Death. The bid is relatively small, but since all the assets and designs are being done they feel they can do the job. Newb Studio is a new studio with little talent, and few resources.

Now about 8 months into the project Newb Studio is running into technical problems because they are trying to port code from Studio Awesome, and they have nobody that really understands it at all. They fall behind, and must hire another programmer onto the project that understands that code (not cheap). Eventually Newb Studio is way behind, and actually losing money on the project. This in turn kills team morale, and Newb Studio, and they are more concerned w/ getting the game finished than quality. In the end the game is crap, and only sells 50k copies which is well above the profit margin since it only needed to sell 25k to see a profit.

In the end ABC is happy with their profits and will continue to shamelessly port their PC games. The consumers get shafted, and so starts the downward spiral that has become PC gaming.

I'd also like to mention that IDK if EA actually does this practice it's just what I've seen over the years. From what I've heard EA did some great ports last year, but I'm too scared to buy them.

@pukellunkett:

Damn youtube...Okay one more and I promise that I'm done forever.

+ Watch video

@Twik63:

+ Watch video

Not Muhammad related but I thought it was funny.

Seems like they were using common sense after all. Ditching last gen and suiting up with current gen. I can see why they're backing off of PS2, but it'd be nice to see them push some more quality to PSP.

bangbangblah

no wonder they lost a little money they made ALOT more games.

@EnigmaNemesis: and Muhammad was a merchant.... The more you know.

21 PC games?

How many of those were The Sims expansions?

@CardJoker: Apparently not, data in the 15th page of the 4th Quarter of 2009: Earnings Reports show that PC revenue is alright. Just a bunch of charts showing evil mastermind plans.. er, I mean.. revenue for 2008-2009!
Nothing to hide, really!
:P

LOL

poor gamecube.
don't worry, as long as you're still wearing your new coat (aka wii), soccer moms,grandparents and basically anyone under the age of 16 who don't like xb or ps3 will still love you!!

@pukellunkett:

Well they say Jesus was a carpenter!

PC gaming is dead. Long live PC gaming.

@shaunomacx@onelastcontinue.com:
You're right, Madden 09. I wish the Xbox was still alive, it's my favorite console of all time.

Alex Ward

@Bialia ಠ_ಠ needs your AC fruit!:

LOL. That's one hell of a chunk Karma bit out your ass.

CustomFirmware

@pukellunkett:

lmao win.

CustomFirmware

Poor gamecube, and GBA. Don't worry guys your going to the dump, and you won't get a price drop, or be manufactured anymore like the PS2. Bye! :)

sentroshi

@Alex Ward: YA RLY

antspai01

@CardJoker: Why would it be?

antspai01

@carnagy: Que?

antspai01

@pukellunkett: Heh Heh Heh that was great :D

antspai01

@CardJoker:

ahyep...i mean nerp.

HAH DS FTW!

Dammit! Embedding disabled? I wanted to post the roboroll. :(

Bialia ಠ_ಠ needs your AC fruit!

@+ Watch video