Why are games driven by consoles?

[WindyDays]

I grew up thinking that games were always developed for the PC, with the best selling ones being ported to consoles with special exceptions like FF, etc. as they were "exclusive" and "special". This was reinforced by the flexibility of the PC and the many diverse, smaller games that existed on PC and not console, not to mention all those flash sites that have been popular and still are. It wasn't really until I discovered LinusTechTips that I slowly realised that major games were being developed for consoles as a focus. I don't understand why a majority of major developers continue to push their games to console as a priority when consoles are clearly too rigid in both their hardware and usability - they are like steps in that they upgrade once every many years and then plateau whilst PCs are dynamic and constantly changing.

 

Why are games continually being driven by consoles rather than PCs?

 

By the way, Star Citizen, as an extremely ambitious, wonderful and already so popular game when it doesn't really exist yet, blows my mind as to the capabilities of a PC-driven market.

[Cacao]

Unfortunately most of the super huge AAA titles (COD, BF, AC, Fifa etc.) sell a lot more on consoles. If I remember correctly one of the recent COD games sold like 10+ million copies on each console and only 500k on the PC. So if you're looking at a developers POV, they will naturally give priority to the platform on which the will sell the most copies. Obviously this doesn't apply to all games, but it does apply to a lot.

[bchampion96]

Simply because that's where the mass market it :(

[.Jay]

There is something called porting.  Porting is when they develop a game and then make changes to allow it and work on another platform (in this case its the PC).  When developing a game, you are only computing what is in visual site of the user.  With that said, when developing a game for a console, you only develop for the functionality of that console.

 

Once a game is developed (and console big brand names outsell pc games by a long shot), it is then ported over to be used on the pc.  This technique allows the developers to change things so it works for both platforms.  What it does is it holds back the true potential of the game because it has to be ... lets call it ... "generic enough" where they don't waste too much time and resources to get both games functioning.

 

Maybe in another 10years consoles won't exist and you will be plugging your controllers into a computer.  Or consoles will be locked down computers and you can do work on them plus play games.  There is going to be a huge shift in the next 10yrs ...lets see what happens.

[WindyDays]

Unfortunately most of the super huge AAA titles (COD, BF, AC, Fifa etc.) sell a lot more on consoles. If I remember correctly one of the recent COD games sold like 10+ million copies on each console and only 500k on the PC. So if you're looking at a developers POV, they will naturally give priority to the platform on which the will sell the most copies. Obviously this doesn't apply to all games, but it does apply to a lot.

Simply because that's where the mass market it :(

Wow... I seriously did not know that the AAA titles on consoles outsold PCs by that much... I so guess it's more of a market driven thing then huh?

@detailedj Indeed I can see lots of change in the upcoming years, especially since the next gen consoles are now basically PC architecture anyway. In fact, would developing for PC then toning details down for console be a possibility? Either way, there will inevitably be a shift away from console gaming as a standard, it's only a matter of time :)

[rashdanml]

In fact, would developing for PC then toning details down for console be a possibility? Either way, there will inevitably be a shift away from console gaming as a standard, it's only a matter of time :)

At least one Xbox one developer has been confirmed to be doing that, and Square Enix will be doing it too. Develop for high end PC, then port it to Console due to the similar architecture, and make smaller changes for optimization. In fact, it'll make it that much easier for console exclusives to stop being exclusive and be ported to PC.

[Cacao]

Wow... I seriously did not know that the AAA titles on consoles outsold PCs by that much... I so guess it's more of a market driven thing then huh?

@detailedj Indeed I can see lots of change in the upcoming years, especially since the next gen consoles are now basically PC architecture anyway. In fact, would developing for PC then toning details down for console be a possibility? Either way, there will inevitably be a shift away from console gaming as a standard, it's only a matter of time :)

Well I was a bit off on my numbers, you can see more precise ones here:

 

http://www.vgchartz.com/article/250563/call-of-duty-black-ops-ii-sells-more-than-11m-units-opening-week/

 

That's for BO2 and MW3, obviously COD is a particular case because it receives quite a bit of hate in the PC community, however I wouldn't be surprised if you get similar results with other games.

[Jonathan Taken]

There's also the part where many PC gamers tend to pirate the games instead of buying them.