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Why aren't there more AAA PC exclusives?

Why aren't there more AAA PC exclusives?

  • lack of first party games from companies like Valve or Epic

    Votes: 38 19.3%
  • consoles are more popular

    Votes: 74 37.6%
  • not enough people on PC with powerful enough hardware

    Votes: 52 26.4%
  • other (comment below)

    Votes: 33 16.8%

  • Total voters
    197

winjer

Gold Member
Yeah, I suppose NFTs aren't quite as bad as Star Citizen. At least you can sell them and get some of your money back.

That is an exaggeration.

I played and beat the first CoH on an absolute trash fire of a PC that was definitely worse than an Xbox 360 in just about every way. It ran fine.

You clearly didn't understand what it means OoO and branching.

You keep going on about how these games have higher development and marketing budgets, but do you actually know the numbers for any of them? If the answer is no, how do you know how high or low their budgets were compared to other games? Are you just guessing?

They clearly are not small, low cost titles.
These are very clearly games with a lot of money invested.

I mean, they only ever publish their own games. 13 in total over the past decade. To put things into perspective, Devolver Digital, one of the publishers Wikipedia lists as mid-sized, published that many games in 2022 alone. They are a small publisher, and that's being generous.

Devolver Digital is the king of publishing indies. Almost all of their games are small indie titles.
No comparison there.
 

Amiga

Member
Ever heard of Valorant? Escape from Tarkov? Bannerlord? Total War?

These games are hugely popular, but aren't discussed here because they're not 3rd person cinematic action adventure games.
Yes but why? Consoles have PC architecture so little reason not port a game. not the same as before the PS3 era when the contrast in architecture was big and many PC games couldn't be effectively ported.
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
Yes but why? Consoles have PC architecture so little reason not port a game. not the same as before the PS3 era when the contrast in architecture was big and many PC games couldn't be effectively ported.

I guess you could play these games on controllers but it would be clunky af
 

Hari Seldon

Member
I mean I use PC for all multiplayer and the majority of my single player gaming is strategy games which are pc only. I don’t really want AAA single player exclusives as you would have to limit the budget far more than releasing on all platforms. Exclusives are for the console warriors.
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
The only PC exclusives are things that just don't work on consoles because of inputs or lack of hardware power
I don't know, consoles also took that away by making FPS gaming popular with a controller,and it also suffers a lot from low fps input latency.

Developers battled that with heavy auto aim, but yeah that's also pretty bad.
 

Amiga

Member
I guess you could play these games on controllers but it would be clunky af
control compatibility is the main issue for games like ARMA. but there is no advantage for a developer to ignore consoles otherwise. if Sony open up the platform like an android device the number of PC exclusives could go down to zero. (That day Valve would also open a Steam store on PS5 :messenger_beaming: ).
 

The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
I guess you could play these games on controllers but it would be clunky af
What I (hopefully) think he means is, now that more console games supports native keyboard and mouse, then why not get these games on consoles as well.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
control compatibility is the main issue for games like ARMA. but there is no advantage for a developer to ignore consoles otherwise. if Sony open up the platform like an android device the number of PC exclusives could go down to zero. (That day Valve would also open a Steam store on PS5 :messenger_beaming: ).
If sony did that i'd be the first in line to buy a ps5, it'd essentially be a pre-built gaming pc with a good price after all.
But it ain't happening, not any time soon at least.
 
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That is an exaggeration.
You bought into the game, didn't you? No shame in admitting it if you've learned your lesson :messenger_winking:

You clearly didn't understand what it means OoO and branching.
I think I have a pretty good idea. Any reason why you'd think the Xbox 360 would do worse at either of them than a single core P4 from 2002?

They clearly are not small, low cost titles.
These are very clearly games with a lot of money invested.
So you really are just guessing.

Devolver Digital is the king of publishing indies. Almost all of their games are small indie titles.
No comparison there.
I mean, it's not like Bohemian have been churning out major releases either. Aside from DayZ and possibly Vigor it's mostly little experiments, failed F2P projects and mobile cash grabs going all the way back to ARMA 3 in 2013.

But fine, let's go with another one. 505 Games. 70 games published in the past decade, including titles like Payday 2, Rocket League, Control and Death Stranding. Or how about Paradox? You like them, right? 42 games published in the past decade. Lots of well known definitely-not-indie titles by well-known developers there. Or WB games. Too lazy to count them, to be honest, but you know the games they make. Batman, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, LOTR etc.

Actually, pretty much all publishers on that list make Bohemian look tiny in comparison.
 

winjer

Gold Member
You bought into the game, didn't you? No shame in admitting it if you've learned your lesson :messenger_winking:

Absolutely not. Never bought it or played it.
But the thing is, someone who bought it still got a half finished game.
Anyone who buys an NFT just gets an encrypted link to a jpeg.
So someone who bought into Star Citizen at least got something in return.

I think I have a pretty good idea. Any reason why you'd think the Xbox 360 would do worse at either of them than a single core P4 from 2002?

I already explained you. The Pentium 4 and A64 have a complex OoO. The Cell and Zenon are in-order.

So you really are just guessing.

Look at an indie game, then look at the games I listed.
Do you really think they have the same budget? Seriously.

I mean, it's not like Bohemian have been churning out major releases either. Aside from DayZ and possibly Vigor it's mostly little experiments, failed F2P projects and mobile cash grabs going all the way back to ARMA 3 in 2013.

But fine, let's go with another one. 505 Games. 70 games published in the past decade, including titles like Payday 2, Rocket League, Control and Death Stranding. Or how about Paradox? You like them, right? 42 games published in the past decade. Lots of well known definitely-not-indie titles by well-known developers there. Or WB games. Too lazy to count them, to be honest, but you know the games they make. Batman, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, LOTR etc.

Actually, pretty much all publishers on that list make Bohemian look tiny in comparison.

Bohemia might publish few games, but what they did, sold millions. Both DayZ and Arma.
 
Absolutely not. Never bought it or played it.
But the thing is, someone who bought it still got a half finished game.
Anyone who buys an NFT just gets an encrypted link to a jpeg.
So someone who bought into Star Citizen at least got something in return.
What you get when you buy an NFT doesn't matter at all. What matters is that you can resell it as long as you can find someone dumb enough to take it off your hands. Can't do that with Star Citizen.

I already explained you. The Pentium 4 and A64 have a complex OoO. The Cell and Zenon are in-order.
I mean, you can speculate about this all day. I think we both know that this game would never have ended up on consoles in any case. CoH 3 is coming out in a few months, and I'm sure you'd agree that modern consoles could handle that one, at least. Yet it's not coming to consoles. Why do you think that is?

Look at an indie game, then look at the games I listed.
Do you really think they have the same budget? Seriously.
I never said they had the same budget as an indie game. What was that about strawmen again?

Here's a thought: what if it's possible for a game to be neither AAA nor indie? AA games are a thing. That Wikipedia article you linked even specifically lists DayZ as an example of a typical AA game.

Bohemia might publish few games, but what they did, sold millions. Both DayZ and Arma.
And all those other publishers sold even more. They're still bigger.
 

winjer

Gold Member
What you get when you buy an NFT doesn't matter at all. What matters is that you can resell it as long as you can find someone dumb enough to take it off your hands. Can't do that with Star Citizen.

Considering how much money people have lost with NFTs, that is not an advantage.
At best you are recovering a percentage of what you paid.

I mean, you can speculate about this all day. I think we both know that this game would never have ended up on consoles in any case. CoH 3 is coming out in a few months, and I'm sure you'd agree that modern consoles could handle that one, at least. Yet it's not coming to consoles. Why do you think that is?

Modern consoles have a Zen2 CPU, with a good OoO.
Very different from the In-order CPUs of the X360 and PS3.

I never said they had the same budget as an indie game. What was that about strawmen again?

Here's a thought: what if it's possible for a game to be neither AAA nor indie? AA games are a thing. That Wikipedia article you linked even specifically lists DayZ as an example of a typical AA game.

And all those other publishers sold even more. They're still bigger.

So they list DayZ, which I didn't list originally, as a AA game. But are all the other games just AA?
Dayz I can understand that it isn't, as it's a mod turned into a game.

The Total War series is so big they even license IP from other franchises, such as Warhammer.
 
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Considering how much money people have lost with NFTs, that is not an advantage.
At best you are recovering a percentage of what you paid.
And with Star Citizen you're recovering nothing. It's like paying full price for a half-assembled car that you can't even strip for parts.

Modern consoles have a Zen2 CPU, with a good OoO.
Very different from the In-order CPUs of the X360 and PS3.
You didn't answer my question. You said CoH 1 would have been on consoles if they could have run it. Modern consoles can run CoH 3, but it's still staying on PC. What's the reason for that? And how can you be sure that wasn't also the reason back in 2006?

So they list DayZ, which I didn't list originally, as a AA game. But are all the other games just AA?
Dayz I can understand that it isn't, as it's a mod turned into a game.

The Total War series is so big they even license IP from other franchises, such as Warhammer.
That's just about the worst possible example you could have picked. Warhammer whores out their IP to just about anyone, to the point where a huge portion of the games using it are low quality shovelware.

 

winjer

Gold Member
And with Star Citizen you're recovering nothing. It's like paying full price for a half-assembled car that you can't even strip for parts.

I'm not saying Star Citizen is a good game. Just that it's not as bad as NFTs.

You didn't answer my question. You said CoH 1 would have been on consoles if they could have run it. Modern consoles can run CoH 3, but it's still staying on PC. What's the reason for that? And how can you be sure that wasn't also the reason back in 2006?

I said consoles in that generation had limited capabilities to run complex AI, like in strategy games. And that is one of the reason why so few strategy games are ported to consoles.
The other being lack of interest from console players.
But just because console players don't care about strategy, doesn't mean several of these games are not AAA. On PC strategy games are a big market, with a few AAA games.

That's just about the worst possible example you could have picked. Warhammer whores out their IP to just about anyone, to the point where a huge portion of the games using it are low quality shovelware.



Once again, just because you don't like something, doesn't mean it's bad.
Plenty of franchises also have bad games. LORT and Harry Potter also have bad games, but that doesn't mean everything is bad.
 
I'm not saying Star Citizen is a good game. Just that it's not as bad as NFTs.
You're free to believe whatever you want, of course.

But just because console players don't care about strategy, doesn't mean several of these games are not AAA. On PC strategy games are a big market, with a few AAA games.
I agree, but I still don't think Company of Heroes is one of them. I'd only really consider Starcraft, Warcraft and Age of Empires to be AAA. C&C too, if you ignore the later games.

Once again, just because you don't like something, doesn't mean it's bad.
Plenty of franchises also have bad games. LORT and Harry Potter also have bad games, but that doesn't mean everything is bad.
I've said it before, but I guess I'll have to say it again: I don't think these games are bad. I think they're all pretty good, actually, and I've said as much in this thread, although you seem hell-bent on ignoring that and assuming the opposite. My only point is that using the fact that Total War scored the Warhammer license says absolutely nothing about the game's AAA status, since they're handing those licenses out like candy.

I think I'm beginning to see what your problem is. You equate questioning a game's AAA status with criticism of its quality. I write "I wouldn't consider these games to be AAA", you read "This guy thinks the games I like aren't big enough. They're not important enough. They're not good enough". It's almost like you're taking this personally.

Do yourself a favor and stop it. The AAA label is not a sign of quality and a lot of the games bearing it are shit. You could easily argue that they're having a negative effect on the industry overall. It's okay to like or prefer AA games and even indies. A good game is a good game.
 
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Guilty_AI

Member
you two still at it?

If you really want to know, labels like AAA and indie are severely outdated and in dire need of some revisions.
 
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64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
I always wondered why wouldn't hardware makers like nvidia, intel or amd fund some pc exclusive game development? It's not a big investment for someone that big and it would make the platform much more interesting, even exotic in a way, like it used to be.

That wouldn't stop other multiplatform games to shine on pc.

Nvidia should have interest in something ultra high-end existing in pc space only, because you'll need their hardware and the platform as a whole would become much more interesting without explaination - people would just have to look, like in the old days. It would be very clear that the game is more advanced than anything on the market, either graphically or in different aspects of game design. Even if it doesn't sell like console exclusive games (of course it won't), it makes sense because you're making a statement and showing the way. It's an investment in current and future pc gamers.

They don't need know-how, they just need money to fund some awesome new pc centric studios. I really miss the days when pc meant REALLY cutting edge game development in every way. Just thinking about nvidia's money makes me dizzy, imagine what could they do with just a few games over a few years as an example.

There has to be a way, maybe even Valve and Epic could help.
This is exactly what I suggested in my post. Companies like Nvidia, AMD and valve should start funding AAA PC exclusives so that we can get more of the PC exclusives that we did in the 90s and 2000s. That removes the budget concerns and gives an incentive for game developers to start prioritizing PC as a platform again.

It doesn't make sense how at the height of its popularity PC gets the least AAA exclusives.
 

Shubh_C63

Member
Most people don't have high end PCs, did you guys not saw the steam survey.

Only like 2% of people had 3080. Most had below mid tier cards like 1660 which is same as PS4 i think.
 

Hugare

Member
Go see Steam hardware stats

Most people playing on PC dont have top of the line hardware. In fact, they aren't even close to PS5/Series X hardware.

So why wouldnt them make the game multiplatform anyway?

Doesn't make sense financially

Crysis was lighting in a bottle
 

Haggard

Banned
It doesn't make sense how at the height of its popularity PC gets the least AAA exclusives.
exclusives for a platform without the closed ecosystem of a singular platform holder make absolutely zero sense.
Only like 2% of people had 3080. Most had below mid tier cards like 1660 which is same as PS4 i think.
The PS4 GPU is in the GTX 760 range, The Pro GPU is indeed comparable to a 1660 though.
 
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The_Mike

I cry about SonyGaf from my chair in Redmond, WA
Most people don't have high end PCs, did you guys not saw the steam survey.

Only like 2% of people had 3080. Most had below mid tier cards like 1660 which is same as PS4 i think.
Theres still lower tier cards performing as well as next gen consoles.
 
This is exactly what I suggested in my post. Companies like Nvidia, AMD and valve should start funding AAA PC exclusives so that we can get more of the PC exclusives that we did in the 90s and 2000s. That removes the budget concerns and gives an incentive for game developers to start prioritizing PC as a platform again.

It doesn't make sense how at the height of its popularity PC gets the least AAA exclusives.
What incentive would AMD or Nvidia have to fund games if people won't even need their cards to play them? And what would be in it for Valve? Why would they pay for exclusivity if games are just gonna end up on their store anyway?

Exclusivity is bad, and having more exclusives isn't a good thing. They only benefits corporations, not consumers.
 

amigastar

Member
We're not rabid fanboys. We're not blind football fans. We don't care for "exclusives".
Yeah, but usually exclusives on PC are exclusive because of better controls (m&k) although it's not impossible to release the game also on console like Arma Reforger shows.
 
The real answer is because there is no deal in place to keep a game pc exclusive since pc is an open platform. For instance, when Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo want a 3rd party exclusive game, they make a deal with the developer, sometimes its a deal to keep the game exclusive for a certain amount of time, other times they might fund the entire development of the game and make it permanently exclusive.
 

Chris23

Member
The goal of exclusives is to pull customers into an eco-system, PC just isn't a centralized market like a console. PC is about having choices and not restricting access to games.
 
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