Wondering why some Games aren't available on PC

Zyni

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Nov 7, 2014
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I don't know what it takes to make a game on PC as well as console, but it seems like it would be profitable to make both types. My husband was recently commenting that a game he wanted is only available on console, but he'd rather play on PC than Playstation, so now he doesn't want it at all. I was looking around and found lots of similar complaints, even petitions to have this game available on PC. Apparently, past iterations were.

Maybe this is why PC gaming is supposedly "dying." People who can't get the format they want would rather just not play at all.
 
PC gaming opens a whole new division of doors for a gaming company. They need servers for multiplayer games, and expensive strong ones to, they need a new set of coders for the website interface, and a division strictly for game security, for everything from client accounts to game code hacking. A lot of low level gaming companies just dont want to deal with the headaches that come with PC gaming. PLUS it is way easier to get a hacked PC game than a copied playstation game.
 
Porting from consoles to PCs and vice versa is not as easy as it seems.

Making a console game available on PCs means you open yourself up to a multitude of hardware issues. You no longer know the graphic limits of the player, their ram, screen resolution etc etc.. You also have to account for input devices, where most PC games use a mouse and keyboard strokes. For some games, that part is easy, but for many using a keyboard is not ideal.

To port from PC to consoles is generally easier, but the hardest part is the input devices.
 
Well there's also company contracts to take into account. For example there's usually agreements between studios and console companies to make console only exclusives which is why we'll never see a PC port of the same game. It's simple business. Console companies want to stay competitive and the way to do that is to make console exclusive games so people end up purchasing the console and the game. Without exclusives, a company like Nintendo will completely fold. Sony and Microsoft can take the loss of their game division, it won't be pretty but since both companies have other areas that they've invested in, they can survive the loss more so than Nintendo.

Console companies don't really make their profits off the consoles themselves, they make their money off of royalties that come from games that are developed and sold. In fact Sony operated at a loss when they manufactured the PS3, but made up the losses through the game sales. Nintendo makes a small profit from their consoles because of cheaper, lower powered hardware, but the profit isn't that big of a margin compared to the money that the games bring in. Then with DLC and online re-releases of classic games, companies can continue to make money.

With the growing market for cross-platforming, we're seeing higher competition because they're not only competing with each other but now also with the revived PC market. To stay afloat, they are trying to crack down and develop more console exclusive titles to compete with Steam and the huge indie game market that's opened up PC gaming to thousands of titles for cheap prices. Not only that, but indie companies have more of a chance of entering the industry through PC than consoles because there's less overhead and less clamoring to gain approval by Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft.
 
Consoles are far more profitable than PCs after you take into consideration things like servers and other requirements that are more expensive for PC titles than consoles. Then again, why is this even a question? There are plenty of PC-only games that you won't find on consoles. You've got exclusivity, different development cycles, and so many other factors to deal with.
 
Well I agree with many answers here. The PC versions have to be you know maintained with servers and many other things, so making the games on console is easier and you can make more money. Some games in my opinion should not be on console, like the sims. I think that it is better on the PC. I am a console and PC gamer myself, so there are some games I look forward to playing on PC while others I look forward to playing on the console.

You will find many games that are on the PC that you will not see on console at all and vise versa. You know there are pros and cons to everything. :)
 
I think a big part of the reason why some games don't make it to PC or are really badly ported to PC is because the big developers are scared of game piracy. They don't think it profitable to make PC games, which is sad and untrue. As long as you make a good game.

And sometimes it's got to do with the console companies making deals with game devs to make their game exclusive to a specific console.
 
I think a big part of the reason why some games don't make it to PC or are really badly ported to PC is because the big developers are scared of game piracy. They don't think it profitable to make PC games, which is sad and untrue. As long as you make a good game.

And sometimes it's got to do with the console companies making deals with game devs to make their game exclusive to a specific console.
As you said, good games DO sell really well on PC. The problem is, big developers don't make polished games, no wonder people are torrenting AC, Watch Dogs and other games. They are a broken mess, a few years ago they'd call them alpha builds. Now, they are finished AAA games for 60$.
Look at Steam, it's flourishing. They proved PC gaming is something you have to account for. The constant sales with at least 50% off, you can't really see that on consoles.