Only 40,000 "GTA IV -PC" games were sold in the US

[GamerJerome]

i also bought the game for 50 euro, but after this i have learn wait some few months then the game is cheaper and maby more patches so it runs better and its then also cheaper to 2 in 1

[GamerShotgun]

One question... If developers back in the good ol' PS2 days released games on PC, PS2, and other consoles, then wouldn't they lose income without a PC port? Because as far as I know, I'd rather release a game with multiplatform appearance than with exclusivity to ONE platform.

 

If they'd give a sh*t about us PC gamers and release the game the same day as the console versions, we would have the chance to choose the one we prefer to buy. But this way, every single gamer is forced to buy ONE version of it, which means when they release a PC version, they don't get better results because

 

1., They didn't put any unique stuff in the game, apart from this new Video Editor thing which gives absolutely NOTHING to the gameplay. Therefore a person with logical thinking won't buy the other port, because it simply havn't got anything new to offer, and isn't too different from the console version...

 

2., There's already a version out there, which have been bought by many users who won't spend money on buying it, instead they download the other version.

 

3., Forcing this DRM thing is f*ckING lame. If they don't realize this, well... then PC gaming really IS dead.

[mkey82]

then PC gaming really IS dead.

It's not dead, it's just taking a nap while some game devs get their act together.

[ArecBalrin]

I like the new angry Charlie. More please.

 

Just a reminder to people about the importance of the PC to western developers, even if those developers don't realise it. No series made by a western developer has been successful without the PC, even if the PC was treated like garbage and accounted for fewer sales(Halo, GTA, Rainbow Six) . Only companies like Nintendo, Namco, Konami, etc have ever made lasting console-only franchises. Westerners just don't get something unless they have the PC in mind somewhere. It's an unexplained quirk but it's consistent.

 

Big case in point would be Rare's Perfect Dark; had they maintained Nintendo-exclusitivity or developed for PC, this uber-competent developer would not have ruined their own series which looked so promising when it was first out. While doing Nintendo-only games they borrowed a lot of the style of Nintendo games that kept quality up. It all fell apart and now many that worked on that game are responsible for the atrocious Haze.

 

The only good thing about Microsoft's current strategy with the PC and Xbox is that it is doomed to fail and those responsible will feel the economics consequences of it so badly that it will be a long time before anyone dares try it again. It will also be felt by games developers that fail to treat the PC with respect, especially the PC owners, but ESPECIALLY the companies that make PC hardware. The chips inside the consoles are made by these companies and they make most of their money from PCs. I see PC enthusiasts, but not console enthusiasts; certainly not ones that spend as much money on parts are PC enthusiasts. If AMD/ATI, nVidia and Intel notice they're getting hit in the pocket, Microsoft and Sony can go elsewhere when they want next-gen chips.

[DML]

Lets have a look at a few snippets from Peter Zetterberg head honcho at Microsoft Games Studios :-

 

 

If we launch a game that is on 360 and PC simultaneously, we basically shoot ourselves in the foot by allowing the German market to choose to play the PC version – because they are more likely to buy that than spend their money on the Xbox 360

 

...

I knew that guy (Zetterberg) was an inferior dogball-licker, but I'd never read that particular gem from him before. Cheers for highlighting it.

 

What we have with Peter Zetturdberg is, to put it as simple as possible, the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Microsoft's real intentions with their "ventures" in the gaming industry.

 

Back in 2001, they (Microsoftcock) took it upon themselves to develop and release their very own "PlayStation" - titled the XBox - to compete with the PlayStation 2. Strangely enough, since that time, gaming in-general (not just the PC) has had a significant drop in the quality of releases across the board. The XBox is what caused this initially. Why? Because it was a dead-set mirror image of the PlayStation 2...only with different hardware and controller shape, and a different company to cheer it on.

 

From the initial fighting and bickering between Sony and Microsoft, it has erupted into the pathetic, immature, yawn-spawning sh*t-slinging that we see today between these two corporate sluts. I'm being wildly-serious here. The way these companies have conducted themselves...the way their employees...their representatives...have gone about their business is beyond laughable. Their "war" is so ridiculously-petty, immature, and sh*t-filled, that it makes children fighting over a piece of candy look like Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris.

 

I mean just read this part of the quote...

 

 

...we basically shoot ourselves in the foot by allowing the German market to choose to play...

 

Now I'll subtract a few words and show you how corporate, shifty, and down-right anti-gaming the comment really is...

 

 

...shoot ourselves in the foot by allowing the market to choose...

 

CC raised the major key-f*cking-point as well: Microsoft f*cked-up (for lack of a better word) Ensemble Studios. They made a mockery of the entire First-Person Shooter GAME TYPE with their f*cking Halo sh*t. "oooo look! our xbox (Microsoft PlayStation) can run a FPS game...!!! aren't we special?"

 

I've made quite a few posts about the direction Microsoft is taking with their operating system(s), and the general theory I have is that they're trying their utmost to convert the PC into a sort-of gaming console where you can choose the hardware, but they dictate the software. Why would this be different to what Windows is now? Well because they've shown that they're trying to get recurring income from PC gamers from their (what looks to be) constantly-renewing Windows OS. First we have Windows 98SE and XP etc, with their maximum DirectX version of 9c, and to run 10, you have to get Vista. What's the bet DirectX 11, 12, 13 is going to require Windows 7, 8, 69?

 

Microsoft is hot on the path to force game developers to include native support for THE USB VERSION OF THEIR XBOX CONTROLLER in order for them to be part of Games for Windows. GfW is fast-becoming like Microsoft's own little console...or they'd like to think that it is. USB XBox controllers, playing games directly from the disc, using a site (Games for Windows Live...which plasters "XBox" sh*t everywhere) in order to get full multiplayer "support" from specific games...talk about utter crap!

 

Some great big monstrous freak-creature from the depths of all steamy sh*t hell, needs to squat down and take a big huge vial diarrhea dump, directly on to the faces of Zetturdberg (Microsoftcock), Gates (Microsoftcock), Sweeney (Epic), Molyneux (Bullfrog > Lionhead > Microsoft), Tretton (Sony Computer Entertainment), and the Houser Sisters (Rockstar Games). Once that same massive creature gets over its diarrhea, it can then take a big hard heavy sh*t on the building(s) at Microsoft's Seattle HQ, Sony Computer Entertainment's whorehouse in Tokyo, and the site of the Houser Sisters' alien sexship landing.

 

Special toilet paper should be printed with the faces of the gaming industry f*ckups on it, and everyone could wipe their asses with them. On second thoughts, I don't even think they'd be worthy of that...wiping my ass with Zetturdberg's face!? No thanks!

[UndeadDevil]

I can confirm that. I pirated it too but after I bought it and only because people began to complain and I was afraid that I spent money for nothing.

Problems with internet in the game, non-working cracks, lower FPS etc. License version - the only way to play this game.

Bollocks, people. I use a third party loader and it works even better then the original version, if nothing it loads faster. As I can safely remove securom and don't have that asshole crash my game (it did it a number of times while I was starting the game) and also I can keep the original DVD stored safely in it's box. In combination with xliveless the game runs with zero additional clutter in the background.

 

OK, I never actually tried with the pirated copy (downloaded ISO's), but I don't think that it's any different then the retail version.

Are you high? You said bollocks and then confirmed what he said in reply to what I said.

 

Pirate Version throttles the game (For me it was about 15fps difference!) because you are not signed into RGSC and using a Offline Xbox Live Profile, installing XLiveless cures this!

[qwertz123]

 

Pirate Version throttles the game (For me it was about 15fps difference!) because you are not signed into RGSC and using a Offline Xbox Live Profile, installing XLiveless cures this!

what bullsh*t is this? u can play offline (social club as well xlive) and thats intended and supported by r*. not everyone has a net access dude.

 

and btw: the first cracks by all the dick groups were horrible and did mess up more than just bypassing securom. if u look for the "proper" crack u can see that he just replaces the securom launcher but everything else is untouched: no need to replace gta4.exe. so i fail to see the reason why there should be a performance difference. maybe just your feeling or placebos?

[mkey82]

If AMD/ATI, nVidia and Intel notice they're getting hit in the pocket, Microsoft and Sony can go elsewhere when they want next-gen chips.

Hardware manufacturers have load of pull and many people seem to forget that. That PCGA would be a good thing through which they could make some waves, but the MS presence sinks that ship like 100 ton rock tied to an old stow and thrown into the Marianas Trench.

 

 

I knew that guy (Zetterberg) was an inferior dogball-licker, but I'd never read that particular gem from him before.

Yeah, soon after that statement he was called in for an overhaul and had his brain reconditioned.

 

 

Are you high? You said bollocks and then confirmed what he said in reply to what I said.

I'm not high but the question is are you stupid?

 

I'm assuming that you said

 

 

Not signed into RGSC + Offline GFWL Profile = lower FPS. This was the case for me anyways. (Yes I pirate then buy, especally for those games I can't return if they're crap/don't work on my machine!)

And I said bollocks to that because it's a fabrication of a twisted mind.

 

The "version" you can find on the web is the same version you can find on DVD's. So, if you apply a third party loader and xliveless you get rid of Securom, GFWL and RGSC which in fact makes the game load faster and run more stable (as I didn't have any more crashes after I did the above).

 

So how come am I agreeing with you, fool? What are you talking about, besieds admitting of being a pirate?

[emcax24]

whats wrong with being a pirate?

 

i pirate all the time. save me from wasting money on sh*tty games. i have gta4. i havent played it really. aside from firing it up to do a benchmark and see if its playable yet, or making a video in the editor from running around shooting cops i dont touch the game. maybe one day in the future there will be some patch where i can play the game at an acceptable framerate on my computer that plays everything else maxed out with 60+fps. theres no reason a 3ghz core2duo, 3 gigs of ram, and a HD4850 shouldnt be able to play this game 30fps solid with all the settings on 0 ZERO. this game is badly ported. worse than that sh*tty spiderman web of shadows. best spiderman game ever made btw. but too bad they f*cked up porting it and you get a headache and throw your controller through your monitor because despite running at a breezy 60fps it freezes and pauses every 2 seconds. who wants to play sh*ttily ported games on your pc you spent good money to upgrade on top of the $60 you shelled out for a dvd that costs 5 cents to print and package.

 

 

so f*ck all you morons who perpetuate bad ports. you go out and keep paying money for broken games. i got fed up with that some 10-12 years ago when the ps2 became big and they started developing everything for the ps2 first then giving the scraps and leftovers to the PC. lick my big hairy balls. i try before i buy.

 

 

back to playing tf2. a game worth the $50 i gave valve for it.

[Dreakon]

Let me guess, the game sold poorly because of piracy? Spare me...

 

 

 

Almost four times the sales.

 

Also, that was the first torrent that came up. Who knows how many other downloads there were?

Who knows how many people will actually finish downloading that because it's a MASSIVE 14 gigs for a game people seemed to review rather negatively due to poor porting and performance issues.

 

Who knows how many people will actually finish because public trackers like that tend to give off 10-20kb/s and tend to come to a screeching halt randomly throughout the downloading process.

 

Who knows how many of those people would've actually bought the game had piracy not existed.

 

Who knows how many of those people's computers could actually run the damn game at a respectable speed. Who knows how many of those people would've been able to start the game at all.

 

Who knows how many people were downloading for the sake of testing the game to see how well it runs because Rockstar seemed to lie a smidge about the requirements (future proofing?) and they had no other means of knowing how well it'll run without slapping down $50.

 

Who knows how many of those people already bought the game and was downloading for countless reasons (trying a cracked version for potential performance improvements, downloading to help seed it to others, etc) or perhaps had every intention of buying the game, and did buy it after trying the game.

 

Who knows how many of those downloaders were console owners that never intended to purchase GTAIV PC since they already owned the game, but wanted to try it anyways.

 

From experience, I can also say that is probably the largest torrent you'll find, respectively. I'd say probably 3500 of those leechers will never actually finish downloading the game. Seriously.

Edited January 23, 2009 by Dreakon

[Sunrise Driver]

The game is awesome. Best in 2008. Port is FINE. With normal PC controls that you can change. With a great graphics even on medium. With Replay Editor and Independence FM. Set all on medium and the resolution too if your game doesn't run smoothly. A lot of gamers play on consoles with sh*tty graphics and they don't complain.

Developers deserves money for this game.

 

Wanna see bad port? Play Saints Row 2.

Or Shaune White Snowboarding. Perfomance is fine but the max resolution is 1024*768, you can't customize controls and you need 3 hands to play it on keaboard.

 

 

[MonkeyMhz]

I wonder how many times was the game pirated.

Less than it deserves?. lol jk.

 

Seriously GTAIV was a Bully blunder. They needa step up next time and do a better job. GTAIII was ok, GTA Vice was decent, GTA San Andreas worked well for me, however I heard some people had problems. GTAIV, its a overall disaster until u spend hours getting it to work or work right and then its just somewhat enjoyable.

 

And to be honest the things that pissed me off most about this game could have easily been fixed, all I ask next time is that they at least give us more graphical options.

 

R*: OH BUT PC GAMERS WILL GET CONFUSED WITH OPTIONS!.

Me: No we wont, since most PC gamers have a somewhat decent knowledge of computers or game settings, and if not just make a auto detect mode/idiot proof.

 

Honestly theres some game company's out there that should just hit rock bottom and learn how to make quality instead of quantity.

[DML]

 

Sony expects that its gaming division will lose up to $338 million, attributed to lower than expected sales.

Sounds good to me. See, this financial situation is not all bad news. All we need to happen now, is for Microsoft's gaming division to lose out big-time as well.

 

f*cking idiot twats, for sending GTA (and the gaming industry) down the path it is heading down now.

 

Steve Balllickmer at Microsoft has already slashed some jobs, but I hope he and his company loses out big-time.

 

TWATS.

[RedEnd]

I pretty enjoyed my copy. In israel there is always humor, there was a sticker with "Suited for ages 3+"..

GTA IV is sure a game you should buy, its my opinion.