Why is it so hard to make a PC version?

[y8e]

Can't Rockstar finish the game, copy it and export it to console(ps3,x360) and then with the other copy export it to PC?

Whats the big deal?

[Pierre grove]

The bid deal is PC fans are "jumping the gun" Rockstar has never stated that a PC version wasnt going to be released

[heroe]

sales

[GTA-Fan-1]

it will come http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grand-Theft-Auto-P...3287078&sr=8-17

[Staten]

I think it's like this: When producing games for the PS3 and and Xbox 360, you only have to worry about two hardware setups; you know what you're working with, so that if you get it working on that setup, the game is going to run well on every console. With PCs, you have to work with a larger number of different setups, which is harder to write for and debug.

[ZeeKid2k10]

The Sales and too many people praite gta4 anyways

[RATEDR307]

Its not hard, its just not profitable. Rockstar makes 95% of their profit off of console sales. Most PC gamers I know pirate all their games, so I could see why theres not a market for PC games anymore.

[Jekay]

Its not hard, its just not profitable. Rockstar makes 95% of their profit off of console sales. Most PC gamers I know pirate all their games, so I could see why theres not a market for PC games anymore.

Stupid stupid stupid

[RATEDR307]

Its not hard, its just not profitable. Rockstar makes 95% of their profit off of console sales. Most PC gamers I know pirate all their games, so I could see why theres not a market for PC games anymore.

Stupid stupid stupid

The truth hurts. The fact of a matter is, 95% of PC games are pirated.

[Deffpony]

Its not that its hard but it takes resources to make the game on different platforms. You can bet on a PC release a bit later but right now they are just worried about getting the game on shelves in one way or another

[Raynos]

Didn't Dan say that they prefered Consoles? In the IGN Interview?

 

Here, I know I'm taking it out of context, but hey, thats what he said.

 

 

We love console games, and we think the format is perfect for what we're doing.

 

Plus. some common sense, They could make a PC version at the same time but why bother? Most of their sales comes from Consoles, thus they go for that.

It's pretty obvious that they will make a PC version, It'll just be coming out 6 months later, when the "steam" had died down a bit.

 

[JOSEPH X]

I think it's like this: When producing games for the PS3 and and Xbox 360, you only have to worry about two hardware setups; you know what you're working with, so that if you get it working on that setup, the game is going to run well on every console. With PCs, you have to work with a larger number of different setups, which is harder to write for and debug.

...and they have to decide whether that's financially viable. Also, keeping PC owners in the dark will not harm sales of the console version...not at all.

[faizanali]

Didn't Dan say that they prefered Consoles? In the IGN Interview?

 

Here, I know I'm taking it out of context, but hey, thats what he said.

 

 

We love console games, and we think the format is perfect for what we're doing.

 

Plus. some common sense, They could make a PC version at the same time but why bother? Most of their sales comes from Consoles, thus they go for that.

It's pretty obvious that they will make a PC version, It'll just be coming out 6 months later, when the "steam" had died down a bit.

WTF are you saying? STEAM will never die!, It is the reason why PC Gamers have left piracy.

http://kotaku.com/5944645/borderlands-2s-k...e-of-the-future

You might wanna see this :>www.borderlands2.com/loveletter/?x

[The_Mario_Man]

 

Didn't Dan say that they prefered Consoles? In the IGN Interview?

 

Here, I know I'm taking it out of context, but hey, thats what he said.

 

 

We love console games, and we think the format is perfect for what we're doing.

 

Plus. some common sense, They could make a PC version at the same time but why bother? Most of their sales comes from Consoles, thus they go for that.

It's pretty obvious that they will make a PC version, It'll just be coming out 6 months later, when the "steam" had died down a bit.

WTF are you saying? STEAM will never die!, It is the reason why PC Gamers have left piracy.

http://kotaku.com/5944645/borderlands-2s-k...e-of-the-future

You might wanna see this :>www.borderlands2.com/loveletter/?x

He didn't mean the program Steam, he meant it as in the excitement/hype for the game.

 

 

Can't Rockstar finish the game, copy it and export it to console(ps3,x360) and then with the other copy export it to PC?

Whats the big deal?

That sort of logic leads to horrible PC ports, which tend to upset a lot of people.

 

Making a game function right on an XBox or PS3 where everybody is guaranteed to have the same hardware is much different than making a PC copy, where you have to be able to account for a nearly limitless amount of hardware/software combinations, and optimize the game so it can run on as wide a range of setups as possible.

 

 

The truth hurts. The fact of a matter is, 95% of PC games are pirated.

And that's just extraordinarily wrong in pretty much every way.

Edited November 19, 2012 by The_Mario_Man

[PlaystationGamer266]

pc gamers pirate alot of games instead of buying them

[zalanith]

Can't Rockstar finish the game, copy it and export it to console(ps3,x360) and then with the other copy export it to PC?

Whats the big deal?

Quality

Sales

n Tradition .

 

they can use the copy export (pffft - export pfft) , the result = GTA IV.

 

pc never surpass console sale and playerbase (no matter what) , so - what else do you want - they already confirmed pc version now you want more greedy bastard , let them do the job . stop this ...

[cholesterol]

Its directx.

 

its the main cause of optimization problems especially console ports for PCs. IV is a perfect example of this. Consoles don't use directx thats why 7 year old hardware can run games like IV and still look and run good. Directx is unoptimized like sh#t. I wish there was viable replacement.

 

Basically Directx = Way more time to optimize = More money to port = Less profit

Edited November 19, 2012 by elburrosleftnut

[sivaG]

It'll be probably released on Q4 2013.

[dumbassbuffet]

When developing for consoles vs PC, you have to take into consideration that the PS3 version will run on one single configuration and the xbox version will run on one single configuration. the PC version on the other hand has to be able to run on different processor and memory configurations. it's not all about "copy paste exporting", it's more complicated, the consoles use different programming languages FFS.

[doutee7]

Yea if GTA V comes out for PC I wont even need to buy the game no more

I could get it with a blink of my eye.

[DjMiikkii]

Getting the game on PC is NOT the issue. The issue is that the amount of money Rockstar/TakeTwo makes on PC is probably nothing compared to how much they'll make on Playstation 3 & Xbxo 360. Due to piracy.

 

It is a business and they need to make money, even if they seem a little greedy.

[gen pepsi]

Its not hard, its just not profitable. Rockstar makes 95% of their profit off of console sales. Most PC gamers I know pirate all their games, so I could see why theres not a market for PC games anymore.

Not to mention they are a pack of whining losers.

[mkey82]

First of all, I'm glad to see PC gamers have successfully, for the most part, ignored the trolls in this thread.

Good work

 

As for the original question and technical feasibility of a game port:

I have no game development experience, but when you break down the problem, it should be fairly easy to understand.

 

Let's think about what you need to create a game:

1. the idea. This will contain everything in the domain of the creative spirit; be it the story, characters, appearance of characters and objects, interface design, layout of levels and maps, etc.

2. the game engine. If we consider it as a black box, the engine is a program which will produce some output (like image sequence and sound) in exchange for some inputs (the world data, scripts, user input.)

3. world data. This will contain maps, models, textures, texts plus all the ingame audio like music, sounds and speech

4. scripts. This refers to some engine specific language which is usually to issue instructions to the engine. Basically, this is the heart of the game, everything "fun" will be coded in the script.

 

Now lets see, once all of this is complete for one platform, what does it take to transfer everything to some other platform.

1. the ideas have already been fleshed out, hence there is no need for additional work.

2. the game engine is where most of the work needs to be done, you need to adapt it to the other system. This step is what makes or breaks the ported game. You need to adhere to various problems, like the underlying operating system, different file formats and user input methods.

3. world data, very much alike the ideas, has been flashed out and if it took you several years to create the map, for instance, it's going to take only a fragment of that time and effort to port everything to some other system.

Some data types will need to be converted to others, since various platforms may support different formats of compression etc; textures may need to reduced down to fit on some systems, some goes for the models. But as long as you have everything ready in the higher quality, it's comparatively easy to "cut" it down and cater to less powerful systems.

4. the script should have been written in some in house programming language and as such should need recompiling, with some tweaks.

 

In the case of GTAV and the PC version, this is what this boils down to

1. done

2. practically done, since they previously ported the game engine for GTAIV and worked on it further for MP3, to some extent LA Noire as well.

3. practically done, some of the screenshots have proven that the content already exists in the high resolution form, which only makes sense. Textures convert easily to lower resolution variants while the other way around is not so easily attainable.

4. I believe this bit should be mostly prepared, they'll have to adapt to some specificities of the PC platform, maybe some changes in multiplayer etc.

5. additional content, like the clip editor may need some actual work, comparing to the others.

 

In conclusion, may smaller game companies managed to pull multi platform titles. While GTA is always setting the bar, I seriously doubt R* would be unable to allocate a dozen people to work on the PC version concurrently with others. But they obviously simply do not want to do that.

 

As far as feasibility is concerned, there are three major factors: porting production, testing and costs of third party technologies.

1. IMO the porting costs are comparatively low when you consider the total costs of producing a game as large as the typical GTA.

2. testing requires substantial resources, I can only imagine, but I believe R* has saved a lot in this regard on GTAIV so this time around they could actually give something back.

3. third party technologies, like the copy protection methods, are of questionable efficiency and can be quite expensive, in excess of a couple of hundreds of thousands USD.

[Dornon2]

it will come http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grand-Theft-Auto-P...3287078&sr=8-17

Well, considering it says XP as a platform, I don't think this is any sign.

[mkey82]

There are no reasons one should expect GTAV will refuse/be unable to run on XP.

[DlZZEE]

Do you people realise how many PC threads there already are? You ain't changing!

Edited November 19, 2012 by DizzeeXL

[kudoboi]

There are no reasons one should expect GTAV will refuse/be unable to run on XP.

many games don't work on XP or at least the new ones.

[R.F.]

piracy, piracy, piracy

[reform]

 

I think it's like this: When producing games for the PS3 and and Xbox 360, you only have to worry about two hardware setups; you know what you're working with, so that if you get it working on that setup, the game is going to run well on every console.  With PCs, you have to work with a larger number of different setups, which is harder to write for and debug.

 

 

When developing for consoles vs PC, you have to take into consideration that the PS3 version will run on one single configuration and the xbox version will run on one single configuration. the PC version on the other hand has to be able to run on different processor and memory configurations. it's not all about "copy paste exporting", it's more complicated, the consoles use different programming languages FFS.

 

 

Making a game function right on an XBox or PS3 where everybody is guaranteed to have the same hardware is much different than making a PC copy, where you have to be able to account for a nearly limitless amount of hardware/software combinations, and optimize the game so it can run on as wide a range of setups as possible.

 

 

All of this. The PC version will come, but they're not going to hold back console releases on account of the PC release.

[Celticfang]

Its directx.

 

its the main cause of optimization problems especially console ports for PCs. IV is a perfect example of this. Consoles don't use directx thats why 7 year old hardware can run games like IV and still look and run good. Directx is unoptimized like sh#t. I wish there was viable replacement.

 

Basically Directx = Way more time to optimize = More money to port = Less profit

What, you think OpenGL is better optimized? (It is about the same, what was the last AAA game with OGL support?)

 

Also, for everyone crying piracy....do the research