Rein: PC gaming has "shot by" consoles

[pendragonuk 0]

Epic's Mark Rein has talked up the importance of PC to the future of gaming, insisting: "We're at the stage in the life of the consoles where the PC has shot by them in terms of capabilities."

Echoing comments made by id Software's John Carmack at E3, who said current PC gaming tech was "ten times as powerful" as current consoles, Rein argued that PC was "always the most important leading edge platform". Speaking exclusively to Eurogamer TV, in the first part of a series of video features on PC gaming, Epic Games' VP said: "Don't forget every game that's ultimately built is built on a PC. PCs are always going to be the tools through which all games get made.

"With the PC you can simulate the future – you can put enough hardware in a PC to show you what a future console will look like."

Epic grabbed headlines at GDC earlier this year with its Samaritan Unreal demo, created to showcase the near-future of high-end gaming, but running on ultra-high spec current PC tech. "It was kind of our love letter to hardware manufacturers," Rein explained. "The next-gen, we expect, will look like that. If you fast forward a year or two years that should be a fairly common gamer's spec.

"We hope the console manufactures look at that and go, jeez, if we aim for that in our next consoles we'll be competitive with what you'll be able to do on a PC in a year, year and half from now. A reasonably priced PC - obviously you can do it on an expensive PC already."

There's more from Mark Rein and others in The Future Of PC Gaming Pt.1, which you can watch below. Part 2 will be published next Friday.

4OOGbRfO1fI&

[Zipper5 74]

There's only one reason any of these people are coming out and saying this now: digital downloads on the PC have proven extremely profitable. Nothing else. If they hadn't, they would still be claiming the PC was dying.

[mrcash2009 0]

There's only one reason any of these people are coming out and saying this now: digital downloads on the PC have proven extremely profitable. Nothing else. If they hadn't, they would still be claiming the PC was dying.

Exactly mate, couldn't put it better. Probably has shares in Stream.

[mr_centipede 31]

Will Porter.... that name ring a bell somewhere.... ???

[Colossus 2]

There's only one reason any of these people are coming out and saying this now: digital downloads on the PC have proven extremely profitable. Nothing else. If they hadn't, they would still be claiming the PC was dying.

I agree, and I think Paradox Interactive would agree as well - Paradox sales are 90% digital, “we don’t really need retailers any more†says CEO. But personally I won't say no to a hard copy of a Bohemia Interactive games, and I do prefer hard copies if it's a game I deem very valuable. I also agree with the YouTube video that consoles are starting to show their age. Not long ago, Ubisoft stated that they were "extremely limited" by consoles. Obviously THAT statement would change instantly the day Microsoft or Sony announces a new console, but it shows that the tide might be shifting towards a more friendly PC period for the time being.

I think PC will be a constant well in to the future, but it's going to be (probably already is) a very dynamic and shifting platform based on how the current console platform is performing. So best of luck to PC :)

Edited July 10, 2011 by colossus

[walker 0]

Hi all

Something I wrote earlier in the forum:

Death of Retail. No future for the High Street and the Mall?

Hi all

I refer you to the recent allusion by Marek about the decline in the number of PC Gaming outlets and that ArmA III's primary market is likely to be Digital Distribution; Sprocket, Steam, etc.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=119218&page=5

The move to web based distribution meaning out of town shops would decline over the long term as a result, is something I pointed out in 1996 to the head of Tesco distribution for SE England, at the time he poopoohed it and the rest of the people there laughed and said customers will never buy their shopping that way; Tesco is now one the biggest Internet shopping site in the UK, and is rolling out the model in China, the Czech Republic and Poland and this year.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Tesco-Plans-To-Expand-Its-Online-Shopping-In-China-Czech-Republic-And-Poland/Article/201009315737530

I buy the bulk of my shopping online from Tesco with visits to corner shops for essentials and then my local market for bits and pieces or deli counter type purchases.

I certainly buy all White Goods on line; as well as a recent electronic Piano, but I would buy a guitar or mechanical piano from a shop. TVs I went to see before buying. Computers I spec on line then buy in person.

But overall I am buying more and more online.

In the games market retail has been in decline for some time. The retail shops moved to the consoles in the vane hope of the physical security of the DVD/CD would reduce piracy but the reality is that the only long term security model is a dynamic one, which is why those that stuck with PC games like BIS release constant updates and DLC improvements. A security model that can react to piracy cracks and encourage users to constantly download new content, that stays ahead of the cracks, is the future.

A constant drip feed via subscribers is the most successful business model so far. Shown in the Eve Online/WWO/Steam business model.

That is why Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo have moved in that direction too.

It is not that the future is consoles. They were just a reaction by the developers to their constantly loosing Intellectual Property(IP) to an increasingly commercialised Piracy market.

Consequently I predict the death of the Retail Games Stores, Producers and the CURRENT wholesale business, with the last physical Retail outlets being unmanned kiosks, that pump out DVDs or USB files written at the time of purchase, and person who services it from a van filling it with writable DVDs, before it too disappears.

Surprisingly I think there will be a resurgence in the PC market, but with PCs that full fill a gaming standard. In fact I think the future is a black boxed virtual that sits in a PC or Linux or MAC or Android etc providing a standard game environment that developers can then slot their game into.

Anyway I throw this electronic missive in to the forum to start a debate.

I am sure some one will pop in to insult me soon. :D

Kind Regards walker

Kind Regards walker

[celery 8]

Hasn't PC hardware "shot by" current gen consoles like 5 years ago?

[jblackrupert 14]

"We're at the stage in the life of the consoles where the PC has shot by them in terms of capabilities."

Computers were never behind in the first place.....

Consoles have always been behind by at least 6 months or more before they even left the factory floor.

The only lead consoles have ever had is affordabilty and thats because they are loss leaders and pretty much always have been

if sony, MS and Nintendo charged people the price it cost to make them plus a little profit consoles would have died years ago.

Hell, even these motion controllers that are being shown off now were being shown way back in the 80's but the processing power and other things just

wasn't there yet to make it feasible and built at a cost affordable by most people to make it profitable.

Those toys were limited to the Military and labs who had money to burn.

I remember playing with virtual reality gloves and goggles at the World Of Commodore shows in the 80's.

I still adore the C64

Cp-fox4dR2E

vT3hsLAVf10

.

Edited July 10, 2011 by jblackrupert

[dysta 10]

Consoles and Computers; Ants and Lions.

[Innomadic 10]

LOL @ Codemasters as a "leading multiplatform developer".

[JdB 151]

Not long ago, Ubisoft stated that they were "extremely limited" by consoles.

Just look at LA Noire, one of those "cutting edge" games. Looks like a PC game from 2004 :D

[custard~SPARTA~ 10]

I think Mark Rein is talking bollocks apart from BIS I cannot think of one Developer/Publisher priortising product for the PC over Console if they thought PC gaming was important they would prioritise product for it.

I haven't purchased a game from a shop in years but I only have 10% of my games from digital download most of mine have come via an online retailer.

[NoRailgunner 0]

Just look at it

[ricbar89 0]

Just look at LA Noire, one of those "cutting edge" games. Looks like a PC game from 2004 :D

Mafia 1 came out in 2002, i doubt a game that looked like LA Noire would have come out 2 years later...

Edited July 10, 2011 by ricbar89

[JdB 151]

Mafia 1 came out in 2002, i doubt a game that looked like LA Noire would have come out 2 years later...

Add loads of blur and overexpose every scene like it's the surface of the sun. That's most of the work done already. Developing for consoles really doesn't involve much more than taking subpar artwork and adding loads of blur and shine to disguise how bad it really looks. Consoles are filled with ancient hardware after all.

[ricbar89 0]

Add loads of blur and overexpose every scene like it's the surface of the sun. That's most of the work done already.

Nope. PC games do obviously look better but these kind of claims are usually nonsense.

Im yet to find a PC exclusive game that actually amazes me. Strangely the best examples seem to be by modders. I could understand if they were modding multiplat games but even PC benchmark games like Crysis looked "good" but nothing amazing until modders get their hands on them. Funnily enough usually the thing i notice most about them then is the fact their overexposed as hell by the people who mod them.

GTAIV being another example. Every amazing photorealistic screenshot i see seems to have been taken in Dubai rather then Liberty city. That or Niko seems to have died and gone to heaven.

[Zipper5 74]

PC exclusives that have amazed me (to varying degrees, and not including BIS games as they are a given):

• The STALKER series - despite the shortcomings, especially Clear Sky, they are some of the most atmospheric games I've ever played.
  
• The Crysis series - mainly the step up in graphics that amazed me here, but Crysis: Warhead had a fun story and Crysis: Wars was enjoyable MP, even if it got old after a while. I couldn't really care less about Crysis 2. As Cole would rightly put it, it's nothing but console popamole bullshit.
  
• Minecraft - simple concept that turned amazing. 'nuff said.
  
• Total War: SHOGUN 2 - the first RTS I've actually had fun playing since the original Red Alert and Tiberian Sun.
  
• Project Zomboid - showing immense potential and I can't wait to see the finished product.
  

Edited July 10, 2011 by Zipper5

[Flash Thunder 10]

Thats why they need to make modular consoles!

LOL

NOT!

PC from 2007 had already "shot by" consoles.

FPDR

Edited July 10, 2011 by Flash Thunder

[ricbar89 0]

STALKER does look like a really cool game but i cant say ive played it. Graphics wise its nothing special, and sometimes looks poor going from what ive seen. Gameplay wise i bet it could be on console if the devs wanted, and true to itself (i would say anyway, it has a lot of depth but doenst seem to have ARMA level of complexity).

Crysis like i said i dont get the fuss over the graphics. Going by how much PC gaming is "apparetly" ahead i would expect way more.

Minecraft, great game, dont know how its an example of PC gaming though. Doesnt look very great and could be done on console, and will be soon enough.

And Total War? Well ive played them all, hard to be amazed by something you've followed. Shogun looks fantastic but nothing breathtaking. Gameplay wise console games will never have something like it.

Still if PC gaming is so far ahead why is Cryisis still the best example? An why wasnt it that far ahead when it came out?

[Zipper5 74]

Crysis is not the best example of PC gaming. In my opinion, either BIS' games, the STALKER series or Minecraft are the 3 best examples of PC gaming at the moment and they're the ones I tell my friends/prospective gamers about before any others. I would include Half-Life 2, but The Orange Box went to consoles.

STALKER looks amazing in some areas and butt-ugly in others. The amazing parts come form a lot of the particle and post-processing effects, weather effects and some very cool DirectX 11 features in STALKER: Call of Pripyat like water-logged clothing or objects when it rains. However, it looks really ugly when you only look at the people and creatures as texture, model & animation quality are rather poor. Still, for the kind of game it is and the size of the studio behind it, it's a very big accomplishment in my eyes. The stories of the STALKER games are also quite intriguing and unique, but perhaps nothing overly original.

Before Crysis, however, nothing of that graphical capability had ever been made into a commercial game. It was a technological landmark if nothing else. It's development also created the technology we now know as Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, or SSAO, used in countless games since then. I believe OA even uses it on the higher post-processing settings. In every other aspect, Crysis was "okay".

Edited July 10, 2011 by Zipper5

[katipo66 94]

A bit off topic but having both works, PC for some serious anti social gaming, console for some "more social type gaming", Sports titles like Madden have no need for the latest cutting edge graphics but provide pretty good entertainment with friends.

[Flash Thunder 10]

A bit off topic but having both works, PC for some serious anti social gaming, console for some "more social type gaming", Sports titles like Madden have no need for the latest cutting edge graphics but provide pretty good entertainment with friends.

Nonsense...

you cant be on the fence your either on PC or console NOT BOTH! /muahahahaha

[ben_s 11]

PC exclusives that have amazed me (to varying degrees, and not including BIS games as they are a given):

• The STALKER series - despite the shortcomings, especially Clear Sky, they are some of the most atmospheric games I've ever played.
  
• The Crysis series - mainly the step up in graphics that amazed me here, but Crysis: Warhead had a fun story and Crysis: Wars was enjoyable MP, even if it got old after a while. I couldn't really care less about Crysis 2. As Cole would rightly put it, it's nothing but console popamole bullshit.
  
• Minecraft - simple concept that turned amazing. 'nuff said.
  
• Total War: SHOGUN 2 - the first RTS I've actually had fun playing since the original Red Alert and Tiberian Sun.
  
• Project Zomboid - showing immense potential and I can't wait to see the finish product.
  

I agree, The main reason for this whole escapade is Microsoft/Sony.

They do not make it easy for indie developers to get their games onto those platforms, they do not make it easy for people to innovate there.

That said, PC only games often come with a touch or feel that console versions do not. For instance, I had great fun playing Red Alert/Red Alert2, hell, I still have Sudden Strike laying about (been a while since I played that!)

[ryguy 10]

A bit off topic but having both works, PC for some serious anti social gaming, console for some "more social type gaming", Sports titles like Madden have no need for the latest cutting edge graphics but provide pretty good entertainment with friends.

Pretty true... never seen split screen for the PC :P

[rangerpl 13]

PCs superior to consoles? We've been reminded of this every day now

Look at it. LOOK AT IT