Before I begin, I am going to establish a few facts.
1. I own BOTH an Xbox 360 and PS3 and, for a time, owned a Wii.
2. I still use both systems.
3. The purpose of this article is not to argue which system is superior.
4. This article is based entirely on my opinion, and therefore should not be taken as fact.
5. This article will divide many of you.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s dive in.
Because of the nature of this piece, I’m going to reiterate that this is based entirely on my opinion. If you disagree (which I’m sure many of you will), leave your thoughts in the comments section. For the purpose of this piece, ‘console’ will refer to Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. And so, with my usual itemized methodology at hand, we begin.
The Consoles Launched in 2005 and 2006
This is the longest console cycle in recent history. What this means is that when these consoles launched, they were using technology that was available at the time. So realistically, the technology in these consoles are between 6-7 years old.
Setting that aside for a moment, let us examine Moore’s Law. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the law, it states that the number of transistors you can place on an IC (integrated circuit) doubles every two years. Simply put, chips get smaller, density increases, and as a consequence, we get increased performance at a predictable rate every two years.
With this in mind, the tech in consoles is absolutely ancient. What does this mean? While the consoles were cutting edge and amazing at the time of their birth, they are so very far behind PCs today.
The Rise of Mobile Gaming
Since the time the consoles launched, smartphones and tablets have been on the rise. As a result, more and more people are gaming on them. But…why are people playing on these devices?
I believe there are a couple reasons. For one, they wish to simply pass the time at an airport or other public venue. I do this all the time. However, the true reason I believe can be traced back to Moore’s Law. One needs only to look at Infinity Blade II, developed by Epic Games.
Looks like you’re about to get pwned
Just take a look at that screenshot. Now, I own this game. So I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that it actually looks that good in-game. The visuals are stunning. What’s even more stunning is that this game runs on mobile devices. This game looks just as good, and in some cases, better than some current console games.
So what happened? Moore’s Law. Technology caught up and surpassed the consoles. We can now get console quality graphics on something you can hold in the palm of your hand. This is absolutely unacceptable. No handheld device should ever rival a console in power. Period.
PC Power Is Ignored
Once again, I’m going to reiterate that this is my opinion. Keep in mind that I still own the Xbox and PS3. I bought a PC just last March. But in that short span of time, I’ve seen the true potential of PC gaming. Yes, PC gaming is more expensive than a console. Yes, I understand the convenience of owning a console. You don’t have to upgrade every few years. You’re (more or less) guaranteed that the game you bought WILL work on your console. You don’t have to worry about drivers, etc.
We did it you guys. We’re totally heroes.
But, at the end of the day, the PC is a superior machine in every quantifiable way. A mid-range PC today completely outstrips the performance of any console. So then, why do we still see (most) games developed for console, then lazily ported to PC? Many of these games are not optimized, thus completely ignoring the extra power and capabilities a PC offers. Why is that?
Publishers know that PC gaming is a much smaller market than consoles. You want to make money? Develop your game on console. Oh yeah, and to ‘satisfy’ the PC crowd, let’s just throw them a half-assed port.
Just this morning, I read this post from IGN. It basically says that the PC version of Dead Space 3 will NOT, I repeat, NOT be superior on PC. Their reason? They wish to provide the same experience to players regardless of platform. Reading between the lines, you’ll realize that they’re developing the game on console first, and then porting it over to PC.
This angers me beyond belief. If you know that you can make your game better on another platform, do it. Don’t just settle for “that’ll do”. As a developer and publisher, you owe it to your customers to provide them with the absolute best game you can make. Games should be developed for PC first, then downscaled and ported to console. Dice did this brilliantly with Battlefield 3.
This game was developed for the PC first, then ported to console. Battlefield 3 features absolutely amazing visuals, sounds, level design, etc…all designed to take full advantage of the PC’s extra power. Dice did it right. This is how games should be developed.
My Final Word
I would like to conclude by reminding you that I own consoles. I play consoles. However, I feel very strongly that the aging consoles have adversely affected growth in our industry. Their ancient hardware has forced developers to seek other platforms to develop on, such as mobile devices. They discourage pushing the boundaries of what’s technologically possible. As a result, those of us who own PCs suffer.
Fellow gamers. We deserve more. We deserve to have the absolute best graphics, the absolute best sound, the absolute best writing, the absolute best game that developers can create. It’s an outrage that they have been shackled by consoles.
What a damn shame.
To read Bradford’s (aka LOTRLore) Response in Support of Consoles, click here!
I’m with you Shank, I do believe this is a problem. I hate when games gets ported over to PC, and especially in the Dead Space 3 case, where it’s a case of being lazy, and they’re trying to make it sound like it’s to the benefit of everyone.
The ONLY problem with relying on being a PC gamer is for those rare cases where your machine just for whatever reason won’t run a game. I STILL can’t get Battlefield 3 to run, and it’s a damn shame because I know how beautiful it is.
But that’s the exception, not the rule, and I still wouldn’t choose to switch to consoles primarily.
Shank I couldn’t agree more.
Well said, man. What also sucks is that I feel like it’s only going to take 2 years or so after launching before the “next gen” consoles are just as far behind cause they’re already rumored to have inferior graphics hardware. All of these “next gen” gaming engines by Epic, Konami, Square, etc.. REQUIRE an Nvidia GTX 680 to run their tech demos smoothly. In 1.5 years when the first games from these engines are out, the PC community will have a midrange affordable gpu that should run them at about the level the 680 does today, but the consoles? Their rumored gpu’s don’t even come close to today’s high-end (my Nvidia GTX 670 scores literally 6-8x as high in 3d benchmarks compared to both the new Xbox and PS4′s proposed gpu’s. Let’s hope these rumors are conservative!)
My point is future consoles won’t even be able to fully use these new engines that have been built specifically for these consoles! Any mainstream modern gaming PC will handle them just fine, but guess who’s gonna get shafted?
I bet the first few years of “next gen” console games will be the same old DirectX 9 based Unreal Engine 3 (2006 tech…), but running at 1080p with higher res textures and maybe 2x Anti-aliasing. (something a decent PC from 2007 could do just fine, mind you.) I really hope I’m wrong.
I greatly enjoy my Xbox. I always will. I benefit from not placing graphics high on my list of, “Important Things Video Games Need”. Conversely, if a game looks like utter s**t, I am distracted from the better qualities of a game: i.e. Homefront. That game had a beautiful story that I enjoyed but the entire time I was distracted because of how God-awful it looked. So, yeah, I have to agree with you Shank (mostly) console are holding the industry back. Gamers now expect more than they did 8 years ago and I hope Microsoft and Sony realize this and do something about it.
Really blown away by the responses guys – thank you.
On the same topic, who here has the Crysis 3 beta? I want all other game developers to look at this game. It is single-handedly the most beautiful game I’ve ever seen.
This is a prime example of how game development should be done.
I have never ever owned or played with any consoles. Period. I’ve always been a PC gamer, and to that end, the best graphical presentation is very important to me. I might play words with friends on a mobile device, but I would never ever play a graphic intense game on less than a 15 inch screen, that is absurd to me. Mobile games have a niche, consoles another niche and PC games yet another, wish developers would learn what we all know.
I agree with all except that devs owe us the best game they can make. I think they should strive for this however it’s up to us to tell them if what they’ve made is good enough with our wallets. The problem there is that it’s counter to what we need for better PC support which is an attractive return on the money spent on PC development.
I was having this same discussion with friends several months back, right before discovering Star Citizen. And a huge part of my attraction to that did in fact come from the approach of “this is a PC game.”
I used my 360 for a good year before it retired it’s position as a gaming console and became a bedroom DVD player, with the occasional chance to relive it’s old and short-lived glory with particular releases.