An Open Letter To AAA PC Game Developers And Publishers

Fed up with the current treatment of PC gamers by big budget publishers and developers, Gamersworldbd decided to write an open letter to the industry with the hope of improving things

[Malice-Flare]

though i agree with their sentiments, please don't look down on the console audience. they're the audience that feeds the AAA developers/publishers the most...

for all your claims that the PC has not the MS, Sony or Nintendo "tax", they (publishers/developers) earn more from consoles despite that "tax.."

besides, it's not true that the PC doesn't have a "tax". there's the Steam, Origin, U-Play, or GoG "tax." worse there's the heavier pirate's "tax..."

[waffanot]

I agree with your comment. Although this article reads a bit like it belittles console gaming, but you have to admit that PC gamers are getting shafted by AAA developers

[freshslicepizza]

of course they are because so much money is being spent marketing consoles. steam may play a major role in pc gaming but there is no voice that speaks on behalf of pc gaming like nintendo, microsoft/xbox and playstation.

the pc should always be the lead platform. you dont go about making a movie with bluray in mind. you make a movie for the big screen and then it gets transferred and mastered for home video. so why go into making games with a 30 frame cap because that is all consoles are capable of for the most part unless they pull back on effects and graphics?

[Perjoss]

"besides, it's not true that the PC doesn't have a "tax". there's the Steam, Origin, U-Play, or GoG "tax." worse there's the heavier pirate's "tax...""

Can you please explain this sentence as to me at least, it made zero sense. What Steam tax are you talking about exactly?

[Dario_DC]

Any developer must get their games out, only when finished and in the best condition for the consumer. That doesn't always happen (even on consoles with games like Witcher 3, Fallout 4 and more...) but lets consider some things in PC gaming:

Piracy: It is what it is, it's starting to be less of an issue now.

Early Access: Quite a lot of developers are making a ton of cash on unfinished and broken games/Betas/demos (whatever you wanna call it). PC gamers support such things a lot more than they should. AAA developers have noticed this, has everyone else.

Free to play games also make a ton of cash, a lot more than AAA titles on PC, AAA developers have noticed this too (like mobile gaming).

Steam can be the gamers best friend and the AAA developers "enemy".
All these Steam sales have made the "everyday PC gamer" save their precious cash and wait for "Them Steam Sales". What this means is that most AAA games won't see a decent return to their investment on release. In time the sales will pick up but at lower prices, combined with the 30% Steam cut, these big budget AAA games have a harder time being profitable on PC.

PC Hardware is a can of Worms: Optimization for PC is costly, all the different specs around and brands mean extra work for AAA developers. Again cost and profit must be taken in the equation.

Keys, Keys and more Keys: This (IMO) is the biggest problem for the AAA developers.
Most PC gamers will get keys from sites that buy them in 3rd world countries for cheap, good for the gamer, bad for the AAA developer. If you're an American the game is 60$ but you're buying it for 30$ or less. The AAA developer, in return, is making quite a lot less money than it would otherwise. Open platform is less "controlable".

With all said and done, none of these reasons are excuses for crap PC ports! Still, unfortunatly, AAA developers won't change how they work unless there's real money in it.

[bednet]

A lot of what you mentioned it true, but I don't think it has as much of an effect as you think.

Piracy is less of an issue now because of Sales, it's just not worth it anymore. If you look at top selling games on Steam, you'll see the AAA games that just came out (Fallout 4, AC:S, BO3, even GTA5 at full price...) so a lot of PC gamers do buy full price. The ones that wait for Steam Sales are not Day 1 buyers.

Free to play is what it is, micro transactions, some may make more money, but they don't replace AAA games, they are inherently different types of games.

Optimization is much less of an issue than it was before, there aren't that many players (AMD, Nvidia, Intel) and all support the same APIs.

The Keys issue in my opinion is much less of a problem than the second hand games market on consoles.

Your conclusion is the same as mine, except that I think AAA developers will change their ways, considering that PC gaming is growing faster than console gaming.

[uth11]

Dear PC gamer,

Stop pirating our shit, then we'll talk.

Sincerely,
AAA developers and publishers.

[cyril sneer]

you forgot to add dear console gamer's stop buying second hand games.

[Volkama]

Aye, numerically speaking that represents a far bigger problem for publishers.

People buying second hand games are not the same unethical swine as pirates, but the publisher and developer see the same return either way.

[uth11]

yeah but that isn't the topic of this article

[Ceaser9857361]

LOL! Master Race....

[BrianOBlivion]

It'll be difficult to garner sympathy when you come off as a whiny demanding pc elitist bitch.

[sovkhan]

Nearly half of the pc total money is made out of mmo/f2p.

Which leaves roughly 60% for AAA titles and indies.

This is the very reason why pc is always considered as an afterthought. The big bucks are made on consoles for now.