Why do publishers delay the PC version of their games?

[MetalSoup]

I’m interviewing a man about a game, and he’s trying to avoid answering a big question.
“Can you tell me why your game isn’t coming out on PC on the same day it’s coming out on console?”
He’s a good guy. You can see he wants to talk, to explain the problem, but he’s glancing left and right, knowing that he has to give a no comment or canned PR line.

“If you turn the dictaphone off, if we go completely off the record, we can talk about it.”
It’s another one of those sad-face moments. It’s an important topic, and the answer deserves to see the light of day.

Once the dictaphone is off and he’s comfortable he’s not going to get named he opens up. The problem is simple. The publishers and the managers at the company he works for are terrified of piracy. They delay the PC version of their game because there is a section of the gaming audience that would prefer to download the game for free rather than buy it. If the PC version is available, it will be cracked and shared. If there is no PC version, there will be some piracy, but not at anywhere near the scale of what they regularly see on PC.

It’s an honest answer to an important question.

So why the fear of openly saying it?

“If we say this publicly, the internet hates us.”

I’ve listened to similar stories from multiple developers and multiple publishers. But no-one dares say such a thing aloud, on the record to a journalist. The fear of a backlash is just too fierce. There are heated comment threads, angry follow-on articles, a vicious flame war and endless twitter rage. It’s damaging and it’s exhausting.

But it’s probably one of the most important topics in PC gaming right now.

Many major studios believe that they can increase their sales and their profits by delaying the PC version. They may well be right - we just don’t have access to their data.

If they are though, PC gaming faces a real problem. If this strategy is successful, it will encourage more publishers to pull exactly the same trick. In two years time, will we look at the gaming release schedules and see that most publisher backed games are available on the consoles between two weeks to six months before they’re available on PC.

That would be extremely damaging to our platform.

I don’t know if there’s a way to fix this problem. I’m sure, at some stage, there will be a petition. Someone might organise a boycott. But it all feels so hopeless.

A real sad-face moment.

Full Article

In before angry comments

 

[Roomys]

Full Article

In before angry comments

Thanks for a seriously hot topic and a well chosen genre for a gaming forum Mr Pig.

I do however have reservations about the whole piracy thing, I'm speaking of the lately released GTA here. I am pretty sure their is some sort of login or verification on the PS4 and Xbox that lets the distributor know its a valid copy. Now Blizzard (in there wisdom) brought out the authenticator (banks have been using this for years) and the Battle.net accounts. I wonder if this reasoning in his answers applies to GTA as well, surely they could get some sort of account activation and login going (yes yes even if its a once off purchase and does not have a monthly sub attached) that could weed out the pirating?

heck i know even with logins and authenticators etc you can still run private servers, but imagine the revenue loss GTA has suffered based on just the fact that they are scared of piracy, never mind the fact that if you dont release it the same time as console, another game is going to be on the market when it does that's a lot more desirable to have because of the "hype" surrounding it.

Sad face panda, i really wanted (and would have paid green) to play GTA online.

 

[The Joker]

Thanks for a seriously hot topic and a well chosen genre for a gaming forum Mr Pig.

I do however have reservations about the whole piracy thing, I'm speaking of the lately released GTA here. I am pretty sure their is some sort of login or verification on the PS4 and Xbox that lets the distributor know its a valid copy. Now Blizzard (in there wisdom) brought out the authenticator (banks have been using this for years) and the Battle.net accounts. I wonder if this reasoning in his answers applies to GTA as well, surely they could get some sort of account activation and login going (yes yes even if its a once off purchase and does not have a monthly sub attached) that could weed out the pirating?

heck i know even with logins and authenticators etc you can still run private servers, but imagine the revenue loss GTA has suffered based on just the fact that they are scared of piracy, never mind the fact that if you dont release it the same time as console, another game is going to be on the market when it does that's a lot more desirable to have because of the "hype" surrounding it.

Sad face panda, i really wanted (and would have paid green) to play GTA online.

New GTA was available on Torrent for Xbox 360 2 days before release...lol
This whole piracy bullshit is just an excuse. The main reason they are doing it is because console games bring in more profit than pc games, its as simple as that.

 

[Edelweiss]

Profit and PC is very niche/enthusiast.
Did I say profit?

 

[Lyt]

Thanks for a seriously hot topic and a well chosen genre for a gaming forum Mr Pig.

I do however have reservations about the whole piracy thing, I'm speaking of the lately released GTA here. I am pretty sure their is some sort of login or verification on the PS4 and Xbox that lets the distributor know its a valid copy. Now Blizzard (in there wisdom) brought out the authenticator (banks have been using this for years) and the Battle.net accounts. I wonder if this reasoning in his answers applies to GTA as well, surely they could get some sort of account activation and login going (yes yes even if its a once off purchase and does not have a monthly sub attached) that could weed out the pirating?

heck i know even with logins and authenticators etc you can still run private servers, but imagine the revenue loss GTA has suffered based on just the fact that they are scared of piracy, never mind the fact that if you dont release it the same time as console, another game is going to be on the market when it does that's a lot more desirable to have because of the "hype" surrounding it.

Sad face panda, i really wanted (and would have paid green) to play GTA online.

That just makes it harder to crack. The only thing that can keep piracy at bay is what Blizzard did with D3, namely storing game data server side. Nobody is willing to spend days of their time creating an emulator for free.

 

[Roomys]

New GTA was available on Torrent for Xbox 360 2 days before release...lol
This whole piracy bullshit is just an excuse. The main reason they are doing it is because console games bring in more profit than pc games, its as simple as that.

I get that, but is the same online play available as the real game? To me online play now days separates whats worth cracking or not. Just because its available as a torrent does not mean its the best experience the game can offer. I don't understand though how you can say its more profitable to exclude a medium just because of profit, that makes no sense don't you think? If they where only interested in money then release it to all mediums of distribution for maximum cash coverage no matter the risk of pirating?

There is something more to this me thinks.

 

[Glordit]

New GTA was available on Torrent for Xbox 360 2 days before release...lol
This whole piracy bullshit is just an excuse. The main reason they are doing it is because console games bring in more profit than pc games, its as simple as that.

To push your opinion a little further as an example: Activision Blizzard raked in cool 1.149 billion dollars in net profits in 2012. CoD PC games are pirated en mass and torrents are available from day one, sometimes even before the release due to preloading on steam. Yet they still make massive amounts of money.

 

[Snoek]

I can't even argue. It's a true story and I would do the same. The piracy is hardcore. There are certain games any of us would pay cash for but there are many , many more that you sorta, kinda wanna play before you actually spend money on, or crazier yet, games you want to play and then have no intention of paying for cos they're just boring. I totally regret buying Borderlands 2 for that reason.

so yeah. I understand. I think it sucks but I can't blame publishers for wanting to protect their investment by making PC wait

 

[Snare]

I can't even argue. It's a true story and I would do the same. The piracy is hardcore. There are certain games any of us would pay cash for but there are many , many more that you sorta, kinda wanna play before you actually spend money on, or crazier yet, games you want to play and then have no intention of paying for cos they're just boring. I totally regret buying Borderlands 2 for that reason.

so yeah. I understand. I think it sucks but I can't blame publishers for wanting to protect their investment by making PC wait

Truer words have never been spoken. And unlike with Console, you cant return the game for a trade in. Once you've spent the money...that's it. Making you less reluctant to spend money in the first place...which makes the publishers reluctant to make a PC edition at all

 

[Glordit]

Truer words have never been spoken. And unlike with Console, you cant return the game for a trade in. Once you've spent the money...that's it. Making you less reluctant to spend money in the first place...which makes the publishers reluctant to make a PC edition at all

I doubt a consumer's decision affects the second hand sale of a game. Firstly most people that game on PC's are aware that once you activate a game it's linked to your account for life. Secondly After it's been bought new, the publisher has no more ties to making a profit at all. It's not like we can trade in EA games to EA and they give us a discount on a new EA game purchase.

Also there is just as much piracy on consoles.

 

[StoneCold]

Truer words have never been spoken. And unlike with Console, you cant return the game for a trade in. Once you've spent the money...that's it. Making you less reluctant to spend money in the first place...which makes the publishers reluctant to make a PC edition at all

Not 100% true, Origin has taken the initiative with their "Origin Great Game Guarantee".

Have a look at it here: http://www.origin.com/news/origin-great-game-guarantee

 

[Snare]

I doubt a consumer's decision affects the second hand sale of a game. Firstly most people that game on PC's are aware that once you activate a game it's linked to your account for life. Secondly After it's been bought new, the publisher has no more ties to making a profit at all. It's not like we can trade in EA games to EA and they give us a discount on a new EA game purchase.

Also there is just as much piracy on consoles.

Actually EA does now have a 24Hour Trade in policy xD. Also WHAAT!? NO chance that console piracy is as bad as PC

 

[Ike_009]

Actually EA does now have a 24Hour Trade in policy xD.

Its not a trade in policy, its a return policy for games you can't play, big difference between the 2. If you return every game they're gonna reject it since your abusing the policy, same if try a marathon run to finish the game in 24 hours

 

[Snare]

Its not a trade in policy, its a return policy for games you can't play, big difference between the 2. If you return every game they're gonna reject it since your abusing the policy, same if try a marathon run to finish the game in 24 hours

Ahh. My apologies then for misinforming

 

[Wesley]

Why don't they do it? Profit, pure and simple. Piracy is an easy excuse, even if there's some validity to it.

I mean, look at the damn facts - good games earn gobs of money and make a good ROI for the publishers and development teams behind them. GTA V earned its money back four times over in three days. My guess is that Rockstar is making the PC guys wait because they want them to double-dip for the game on two platforms. They've been working on the PC port for a while now as well.

I'm getting tired of the same lame excuse that apparently magically absolves publishers to screw legitimate users over to avoid being hurt by a very vocal minority of retards who would never pay for anything anyway. And no, pirating the game to check if its good or not and then buying it later if its good isn't helping. You're just giving the assholes who do this on a regular basis more reason to justify not paying to play the game.

Do you want to help change the industry's perception on piracy? Don't buy bad games. Don't buy annualised releases that end up killing a brand once the publishers have milked it dry. Don't buy games that give you a crappy single-player campaign (Medal of Honor) so that you'll end up playing the multiplayer and giving them money through microtransactions. Don't want games with microtransactions in them? Don't buy them. Support the indies - these guys make games because they love games, not because they love money.

 

[Snare]

Why don't they do it? Profit, pure and simple. Piracy is an easy excuse, even if there's some validity to it.

I mean, look at the damn facts - good games earn gobs of money and make a good ROI for the publishers and development teams behind them. GTA V earned its money back four times over in three days. My guess is that Rockstar is making the PC guys wait because they want them to double-dip for the game on two platforms. They've been working on the PC port for a while now as well.

I'm getting tired of the same lame excuse that apparently magically absolves publishers to screw legitimate users over to avoid being hurt by a very vocal minority of retards who would never pay for anything anyway. And no, pirating the game to check if its good or not and then buying it later if its good isn't helping. You're just giving the assholes who do this on a regular basis more reason to justify not paying to play the game.

Do you want to help change the industry's perception on piracy? Don't buy bad games. Don't buy annualised releases that end up killing a brand once the publishers have milked it dry. Don't buy games that give you a crappy single-player campaign (Medal of Honor) so that you'll end up playing the multiplayer and giving them money through microtransactions. Don't want games with microtransactions in them? Don't buy them. Support the indies - these guys make games because they love games, not because they love money.

Give that man a digital Bell's!

 

[ave]

I suspect Rockstar delayed the pc release because, this close to the end of the console's life, the gap between the two has grown considerably. I think the pc is going to look so much better. Now imagine someone sees how good it looks on the pc, and then sees it on the console. The last thing rockstar wants is that sort of comparison when they are trying to launch a game. Console folk, (their biggest market,) would feel like they are getting an inferior product.

 

[DeAnt28790]

This is a great thread. And the idea of PC Pirates is just silly. Is piracy more prevalent on PC? probably. But here are some interesting ideas.

First off, developers love saying how many people have torrented their games. But lets now take this into consideration, people tend to use downloaded games as a try before you buy system and I think that is for two reasons. One is because demos are very few and far between these days. A lot PC gamers are sick and tired of these lazily ported PC versions of games that suck because of a bad control system. I'd like to name Resident Evil 5 which i stopped playing because using a mouse was awful!

Of course pirated games are also distributed via LANs and flash drives, but I like to think of it as free advertising. As if people like the game then they'll possibly go buy it. And if you look at steam sales figures I think you might notice PC gaming is thriving and making a lot of money.

Lets take a quick look at console gamers though who love to trade games. How much of that money goes to the developers or publishers of the games. Absolutely none of it. Way to support the industry guys.

Finally, the people who really make sure PC games are delayed: Microsoft and Sony. Piracy is an excuse because developers can't say what's really gone down. Microsoft and Sony pay developers or threaten developers to release games on console first because that's how they make money. Consoles are sold at a loss that is subsidized by games. Its why console games are more expensive than PC. If you release a game like GTA 5 on console and PC at the same time, what are you going to buy? A low resolution version that is more expensive and you have to play it using a controller? No, you'll buy it on PC, where its cheaper, looks better and you can use a mouse and keyboard. That's the basic idea at least. I know this kinda sounds like a conspiracy theory but I think its whats going on.

 

[to0kenZA]

So basically, they think it's OK to treat PC gamers like a bunch of children, and not give us the same game at the same time? That is utter bullshit. I am sorry, but there's no way you could look at this to make it seem OK.

I for one will stop buying their games if they decide to pull this shit, really now. This IS nonsense.

Stop discriminating by platforms. Bloody hell. If people want to buy your game, they will, no matter what console they play on. If noone buys your game, it's because it's shit. Easy as that.

/rant

 

[ave]

Lets take a quick look at console gamers though who love to trade games. How much of that money goes to the developers or publishers of the games. Absolutely none of it. Way to support the industry guys.

I've heard guys from the industry talking about this where they were saying the second hand market is more damaging than piracy, because pirates are freeloaders, and probably wont buy the game anyway, where as those who are buying second hand games are people who are willing to pay, but as you say the producers doesn't see any of that money.

Finally, the people who really make sure PC games are delayed: Microsoft and Sony. Piracy is an excuse because developers can't say what's really gone down. Microsoft and Sony pay developers or threaten developers to release games on console first because that's how they make money. Consoles are sold at a loss that is subsidized by games. Its why console games are more expensive than PC. If you release a game like GTA 5 on console and PC at the same time, what are you going to buy? A low resolution version that is more expensive and you have to play it using a controller? No, you'll buy it on PC, where its cheaper, looks better and you can use a mouse and keyboard. That's the basic idea at least. I know this kinda sounds like a conspiracy theory but I think its whats going on.

This is a good point. Seeing a pc copy next to the console copy for 200 bucks less has got to put a damper on the console market's enthusiasm about the game, where as if the pc version is delayed they wont care when it comes out a few months later at a lower price.