Crytek: PC A Generation Ahead of Consoles
Although the PC is a generation ahead of the consoles, multi-platform games will suffer limitations on the PC due to console hardware restraints.
In an interview over the holidays, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli stated a fact PC gamers already know quite well: the PC is a whole generation ahead of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
While that's a big “win” for PC gamers in the PC vs. Console dispute, the victory comes with a price: developers are primarily focusing on consoles, holding back game quality of the PC versions.
"PC is easily a generation ahead right now,” he told Edge Magazine. “With 360 and PS3, we believe the quality of the games beyond Crysis 2 and other CryEngine developments will be pretty much limited to what their creative expressions is, what the content is. You won't be able to squeeze more juice from these rocks."
He went on to add that hardware limitations of the current console crop isn't the only factor keeping multi-format games locked down to a certain level of quality on the PC. He pointed to the less-than-spectacular revenue PC games generate when compared to what consoles rake in.
"I generally think it's still developers' mentality [that is to blame]," he said. "A lot nowadays don't consider PC a big issue any more; their [sales] expectations are nowhere near what they are for the console versions. Until the PC market creates comparable revenues, companies are not going to spend enough on the PC SKU of a game."
Does that mean Crysis 2 on the PC would be a better game were it not for consoles? Yerli admitted that the “creative expression” of Crytek has been limited due to their prevalence. However he also admitted over two years ago that PC gaming piracy had literally forced the developer to go multi-platform. Ultimately, if Crysis 2 on PC suffers from console-oriented limitations, it could be due to piracy.
"We are suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis," said Yerli back in april 2008. "We seem to lead the charts in piracy by a large margin, a chart leading that is not desirable. I believe that's the core problem of PC Gaming, piracy. To the degree PC gamers that pirate games inherently destroy the platform. Similar games on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more. It was a big lesson for us and I believe we won't have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future. We are going to support PC, but not exclusive anymore.”
Crysis 2 is slated to hit the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 22, 2011.
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- Cevat-Yerli
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Didnt realize consoles thought there was even a competition...
I recently had a chance to Play PES 2009 on Xbox360. What a horrible mess of blur and jerky animation. I'm used to playing this game in 1080p 60 fps on a low-end PC (Radeon 4830, Pentium DualCore 5200).
So if there's no more visual juice to be gained from consoles, how about concentrating on making a game instead that you can actually PLAY and is FUN?
example: Doom > Doom 3 regardless of graphics because Doom was FUN and had great gameplay
example: Half Life 2 (and episodes) > most other FPS because it's FUN to play and has a great, immersive story with no complicated junk to get in the way - choose gun, point gun, shoot bad guy, enjoy story and scope.
Only one generation?
DX9 GPU's in consoles VS DX 11 GPU's in PC's - 2 generations in terms of the API, in terms of hardware maybe 3 or 4.
45nm PPC and CBB CPU's vs 32nm Intel Sandybridge next year - 2 generations not counting the phenomenal micro-op per clock difference between the two.
512MB RAM in consoles vs at least 4GB RAM in gaming PC's - Cant really talk in generational terms here but back when PS3 was first released, my PC was rocking twice the RAM it had.
Anyway, nerd rant over. Consoles are pathetic excuses for hardware compared to PC's, there shouldn't even be a comparison. But for all the graphical power the PC's can provide, I still value game play too. If you sacrifice a little graphical nicety for some more time polishing game play, that's not a loss for me, quite the opposite.
I wish there wasn't so much console bashing, they have a separate market place to PCs after all. They are vastly cheaper than a PC and just plug and play. My current PC is the most stable PC I have ever owned, yet it's still frustrating at times to maintain it, get latest drivers, the odd crash, tweaking the hardware and overclock.
My main concern with this article is that Crytek previsouly gave a tech demonstration showing how the game engine made no assumptions of the hardware so the designers could go crazy. Then at "render" stage (for want of a better word) it prepared the xbox/ps3 and PC versions. I was holding out on Crytek bringing DX11 to life big time, including heaps of tesselation for a truly reaslistic looking game. I hope they aren't piking out on this as it would seem they are getting the caveats in already.
Lets also hope it's a better GAME than original crysis. got that on steam the other day and got bored within a couple of hours. still played it to give it the benefit of the doubt, but had enough after about 20 hours. it's rubbish compared to some other truly great FPS.
do you think we can somehow create an operating system for pc to make it a "console" - therefore less piracy.
consoles are not that powerful only because of the makers trying to keep prices down and performance per buck as high as they can.
but still.... pc > consoles
and i agree.... gameplay > graphics
so i would absolutely LOVE crysis 2 to have much better gameplay and storyline...
BUT there are others who view crysis 2 as the next great benchmark of 2011 for their rigs.
Half the "multi-platform" games they make suck, and are half broken on PC...
Like mass effect 2 have to go and edit the dam thing with NPP just to turn off mouse acceleration which was making it unplayable for me.
Crysis is really just a benchmark with guns not too bad then you get to the alien ship and its esc n quit. they aren't even gonna make crysis 2 that so why should I buy it, better have good game play if they expect a sale.
I don't even bother buying games when they come out any more I wait for one of my friends(suckers) to get it then give it a shot wasted too much money on crap games that I can only stand 30 mins of.
Way I see it is every1 getting a console is make these developers lazy. these console folks just accept crap then the same crap with different box art on it.
Half of what they do now is re release with new maps essentially.
bad company 2(wich i do own and like) awesome DLC take a map you already got in the game, put 4 objectives in it, take away a few vehicles and that's you done (I know for console VIP and PC its free but still I wouldn't pay for such little work could bash that together in 15 mins)
I have no problem with consoles, but it's abundantly clear they are more easily marketed. I mean, any game commercial could say "Coming soon to the XBOX, PS3, and PC's everywhere...oh, and the PC versions can BLOW YOUR SOX OFF WITH THE AWESOME GRAPHICS!!!"
But you just don't see games being pushed hard onto the PC's in the commercials and what not. Sad, really.
@jodrummersh The problem with the pc is customization factor, not every pc could blow your sox off. There are millions of people who's only pc is an Atom based net-book and I think the original xbox could blow its sox off never mind 360 / ps3
What Anon said :
the problem for the pc is the spread in hardware capabilities.
The fixed specs of the console puts a floor onto what developers can be expected to deliver .
the issue is not that the pc is a generation ahead , but rather that the console's advantage is that it is a single child without siblings