It's not just him saying though:
We also saw pictures of the devkits at their office I think even before the release of pCARS so the console version decision would not have been with the success of pCARS, but the announcement surely could have tried ride on the same wave. Kunos might have been just fine with the PC sales of AC in terms of running a studio; they are a tiny studio and as per the quote above AC started as a PC only title and "has been more than successful". Still, I'm not trying to downplay the market share of the consoles in any way; I know the reality is that consoles are and will be generally the larger part of the market, but PC especially lately has become a strong platform that does reward investing into it.
That's really saying nothing, they had access to dev kits? you know how many devs had
access to dev kits and never shipped a game due to no financing or a publisher? Just look at Project cars it was gamer funded. You think SMS would be able to fund this on their own or that it's apiece of cake to get a publisher?
In any case, at that time, Sony was sending dev kits to most devs who had a semi-descent game in production or games which they felt would do good on their platform. Simulazioni carried out technical tests since 2013 and in mid 2015 have nothing to show, means there is nothing to show. I'm pretty sure their tests came back positive (clearly), but they did not have the financial backing to make a console effort possible for late 2014 or early to mid 2015.
Apparently, they just got a partner to foot the bill with, so they're only now getting the green light to start working on consoles. This does not translate to working on consoles since 2013. Their target of 2016 is also a very loose target and I very much doubt they will meet that even.
Yeah of course you wouldn't trust those numbers because it suits your agenda not to. Unless you have numbers of your own to counter SteamSpy which is extremely accurate according to developers on this very website then I'm afraid we're going to have to go with the numbers given by SteamSpy.
Also Steam has 120 million userbase not 300 million. Last time I checked Playstation 3 sold over 80 million units and 360 83 million, why didn't Skyrim on 360/PS3 sell more than 12 million surely that number is too low given the large install base.
No, I don't trust these figures because truthfully they can't be trusted. I don't even know why Kinthalis is getting his "pantalones" so moist from this post either. Certain PC gamers like to blow up stats when it suits them and that's what I was alluding to.
Reference a post from our very own PC gamer Kinthalis when the "over" 125 million active users on steam was announced.....
Kinthalis said:
Yeah, those would be registered acocunts, which are up probably over 300 million by now.
Thread
Now, I don't know if you or others have amnesia, but these type of things tend to happen often and most persons cast a blind eye to people spouting such figures and anecdotes because it's not disagreeable to their angle. If it's any other way it's a different story of course.
As for steam spy's veracity. I don't trust it because steam spy is more guess work more than anything else, they sample very small sizes of the 125 million steam users and extrapolate. They're pretty much in the same bracket as chartz, perhaps even worse. Most of the accounts they go through are empty and dead anyway and yet anything at all can impact their numbers significantly. You know how many times my steam account have been littered with free weekend games or access to games for 3-5 days. Steam spy usually gives you results for a game after 3 days, so yes, I'm sure I'm an owner or have been for many games I do not own.
Do you know how many pirates are able to activate products on steam through cracked software? Just do a google search about it in reference to skyrim. Any time you're using software to predict numbers/sales on PC it becomes a slippery slope, the best entity to provide that data would be VALVE or steam themselves because they'd be going by actual purchases made. Steam spy is just a guessing game, I think it has it's uses but in no way can we use it as concrete evidence to determine actual sales of a product.
Sijil said:
So many? Aside from CDPR could you list me all those PC exclusive devs that are salivating at consoles? Also CDPR said that the Witcher 3 could've been done on PC just smaller scale, second Witcher 3 would not have been possible without the tons of PC support since they founded the company.
I mean correct me but didn't Xcom 2 just skip consoles? Go figure...
You might list Larian and InXile, before you do, both Wasteland 2 and Divinity were alluded for a console release before their PC release and are already stellar PC success.
How many PC only devs are really left. Even RTS/strategy devs are on consoles in full force. I doubt console gamers would embrace moba's but wasn't a moba just announced for consoles? You think Xcom 2 will remain exclusive? that looks like a game that will come to consoles with extra content in 6 months to a year anyway. You do know that the consoles received all xcom games last gen right?
The thing is, not all these PC devs are that great with handling multiple versions of games in development, Even CDPR which praised the consoles for W3's existence could have used a couple of months learning the console's API and how to program for it properly. Perhaps they should have released the PC version call that exclusive and release the console versions in good form a couple months later, I'm also pretty sure PC will always be ahead in the development pipeline since PC is the lead platform for most games these days.
Sijil said:
You have serious reading comprehensions my friend or you are being deliberately obtuse and putting words in my mouth, PC sales have higher profit margin meaning they make more money on the sale of a single on PC then they do on consoles.
How can you agree and disagree with me all at the same time. Did I lie when I said you mentioned the PC version of Project Cars may out do the almost 600k sales on PS4 in revenue and profit? NO, but yet you are giving a case why you think the 160k does just that... smh.
Sijil said:
On PC all they to do is pay Valve's regular 30% cut, that's 70% percent of the profit, on the other hand the margin is far lower on consoles when you take away platform holder royalties, retailers cut, retailer logistics etc...etc... Not that hard.
And before you say that most PC gamers will buy games for 75% less:
https://twitter.com/Steam_Spy/status/606764052220657664/photo/1
Annnnnd... here you go trying to justify the very statement you said I was putting words in your mouth about.
To make such a case you would need more data than what you have here, notwithstanding you're still using steam spy's data which are not concrete and just guesswork for the most part. I'll let you in on something, not every deal with the console manufacturer or the publisher with the devs is equal across every game. It may be so for entry level indies since they have less clout but certainly not so for the big boys or more seasoned developers (or those with a hit already).
So yes, that 70/30% cut that you guys keep spewing is also not concrete, valve may take a minimum of 30% (mostly for indies), but there's no stopping valve taking more or less in other situations, using anecdotal samples/feedback is only useful to get you an idea of things, not to empower you as an authority on sales and data. Almost every game goes through separate deals, but these deals are also all well NDA'd up, so the little bits and pieces you hear (here or there) does not paint the whole picture.
So in essence, you want to paint a picture that Steam returns more to the developer than Sony or MS even at significantly lower sales, now that alone is already way below objective reasoning, but....you don't even qualify it, all you use is a steam spy tweet.. smh. Where is the comparison, where is the disparity? I won't even do the math because I believe that line of reasoning was already very much outttttt there, but like I figured, you can't prove what you say.
Also, the majority of games release at $50-60 dollars, of course the graph will show that, hell, any graph would show that. You think Uncharted sold more at $60 or $20, I mean come on, by the time it was $20.00 or even $30 the majority who were interested had already nabbed it. This is especially true for popular AAA games which also happen to sell the most units anyway. You think there is anybody lining up for a game that launches at $0.99? You think anybody is lining up for Bad Rats (the awakening) at $5.00 on launch.
Please stop using steamspy, it's embarrassing. Also, where are the people saying that the steam sales are bringing in so much revenue to the devs, don't your graph say otherwise to those people, but I can see how some would skew their statements based on their angle. Many times their own stats prove their argument wrong..(not you in particular).
Like I said I won't go into too much detail, but on the console side, I'll let you know that beyond the breakdowns of console manufacturer to publisher, to dev, to packaging, to retail to returns, which is clearly not the same across all game deals, save for the more tangible things like packaging etc.. A dev would receive more money when certain milestones are achieved, either through sales or even a certain Meta Critic score, if both even better. (Note how excited SMS was on both sales and metacritic). Also, not all games are released on disc on consoles, but yet, all games are available digitally. Do you know that digital sales by and large form a significant portion of console sales? What data do you have on consoles as to the digital sales breakdown that require no packaging, no returns, no shipping?
The thing is you never made a case for consoles in your argument, I suspect you have no idea of all the dynamics there, even on the pc side you have no idea as well. All you did was go on non-concrete data on the PC side and use anecdotes (everything is 70/30). With game sales being locked under NDA in many regards with the exception of sales statements from publishers, it's all very grey. You think if you go to Joe Grey programmer from CZ games and ask "is steam spy data correct?" You think he will tell you these guys are off by 1,278,985 sales either way, they're all under NDA man, he will simply tell you that it's in the ball park give or take and be done with you.
Sijil said:
It doesn't matter to me how you view it, they are separate SKU's, separate platforms, you're stacking all of these against one, which is unfair, regardless of that fact PC alone sold a third of Skyrim's global sales a fact you can't deny.
There's nothing unfair about this, so you want me to stack PC against PS4 or just XB1, how convenient. How about I stack PS4 only against a 750ti machine, would that be fair.....
This is crazy because there are hundreds of millions of PC's worldwide, perhaps even a billion or more. Do you think Steam figures are all the PC's gaming or otherwise that exist? I'm also sure even the most basic PC can play a wide variety of downloadable games. Do you know that there are other services besides steam that have millions of users (despite some overlap) as well. Do you know that PC retail games are still a thing? Also, there are people with capable PC's that don't use these download services. PC is no underdog here, it's a platform just like consoles are a platform. The underdog is clearly the XB1/PS4 vs PC but yet you think it's unfair.
Sijil said:
Saying that the different PC configs is the same thing as different consoles is extremely flawed, the user base on all of those different PC's are the same, on the same platform which is Steam/Origin/Uplay, they can play online together, interact together etc...etc... regardless of GPU/CPU variations.
Precisely, which is why users of closed boxes which all comes default with a controller, where every game runs the same on each unit (as per manufacturer), where their online services are standardized (where hacker A can't just go and give himself more xp in a huge RPG or change the leaderboards to suit him.
So yes, all pc's may be able to play the same game and connect, but the experience of each user may be vastly different as well. The standardization of consoles where everybody plays with the same specs is what makes the console unique. XB1 and PS4 is no different in that regard. The different configs of PC is also what makes it one platform and unique (you get returns based on what you pay). Consoles are still the underdog in installbase and the whole idea of segregating consoles is silly. PC is a platform, Mac is a platform, console is a platform, Mobile is yet another platform, don't try to change what has always been for a silly argument, you're sounding very desperate.
Sijil said:
I would love to see a statement from Kunos Simulazioni saying how the success of SMS made them jump to consoles, were you by any chance with them in the conference room? Funny that's the conclusion you reached instead of say it was always planned to go multiplat like the grand total of all games these days. Also Assetto Corsa sold 250K on Steam.
As I said, I'm sure they always wanted to come to consoles, but it's clear they did not have the financial backing. I'm simply saying that Project Cars may have pushed them or their financing partner over the edge. In this day and age, a lot of games come in, only to crash and burn, for a small studio it's a risk you can't take when you know that each Console Manufacturer has their own sim juggernaut, I could imagine the reluctance. The fact that Project Cars came and did so well may have served as a litmus test. I still believe they should have been more proactive and that the game should have already been released tbh. By the time they release this I'm pretty sure GT7 and F6 would have already been unveiled and we would have tonnes of footage on these two sims already.
SMS played their cards right and launched at an opportuned time, 18 months away from Forza5 and no Gran Turismo or a sim on the PS4 for that matter. I still want them to release it and give a good effort on consoles. I have no doubt they will sell much more than the 250k on PC, but I suspect they would have a bit more success if they released the product earlier. I still think Project Cars would have done better on consoles if some of the technical issues were much less.