Earlier this week, Epic Games president Mike Capps blames piracy for the company’s shift from the PC to consoles.
“If you walked into this place six years ago, Epic was a PC company and always had been. We did one PS2 launch title, which was a port of Unreal Tournament, and everything else was PC,” Capps reminisced. “And now, if you read our forums, people are saying: ‘Why do you hate the PC? You’re a console-only company.’ And guess what? It’s because the money’s on console.”
Blaming piracy as the reason to shift direction seems like an easy scapegoat these days. It still doesn’t explain why companies like Valve, Blizzard, and Bioware are having great success with their PC releases despite the piracy issue. Yes, piracy is a problem, but there are creative ways to address the issue which I think successful PC game companies have done.
It just seems to me that laying the blame at the feet of piracy is a convenient reason to cover the fact that a company failed to adapt to a changing market.
Oh. And feel free to make your own Epic Fail joke…
DLC to Bridge Mass Effect 2 and 3 Story Arc
It is undisputed that Mass Effect 2 is a really good game (I thought it was one of the best games I’ve played since Star Control II, and there are similarities between those two games). It was revealed earlier this week that the story between Mass Effect 2 and the 3rd installment will be carried out via downloadable content. Although E3 is coming up, it seems BioWare is content with pushing out DLC to their popular game so it’s unlikely we’ll hear anything about Mass Effect 3 until 2011.
After Mass Effect 3, you can bet on a Mass Effect MMO. Mark my words (actually the Bioware founders are on the MMO team at EA, so it’s just a matter of time).
If you haven’t played the original Mass Effect, it’s on sale at Impulse for 25% off.
Frozen Synapse – A Perfect Plan…
I came across this little game while browsing GameTrailers. It’s called Frozen Synapse and it is a simultaneous turn-based single and multiplayer tactical strategy game based on squad combat (i.e. SWAT / Counter Terrorism style).
I’m one of those players who would repeatedly play a level until I get it perfect, so I have a feeling the single player component is a good match for me. However, the game also provides multiplay for up to 4 players.
What makes this game even more intriguing is that if you pre-order the game, you gain access to the beta and a free full copy to give to a friend! No DRM. No nonsense.
Go check out Frozen Synapse and support an indie game!
Other PC Gaming News:
- Irrational Games Releases Original BioShock Pitch Document. If you ever wanted to create a game and have it made, this could be a good example.
- Fable III Heading to the PC.
- Torchlight sells 500K copies, and developer bought out by Perfect World. I liked Torchlight for a while, but it got stale very quickly. Here’s hoping the Torchlight MMO grows up from being a Diablo 1 clone. Get it on Steam for Mac too.
- Blizzcon 2010 tickets go on Sale June 2 and June 5. Another year, and another batch of new Diablo 3 screens to tease us with. Blizzard is a sadistic master…
- EVE Online Tyrannis update coming this week!Sets the stage for DUST 514 MMO-FPS.
- Review: Split/Second – Game Trailers.com. Looks like a solid fun game, but sounds like it gets repetitive in the last half. Aren’t all driving games like that
