I ask this because the PC version of DMC4 seemed to have a fairly low key ad campaign and release. I also can't find it on Steam, which I think would have helped its sales enormously. It would be a shame for such a good version to fall down due to lack of marketing, and for Capcom to decide that the PC isn't a viable platform. Can anyone at Capcom give an indiciation of how its doing?
I'm not sure about how Capcom in general feels but It's not doing as well as I would like in the US at retail. It's such a good version and it really deserves better sales. I know it's getting pirated to hell and back (it was up on torrents literally the day it shipped).
I certainly have pushed for digital distribution on the title (globally, I'm responsible for all DD deals) but Capcom Japan so far has not allowed it. For the record ALL CEI developed titles will be distributed extremely widely via digital channels (not just Steam or Direct2Drive, but more than a dozen partners across more than 100 sites/portals for everything we do). I've spent the last year building up that channel and I'm continuing to add partners even in advance of Age of Booty, MotoGP, Neopets, Dark Void and Flock shipping.
I have a presentation I'm making shortly that I'm hoping will make that approach something we do with all of our PC content, even those developed in Japan, but no promises. It might not happen.
In the mean time, Ben Judd has completely understood CEI's strategy and Bionic Commando Rearmed will have broad digital distribution for PC (not quite as many as CEI titles, but close).
Christian Svensson
Now Playing: WoW, Fat Princess, MvC2, Magic: The Gathering, Age of Booty (360)
I know it's getting pirated to hell and back (the team didn't use any of the DRM mechanisms requested and it was up on torrents literally the day it shipped).
to be honest, aren't those useless? I mean, you might buy some hours, perhaps a day... but in the end the game will be mass pirated anyway... We're talking about PC after all. If I was a developer and was releasing a game on PC I'd probably left those out of the game if they required many manhours or extra money spent.
This is of course, a opinion, and perhaps not a vey informed one, so if wrong I'd be thrilled to listen.
I wholy agree with you on virtual distribution though, even though I dislike buying virtual stuff, for PC is probably the way to go (in a way, sadly)
I'm not sure about how Capcom in general feels It's not doing as well as I would like in the US at retail. It's such a good version and it really deserves better sales. I know it's getting pirated to hell and back (the team didn't use any of the DRM mechanisms requested and it was up on torrents literally the day it shipped).
I certainly have pushed for digital distribution on the title (globally, I'm responsible for all DD deals) but Capcom Japan so far has not allowed it. For the record ALL CEI developed titles will be distributed extremely widely via digital channels (not just Steam or Direct2Drive, but more than a dozen partners across more than 100 sites/portals for everything we do). I've spent the last year building up that channel and I'm continuing to add partners even in advance of Age of Booty, MotoGP, Neopets, Dark Void and Flock shipping.
I have a presentation I'm making in about a month and a half (my next Japan trip) that I'm hoping will make that approach something we do with all of our PC content, even those developed in Japan, but that's subject to board and Inafune's approval, so no promises. And even if I am successful there, it's probably a couple months after that before things start showing up.
In the mean time, Ben Judd has completely understood CEI's strategy and Bionic Commando Rearmed will have broad digital distribution for PC (not quite as many as CEI titles, but close).
Yes,Sven,please,do everything you can and we'll do everything we can to keep Capcom interested in making games for PC!
About illegal downloads of a PC, it's not always a problem, and most of the time is dependent on the game.
Sins of The Solar Empire and Crysis both (PC Only) came out around the sametime, and Sins sold extremely well, while Crysis got downloaded to hell and back, but why did one actually sell and the other didn't? Well Crysis being the way it was, wasn't something that people were going to pay full price for, and alot of people just downloaded to see if it they could even run it on their computer, where as something like Sins appeals to the hardcore PC Gamer, thus Sins never ran that risk.
The Sims (and Spore I imagine also when released) is the sameway in a certain regard. The first Sims game was the highest selling PC game of all time (40 Million Units) and each new version/expansion continues to sell well and of course is downloaded too, but it has a built in audience that will actively always buy it and doesn't really run that "meh I'll download it for free to see what it's like" risk to the extent that something like Crysis or whatever else does, and console ports definitely run that risk all the time especially when released a good time after the console version, where as I don't believe it would be that much of a problem if it (the PC version) were released the sameday as the console version. You'd still of course get people DLing it for free but I don't think it would be to the extent that it would be when released months later.
to be honest, aren't those useless? I mean, you might buy some hours, perhaps a day... but in the end the game will be mass pirated anyway... We're talking about PC after all. If I was a developer and was releasing a game on PC I'd probably left those out of the game if they required many manhours or extra money spent.
To my knoweldge, Mass Effect still isn't fully cracked (tripwires still result in certain bugs in the pirated versions.. pirates haven't found them all yet). And our data collected on Bioshock is pretty damn solid too from certain audit services, and their integration wasn't as deep as Mass Effect's.
They are more effective than people think... part of the problem though is that EA and T2 didn't actually communicate what's supposed to happen. The result of that lack of communication is that the pirates just think the game is buggy.
Christian Svensson
Now Playing: WoW, Fat Princess, MvC2, Magic: The Gathering, Age of Booty (360)
Is pirating really that much to blame though? From what I gathered, DMC4 PC version just has gotten little marketing and coverage overall. I haven't seen many ads about the game, and the reviews has been coming very very slowly and rarely. I dunno if that's something Capcom has power over though, I'm just surprised DMC4 on consoles got tons of reviews instantly while DMC4 on PC has barely gotten 6 reviews after 3 weeks.
I'm rather skeptical about that way Mass Effect handles pirating. From what you said, it sounds like it's easy to pirate the game but you'll get a very buggy experience. So instead of many pirates downloading the game and liking it, you'll have many pirates downloading and hating the game. I don't see how any developer/publisher would gain from that.
I'm personally glad there is a normal retail release as I like to get the actual box instead of just a digital copy. I really hope the game sells well enough, I'd love to see Capcom continue to support the PC platform (or even inspire other publisher/developers to also start supporting the PC).
Is pirating really that much to blame though? From what I gathered, DMC4 PC version just has gotten little marketing and coverage overall. I haven't seen many ads about the game, and the reviews has been coming very very slowly and rarely. I dunno if that's something Capcom has power over though, I'm just surprised DMC4 on consoles got tons of reviews instantly while DMC4 on PC has barely gotten 6 reviews after 3 weeks.
Piracy's not the ultimate cause... but it's a factor.
Marketing on the title has actually been rather significant, especially through vehicles brought to us by partners like Nvidia, Dell and Intel. The game has been shown at events all over the world in their booths at tons of computing events (especially in Asia), multiple media tours. There's an upcoming promtion with Dell, etc.
I'm sort of surprised at how few reviews have come out, but then again, there are fewer and fewer outlets reviewing PC games these days. Even so, most reviewers write it off as "console dreck" because it's not an RTS, an FPS or an MMO. Indeed, it's content that doesn't often show up on PC, and I think that's part of the reason we wanted to put it there. We think there is an audience for action games on PC (that aren't FPses), even if they are sometimes best played with a gamepad rather than a KB and mouse. Colonies was exceptionally well done but because it didn't fit the typical PC paradigm, some traditional PC gamers wrote it off.
I have a kickass PC connected to my 65" 1080p TV in my living room. It'll destroy all of my consoles and ask for seconds in terms of performance. I know there are others out there like me that similarly enjoy that experience.
I'm rather skeptical about that way Mass Effect handles pirating. From what you said, it sounds like it's easy to pirate the game but you'll get a very buggy experience. So instead of many pirates downloading the game and liking it, you'll have many pirates downloading and hating the game. I don't see how any developer/publisher would gain from that.
They get enough of a taste of the game to see if they like the content, but if they want to experience it in non-buggy fashion, they need to buy it legitimately. I think you're right in the sense that those issues weren't communicated clearly, and as such, the subset of pirates who use such means to sample content before purchase, were clearly turned off. I don't get the sense that it's hurt their sales though.
I'm personally glad there is a normal retail release as I like to get the actual box instead of just a digital copy. I really hope the game sells well enough, I'd love to see Capcom continue to support the PC platform (or even inspire other publisher/developers to also start supporting the PC).
We are members of the PCGA. As a company, we strongly believe that the future of the PC is bright.
Christian Svensson
Now Playing: WoW, Fat Princess, MvC2, Magic: The Gathering, Age of Booty (360)
to be honest, aren't those useless? I mean, you might buy some hours, perhaps a day... but in the end the game will be mass pirated anyway... We're talking about PC after all. If I was a developer and was releasing a game on PC I'd probably left those out of the game if they required many manhours or extra money spent.
To my knoweldge, Mass Effect still isn't fully cracked (tripwires still result in certain bugs in the pirated versions.. pirates haven't found them all yet). And our data collected on Bioshock is pretty damn solid too from certain audit services, and their integration wasn't as deep as Mass Effect's.
They are more effective than people think... part of the problem though is that EA and T2 didn't actually communicate what's supposed to happen. The result of that lack of communication is that the pirates just think the game is buggy.
I see, I'm all for them then. Wouldn't they be possible on consoles piracy (through DVD-R's) aswell?
I'm really not into the matter (as is easy to see ), but if pirated console games resulted in buggy games for those who pirate them... I'd throw a party.
Sins of The Solar Empire and Crysis both (PC Only) came out around the sametime, and Sins sold extremely well, while Crysis got downloaded to hell and back, but why did one actually sell and the other didn't?
Isn't Solar empire really niche though? my point being... Crysis was supposed to sell, I dunno, 2 million hence flopped, and Solar Empire was supposed to sell in a much smaller scale thus, one didn't find market and the other did?
My point being... I actually never even heard of Solar Empire before, therefore I'm assuming it hit a very specific demographic, and a more niche one.
The problem of the PC's... it's pretty vast imo, but other than piracy I'd go with the specs needed. I mean, more than a new GPU each 6 months and the developers dropping support for previous gpu's generations without a second thought and without any optimization (case in question, Bioshock, wouldn't run decently on Geforce 6800GT, a perfectly capable gpu, only because shader model 2 wasn't supported, yet a group of fans did it... why not doing from the start? PC games tend to be unoptimized) And that has to be mended, otherwise only a small ammount of people can play games.
I mean for software makers, more than supporting the latest GPU they ought to have a standard to run the game optimally, this is not that good for nvidia, but we consumers don't win anything by needing a new GPU for each game we want.
To cut the chase, PC's should IMO, be certified to run x generation of games, since more and more we'll be going after the console releases... I should buy, say, a equivalent PC and have a certified saying "7th generation consoles compliant" or so, and for 5 years until newer consoles and newer seal came out, be compliant with those (at say... 720p/1024p?). Who knows we might even start seeing mobile PC's who are "7th generation compliant" and integrated gpu's/platforms.
Of course, stuff like crysis could stand to not be compliant, but not being compliant I'd know it was a very specific case. Is anyone following my point? ^^' perhaps a little confusing I know; but more than looking at specs, someone with a "7th generation compliant" PC, could bring those over without a second thought; if he had a better cpu... all the better more frames per second and resolution possible, if not... at least it runs at 30 frames at x resolution at worse *like the consoles*
Thanks for the reply, sven. And yeah, some of the reviews has been extremely unfair. 1up marked the game as a "console game" and apparently gave the game a lower score because of that, which doesn't really make sense. I've introduced the game to a few of my friends who are PC-only gamers and they absolutely love the game, so I don't think there's any barrier between PC and console gamers when it comes to genres. Other reviews like gamespot has been more fair, fortunately.
Good to know you're supporting the PC platform. I'm just waiting for that RE5 PC announcement
), but if pirated console games resulted in buggy games for those who pirate them... I'd throw a party.
