LucasArts 'not out of the PC market'

PC News | Despite a PC no-show for The Force Unleashed.

Popular thought has had PC gaming on its death bed for many years now, and a variety of issues have been claimed as the culprit responsible. Gamers, in particular, have often pointed to increasingly demanding piracy-protection as a reason to emigrate to the home console, but today LucasArts provides a different answer: hardware scaling.

Cameron Suey, producer for LucasArts' upcoming The Force Unleashed for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, commented on the lack of a PC version of the game in an interview with videogamer.com. In it, Suey argued, "PC being the gaming platform that it is, someone with a $4,000 high-end system would definitely be able to play the Euphoria, the DMM and really technical elements of the game. But someone with a low-end PC would have a watered down experience, they would have to turn all the settings down and it wouldn't be the same game. On the other hand if we made that game for as many people as possible, because we are trying to make mass market games, something that everybody can enjoy, well then it's not taking advantage of what those $4,000 systems can do."

This does seem to fit with LucasArt's approach to The Force Unleashed, as distinctly separate versions of the game are being developed for the different platforms - the Nintendo Wii version, for example, features a duel mode that the others do not, while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions feature the advanced Euphoria and DMM engines.

Suey was anxious, however, to reassure PC gamers that LucasArts isn't out of the PC game yet. "The message is that we're not shutting the door on PC at all. Just for this project it happens to be that we don't have a PC SKU. I really hope that everyone can experience this game on a platform eventually."

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6 Comments

Mr Waffle

4 years ago

So it's not ok for different PC users to get different experiences, but it's perfectly fine for different console owners to?? Buh???

Jaws

4 years ago

What she was skirting around was the fact that PC's seem to be treated as port platforms for companies wanting to make a buck from bringing one title across all available systems and if they ported The Force Unleashed to PC, then bugger all people would buy it due to a smaller percentage of the consumer target population owning the systems needed to run it in the first place.

This would be a different story if the PC version was it's own kind of game. Sadly, it wont be. Want to know why?

Because LucasArts just dont see PC gaming as essential business anymore.. and I think it would be far easier for a PR spindoctor to say that they're not out of the PC market yet, as a 'just in case we can milk some cash out of it in the future' measure, rather than admit the truth. A shame, because the Jedi Knight titles were excellent fun.

Marlor

4 years ago

It doesn't really matter. This isn't the Lucasarts of old that helped shape PC gaming.

Ron Gilbert is at Hothead Games, Tim Schafer is at Double Fine, and Dave Grossman is at Telltale games (along with a large number of other ex-Lucasarts developers).

Lucasarts has simply become a mill for creating Star Wars licensed games.

ppjim3

4 years ago

Are there really that many people who ONLY play on a PC? Not only that but can you really enjoy these average console -> PC ports? The controls are always off as they were obviously developed for a gamepad first and then 'fudged' to mouse and keyboard. Even games like Halo still have their console control roots showing when a KB+M should be better in every way!

I just can't see why, with all these common problems, people get upset about this sort of thing. If you're a hardcore gamer and a PC-only player maybe it *is* time so save one upgrade worth of money and drop it on a 360 and enjoy both worlds properly!

Fly

4 years ago

ppjim3 wrote

The opposite viewpoint is attractive though that we PC gamers know what's capable of being put on the system but there are many who are simply hindered by the rate at which the technology is progressing where there's also understanding at the inherent problem.

I own X-men Legends 2 for PS2 and PC, Same with Ultimate Alliance although considering I have a low end system my video is unsupported. They are the same game but to me the PC version is more refined and its control scheme more organised to the point where my PS2 version is moot and gathering dust. I cannot imagine proper RTS' on consoles without a KB&M and I don;t see why companies who put said support on the console versions didn't make it for the PC to begin with considering.

But most of all, I want to enjoy my LAN scene, in a room of 180 people playing 20v20 Savage or BF2 in a crowd as opposed to being a faceless name that consoles bring or with 4 people. That is my PC gaming, that is why I adore PC gaming over consoles, because I can school or be schooled by a guy I've never met, walk over to him in the same room, pimpslap him and then laugh at how much either of us sucked at various points. I don't care if my gun or my claw doesn't look realistic, I don't give a toss if the physics are shocking, I cared that I enjoyed my gaming experience, teamed with people I then met face to face and at 4 am in an arena without heating during winter we ran shirtless around the room with our keyboards to win a goddamn pack of stickers and chocolate.

Everything else is secondary, and the console gaming scene, while it tries to be, is not a social gaming experience while the PC gaming scene is. And it's a shame that companies and the regular consumer seems to be focused on looking pretty, being as real as it can be, catering for the ever changing tech when they should just be focusing on delivering a solid game to be enjoyed, with easy to run multiplayer and they will sell it just as well.

Lord Haart

4 years ago

*cough*SCALABILITY*cough*

It's not that hard.

The sad fact is, LucasArt's real reason for mot making it for PC is that singleplayer PC games have become less and less profitable. Not only that, but PC piracy also eats into console sales (since people will rather pirate for PC than buy for xbox 360).

It sadly makes much more sense to simple not develop for PC, so that consumers have to buy the game to play it.

I sometimes wish the anti-piracy software/hardware of consoles could be ported to PC. Then PC gaming sales would go through the roof.

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