Topic: The Multiplatforming Problem

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Or, System Exclusivity is dead, and I kind of miss it.

Enjoy my latest op-ed.

Excerpt:

Yeah, system exclusives used to be a problem. They were expensive buy-ins, railroading, and always felt a tad dishonest. But in a world that functionally exists without them, I can honestly say I’d rather go back to having that problem than the homogeneity among games we have today.

It's worth bringing in this sentiment from Infocom back in the eighties, after they had been asked by the company's new owners at Activision (yes, they've been screwing up your favorite developers for a while now) to design graphical multiplatform games: "A game made for every system cannot take advantage of the strengths of any of them, and must therefore cater to the lowest common hardware denominator."

[VladCT]

The thing is, my interests lean a bit towards the niche side, and when I see shit like Astebreed being rereleased on the PS4 with exclusive content or Mortal Kombat XL content not being released for PC being pulled I can't help but feel a little jaded about it.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

The thing is, my interests lean a bit towards the niche side, and when I see shit like Astebreed being rereleased on the PS4 with exclusive content or Mortal Kombat XL content not being released for PC being pulled I can't help but feel a little jaded about it.

As well you should -- there's a dark side to everything and you've just hit on the dark side here, but stuff like content being pulled is simply a bad business tactic and reeks of dishonesty.

[piscesdreams]

The fact that KP2 is not releasing for PC in MKX is in my opinion, one great, big "fuck you" to all the players.  But I do agree, that I wish there was more console exclusives.  There are a few on both sides and Nintendo will be heavily relied on for this on their front.  But I remember the days when it was always "which version is better? Genesis or SNES? N64 or PSX?"  I miss that because I do agree that the games are only as good as the weakest system allows for.  If you have either Xbox One or PS4 I feel you are only in it to be where your friends are, for the controller and maybe what few exclusives there are.

[Crying Freeman]

The fact that KP2 is not releasing for PC in MKX is in my opinion, one great, big "fuck you" to all the players.  But I do agree, that I wish there was more console exclusives.  There are a few on both sides and Nintendo will be heavily relied on for this on their front.  But I remember the days when it was always "which version is better? Genesis or SNES? N64 or PSX?"  I miss that because I do agree that the games are only as good as the weakest system allows for.  If you have either Xbox One or PS4 I feel you are only in it to be where your friends are, for the controller and maybe what few exclusives there are.

It made multiplats WAY more interesting! Especially when all the different PC platforms were around, each version had their own ups and downs based on the hardware. Look at the various CV1 ports on the computers for example, or again I'll mention Valis as the MSX version had no cutscenes, but the other computer versions could squeeze them in. But yeah, now the hardware is so similar that devs don't have to cut any corners. Plus it's just cheaper to make an almost identical port when it's possible to.

In most cases I find the limitations of older systems to be a positive, because we get to see what the devs did to get around things like lack of inputs on the gamepad or how they'd make something in a 2D world look 3D, the bleeps and bloops that tried to sound like guitar and drums on the genesis but on the SNES they could make it sound more like they're real life couterparts. But another thing that's a problem are the overly picky gamers that ridicule the different platforms for their lack of power, or hate on ports that aren't perfect to their liking. Something funny I noticed: Back in the day your arcade port to console had to be as close as possible, not it's like PC has taken the arcade's place in that front lol.

[Crying Freeman]

As well you should -- there's a dark side to everything and you've just hit on the dark side here, but stuff like content being pulled is simply a bad business tactic and reeks of dishonesty.

Pretty much

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Back in the day your arcade port to console had to be as close as possible, not it's like PC has taken the arcade's place in that front lol.

Well, arcade rigs used to sport the most powerful hardware, but once the PlayStation era began, they lost most of that edge, and it stayed lost permanently. This put home PCs and Consoles on more or less equal footing. To demonstrate, I'm gonna throw Soul Blade on PS1 vs its arcade equivalent, Soul Edge as an example. Most would agree the PS1 port is actually measurably better, which was kind of unheard of just a few years prior. Now it's actually common for Arcade rigs to be significantly overpowered by home consoles, and a decent $500 PC probably packs more power.

It's like NASA and smartphones. A single sub-$200 Android phone has more computer processing power than all of NASA in 1969.

It's just the way this tech evolves.

If you have either Xbox One or PS4 I feel you are only in it to be where your friends are, for the controller and maybe what few exclusives there are.

Yeah, I initially bought into the PlayStation 4 because I had some good friends on PSN from the PS3 days, and I then made a bunch of new friends playing Destiny. Xbox Live lacks the same lovable crowd of idiots for me.

[Crying Freeman]

Well, arcade rigs used to sport the most powerful hardware, but once the PlayStation era began, they lost most of that edge, and it stayed lost permanently. This put home PCs and Consoles on more or less equal footing. To demonstrate, I'm gonna throw Soul Blade on PS1 vs its arcade equivalent, Soul Edge as an example. Most would agree the PS1 port is actually measurably better, which was kind of unheard of just a few years prior. Now it's actually common for Arcade rigs to be significantly overpowered by home consoles, and a decent $500 PC probably packs more power.

It's like NASA and smartphones. A single sub-$200 Android phone has more computer processing power than all of NASA in 1969.

It's just the way this tech evolves.

Yeah, I initially bought into the PlayStation 4 because I had some good friends on PSN from the PS3 days, and I then made a bunch of new friends playing Destiny. Xbox Live lacks the same lovable crowd of idiots for me.

Yeah the consoles caught up, like you mentioned the PS1. Then the DC had some amazing conversions, like Soul Caliber and Crazy Taxi. I've also heard how now arcade hardware surpasses the consoles in many cases (some Sega fan was saying how he thinks Sega should release a new console based on their arcade parts, like they used to do... does he know the time and money that goes into releasing a console lol). Cabinets now pretty much are PCs running either Windows or some Linux distro.

About the XB1 and PS4, I really regret getting the XB1 lol. I liked the exclusives they had around launch, but nothings holding my attention anymore, and the exclusives I want are usually always exclusively on PS4, sometimes PS4 and Vita or PC (obscure Japanese titles). I'm saving up for a decently powerful PC, so no more consoles for me unless one blows me away

[VladCT]

Really, more Japanese developers need to see the light of Our Lord Gaben. :v

[Crying Freeman]

Really, more Japanese developers need to see the light of Our Lord Gaben. :v

ikr? The Japanese are WAY more into mobile, handhelds and consoles (besides xbox  give up, MS)