• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Crytek: PC Market Can Not Support Large/Expensive Games By Itself, Consoles Needed

Mithos said:
So again....?

They're also not spending $100 million on plastering the entire USA with marketing, yet I wouldn't be surprised to see Witcher 2 make more money for CD Project than most of EA's games.
 

jax (old)

Banned
Some brain dead comments in the thread. The anti crysis 2 visual talk for what is an amazing looking game Ridiculous...


And gta4 looks ... Like shit. Well, tremendously average anyhow...
 
Heavy said:
When you think of "scope and scale" you think about the openness of Crysis 1's first 6 chapters, but you fail to realize that Cevat is referring to the amount of unique art and environmental assets compared to the original. Crysis 1 has copy/pasted trees, foliage, and roads and the last 5 chapters are very linear. Crysis 2 dwarfs Crysis 1 in scale and scope if you combined all the levels together. The amount of assets Crytek had to create for the game is just massive. I'm not that smart and I managed to figure out what he was referring to.

No idea.
 

Sethos

Banned
And it's funny it should come from Crytek, they have their engined licensed out for military use and that's something which pays very well - Hence why they have like, 6-7 studios and only a tiny number of games.
 
vocab said:
Same here. Still runs like shit. I don't know anyone who can max it out with playable framerate. Hell, the game runs worse with low settings.

Gta 4? I can max it on 1920x1080 at 60 fps and I only have a 3ghz quad.
 

Zzoram

Member
Ysiadmihi said:
Valve is hardly a true PC dev anymore. They just haven't removed 10+ year old PC features like others have.

They've added features nobody else has added. Steam Cloud for one. Valve is great.
 

aeolist

Banned
Isn't Crysis 2 selling worse than the first game?

They deserve to fail after that game. What a boring, derivative disappointment.
 
aeolist said:
Isn't Crysis 2 selling worse than the first game?

They deserve to fail after that game. What a boring, derivative disappointment.

Hard to say without knowing what the DD sales are. It's been around the top of Steam's top seller list for a long time now.

And that's your opinion. I think it's better and 1000000 times more fun than Crysis 1 was.
 

Calcaneus

Member
Ysiadmihi said:
Valve is hardly a true PC dev anymore. They just haven't removed 10+ year old PC features like others have.
What is a "true" PC dev in your opinion? Only making PC games? Valve is as PC as anyone you can bring up.
 
Jax said:
Some brain dead comments in the thread. The anti crysis 2 visual talk for what is an amazing looking game Ridiculous...


And gta4 looks ... Like shit. Well, tremendously average anyhow...

You mean Vanilla GTAIV...Different story with mods..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0_ogdtbfB0

The way I see it is that the traditional publishing model moreso than anything else can't be supported by just one platform. But each platform can sustain a large and expensive game, the business model just needs to be different. If you look at all the super successful games on PC, they all share on thing in common and it's that they foster a community- an active conversation between developer and player (be it continual balancings/modding/dedicated servers etc..).
 
I'm surprised to see so many level headed poster get so vile against his statement.

I mean yes its odd that Crytek is saying this due to the success of Crysis 1 and the fact that was a more bigger and meaner game. But they are the exception and not the rule. Game development costs have sky rocketed and many developers are going down the tubes as they can't keep up. It would be insane to support a single platform in this day in age with a plus $20,000,000 budget.
 
As annoying as their statement is, the sad fact of the matter is what they're saying is probably very true.
There seems to be a definate ressurgence in PC gaming and people willing to invest in the latest tech to play the latest games but it comes nowhere close to that of people buying a console to play these games. Obviously money is a factor, and the 'comfy couch' syndrome, but I always find it strange considering how many more PCs are out there in homes than consoles combined.
 

Ysiadmihi

Banned
Calcaneus said:
What is a "true" PC dev in your opinion? Only making PC games? Valve is as PC as anyone you can bring up.

A true PC game is a game built around the system's strengths without making concessions for console (which we haven't seen since TF2). Even Microsoft is currently working on more PC focused games than Valve is.
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Flying_Phoenix said:
I'm surprised to see so many level headed poster get so vile against his statement.

I mean yes its odd that Crytek is saying this due to the success of Crysis 1 and the fact that was a more bigger and meaner game. But they are the exception and not the rule. Game development costs have sky rocketed and many developers are going down the tubes as they can't keep up. It would be insane to support a single platform in this day in age with a plus $20,000,000 budget.

Uh, Crysys 1 has a budget around this number and did very well for itself. On one platform. So, was Crytek already insane? It was $22 million for Crysis. It made its money back and put Crytek in the spotlight.

All those studios going down the tubes? The majority of them were console developers. To me, it seems the "problem" is rather obvious.

Also, reading these comments from him about the platform which gave birth to the MMORPG is hilarious. EA and Bioware are betting the farm on a platform which can't handle the scale and scope of Crysis 2 by itself? Please.

All this dude had to say was "We wanted to see if our game and vision could be successful on consoles as well." and no one would bat an eye. Instead, he's trollin'.
 

scitek

Member
I thought Crysis 1 sold like 80k in its first month and only reached 3 million after various sales and whatnot. Most of Crytek's money is made on licensing CryEngine to non-gaming projects, so how do we know it's because of Crysis alone that they were able to expand so much? Games sell way better on consoles in general than on the PC, and I don't blame them for going multiplatform.

They are certainly BSing about things like the reason why they went with a city setting instead of a jungle, but people need to stop acting like they're suddenly incapable of making a game like Crysis 1 and/or like CryEngine 3 is inferior to 2.
 

Calcaneus

Member
Ysiadmihi said:
A true PC game is a game built around the system's strengths without making concessions for console (which we haven't seen since TF2). Even Microsoft is currently working on more PC focused games than Valve is.
Ok, I'll admit I'm not familiar with them, but what concessions were made with the Left 4 Dead games and Portal 2?
 
Kintaro said:
Uh, Crysys 1 has a budget around this number and did very well for itself. On one platform. So, was Crytek already insane? It was $22 million for Crysis. It made its money back and put Crytek in the spotlight.

I addressed this...

Kintaro said:
All those studios going down the tubes? The majority of them were console developers. To me, it seems the "problem" is rather obvious.

If by "console deveopers" you mean everybody who makes games that appeal to the 18-36 year old demographic, than yes.

I don't understand this line of thinking. Most PC developers stopped being exclusive it was near impossible to keep costs down while increasing their scope. Yes their are developers like CD Projekt but they're the exception and even they have fallen into financial troubles from over expanding.

You can live in your little bubble all you want but the fact of the matter is no single platform can continuously support massive blockbusters on its own. You need as many platforms as possible for this.
 

szaromir

Banned
Zzoram said:
They've added features nobody else has added. Steam Cloud for one. Valve is great.
At the same time, their games are so straightforward and scripted, that they lend themselves well fit for "broader audience" without any additionadl streamlining.
 

iNvid02

Member
make a game that looks like avatar, but make it playable. crysis1 was beautiful, but at the same time an unoptimized piece of shit
 

Red

Member
Ickman3400 said:
Gta 4? I can max it on 1920x1080 at 60 fps and I only have a 3ghz quad.
I get frame rate stutters with a 4GHz i7 without everything maxed out. What magic game are you playing?

If you are using the in-game benchmark, you aren't getting an accurate reading on your performance. That thing consistently gives me 60+ fps, but when actually playing I hover around 30-50 in most exterior areas.
 
szaromir said:
At the same time, their games are so straightforward and scripted, that they lend themselves well fit for "broader audience" without any additionadl streamlining.
Ah get out of there with that shit. So Half-Life wasn't straightforward and scripted?

Valve are absolutely PC devs through and through. Just because their games appeal to a wide audience and appears on consoles now doesn't change that.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Ickman3400 said:
Gta 4? I can max it on 1920x1080 at 60 fps and I only have a 3ghz quad.

No, you really can't.

First of all, there's no way in hell you are maxing the game out completely and getting 60fps when outdoors.
 

szaromir

Banned
Foliorum Viridum said:
Ah get out of there with that shit. So Half-Life wasn't straightforward and scripted?

Valve are absolutely PC devs through and through. Just because their games appeal to a wide audience and appears on consoles now doesn't change that.
HL was totally scripted which was my point exactly.
 

Draft

Member
Mr_Brit said:
Valve succeded due to Steam, Blizzard succeded due to WoW. Without these two things they wouldn't be the powerhouses in the gaming industry that they are. Just look at how often Blizzard and Valve release their games, they can take as much time as they like due to income coming from WoW and Steam.
:lol What? You need to brush up on your history. Valve has been printing money since they bought the Counterstrike IP and Blizzard has been a massively profitable studio since Warcraft 2. That's like 15 Goddamn years.
 

LyR

Banned
kittoo said:
As far as I know, budget of Crysis 1 was 22 million dollars, including the engine development and everything.

I bet it cost them much more time = money to optimize it for consoles
 

StuBurns

Banned
LyR said:
I bet it cost them much more time = money to optimize it for consoles
You can almost ignore engine development though, they're going to be in the black from tech with two or three engine licensees, in fact they're way past that.
 
Zefah said:
No, you really can't.

First of all, there's no way in hell you are maxing the game out completely and getting 60fps when outdoors.

I promise you I can, I had fraps on for a couple hours. It went down to 50-55 when like 8 cars blew up at once but it runs smooth as butter.
 

Zeliard

Member
Stumpokapow said:
but crysis 1 had a larger scope and scale than crysis 2, and it was pc exclusive, and it was evidently popular and profitable enough to help crytek massively massively expand over the years.

Crysis 1 was also far more ambitious and nailed the mark more often than not. Crysis 2 is Crytek playing it safe.
 
Ickman3400 said:
I promise you I can, I had fraps on for a couple hours. It went down to 50-55 when like 8 cars blew up at once but it runs smooth as butter.
I have a 4ghz quad core, 8GB RAM and a 6950@6970 speeds and even my game dips to the 40s with everything maxed. You do not get a solid 60fps at all times, no way.

BUT, his claim was it's not playable maxed, which is ridiculous. 40+ is extremely playable, especially when it reaches 50-60 in places.
 
Sounds likes sales took a nosedive off a cliff. i know i've certaintly forgotten about what happened in that game.

ghst said:
i bet for all those years that crysis funded crytek's pan-european expansion, they all dreamt of one day creating the kind of red letter money-spinner that could come in just below lego star wars in an all format npd.

ghst spitting laser beams of truth....i'm still waiting for that blog link.


MrHicks said:
witcher probably doesnt fall into the "expensive" game category
atleast when compared to AAA console budgets

Who gives a fuck?
 

Red

Member
Ickman3400 said:
I promise you I can, I had fraps on for a couple hours. It went down to 50-55 when like 8 cars blew up at once but it runs smooth as butter.
I have a 4GHz i7 and an overclocked 5870. Average fps is around 40-45. It's not feasible that your 3GHz quad is getting a consistent 60.

What are your settings? What's "maxed" for you, considering the slider options? Do you have view distance maxed? Detail distance?
 
Foliorum Viridum said:
I have a 4ghz quad core, 8GB RAM and a 6950@6970 speeds and even my game dips to the 40s with everything maxed. You do not get a solid 60fps at all times, no way.

BUT, his claim was it's not playable maxed, which is ridiculous. 40+ is extremely playable, especially when it reaches 50-60 in places.

You were right, I had forgotten about the 3 number sliders near the bottom of the settings (detail distance, view distance etc). I only have those at 60/100, everything else is on max though and I get a very consistent 58-60 fps.

So yes, not 100% max but extremely close.
 

Curufinwe

Member
StuBurns said:
You can almost ignore engine development though, they're going to be in the black from tech with two or three engine licensees, in fact they're way past that.

Are we sure that many developers are going to want to buy and use Cry Engine 3, though? Maybe they'd rather just use Unreal, considering Crytek couldn't get a consistent 30 fps out of their own engine on consoles.
 
Crunched said:
Not sure a solid 60 would be possible even considering that if you have shadow detail maxed :/

Shadows are fine, night shadows are the drain. With that on very high it brings it down 48-52, but even on high it goes back to 58ish and I can't notice the difference between high/very high other than the fps hit so I don't consider that.
 

Red

Member
Ickman3400 said:
Shadows are fine, night shadows are the drain. With that on very high it brings it down 48-52, but even on high it goes back to 58ish and I can't notice the difference between high/very high other than the fps hit so I don't consider that.
The more you talk about this the less maxed it gets.
 

StuBurns

Banned
Curufinwe said:
Are we sure that many developers are going to want to buy and use Cry Engine 3, though? Maybe they'd rather just use Unreal, considering Crytek couldn't get a consistent 30 fps out of their own engine on consoles.
I think Crytek said they already have over twenty licensees, they're not all announced because the games aren't ready to be announced apparently. I think there's no doubt it'll be a profitable 'product' for them, if it'll be a major revenue stream beyond the simulation industries that have been on board for years remains to be seen I guess.

Although I don't think Crysis 2 is the best looking console game by any stretch, it still blows away any UE3 game I've seen. idTech is ZeniMax exclusive now. There really isn't much in the way of competition.

It's less the battle ground for the remainder of this generation, next-gen is where it's going to really matter. CE3 and UE3 are both preparing their tech for as smooth a transition as possible, if it's really easy to get games up and running and the tools are great on CE3 from the start of next-gen, it could be massive. Every generation engine development is going to be less attractive on a per project basis.

The dark horse is Source I guess, Gabe has said there is a huge internal push to get Hammer to be painless at the moment, it could come from nowhere and be a real contender.
 
Crunched said:
The more you talk about this the less maxed it gets.

Like I already said when I corrected myself, it's not 100%, but it's like 90% on expensive but not top of the line hardware. Pretty damn close to max for "still runs like shit". And a 40-45 fps at max is definitely "playable framerate".
 

Kenka

Member
Sousa is telling us a lie and is covering poor market reasoning from Crytek.

It is the not the first time it happenned. They are trying to get more money but fail to deliver the right message to their audiance, that's poor marketing and poor customer management.

But it's basically it. We have to understand that they didn't want to deliver cutting edge graphics this time and they just wanted to maximise profit by scaling down the graphics so the game can run similarly on PC, X360 and PS3. Too bad, 'cause they threw out one of the assets that made Crysis so enjoyable.

I would go even further and say that having shot for the highest standard for PC graphics would have been a lot more profitable. Why ? Because we have many people upgrading their rig for Battlefield 3 and The Witcher 2. The timing was perfect to release a ressource-greedy game. Also, it could have potentially given us a insight into what graphics could look like in the near future. But none of it happenned and hardcore PC users, Crytek's main audiance, didn't appreciate.
 
Heavy said:
When you think of "scope and scale" you think about the openness of Crysis 1's first 6 chapters, but you fail to realize that Cevat is referring to the amount of unique art and environmental assets compared to the original. Crysis 1 has copy/pasted trees, foliage, and roads and the last 5 chapters are very linear. Crysis 2 dwarfs Crysis 1 in scale and scope if you combined all the levels together. The amount of assets Crytek had to create for the game is just massive. I'm not that smart and I managed to figure out what he was referring to.
Exactly. Unless developers invent some procedural urban-urban-asset generator we won't see a Crysis 1 style game in a city.
 

MrHicks

Banned
fizzelopeguss said:
Who gives a fuck?

the crytek guy said "can't support expensive games by itself"
then people post "buuuut witcher 2!!!! loooool CDprojekt rulezzz "

which doesn't count as witcher 2 is NOT and "expensive" game
might wanna pay attention to the topic
 

Red

Member
Ickman3400 said:
Like I already said when I corrected myself, it's not 100%, but it's like 90% on expensive but not top of the line hardware. Pretty damn close to max for "still runs like shit". And a 40-45 fps at max is definitely "playable framerate".
Never said it wasn't. 60/100 isn't 90% though.

I've argued in favor of GTAIV's playability plenty of times before. It's one of my favorite games of the past five years, but even then the red flags go up when someone claims 60fps on a 3GHz quad.
 
Top Bottom