» Mon Jun 27, 2011 4:05 am Hello,
After seeing the information that has emerged about Skyrim the shift in direction of streamlining that was set in motion for Oblivion seems set to continue. And many of us who intend to play Skyrim on our PC's are concerned that it will under utilise our hardware.
I have been on these forums for a while now and the general consensus is that the blame for all of the above lies squarely at the feet of the "casual gamer", the console manufactures for not releasing new systems and Bethseda for making the game for these systems. But is that really the case?
I don't think it is.
First of all I have owned several games consoles and handhelds over the years along side my PCs. Many of the games I played on consoles I found as deep, challenging, innovative, complex and as satisfying as those i've played on PC so the notion that the console gamers need games to be simplified, easy and generic rings hollow to me. There is something else at play here.
It can't be denied that console hardware is lagging a long way behind the capabilities of a modern PC and that if Bethseda were to make Skyrim PC exclusive we could have a much better looking game, more NPC on the screen, open Cities, so on and so forth. So why are Bethseda targeting the console's with their dated tech?
The fact of the matter is that making games today on any platform is more expensive than at any point in the past, and this is not simply not an inflationary increase, it is several orders of magnitude more expensive (in real terms) to make a game today than in 2002 when our beloved Morrowind was released. This is because newer hardware can process more data, much more data and this data needs to be created by the developers, Higher res textures require more work by digital artist than lower res ones. More sophisticated animation means more work for animators so on and so forth.
These higher costs has created an environment of high risk for games developers. If you sink all your cash into a game and it flops you are out of business. Skyrim is being developed in this environment (and in the environment of the wider economic climate) with a larger team than Oblivion and has been in development for at least 3 years so it is likely to be on the very expensive side with regards development costs.
On side note I also think that it is economics behind Microsoft and Sony delaying the release of the next gen consoles. Making games for the next gen will be another step up in costs meaning fewer games will be made for those systems meaning the systems them selves may flop.
With this in mind is a large more complex, detailed Skyrim that utilises the latest PC hardware really a wise financial choice for Bethseda to make? Realistically I don't think it is.
What Bethseda is doing is mitigating their financial risk. They not only feel they need tap in to the substantial console RPG market but also appeal to a wider crowd across all platforms PC included to secure their investment in this project.
On that point I feel that the platform where largest "casual market" potential exists is in fact the PC (after all it's not being released on Wii). Pretty much everyone has a PC, pretty much anyone who has a relatively new PC should be able to run Skyrim, but those of us who are only occasionally interested in games are unlikely to own a 360 or PS3.
So economics is bogeyman then?
No, I don't think we have got to the bottom of it yet, who's fault is it?
Well, it's my fault, I'm driving up the cost of games development. The thing is I don't want N64 performance on my 360 and I don't want 360 performance on my Radeon 6950 GPU, I want the best my hardware can produce, furthermore I am not willing to pay more for games, I think they are pricey enough thank you. It's also likley your fault too.
TL:DR version
Consoles aren't limiting Skyrim, I am and so are you.
