PC vs Console: Does no GTA IV on the PC mean consoles win?

With news about PC version of GTA IV still unconfirmed, it's no surprise the old pc vs console has reappeared.
Everytime the 'PC vs console' question comes up, the pattern is the same: aconsole manufacturer releases its latest and greatest system, whichblows everyone away with its graphics and apparent power. The PC, asthe most powerful system on the block, looks weakened.
Butthere's a catch: consoles don't offer any scope for upgrades. Theyquickly start lagging behind what PC developers can do – to say nothingof the fact that, as console games are coded on PCs before going acrossto their destination, we have a certain amount of home advantage. Newgraphics cards and processors – most recently, dual/quad core – quickly make the PC the most appealing platform for developers who really want to stretch their technical muscles.
Willthe cycle repeat this time? Certainly. However, the threat this time isslightly more complicated, and publishers that fail to adapt are likelyto be left behind.
The end of the console exclusive
Commercialgames, particularly so-called triple-A games such as GTA IV, cost aphenomenal amount of money to create. The only way to recoup thatamount is to sell games – and most simply don’t. It’s a publisher’s bigsuccesses that really pay the bills, with many well-known developerssurviving project-by-project.
What this means is that the eraof the 'console exclusive' is effectively over. A handful of gamesaside (typically those owned by a console’s manufacturer, as happenedwith Halo on the Xbox), publishers can’t afford to exclude either Xbox360 or PlayStation 3 users – or, more specifically, their wallets.
Othermajor games, including GTA, are being targeted at both platforms, withthe only exclusivity coming in the exact details, such as Microsoftpaying a phenomenal $50million for dibs on its downloadable content.
Thisleads to a situation where, while the manufacturers and fans alike arequick to trumpet the technical benefits of their platform, in practiceit doesn’t mean much. The less powerful machine sets the level,preventing the game from being all that it could be if it wasspecifically written to make use of the hardware available to it. Onthe PC, a mix of hardware and scalability options offer much moreflexibility. You can’t play Crysis at its best on a £500 PC… but youcan play Crysis.
The PC dilemma
This begsthe obvious question: if cross-platform is such an important part ofthe industry, why are PCs left out of releases such as GTA IV?
Stand out:one major reason is simply that the PC doesn’t currently have the‘cool’ value of the consoles, or the more limited games selection thatgives almost any major release a better share of the limelight.
Technicalities:then there's the complete pain in the neck of every system beingdifferent, and the users (in general) being largely technicallyilliterate. For every person who’s built a machine from individualcomponents, there’s another 10 users that haven’t ever botheredupgrading their graphics drivers and will happily blame any resultingproblems on the developer.
Piracy: hasn’t helpedeither, but not just in the way you might think. In addition towhatever direct loss of income there might be, we’ve seen several gamesthat have been slammed on online forums for being buggy, broken andunfinished, only for it to come to light that the complainants wereusing dodgy code. In the case of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, the piratecopy was leaked to the net a couple of months before release.
Ona smaller scale, Iron Lore entertainment faced an uphill struggle toexplain that the sudden drops to the desktop were a result ofanti-piracy measures rather than a programming error.
The ironyis that all of this protection is really only aimed at so-called ‘0-day’ releases – games leaked to the pirate market before they actuallyappear in the shops.
This is typically seen as a PC-only issueby the market, but that’s not true. People were downloading and playingGTA IV the week before hundreds of people queued up for a midnightlaunch. The catch is that on a console, you have to get physicalmodifications done to your system before it can be used to play pirategames, which is a big technological jump from just running a file – andbrings the risk of losing online access.
The future now
Whilewaiting for the cycle to turn back to PCs, two major genres are soakingup much of the cash – casual games and MMOs. The most successful PCgames of all time aren’t the likes of Doom or Command and Conquer, butThe Sims (plus its sequel and million expansion packs) and World ofWarcraft (11 million players and counting).
The Sims offeredsomething both new and immediately appealing; World of Warcraft tookthe geekiest genre on the planet and made it mainstream through carefuldesign and the goodwill built up over a decade of its creator Blizzardmaking nothing but amazing games.
It’s this kind of expansionthat the PC is in a position to do right now – to spread the joy ofgames to a whole new audience. And when the technology turns, they’llstill be there.