Yeah, yeah... Bill gates has not written DOS, Steve Jobs has not created the Mac and John Carmack has not written that fancy Shadow Engine. Who actually gives a shit? Their products and technologies (licensed or self-developed, it doesn't matter) are huge successes that dominate an entire industry.
And maybe the Half-Life fans should not forgot that this game actually used an enhanced Quake engine. Now who was that guy again who wrote the Quake engine? And how many other games are using id technology on how many different platforms?
Carmack and his fellows didn't write Doom on a PC, but on NeXT workstations running NeXTstep, the predecessor of today's OS X. Obviously, Carmack has been using a multi-platform development approach for at least one and a half decades now.
id Software and their enormous success Doom laid the foundation for the mass phenomenon that 3D/FPS games are today. Yes, others can write great 3D games and engines, too (Tim Sweeney anyone?), but nevertheless Doom was the real breakthrough (not Catacomb Abyss, not Wolfenstein 3D).
So I think there's some credit due and id Software (and Carmack) had a huge impact on the gaming industry and deserve their success.
But technologies, industries and markets change rapidly, and now Carmack as one of the leaders in high-end gaming is talking about significant changes in the market for (technologically high-end) PC games and deems it necessary to prepare his company and development efforts for a major change of course. He is making a business decision based upon financial facts instead of believes, hopes or wishful thinking.
People actually want a guaranteed plug & play experience when they play games and as Microsoft's Vista disaster nicely demonstrates, the consumers are no longer willing to upgrade their hardware only to be able to install some a software upgrade. CryTek had to make the same experience with CrySis. The guys who first released Gears of War as an Xbox 360 exclusive title did not have that problem.
In addition to that, the hardware market changed significantly in the last two years: People are now buying much more notebooks than desktop PCs. And as we all know, except for system memory and hard disk space, notebooks usually don't have upgradeable parts.
Now there is a simple financial calculation for most gamers who traditionally bought high-end PCs: It is now possible to buy a relatively cheap notebook for all your home computer needs and spend another 200 dollars on a console that will ALWAYS play ALL games on the highest possible detail settings. The notebook is mobile, does not consume much space and the console will also be able to play next year's games on your HDTV or HD monitor. Guaranteed.
By the way, even the crew behind STALKER are now official Xbox developers. How many PC-only titles do you expect from them in the future? What I as an Xbox 360 customer can expect from them is that whatever sequel or prequel to STALKER they will release for the Xbox, it will run on my box without a problem. PC users most likely will have to upgrade their hardware again.
Really, folks. Just do the math. It's no wonder that notebook-compatible games like WoW are now dominating the PC market and that titles with higher hardware requirements fall through -- or are moving to the console market.
And maybe the Half-Life fans should not forgot that this game actually used an enhanced Quake engine. Now who was that guy again who wrote the Quake engine? And how many other games are using id technology on how many different platforms?
Carmack and his fellows didn't write Doom on a PC, but on NeXT workstations running NeXTstep, the predecessor of today's OS X. Obviously, Carmack has been using a multi-platform development approach for at least one and a half decades now.
id Software and their enormous success Doom laid the foundation for the mass phenomenon that 3D/FPS games are today. Yes, others can write great 3D games and engines, too (Tim Sweeney anyone?), but nevertheless Doom was the real breakthrough (not Catacomb Abyss, not Wolfenstein 3D).
So I think there's some credit due and id Software (and Carmack) had a huge impact on the gaming industry and deserve their success.
But technologies, industries and markets change rapidly, and now Carmack as one of the leaders in high-end gaming is talking about significant changes in the market for (technologically high-end) PC games and deems it necessary to prepare his company and development efforts for a major change of course. He is making a business decision based upon financial facts instead of believes, hopes or wishful thinking.
People actually want a guaranteed plug & play experience when they play games and as Microsoft's Vista disaster nicely demonstrates, the consumers are no longer willing to upgrade their hardware only to be able to install some a software upgrade. CryTek had to make the same experience with CrySis. The guys who first released Gears of War as an Xbox 360 exclusive title did not have that problem.
In addition to that, the hardware market changed significantly in the last two years: People are now buying much more notebooks than desktop PCs. And as we all know, except for system memory and hard disk space, notebooks usually don't have upgradeable parts.
Now there is a simple financial calculation for most gamers who traditionally bought high-end PCs: It is now possible to buy a relatively cheap notebook for all your home computer needs and spend another 200 dollars on a console that will ALWAYS play ALL games on the highest possible detail settings. The notebook is mobile, does not consume much space and the console will also be able to play next year's games on your HDTV or HD monitor. Guaranteed.
By the way, even the crew behind STALKER are now official Xbox developers. How many PC-only titles do you expect from them in the future? What I as an Xbox 360 customer can expect from them is that whatever sequel or prequel to STALKER they will release for the Xbox, it will run on my box without a problem. PC users most likely will have to upgrade their hardware again.
Really, folks. Just do the math. It's no wonder that notebook-compatible games like WoW are now dominating the PC market and that titles with higher hardware requirements fall through -- or are moving to the console market.