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[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i didn't mean that pc games aren't in a worse place than they once were. but to call them 'dead' is an exaggeration. there are more pc games released each year than in any time in history, it's just that there are fewer high-profile, big-bugdet pc games released each year. so, like, instead of 10 games which sell 1 million copies each, you have 1000 games that sell 100,000 copies each, which is actually 10x as much money and more healthy. i think pc game sales are far healthier and higher than console game sales overall, it's only that individual big-budget games sell better on consoles. especially when you include flash games and casual games like bejeweled as part of pc games (which they are).

[KM]

Even console game studios are starting to really push their PC conterparts of their games. Look at Squareenix and Capcom. Sure they used to make PC versions of their games 10-20 years ago, but how likely was it that you'd find them? I didn't know Capcom did PC work until I found a copy of DMC3 in a bargain bin. Now you can find tons of their newer games on steam.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

yeah, that's true -- street fighter 2 and 3 didn't have pc ports, street fighter 4 did

[KM]

yeah, that's true -- street fighter 2 and 3 didn't have pc ports, street fighter 4 did

Actually, according to wikipedia, SF2 had a PC port of some sort. Not sure of what or what game it came with though.

[salade]

i didn't mean that pc games aren't in a worse place than they once were. but to call them 'dead' is an exaggeration.

This is certainly correct, but you also have to acknowledge the shift it is taking content wise from disc to server. Even games that are being bought at retail are depending on their online content, whether it is because it is an MMO, because updates, because of the multiplayer, or some other cloud/internet based service. The whole PC games industry is shifting to offering cloud based services. I'm sure you can name some sucessful retail examples that do none of those, but they seem to be the exception to the rule. Starcraft 2's removal of LAN, WoW, Mincecraft's open development and constant updates... these are the games people are playing right now off of steam, the games we have mentioned in this thread, and they all depend on internet services to some extent. Steam's the example that get's thrown around alot, but it's really all PC gaming.

The consoles on the other hand... just doesn't work the same way. Xbox live arcade is Microsoft's service, for microsoft's machine. They are waranted to regulate prices to whatever "absurd" or "out of touch" or "trainwreck" levels, that's fine because they are offering you the unique service of getting to play your games on an optimized, stable (bar red ring) machine through a distribution service that they are running for you (although you have to subscribe to them to play the full versions of games).

[Cthulhu32]

yeah, that's true -- street fighter 2 and 3 didn't have pc ports, street fighter 4 did

Actually, according to wikipedia, SF2 had a PC port of some sort. Not sure of what or what game it came with though.

I actually bought a PC port of SF Alpha 2, so Capcom released a few of their SF games on the PC. The idea is that if there is a market for it, they'll put the effort into porting it. A lot of the newer games they make cross-platform engines in house, so thats why they can compile SF4 for the PS3/Xbox360/PC. You have minor kinks in each system, but the engine should handle everything. Capcom has talked about the only reason why SSF4 didn't come out for the PC was because of rampant piracy. Consoles are "safer" because its more difficult than simply installing an ISO off of a torrent.

[moi]

I don't think the SF2 port was done by Capcom though, it was probably a por done by an english company or sthg like that. In the 90s SF2 was so huge, it was not imagineable that it wouldn't have been ported to PC, but console-to-PC porting is rather new.
DMC3 was ported but not DMC1 and 2. Actually I suspect that the recent wave of PC ports is simply due to the fact that japanese devs aer now dev'ing for the XBOX consoles and porting from XBOX360 to PC is probably rather trivial (at least it is in XNA).

[Cthulhu32]

I don't think the SF2 port was done by Capcom though, it was probably a por done by an english company or sthg like that. In the 90s SF2 was so huge, it was not imagineable that it wouldn't have been ported to PC, but console-to-PC porting is rather new.
DMC3 was ported but not DMC1 and 2. Actually I suspect that the recent wave of PC ports is simply due to the fact that japanese devs aer now dev'ing for the XBOX consoles and porting from XBOX360 to PC is probably rather trivial (at least it is in XNA).

Actually, here's a MUCH better list:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Capcom_games#IBM-PC_and_Compatibles_.28MS-DOS_.2F_MS-Windows.29

Yeah I would not be shocked at all if they hired other companies to do those ports. "Westwood Studios" did the Resident Evil PC port, so it was probably just whoever took the contract.

[Makai]

Someone needs to make a hack or plugin for steam that sets it up so you can download from other people's sites and still use steam. Example: Buy World of Goo through the site but can download it and play it on steam.

Steam already lets you do that actually. You can go to the Games Tab and click on "Add a Non-Steam Game to My Library..." and it'll create a shortcut on Steam to your non-Steam game.

Also, if you start a non-Steam game through Steam you can still pull up the Steam interface in the middle of your non-Steam game with Shift+Tab which can be pretty useful if you want to have access to things like your Steam friends list.

[KM]

Here's the problem with that. What happens when you wipe your OS or move the file? It doesn't carry over. And you have to do it manually for every game you have. Plus there's no function to download the game from a seperate site and do updates. So basically all it does is make a short cut, which I can do by placing a short cut to my games folder on my desktop, which is actually much easier to do.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

also, concerning the original topic, microsoft does allow free patching / updates of the game, without paying anything. couldn't the developers arrange so that their "new content" is done automatically as an update patch to the game?

[moi]

also, concerning the original topic, microsoft does allow free patching / updates of the game, without paying anything. couldn't the developers arrange so that their "new content" is done automatically as an update patch to the game?

I'm not sure new content would be allowed.

[eva]

its not about whether its new content, just file size restriction

[Ntero]

also, concerning the original topic, microsoft does allow free patching / updates of the game, without paying anything. couldn't the developers arrange so that their "new content" is done automatically as an update patch to the game?

It is my understanding that all new DLC content has to redo Certification, which comes with a very hefty price tag.  It's harder to justify making a free content expansion, when you are going to have to pay Microsoft a second time as if it's a full budget game.

There have been recent mention of developers circumventing that through loopholes, not every game can use those loopholes, and the game would have to have been originally designed to take advantage of them specifically.