So, as a gamer, I'm watching the gaming space, seeing how Blizz/Activision is alienating its playerbase by releasing quantity over quality, EA wanting to compete on the same metrics, Ubisoft long being the purveyor of shovelware even when they had a few quality titles under their sleeve and THQ being squeezed out despite owning some real quality franchises.
And some absolute gold smaller studios being born and dying left and right, both entirely independent and with publisher support. (Warner Bros being happy to let Supergiant Games manage its own leash, to craft an awesome game such as bastion and manage its various platform releases properly, and then being the perfect publisher father figure when fans demanded the sound track, just, the perfect working relationship between a publishing house and a developer.)
I'm also noticing that Capcom is the only large publisher experimenting with the pc space to see what works other than DRM.
They're doing this by giving the pc gamers way more than they should be allowed to have, at a price significantly undercutting the consoles, with a delayed release as the bargaining chip. This one was heavily delayed but worth the wait, stuff such as DmC was not quite as delayed, and still a superior version.
They're also getting a lot of things right. RE 4, 5 and 6 had such solid engines that they can be used to benchmark pc's. DMC 3 was legendarily awful to the point where people recommend you emulate the ps2 version instead, but given Capcom's direction since then, I'm happy to write that one off as a teething problem from an outsourced porting job. They've clearly learned their lesson by now.
So, my question is this: How is this model working for Capcom? Are they writing off the pc as a platform they'll never make money on but cheap and effective as far as otherwise having to advertise is concerned? Are they actually legitimately succeeding by giving pc gamers such a huge benefit over consoles and not throwing money at DRM? Is this a space they're running at a loss just to maintain a presence, and what's their relationship like with the devs of either ports or new IPs (if there are any devs on here who are allowed to comment, that is)?
I find it interesting, and rather odd that there's been no recognition of Capcom doing *so* right by its pc customers compared to the competition.
TLDR: Why is Capcom so awesome at PC when the competition is getting worse? Is there profit in it for them or is it a marketing thing?
And some absolute gold smaller studios being born and dying left and right, both entirely independent and with publisher support. (Warner Bros being happy to let Supergiant Games manage its own leash, to craft an awesome game such as bastion and manage its various platform releases properly, and then being the perfect publisher father figure when fans demanded the sound track, just, the perfect working relationship between a publishing house and a developer.)
I'm also noticing that Capcom is the only large publisher experimenting with the pc space to see what works other than DRM.
They're doing this by giving the pc gamers way more than they should be allowed to have, at a price significantly undercutting the consoles, with a delayed release as the bargaining chip. This one was heavily delayed but worth the wait, stuff such as DmC was not quite as delayed, and still a superior version.
They're also getting a lot of things right. RE 4, 5 and 6 had such solid engines that they can be used to benchmark pc's. DMC 3 was legendarily awful to the point where people recommend you emulate the ps2 version instead, but given Capcom's direction since then, I'm happy to write that one off as a teething problem from an outsourced porting job. They've clearly learned their lesson by now.
So, my question is this: How is this model working for Capcom? Are they writing off the pc as a platform they'll never make money on but cheap and effective as far as otherwise having to advertise is concerned? Are they actually legitimately succeeding by giving pc gamers such a huge benefit over consoles and not throwing money at DRM? Is this a space they're running at a loss just to maintain a presence, and what's their relationship like with the devs of either ports or new IPs (if there are any devs on here who are allowed to comment, that is)?
I find it interesting, and rather odd that there's been no recognition of Capcom doing *so* right by its pc customers compared to the competition.
TLDR: Why is Capcom so awesome at PC when the competition is getting worse? Is there profit in it for them or is it a marketing thing?