The PC is treated as a second-rate game platform. This is evidenced most strongly both by game publishers’ treatment of the PC versions of their multi-platform games as well as how the games press covers PC games whether they be multi-platform or exclusive. For roughly the last six years the PC has been perceived as being a dying platform. While some players have definitely shifted from PC to video game consoles during this same time frame, things aren’t that bad; the PC platform’s biggest problem is still the perception that gamers, game makers, and game journalists have of it. This problem, left to fester, has begun to have distinct effects on the way PC games are treated.

Publishers, when they even make a PC version of their game, don’t treat it as well as they do the console versions. Development of the PC version of multi-platform games is often outsourced to a third party, and the quality of the product suffers as a result. But it isn’t always a problem of outsourcing; sometimes developers are simply told to focus their foremost efforts on the console versions. Marketing of the PC version also takes a hit; it is not uncommon for the PC version of a game to be released weeks to months after the console versions. Rarely will the PC version even be mentioned in magazine and comic book ads, much less television adverts; it will just be tossed out and left up to word of mouth and the virtually non-existent retail spaces to sell it to people.
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Ooh! fanboy fodder! Really, though, this is a good thing. Activision won’t seriously ever stop supporting Sony consoles. This is actually one of the least-evil things they’ve done or said lately. It’s a fact that the Playstation 3 is too expensive. Most gamers agree, most of the press agrees, and the sales numbers of multiplatform games make developers inclined to agree. Any other day I’d be jumping at the chance to hate on Activision, but as a person who wants to play some PS3 games, but doesn’t have a PS3, they’re right; that machine’s too expensive.

It’s going to be great when we no longer need to ask questions like this.

Yes, you read it right. The Ghostbusters developers didn’t include multiplayer in the PC version so that they could make the console versions better. Meaning the Xbox 360 version, apparently, since the Playstation 3 version renders at a lower resolution and has lower resolution textures. To be fair, the PC version is $30 instead of $50, but I’d rather have more co-op and less $20.

If you ever wanted to know how to completely kill the sales potential of the PC version of your game in an entire region by encouraging piracy… well, this is how. Thanks for the lesson, Sony.

It’s still pretty cool to see that people are paying attention to Broken Sword again. I get sad when I hear people older than me say the Wii and DS Director’s Cuts of The Shadow of the Templars is the first time they’ve heard of the series. Just cast Tim Robbins as George Stobbart and Audrey Tautou (shh! no, that similarly themed movie that she was just in… yeah, that didn’t really happen) as Nico Collard and I’m on board.

Overgrowth’s dev tools are pretty impressive and all (seriously, go watch some of their other videos on GameTrailers), but this video in particular is great because it brings the funny. This video’s worth a look whether you’re interested in the tools or not. Bonus, if you are!

That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!