Graphic/texture mods...really Bethesda?

[Arcadiast]

What im trying to say is that overall, because of piracy on the PC version, most income for a game comes from console versions.

 

really? this again?

 

Look my friend, (some) game publishers consider second hand game sales a bigger problem than piracy. So much so that they would love to outlaw them. Second Hand sales are nothing illegal but a natural progress used by Humans for a very long time. With that in mind how do you expect me to believe anything those Publishers tell me without a second or third source of Information (which by the way do tell something different).

 

Piracy is something like a "Skeleton Key". Whenever their Arguments hit the locked Door of logic they use this key to open it. Explain to me this, how come the most pirated games are also the most sold ones? True with the late CODs, BFs, Sims and also true with Skyrim.

 

Besides, it is false that Consoles are not pirated. Piracy is just as rampant in Consoles then they are on PC.

 

I am not defending Piracy by the way. I just dont like how it is used to excuse everything that Publishers mess up.

 

Let me give you some suggestions on other Reasons and let you decide whether they sound reasonable or not.

 

- lowest System Requirement possible to reach more Hardware Configurations ergo buyers

- easiest possible game mechanics to reach a broader audience ergo buyers

 

If piracy would really be the "Demon" they make out of it, Publishers would have stopped making games for PC a long time ago.

 

I myself wish I could end Piracy completely with the press of a button (all piracy not just games) and see if that really solves every problem because I strongly doubt it.

[OnlyOneWing]

What im trying to say is that overall, because of piracy on the PC version, most income for a game comes from console versions. Therefore its simple economics, you focus on the platforms that make you the most money. And this isnt any BS sales figures, its a fact that console versions for major AAA games sell more. It is also a fact that most copies are played on the PC, but those copies are pirated! Pirated = no money.

 

I suggest you read the pirating info guide by tweakguides from my source, its actually the most unbiased read on the subject i have come across, and ive even studied pirating at Uni...

I know for a fact that the console versions sell more. The fact of the matter is that Bethesda is making a huge profit on the Xbox and PS3 versions. Even the PC version with a much smaller market is making a huge profit for the game.

 

They installed Steam DRM to combat pirating... The game is not licensed in countries like India, China and the middle east, which gives them the right to legally upload and download the data. Numbers are what companies look at when they calculate decisions.

Money, money, money.

 

In their minds, if they make the PC version better, then they will not make any more profit. They will only steal their own sales from console users. Since most PC gamers have a console, like myself.

 

But ultimately, it would have taken relatively little effort to bring the quality of the textures up to par with modern PC hardware.

 

Obvious disregard was taken with other aspects of the PC port, especially the UI/Menu system. The horrible textures are just icing on the cake.

When I opened some of the texture files to look at them, I was surprised by how low quality they are compared to the standard.

[Brittainy]

The vanilla textures don't look bad at all, its stupid to think they wouldn't care about the state of their own game. Besides I don't use graphics mods, they don't have a tangible impact on gameplay and all they do is either straighten up the individual cracks in a rock or the edges of a leaf.

 

Who looks that closely at textures anyway?

 

 

I do :dry:

[Kaylock]

Does disk size not also come into it?

The xbox textures and not as high a resolution as the blu-ray disked PS3 ones.

2gb of graphics mods, that's a lot a lot of memory if even the core game is only 3 times that.

I only have the xbox version, I enjoy it immensely.

Bethesda didn't do anything 'wrong', they did exactly what they wanted to do, and if modders can improve it great, but they can't exactly 'fix' it, as nothing was really broken.

[Matth85]

Does disk size not also come into it?

The xbox textures and not as high a resolution as the blu-ray disked PS3 ones.

2gb of graphics mods, that's a lot a lot of memory if even the core game is only 3 times that.

I only have the xbox version, I enjoy it immensely.

Bethesda didn't do anything 'wrong', they did exactly what they wanted to do, and if modders can improve it great, but they can't exactly 'fix' it, as nothing was really broken.

 

I agree and disagree.

They went for the best profit. Thus they gave piracy another point, and screwed us over.

I mean, you know they made the textures high res, right? And then downgraded for Xbox, THEN ported it. Doesn't that sound.. akward to you?

 

But thats why we are here, to correct the mess and get this game up to the stars!

[Omeletter]

First of all, COD is a linear shooter with even worse graphics. Yeah, even worse. Skyrim is an open world game, it has a variety of textures, but all low res. I've yet to see a console port that doesnt.

 

Gaming is going backwards because of consoles. Look at crysis, made 4 years ago. Beaten by some games. Modded crysis, beaten slightly by some, if it has actually been beaten. It was made when people made games, pushing the boundaries of technology. Now we have money hungry game developers that chuck out a new cod every year for cash...

 

About Skyrim. I'm 35 hours into it, got bored. Haven't completed the main quest either. Graphics can be fixed, so can bugs, with mods of course. But I'm ashamed at bethesda for this. I'm not sure if I'm buying a next Bethesda game early, or waiting for mods. "skyrim on ultra will melt your face off" like that has ever happened..

[MadWizard25]

I know there is huge argument wether or not console ports are due to piracy or not. There are two possible situations;

 

1. Due to mass PC piracy, and hence more (more profit) legit console sales, games are now beginning to be designed on the console 1st because it is the better cash cow.

 

2. There is a larger audience/ market for console games, so the games are being designed on consoles 1st because, again, it is the bigger cash cow.

 

As ive made very clear i think it is reason 1. Some people will think its 2, but whatever the reason we are getting crappy console ports.

 

However all im getting on this thread is non-factual information with no sources. I urge someone here to plese, please give me some damn data to discredit point number 1 that can be well sourced. I dont want someones opinion

 

The best source i have for point 1 is here: Source. It makes a clear and relatively unbiased hypothesis with hard data behind the hypothesis. If you want more sources I will get them for you.

 

Here are also some quotes from devs on the issues of consoles vs. PC

 

1. Cevat Yerli of Crytek, the makers of Far Cry, Crysis and Crysis Warhead has publicly stated:

 

 

We are suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis. We seem to lead the charts in piracy by a large margin, a chart leading that is not desirable. I believe that’s the core problem of PC Gaming, piracy, to the degree [that PC gamers who] pirate games inherently destroy the platform. Similar games on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more. It was a big lesson for us and I believe we won’t have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future. Source.

 

 

2. John Carmack, often called the 'father of PC gaming', and co-founder of id software, makers of the Doom and Quake series, recently stated:

 

 

It's hard to second guess exactly what the reasons are. You can say piracy. You can say user migration, but the ground truth is just that the sales numbers on the PC are not what they used to be and are not what they are on the consoles. Source.

 

 

3. Robert Bowling, Community Manager at Infinity Ward, the makers of games such as Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 4, provided a fairly blunt opinion on the issue. He made a blog post entitled 'They Wonder Why People Don’t Make PC Games Any More', the title of his post along with the contents clearly linking the move away from PC game development with piracy:

 

 

On another PC related note, we pulled some disturbing numbers this past week about the amount of PC players currently playing Multiplayer (which was fantastic). What wasn’t fantastic was the percentage of those numbers who were playing on stolen copies of the game on stolen / cracked CD keys of pirated copies (and that was only people playing online).... the amount of people who pirate PC games is astounding. Source.

 

Edited December 8, 2011 by MadWizard25

[OnlyOneWing]

You are ignorant if you think that a couple of articles prove anything. Those are simply a couple of other people who are stating their opinions. Here is a fact.

 

Worldwide sales figures

Wii – 89.36 million as of 30 September 2011

Xbox 360 – 57.6 million as of 4 November 2011

PlayStation 3 – 56 million as of 2 November 2011

 

There is the downfall of PC gaming. I have purchased approximately 30 games for my Xbox360 this year, and only one game for my PC.(also one game for my Wii)

Why? Simply because games are designed for my Xbox360, not my PC. There is no large difference in graphics, I don't have to install anything on my computer, there are less glitches/bugs, and I can easily play multiplayer without too much involvement.

 

Considering that I am an advanced PC user who has worked in the industry and I am always upgrading and tweaking my PC as hobby... even I find console gaming to be more convenient.

PCs are great all around machines, but consoles are designed to focus all of their energy toward one goal... that is convenient, fun gaming. No DRM bull s***

 

I got Skyrim for my PC simply for the mods, that's it. I will buy Mass Effect 3 for my PC to save myself from insane load times. That's it.

 

The downfall of PC gaming has to do with the downfall of the PC. Desktop PC sales have been dropping over the last few years due to the fact that there is no reason for upgrade and people are more interested in smartphones, tablets and laptops.

 

The age of the desktop PC will soon be coming to an end. Only a small minority will use the in the future.

 

Combine the rise in console sales along with the decline in desktop sales and you have solved the mystery. The PC market receives second hand products because we are a minority market.

On top of being a minority market, many potential PC users have a low end PC due to the decline of new PC purchases... The average user has no reason to by a turbo gaming machine when all they want to do is spread sheets and post facebook statuses.

 

PC gaming is on the decline. However, right now it still holds a large enough market for a company to make a huge profit... Like Bethesda with Skyrim.

 

As major developers bow out of PC sales new developers will come and find their start in PC sales. Where there is a market, some one intelligent will always be there to capitalize on it.

Edited December 8, 2011 by OnlyOneWing

[Zaldos]

I'm almost a little confused here....are we saying the pc graphics for Skyrim are lacking?

 

One of my buds bought the game upon release for ps3 and i purchased mine for my PC; when I

saw his game on his LED HDTV I was surprised at how "crappy" the graphics were -because the

PC version definitely looks amazing. The problem with this game is that PS3 is old as hell.

"It was first released on November 11, 2006, in Japan,[7] with international markets following shortly thereafter." -PS3

 

I just built 4 computers this year. All of them ranging between $603-$720 that include GeForce GTX 560 Ti Graphics card.

Simply put, Skyrim looks amazing. I also have been playing BF3 on PC and that game looks amazing aswell. I will admit

that I believe BF3 has a more polished look...but take a look at the game.

 

BF3

• smaller map sizes
  
• load times are ridiculous
  
• the gameplay and shooting times arent perfect(I definitely shot that guy in the head and he apparently shot me first)
  

 

Skyrim

• load times are so fast I can never read the full load screen comments
  
• graphics still look great
  
• quests are fun, small bugs here and there but nothing i'll cry over
  

 

Anyways, I'm at work and I didn't want to get out of hand with the lists. Simply put the game is definitely made for PC, PS3 is

too old. They still rock the 256MB graphics while the rest of the world is chilling near or above the 1GB graphics cards.

 

And if the game looks cheesy on your PC build a new one or update your graphics card.

[Arcadiast]

@MadWizard25

 

However all im getting on this thread is non-factual information with no sources

 

I can give you sources but then we have "source vs. source" or "opinions vs. opinions" or "statistics vs. statistics" endless discussion.

 

Even your best source says

there's no such thing as 'conclusive evidence' when it comes to piracy

so tell me how do we come to an agreement under such conditions? We dont!

 

Thats why I gave another options for people to think about. I dont like the way Piracy is used to excuse everything, dont get me wrong I have no evidence it aint so, but for my logical thinking this is just to convenient, to easy. The temptation to use Piracy as a scapegoat to hide or to distract from unpopular measures taken by the industry to make some rich people richer is just to obvious for me to swallow so easily.

 

When all Software Piracy would vanish I wonder if that really would solve all Problems they have excused with it. I strongly doubt it, again not because i have sources or other infallable proof, but just by logical thinking which is unfortunately all that I can trust at the moment.

 

@OnlyOneWing

 

The age of the desktop PC will soon be coming to an end. Only a small minority will use the in the future.

 

Hopefully that will be the time when we see real Simulations and other complex Games for the PC coming back created by gamers for gamers. The small minority is usually the hardcore fans of PCs and those guys normally have no problem with "piracy", because they call it sharing.