Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

[Shawn Zipay]

The highly anticipated "psychological action thriller" title, Alan Wake, was originally slated to be released for the Xbox 360 and PC platforms. However, developer Remedy has recently put all of their efforts into the development of the Xbox 360 version of the game.

Originally demoed on PC hardware and promised for both "next generation consoles and PC" the fate of the PC version is a little uncertain.

“Yes, that’s correct. We are fully concentrated on the Xbox 360 version,” Lake said. “Other than that the plans are up in the air and open. Once we get this version done we’ll see.”

Asked specifically whether the game will still be coming to PC at some point in the future, Lake added: “As I said, the plans are open, and once we’re done with the 360 version we’ll evaluate the situation and see what makes sense.”

Recent rumors suggest that Alan Wake may be one of the flagship titles for Microsoft's "Project Natal." If this is true, it may be the reason why Remedy is focusing 100% of their efforts on the Xbox 360 version of the title. However, as no specific reason was given for Remedy apparently halting development of the PC version, idle speculation is all we have to go on.

Hit the jump to check out the E3 2009 trailer for Alan Wake.<!--more-->

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[raptor552]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

I fucking knew they where going to pull some bullshit like this.

Now the game won't even look as good as it did in the demos because they are gong to nerf it for last gen xbox hardware.

fuck you Microsoft. Fuck you.

[AlecJ32]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

fuck you Microsoft. Fuck you.

How is this Microsoft's fault? If anybody, blame Remedy.

[K-16]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

I remember when the PC version of this game was designed specifically using the newest Direct X, and therefore required Windows Vista to play it (as a bit of a promotion for the operating system at the time). Somehow, something went horribly wrong somewhere along the lines of that plan (Vista's reception didn't go well with the public?), delays happened (not so much officially, but rather fell into obscurity and became vaporware), and now this. The point I'm driving at, is that we could blame Microsoft for failing to please the public with Windows Vista, and therefore indirectly reduced the priority of the PC version of the game. However, I suppose it does make more sense (and a lot less petty) to blame Remedy for thinking the PC gaming community isn't large enough to be profitable. As for Project Natal... I really doubt it, unless they want a counter-intuitive control system to go with the game the way they designed it.

[Dr.Worm]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

How is this Microsoft's fault? If anybody, blame Remedy.

well there are things called sponsor and look at Square Enix and other developers like Bungie they where bribed to do exclusives thus Microsoft sucks sick

so Microsoft is very much at fault

[AlecJ32]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

well there are things called sponsor and look at Square Enix and other developers like Bungie they where bribed to do exclusives thus Microsoft sucks sick

so Microsoft is very much at fault

And why would Microsoft 'bribe' them away from their own platform?

[raptor552]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

Microsoft has been pulling games from the pc platform and making them "exclusives" to the 360 to try and dominate the console market. They are out to destroy sony's market share and thus try and horde as many titles or series as much as they can.

just so they can say "only on xbox"

It happend with halo, it's happening again with this game it looks like.

Nice to know that this game with have shitty framerate, bad textures, and all the other bullshit that comes with console ports to the pc now. Oh and maybe even WII REMOTES COOL.

/end rant

[AlecJ32]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

Microsoft has been pulling games from the pc platform and making them "exclusives" to the 360 to try and dominate the console market. They are out to destroy sony's market share and thus try and horde as many titles or series as much as they can.

....They can 'destroy' sony's market share just fine without pulling games away from their own platform (Windows), so there's no reason they'd take the games from PC just to hurt Sony's market share. If you want to blame somebody, blame the game developers and publishers for getting cheap/lazy and only wanting to support one platform.

[Shawn Zipay]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

As I understand it, the console market is by far a much more profitable platform for devs right now. A much smaller selection of hardware to worry about for bugs/glitches (3 current "next gen" consoles out there compared to hundreds/thousands of PC hardware configurations, not including drivers, etc.), typically a higher profit margin ($60 per game compared to the typical $50 per pc release), and they're generally better promoted.

So it's not really that devs are being cheap or lazy, they just work on what will generate the most revenue for them. It's a cost-benefit issue, pure and simple.

[raptor552]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

and It's stupid , the game is going to be a hunk of junk now especially if they try and put natal support on it.

another promising PC game lost to the retard market.

[snkcube]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

I don't see how this game being on a console will be a "hunk of junk." You're too extremely biased towards consoles. Lighten up.

[AlecJ32]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

As I understand it, the console market is by far a much more profitable platform for devs right now. A much smaller selection of hardware to worry about for bugs/glitches (3 current "next gen" consoles out there compared to hundreds/thousands of PC hardware configurations, not including drivers, etc.), typically a higher profit margin ($60 per game compared to the typical $50 per pc release), and they're generally better promoted.

It's always been that way, though. The market hasn't changed a whole lot. I feel devs are just trying to save money by only releasing games for a single console, rather than releasing them for all three consoles and the PC, which used to be the norm. Not that long ago, games were on every platform. Nothing about the platforms has really changed, yet developers are now choosing to only put games on a single console.

Also, IIRC the higher price of games on consoles is to pay for licensing, which they don't have to do on PC. I don't think all of that extra $10 per game goes into their pocket.

As far as console ports go, I don't have a problem with them so long as the game works on my PC, which they usually do. I don't care if the visuals aren't as high end as the could have been.

[raptor552]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

I don't see how this game being on a console will be a "hunk of junk." You're too extremely biased towards consoles. Lighten up.

The sequel to crysis is being built on a lesser version of the current engine... that came out two years ago.

This was to compensate for the consoles.

That pretty much tells the story right there.

[snkcube]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

The sequel to crysis is being built on a lesser version of the current engine... that came out two years ago.

This was to compensate for the consoles.

That pretty much tells the story right there.

Even though the game will come out on consoles, it doesn't mean the PC version will get any downgrades. The game is being built on a brand new engine, which means it's not using anything from their current engine used in any Crysis games. In fact, the game will still look a lot better when running on a PC. Here is a quote from an IGN interview with the Crytek boss.

Yerli explained that the CryEngine 3 was a significant breakthrough for the company. He said that it's capable of scaling performance considerably, so he maintains that the PC version of Crysis 2 will look far better than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions.

Source: http://pc.ign.com/articles/989/989158p1.html

[raptor552]

Re: Alan Wake Coming to the PC? Maybe Not...

Even though the game will come out on consoles, it doesn't mean the PC version will get any downgrades. The game is being built on a brand new engine, which means it's not using anything from their current engine used in any Crysis games. In fact, the game will still look a lot better when running on a PC. Here is a quote from an IGN interview with the Crytek boss.



Source: http://pc.ign.com/articles/989/989158p1.html

It will look better than the console versions yes, but not any better than crysis one...which came out two years ago.

The consoles are stagnating technical development. Simple as that.