Epic Blames Piracy For Shift Away From PC

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Epic Games cut its teeth in the PC market with games like Jazz Jackrabbit and Unreal, but it's hard not to notice what appears to be more of a focus on console games. Aside from its Unreal engine, which the company licenses out to other developers, Epic's biggest push comes from its Gears of War franchise. Gears does appear on PC, but the series' console roots are tough to ignore. What's behind the apparent shift in focus from PC to console? According to Epic, the answer is relatively simple.

In an interview with Edge magazine, Epic president Mike Capps cites piracy as the primary motivation behind the move. The Sixth Axis has posted excerpts of the interview, in which Capps says "the money's on console."

“If you walked into [Epic's Offices] six years ago, Epic was a PC company," says Capps. "We did one PS2 launch title, and everything else was PC. And now, people are saying ‘Why do you hate the PC? You’re a console-only company.’

“We still do PC, we still love the PC, but we already saw the impact of piracy: it killed a lot of great independent developers and completely changed our business model.”

Whether or not you agree with Capps, one thing's clear: The perception of piracy's effects has spurred the company to move to greener pastures. As a company, Epic's job is to make money. If something gets in the way of that goal, don't expect them to stick around solely out of loyalty for a platform that may no longer make financial sense.

LOL pc gamers are screwed!

The real money is on consoles and the Xbox 360 audience buys the most games in Epic's genres. I don't think it really has anything to do with piracy.

Yeah, most of Epics money came from the 360 user base. So its not like they will lose a lot of money for this.

This is why PC gaming is dead. Apart from all the fact that its easier to play on consoles, there isn't enough financial inflow to fund the development of AAA on the PC.

ghost23 wrote:

This is why PC gaming is dead. Apart from all the fact that its easier to play on consoles, there isn't enough financial inflow to fund the development of AAA on the PC.

Then tell me why PC gaming is growing and is still bigger then PS3 and 360 combined... The thing is its changing and is different from what it used to be.

Blixtstorm wrote:

ghost23 wrote:

This is why PC gaming is dead. Apart from all the fact that its easier to play on consoles, there isn't enough financial inflow to fund the development of AAA on the PC.

Then tell me why PC gaming is growing and is still bigger then PS3 and 360 combined... The thing is its changing and is different from what it used to be.

Very true. But PC gaming doesn't appeal to as big of an audience as console gaming does.

Blixtstorm wrote:

ghost23 wrote:

This is why PC gaming is dead. Apart from all the fact that its easier to play on consoles, there isn't enough financial inflow to fund the development of AAA on the PC.

Then tell me why PC gaming is growing and is still bigger then PS3 and 360 combined... The thing is its changing and is different from what it used to be.

Uhh...how is it growing?

Blixtstorm wrote:

ghost23 wrote:

This is why PC gaming is dead. Apart from all the fact that its easier to play on consoles, there isn't enough financial inflow to fund the development of AAA on the PC.

Then tell me why PC gaming is growing and is still bigger then PS3 and 360 combined... The thing is its changing and is different from what it used to be.

Exclusive wise the PC has just about nothing outside of MMO and RTS games. It still has a large audience, but it's exclusives are now dieing. Like Crysis, it's coming to 360 and PS3 now. And there is no one company for the PC out there buying exclusives and getting 1st party developers either.

Blixtstorm wrote:

ghost23 wrote:

This is why PC gaming is dead. Apart from all the fact that its easier to play on consoles, there isn't enough financial inflow to fund the development of AAA on the PC.

Then tell me why PC gaming is growing and is still bigger then PS3 and 360 combined... The thing is its changing and is different from what it used to be.

Apart from Blizzard games, the PC really has no exclusives. You name me one huge AAA exclusive to come out of the PC in recent times.

Does this actually surprise anybody? Piracy is through the roof on PC. In fact everybody that I know personally that is a PC gamer pirates all their games.

Master_Chief wrote:

Does this actually surprise anybody? Piracy is through the roof on PC. In fact everybody that I know personally that is a PC gamer pirates all their games.

That's my friends basis on why the PC is best gaming platform ever lol.

Master_Chief wrote:

Does this actually surprise anybody? Piracy is through the roof on PC. In fact everybody that I know personally that is a PC gamer pirates all their games.

I agree. It's because it's so easy to pirate games and any attempt from the publishers to try and stop piracy ends up being absolutely despised and not doing anything (Ubisoft).

really i blame pubs/dubs for piracy so i guess were even.

Piracy is the only reason I have games on my PC lol. Very few games I buy for PC, only really good ones. Like KOTOR and such

"b...b...but I can play it on pc!!"

Haha no you fucking can't!