New DLC announcements for Medal of Honor and Fallout: New Vegas prove that the games industry doesn't care about PC gamers any more...
PC gamers - we're a sorry lot.
For years now we've been watching our position as the cutting edge of gaming get eroded by console dominance. We've suffered the insults of dodgy console ports, annoying "Press Start" screens that have no place on our systems, and cut down graphics options based on lowest common denominator hardware specs. And, now, to add injury to insult, we're simply not getting nearly as much game as the console majority.
Two DLC announcements have dropped over the last 36 hours, for two big new-release games, but us PC gamers aren't going to see squat.
Medal of Honor's about to get a whole new multiplayer game mode, called Clean Sweep. It's an elimination mode, and includes two wholly new maps, as well as two updated versions of already included maps. It really sounds neat, and like it'll make for a non-campy option, since the camp-tastic nature of many of the maps is drawing huge criticisms from the gaming community.
Personally, we don't get it - we're still loving MoH multiplayer. Nonetheless, we'd really like to play that Clean Sweep mode... It's out on a couple of weeks, but only Xbox and PS3.
So, yeah. Boo.
The just released Fallout: New Vegas is also bringing the DLC pain, with news that an as yet undetailed will be coming exclusively to Xbox. So at least we sad PC types can share a consoling drink with PS3 fans - assuming no fights break out at the bar.
So, doubly... Boo.
Which all raises the question of why the PC platform is missing out on the fun. It's not as if it's going to take any real extra effort to release the DLC on PC - after all, the codebase is there, the textures are there, even the players are there and waiting. It's not like the game's are being written from scratch.
It could be a DRM or content control thing, but in the case of the Medal of Honor DLC at least, the new content's free. And is pirated DLC really that much of an issue?
Finally, there's the niggling, conspiratorial worry that it's all part of an evil plan to make us forsake our beloved PCs and migrate to where the content's at. But surely... that can't be the case. Right?
Right?!
Of course, we asked for commentary from our local Bethesda and EA reps, but we're not sanguine of any kind of meaningful response. There's a lot working against getting those kinds of answers out of games companies.
For one thing, local PR is often as kept in the dark as we are when it comes developments in gaming. That, or they're bound to keep mum on certain important points until release dates have passed. Take our recent Medal of Honor launch event - we'd organised confirmed with EA months ahead of the fact that we'd deliver a LAN event for launch, but we weren't told of the lack LAN play until days before the actual event. Similarly, given that most local Australian presences are little more than PR offices reporting to the larger HQs overseas, means that the flow of communication can be a little slow - or even nonexistent.
When the whole Ubisoft DRM thing broke, we sought comment on the matter, but unsurprisingly Ubi wasn't willing to talk. There was some off-the-record chat, but nothing for the public eye. That said, at least there was a dialogue.
Far worse in terms of getting an answer is Activision. Whether it was getting detailed stats on the platform-specific breakdown of Modern Warfare 2 sales, or finding out why there's no Black Ops special edition (the one with the funky remote bomb) on PC, we can never get a straight answer. In some cases, there's no answer at all.
It's like there's some kind of filter that blocks PC-related queries from ever getting anywhere. Perhaps we should be thankful we were able to learn anything at all about Black Ops dedicated server situation!
Lack of answers aside, we're sad to admit that this is likely not going to change any time soon. We're still going to keep pushing for answers, but we're not expecting to suddenly find PC gaming on an equal footing with the console crowd.
Must be all those sweaty metallica fans. What do you guys think?
Issue: 137 | June, 2012