WMD3 anyone?

[Womp83]

consoles?
Please NO.
pCARS has so many limitations, because of consoles compatibility.
Libraries instead of folders for cars and liveries.
Saveslots and big data files instead of xml's or ini's
etc.
A console compatible system following the restrictions of Microsoft and Sony can never be realy good for mod ability.
And it also binds too many devs resources.
I prefer a good PC version and if that is successful, then there can be conversion to consoles later.

Yeah, i know. And i understand what you're saying.
But unfortunately, not everyone can afford a nice, powerful high end pc to play such games on. Or afford a racing rig setup to play them with. Or even have the room in their residence to set up a racing rig. Or have the funds to upgrade said pc every 6 months or so to keep up with things.

For some, it's just easier to invest in a console.

Like me.

[Konan]

https://www.techradar.com/versus/gam...ent%20analysis

[satco1066]

that is not what i meant.
Its the systems restriction consoles manufacturers throwing over their developing clients
PC bugs can be fixed in minutes and have not to be certified by MS or Sony wich could cost weeks and extra money
consoles are restricted in special file formats and amount of save slots
on consoles you cannot fix little things yourself by just editing a simple ini file
its not simple to upload mods, liveries or other free content
multi monitor???
peripherals are restricted and have to be licensed . None of my peripherals would work on a console (base, rims, pedals, motion system, VR )
developing for 3 instead of one platform is resource intensive, cost intensive and very time consuming
and many reasons more

As i wrote, i'm not against consoles versions, but
first develop on PC, make it great, successful and bugfree, then offer a console conversion

[Tank621]

That is not what I meant.
It's the systems restriction consoles manufacturers throwing over their developing clients.
PC bugs can be fixed in minutes and have not to be certified by MS or Sony which could cost weeks and extra money.
Consoles are restricted in special file formats and amount of save slots.

Peripherals are restricted and have to be licensed. None of my peripherals would work on a console (base, rims, pedals, motion system, VR)
developing for 3 instead of one platform is resource-intensive, cost-intensive and very time consuming
and many reasons more.

Yes, it costs extra money, but they get that back because they've opened themselves up to a far bigger market, more than doubling the size of your potential sales pool than they would otherwise have. It grows not only the games' potential but allows a far bigger audience to become a part of the sim racing community and the bigger that community is then the bigger sim racing itself can become. You only need to look at how many of the regular posters over the past several years on this forum are console players to realise that Project CARS being on console has had quite a big impact in growing the audience.

On consoles you cannot fix little things yourself by just editing a simple ini file
it's not simple to upload mods, liveries or other free content

Do you mean, this isn't available to console players in which case, I'm not really sure why that matters to you? Console players are aware of these limitations and still buy the titles.

Or do you mean, that opening up the game to console players prevents you from doing those things on PC? In which case, that is simply not the case: I am also a big fan of train simulators and the Train Sim World franchise, despite being on console has plenty that you can do in terms of ini tweaks and there is quite the range of mods for liveries, scenarios, route enhancements, sound mods etc available for the game which aren't hugely complicated for folks to do. That being said in terms of actual routes and vehicles things are more complicated considering it's mostly reliant on the creation of a third-party unofficial editor to do but there is progress being made on building mods to introduce new mods and trains to the game.

I brought up TSW specifically as it uses the Unreal Engine (plus Dovetail's Simugraph physics engine) as Ian's upcoming title will likely also be Unreal based.

Either way, Ian seems to want to pursue strong mod support in the game: "Take into account, for the last few of the questions below, we plan to have best ever modding support." - https://twitter.com/bell_sms/status/...hARtYBruNo3jmA

As I wrote, I'm not against consoles versions, but first develop on PC, make it great, successful and bugfree, then offer a console conversion

So... what you're saying is that console versions are perfectly okay but only on your terms? I'm sure that's not what you are intending to say here but that is unfortunately how it comes across, especially given the earlier comments in this and previous posts.


I get your sentiment though, we all want to have the best experience we can possibly get out of a game and developing for consoles invariably compromises the amount of focussed development time for your specific platform. But, as I like to say, game development is always underpinned by compromise and I think by opening up the game to a much wider audience, new fans, new simracers and a much bigger pot of money, the benefits of such a compromise far outweigh the limitations they may cause.

[satco1066]

for a developer with low budget its better to focus on one thing and the ability to have the strenth to make it ready to deliver.
Developing for 3 platforms could cause the same problems we had with pCARS1 and 2. It was never finished.
Though i was one of the few public xBox testers while WMD2, I don't care for consoles personaly, thats true.
But if consoleiros think their system is much more relevant than PC development to earn money, then i have also no problem, if Ian sets the focus to consoles and if its successful, deliver it to PC one or 2 years later.
Better full baked systems step by step, than 3 half baked versions that never get 100% state, loose faithful customers again.
In this case i change my statement to " but first develop for one platform, make it great, successful and bugfree, earn money, then offer for other platform.

BTW. Just for the history
pCARS2 xBox version was a shot in the oven 2017. It was mostly unplayable on current gen X consoles like xBox One and One s. And lost very much reputation.
When XBox One X (not series x) came out end of 2017, it was a bit too late.
On the Sony side the situation was a bit better, because PS4 pro was already on the market and it had enough power to drive pCARS2.
But customers with an og PS4 had a similar performance problem like X users with their Ones.

Conclusion. If they would have focused more on the PC version, there could have been more output on this side and a half or year later release of a better optimised console version including the possibility of more new consoles at their customers could have been a really big success.

End of story. They tried it 3 times to deliver as broad as possible, got nearly bankrupt, bought by Codemasters, bought by EA and then canceled as studio.
So where is the success? I can't see it from the business side.

[Konan]

How can you even talk profit when the pc gaming community only presents 25 % of the market? Taking into account that the sim playerbase is even smaller than that 25%, how can it be a good decision to exclude (part of) the 30% of console players?
Adding consoles later might be too little too late to save the title imo...

[Tank621]

How can you even talk profit when the pc gaming community only presents 25 % of the market? Taking into account that the sim playerbase is even smaller than that 25%, how can it be a good decision to exclude (part of) the 30% of console players?
Adding consoles later might be too little too late to save the title imo...

Plus of course, sim racing on PC is already a very crowded but still niche market, especially given the popularity of older titles still.

[satco1066]

How can you even talk profit when the pc gaming community only presents 25 % of the market? Taking into account that the sim playerbase is even smaller than that 25%, how can it be a good decision to exclude (part of) the 30% of console players?
Adding consoles later might be too little too late to save the title imo...

GT is very successful in excluding other playerbases.
Forza series too

[Konan]

Ok, so maybe the game should be developed for consoles first and pc later?
TBH, I consider neither of those as "sim" as Ian describes what he's planning, on top of that,those titles have an established playerbase to begin with,while Straight 4 has to basically start from scratch.

[Tank621]

GT is very successful in excluding other playerbases.
Forza series too

Of course, don't forget the 20 or so years as a first-party developer. To have a big success, it's that simple!