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Gears of War 2's Bleszinski Responds to Fan Criticism: 'I'll Always Love the PC'

by Nick Breckon, Oct 06, 2008 11:07am PDT
Related Topics – Gears of War 2, xbox 360, Interview

Last week, Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski took some flak for speaking his mind on the state of the PC platform.

Saying that "high-end videogames are suffering very much on the PC," Bleszinski noted piracy and the challenge of designing games for open systems as two reasons why Epic will not be porting Gears of War 2 to the PC. The sequel is set for an exclusive Xbox 360 release on November 7.

Many longtime fans of both Epic and the PC platform were angered by the comments. During an interview with Bleszinski at a recent Gears of War 2 event, I posed a few questions to the designer on the subject.

What did Bleszinski have to say in response to fans?

Shack: When you made the decision to not port Gears 2 to the PC, were you basing that decision mostly on the performance of Gears 1 PC, or the platform in general?

Cliff Bleszinski: Look, we put a lot of work into Gears PC. There was basically a whole new act in there. And we thought that that section was a very well done section of game, filled in some plot points that might have been missing from the first game to be perfectly honest.

But we just believe that collectively we can laser-focus this franchise, keep it on console, and it will be stronger as a result. I mean it's just plain and simple. It's not that I don't like the PC, but we want to make an Xbox 360 game that kicks ass, plain and simple.

Shack: I know you mentioned piracy as one of the primary reasons behind the decision, but I'm wondering if you've considered any others. Do you think the idea that many of the potential PC customers had already purchased the 360 version a year prior had anything to do with it?

Cliff Bleszinski: That could be a potential factor, but it's a very complicated formula. And honestly in regards to strategy and platform strategy, I'm the guy that sits around and says, you know, "Let's make a gun with a chainsaw on it." It's not my call.

And because I'm the one that's doing all the interviews, suddenly everyone's assuming that I'm the one that makes that call. It's like, alright, I'm going to make the best game I can with the talented people I work with, and it's up to the powers that be to decide where it winds up.

Shack: So you wouldn't say that your attitude toward the PC applies to Epic's ventures down the road?

Cliff Bleszinski: Too early to comment on future products.

Shack: What would you say to fans that claim you've abandoned your roots by not doing a PC port of Gears 2?

Cliff Bleszinski: We're a business and we're going where the market is. There's a hundred guys at work, a number of which have wives and kids, and there's a certain amount of responsibility to make sure that they can afford their Pedialyte and their Enfamil. And you know, we're a business, and it makes sense for Gears to keep it on the 360 and have Microsoft market the hell out of it and make the best game that we can.

I'll always love the PC. That's where our roots are, but, you know, companies evolve and their strategies sometimes shift, and that's an unfortunate reality of business.

Shack: Do you think that fans don't consider the business end of the equation often enough?

Cliff Bleszinski: Well, people are passionate. People care about their platform. I mean you witnessed this with the PlayStation 3 versus Xbox 360 arguments, because people vote with their dollars.

You know, a lot of people were very upset about my comment, and make no mistake, I find it very upsetting to read it. But it is what it is, man. Gears of War is a console franchise first and foremost.


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Gears of War 2

  • X360
  • Release Date: Nov 6, 2008
  • Genre: Action
  • Developer: Epic Games
  • Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios

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Comments

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60 Threads* | 225 Comments
  • #227
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    By: MadEurope x
    Reply
    Fuck the xbox over a half year there wont be any xbox 360 there would be xbox 900 or somting and your game would be vanishd consols are in the eyes of others the best with wat you can play ?? WRONG!
    in shooter games you always have to pusch on your stick and it always a bit near the place where you want to schoot or someone stop saying xbox is the market and we have wife and kids to feed fuck of you drive in a lamborgini do you think this is afrika ?? Port it and do it right if you cant or you re so stupid to do it let somone els port it to pc !!! You were high now your fallen very low douch ! Why dont you just make a pc port dont you want to get more money ??Or are you stupid and inlove with the xbox and never port games to other platforms ! why cant you just dont do what our expected to do ?
    Dec 08, 2008 9:39am PST
  • #206
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    By: TechnologicalTerror x
    Reply
    Yeah, I know why Cliffy or Epic, went to console, but it's a lame platform. Gears would have been better on the PC. It's sad that Cliffys forgot all about his pc roots. If it wasn't for those PC games he was involved with (Unreal series) he never would have made it in this industry or at least to the point to do GoW. Seems really two-faced like Rein. That interview was pathetic on Cliffy's part. I guess his silver tongue ran out. He's just a sell-out. Basically the Vanilla Ice of pc game designers. If they think making GoW2 on the console only will save them from piracey they have another thing coming. A lot of fans are ready to sticker the boxes when they arrive in stores with labels basically saying not to buy it. It's not my plan, just something I heard loud and clearly "around." I definitely don't own an X-Box, the controllers are like baby toys to me. I'm switching over from Epic to Valve now. I really like what they had to say in interviews about pirates. I think Cliff and Epic use this pirate whine as a fallback. All they want is to cash in on that crappy console. Mark Reins "bread and butter" remarks towards the PC community was a lie. Cliffy is pretty much nothing anymore to me. He's just another sell out, and I used to admire this guys ability at one time, but he's losing it on all fronts. His newer work isn't as innovative as the older stuff and even his interviews these days are pretty weak and dull.
    Oct 07, 2008 8:36pm PDT
  • #192
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    By: unholydonuts x
    Reply
    Why are we bitching that gears won't be on the PC? Was it even that great of a game? I don't think it was. It was sort of pretty...thats about all..otherwise, generic 3rd person shooter with a generic cover system and generic regenerating health...and no jump button. It was a 3rd person shooter that could have been cool, had it been developed for PC first, and not "consoleified", but it was, and came out being generic.

    Tell me how many games you know that have one or more of the following:
    Monsters
    Big guns
    Big boss battles
    Intense action sequences
    A cover system
    Squad based combat


    Right, thats every game in the past few years. So I'm still not seeing whats so special about Gears. Not to mention it's not even that pretty anymore, cause everything looks as good or better then Gears 2.

    For all the complaining cliffyb is doing about people asking for it on PC, it seems like he's catering to a market full of whiny 12 year olds...
    Oct 07, 2008 5:24am PDT
  • #171
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    By: Skyburst101 x
    Reply
    Epic reaps what they sow. I foolishly bought UT3 before having found out after the fact that they had done away with a few of the most popular gameplay modes that were introduced in UT2k3, and kept in UT2k4. Hell, with my purchase of UT2k4, they gave the opportunity for those who bout UT2k3 to send in the front page of their manual for a $10 rebate, not a bad deal as it brought the game cost down to $30, and increased my "loyalty" to them, as I felt they cared about their long-time customers.

    WHERE DID

    1. INVASION
    2. ASSAULT
    2. BOMBING RUN
    3. Double Domination
    4. All the players

    Go?!?!

    I miss the RPG Invasion servers with the extra monster packs :( So many good memories of those games.
    Oct 06, 2008 9:32pm PDT
  • #170
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    By: aldraek x
    Reply
    Anyone remember this fear-mongering article about the PC industry?
    Epic Designer Says PC Gaming in 'Disarray'
    http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/51354

    To which I said this:
    I can blame Epic. They rehashed their original 4 times before they realized they needed to make more money. That's not a problem with getting a market for their game, that's a problem with their game design. People just don't want to play the same damn game over and over again, it's boring and it doesn't' bring anything new to the table. Look back at when Epic first announced they were going to re-brand the UT "franchise" and make it into like a sports game thing and repackaged every year. That kind of thinking is idiotic and insulting to the idea of creativity and originality -- core things that drive fun and interesting games. Epic dug their own hole in the PC gaming market, by being inflexible and unwilling to change or adapt by creating anything original anymore. Now they're bashing the PC market for being inflexible as well? Sorry I'm just calling them out on that.

    Anyway,
    Mike Capps, Epic Games' President, you said that the Wii video game console is like a "virus" back in April. Real classy, point at Nintendo despite their success in drawing an entirely new GENRE, young and old, of gamers into the field/market, when UT3 is bombing. I guess that kind of shtick comes with selling one's soul to Microsoft and ditching your Gears of War 1 PC fans who will never get to play your sequel. You said "no, we go forward, not back" when asked whether or not releasing on the Wii is an option (funny, you abandon the PC format, yet you're too picky to scale down and release on the Wii which is probably the best contender for non-pirated sales). Stick to licensing 3D engines and releasing generic shooters to compliment them. You never really were a game company after the original UT. Another apocalyptic shooter? Really? Constantly shitting on the PC industry when you are the epitome of a company with no imagination?

    Don't let the door hit you on your way out.
    Oct 06, 2008 9:21pm PDT
  • #167
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    By: AxeMan808 x
    Reply
    "Shacknews: [...]Do you think the idea that many of the potential PC customers had already purchased the 360 version a year prior had anything to do with it?"
    "Cliff Bleszinski: That could be a potential factor, but it's a very complicated formula."

    Funny how pirating is never called a "potential factor". It's always referred to as "THE END OF PC GAMING AS WE KNOW IT", "the cause of developers moving to console only", "the enemy of every right-minded PC Gamer".

    But the fact that MOST PC gamers who wanted to play Gears Of War went on and bought the console version, because, ya know, THERE WAS NO PC VERSION. No, that had nothing to do with those people refusing to RE-PURCHASE the game on PC, even with that one entire boss battle added.

    Guess what. I won't buy Gears Of War 2, in any format. how bout that? (I'll just play my cousin's copy of GoW2, on his 360, like I did the first one. Now, is that piracy or is that just not caring enough about the product to throw my money at it?)
    Oct 06, 2008 8:11pm PDT

    Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.

  • #162
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    By: Vorlonesque x
    Reply
    I have no problem with GoW2 not being on the PC...some games are console only, some games are PC only, and hell; GoW1 was supposed to be console when it was released as I remember.

    My biggest concern is that the next UT (if we see another UT) won't come out on the PC at all...I thought UT3 had potential...I liked a lot of things about it...I'd think that a new installment that would be 2k4 to UT3's 2k3 (remember, 2k3 was a pretty big fucking disappointment) would be a nice thing to have. But I doubt we'll get that, and I'm worried that UT will die or morph into something less interesting (read: Unreal the Tactical Shooter with only sniper rifles that shoot dildos...ok that might not be less interesting...but it would be...oddly disturbing if not arousing...where was I?). Contrary to what a lot of people have argued, I don't think UT3's problem was that it was "more of the same", given that it came out the same year TF2 did. TF2 was basically TFC with less stuff and a new art style...and I'm a guy who loves TF2; but its incredibly shallow and superficial to call it new and innovative while bashing UT3 for being more of the same. I think UT3's issues were more in execution...and while some of those issues have been corrected, its too late and the game has already been branded as uncool and I doubt remaining issues will be fixed (which kind of sucks, because it'd be a badass mod platform I think...but it'd be damned hard to get anyone playing your mod given the small audience).
    Oct 06, 2008 7:37pm PDT
  • #157
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    By: rodmanw x
    Reply
    I can't help but wonder if the crappy turnout with Epics latest Unreal turn on the PC made them turn their heads on any more PC support. Fact is they made a crappy game and it did not do well on any platform....

    But, then look at them bitching about used console game sales, they are getting greedy and the lump of all this money is sure as hell not going to the 100+ workers with familys. It's going to the greedy ass CEOs who don't even 'need' it. I'm just glad Epic has nothing good anyway in terms of games on any platform and GOW is the only thing they have.

    Sometimes I wonder if PC games would do any better at all if Piracy were stopped. Take the movie industry. It costs millions to make a movie and then it is pirated to hell. But, if it's a good movie they still get rich.
    Oct 06, 2008 7:01pm PDT