CCP Shanghai making console FPS aka EvE 360 - via Kotaku

[eldaec]

As people keep saying Endie Shadowrun=pile of steaming piss 

I've not played it or know much about it to be honest, but unless the console players are given mouse and keyboards the hypothetical PC port people are discussing would eventually drive a nail in the console version, so it wouldn't be good business savvy to produce one. That's why I can't see it happening.

Why would console and PC players have to fight in the same sectors? With a ton of battlegrounds on each planet, the server could allocate exclusive battlegrounds proportional to the numbers of each type of player logged in.

Jesus Christ, you want to try coordinating alliances between EVE, dust_pc and dust_console?

And you want to not be able to defend against scrub_alliance_001 because you have too many PC or console players logged in?


If the game is playable by both console and PC players, they are almost certain to be shooting each other - the only question whether there will be a PC version, and if so, to what degree the PC players will be artificially handicapped.

[TripleDES]

Where's the video with Hilmar's shit eating grin?

Also, calling it that next Fanfest announces it having been merged into Ambulation.

[Venkman]

The point about Shadowrun isn't that it was a good game - I detested it, personally - but that it proved that console and keyboard players, and in this context just as importantly XBox Live and PC gamers, could be happily integrated.  And yet there are still people on this page saying that can't happen.

I know about Shadowrun. I remember all the gaga about it before it launched and the resounding meh after. It neither inspired derivation nor was a runaway success, and closed in less than a year. So people are using that as an example of how Console and PC FPS players can co-exist?

Anything can happen. But the core problem (controller vs keyboard mouse) isn't going to go away unless you make PC users use a 360 controller (conceivable), make the console owners buy a keyboard (less so), or gimp the levels to LCD the whole experience.

And all the while the central question still needs to be asked: why? If the world "needed" console and PC FPS gamers to coexist, this would have been tried and tried and tried well before 2007. So a smarter solution is to compartmentalize the players into their respective systems. Not that my idea was good, but having different gamers playing different games that contribute to a central meta experience is not only easier and more viable, it's actually core EVE.

[gryeyes]

Even with all the huge obstacles to having cross-platform play, it makes more sense than locking out the PC to the largest expansion of EVE. The idea is absurd, its so monumentally fucking retarded we are trying to figure out how PS3/Xbox/PC players are going to battle against each other with everyone interacting with EVE (NEVER going to happen). To accept the alternative is to be driven mad by the durrr. Am I mistaken that ps3 was also mentioned?

[eldaec]

Anything can happen. But the core problem (controller vs keyboard mouse) isn't going to go away unless you make PC users use a 360 controller (conceivable), make the console owners buy a keyboard (less so), or gimp the levels to LCD the whole experience.

Or just let console players die over and over and over again because of their innappropriate control scheme until they man up and buy a fucking PC.

EVE is a harsh world.

Am I mistaken that ps3 was also mentioned?

If it is console only, it has to be ps3, otherwise they lock out Russia, which means locking out subscribers that control about 30% of space.

[Comstar]

If it is console only, it has to be ps3, otherwise they lock out Russia, which means locking out subscribers that control about 30% of space.

I read somewhere that Poland had the same problem, but you could get around it by stating your home address as somewhere that does. Apparently the Polish Embassy in London is very popular.

[schild]

I remember all the gaga about it before it launched and the resounding meh after.

More like gaga until it was revealed to be an FPS. The meh came LONG before release. Just like an Eve skinned FPS from China should be getting.

I mean, really.

[Sparky]

This will end in tears without a PC port.  Unless they figure EVE is nearing the end of it's lifespan anyway so a quickly dating FPS feature won't matter so much.

[Endie]

This will end in tears without a PC port.

All the way through this thread people are saying this sort of thing.  I'm intrigued as to why.

Console shooter sales dwarf PC sales.  Boxed (dunno about digital downloads) Call of Duty 4 on the XBox was out-selling the PC format by almost 10:1 over the first quarter, and Fallout was something like 5:1 (http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_5.html).  Maybe those are extreme cases but aren't consoles more important than PCs for shooters?

[patience]

Does Nintendo outsell 3rd parties?

How many more rhetorical questions can be asked?

[Amarr HM]

All the way through this thread people are saying this sort of thing.  I'm intrigued as to why.

Maybe they don't own a PS3 or Xbox  

I personally think they would be better off without a PC port of this.

[Malakili]

I personally think they would be better off without a PC port of this.

[NiX]

Does Nintendo outsell 3rd parties?

How many more rhetorical questions can be asked?

Don't be stupid. You could have easily reconsidered his question as "relevant" and the answer is, for the most part, Yes. The Halo/CoD4 crowd alone probably makes this worthwhile for CCP.

[Surlyboi]

I was talking to a friend about this and considering we could get a bunch of our friends that don't have the patience for EVE but do play COD4/5, etc at least a couple of hours a day to log in and fight our battles for us. The fact that we could supply them with extra kit is just bonus.

[Endie]

I was talking to a friend about this and considering we could get a bunch of our friends that don't have the patience for EVE but do play COD4/5, etc at least a couple of hours a day to log in and fight our battles for us. The fact that we could supply them with extra kit is just bonus.

Yeah, I have a bunch of friends with whom I play on Xbox Live every week.  "Live Thursdays" have been going on since early 2003 and while none of them play Eve (nor would they), they all ask questions about it and would certainly join in an FPS/MMO hybrid based in the universe if it was good in its own right.

[Amarr HM]

I think that's the most important thing here is not if it's a good idea, just if it's a good a game in itself. Cause that will be the dealbreaker on this one, making it too invasive to the PC element might be an issue too.

[Falwell]

Well that, and the fact that there has been no mention of Berzerkers. Berzerkers, no matter the game or the genre, make everything better. Much like cheese, gravy, or bacon.

[ghost]

Hopefully CCP is going to integrate the two games so that you have to lock some planets down in the console/FPS version in order to gain control of systems.  Then you would have to plan your attacks very well and have great coordination.  Oooh, then they could make it where you have to have a certain number of missions completed to gain control, in tier 1-5.  Wait, didn't somebody do this and fuck it up?

[NiX]

Hopefully CCP is going to integrate the two games so that you have to lock some planets down in the console/FPS version in order to gain control of systems.  Then you would have to plan your attacks very well and have great coordination.  Oooh, then they could make it where you have to have a certain number of missions completed to gain control, in tier 1-5.  Wait, didn't somebody do this and fuck it up?

[eldaec]

This will end in tears without a PC port.

All the way through this thread people are saying this sort of thing.  I'm intrigued as to why.

Because if the two groups are segregated, noone will be happy with the influence of the other group on their game.

Also, one of these two games will die first, and without players easily able to move between the two, people will get annoyed when they can't get the other community to do stuff.

I have no doubt that selling this on a console will shift more boxes and I'm equally sure that a form of junior planetside done right on a console could be a huge success; but I'm not convinced EVE skinned planetside coded by CCP is going to be that game. I don't see why I'd expect CCP to be good at making an FPS and the EVE ip has no draw whatsoever outside of people who play EVE. EVE players would subscribe the fuck out it on a PC, but console types are going to get bored and start playing CoD 17 or whatever.

[Venkman]

I think you're mostly right. I personally think it's a great idea, something not really tried in this exact form before. So there's that for innovation anyway. And CCP is just stubborn enough to see this through, in some form.

My only beef has been with this idea that console FPSers and PC FPSers can co-exist in the same maps. I'll happily be wrong the day someone makes it work and it's successful and people actually like it without a long series of apologies. But until then, yes FPS gamers on all platforms will buy into the same franchise. But no, they won't expect the devices to co-mingle.

If they want cross-platform at all, I'd work out PS3 vs X360 before worrying about PC vs console. At least the former does have those box sales to rely on. Though cross-console is a LOT less likely happen for business reasons than any technical/UI complexity between any one console and a PC.

[ajax34i]

Well, they could give PC FPS'ers us a Fighting in Stations expansion, and they could put the Console FPS'ers dirt-side.  BTW, the expression is dirt-side, not dust-side like they're using, right?

[Falwell]

Post-keynote video interview with The Hilmar himself. The initial introduction is in German but the rest of the interview is in English. Yes, the question is asked whether there will be a PC version, and it's a complete dodge.

[Rendakor]

So many PC FPS purists on this board who don't realize they're a minority...

[Surlyboi]

Minority or not, they're still better players.

[Endie]

So many PC FPS purists on this board who don't realize they're a minority...

This is pretty much what i was trying to say, as inoffensively as I could, with stats showing the huge disparity.

Between 1998 and 2006, PC game software sales halved from 1.8 billion to 970 million dollars.  Over the same period, console games software sales almost doubled from 3.7 billion to 6.5 billion dollars.  Even if that trend has suddenly stalled for some inexplicable reason then that's almost seven times more money in consoles than in PC games.  PC Games don't even register on the US top ten charts, desipte the fact that to appear would only require the top PC game to sell a quarter of the units of the top console title - http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6213502.html  Only in PCphilic regional markets like the UK does the occasional PC blockbuster (Sims 3) creep in at the bottom end of the chart - http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=17755&page=20

[IainC]

So many PC FPS purists on this board who don't realize they're a minority...

This is pretty much what i was trying to say, as inoffensively as I could, with stats showing the huge disparity.

Between 1998 and 2006, PC game software sales halved from 1.8 billion to 970 million dollars.  Over the same period, console games software sales almost doubled from 3.7 billion to 6.5 billion dollars.  Even if that trend has suddenly stalled for some inexplicable reason then that's almost seven times more money in consoles than in PC games.  PC Games don't even register on the US top ten charts, desipte the fact that to appear would only require the top PC game to sell a quarter of the units of the top console title - http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6213502.html  Only in PCphilic regional markets like the UK does the occasional PC blockbuster (Sims 3) creep in at the bottom end of the chart - http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=17755&page=20

The communications director for Infinity Ward was surprised by those numbers too:

On another PC related note, we pulled some disturbing numbers this past week about the amount of PC players currently playing Multiplayer (which was fantastic). What wasn’t fantastic was the percentage of those numbers who were playing on stolen copies of the game on stolen / cracked CD keys of pirated copies (and that was only people playing online).

Not sure if I can share the exact numbers or percentage of PC players with you, but I’ll check and see; if I can I’ll update with them. As the amount of people who pirate PC games is astounding. It blows me away at the amount of people willing to steal games (or anything) simply because it’s not physical or it’s on the safety of the internet to do.

As was the Titan Quest dev:

Two, the numbers on piracy are really astonishing. The research I’ve seen pegs the piracy rate at between 70-85% on PC in the US, 90%+ in Europe, off the charts in Asia. I didn’t believe it at first. It seemed way too high. Then I saw that Bioshock was selling 5 to 1 on console vs. PC. And Call of Duty 4 was selling 10 to 1. These are hardcore games, shooters, classic PC audience stuff. Given the difference in install base, I can’t believe that there’s that big of a difference in who played these games, but I guess there can be in who actually payed for them.

[Falwell]

Piracy isn't nearly as big of a concern in MMO's simply because of their account structure. Cloned servers are out there for most titles of course, but good luck trying to clone Tranquility. If they do plan on seriously connecting this with Eve, I'd wager they plan on Dust being single sever as well.

[Rendakor]

Minority or not, they're still better players.

Because clearly game developers should cater to those players who are better at games, rather than those who are more numerous. 

[Surlyboi]

Never said that. Just said they were better. The rest is projection on your part. 

[Amarr HM]

Yeh that's what I took from your post Surly and I agree.

Though in reference to Rendakor CCP never before catered to the mainstream audience, they were happy enough to be part of a background scene (in MMOG terms) with enough dedicated subscribers to keep things ticking over. Since ambulation has been mentioned, and now this, it's obvious they are trying to broaden their scope which could in some peoples eyes be the ruin of the game. There's a reason a lot of Eve players abhor the likes of WoW and I'm sure vice versa.

[NiX]

It's a company, you can't seriously expect them to be content with niche numbers for the rest of their existence. That's just stupid. Assuming they produce a quality game and market it accordingly, this could mean a lot of good things for CCP and even EVE. Especially if they keep expanding the universe through other mediums. EVE players are just pissy that it's not THEIR universe anymore, now they have to share it with the filthy console FPS crowd.

[Dtrain]

I still see nothing to indicate that the worst case scenario is nothing more than:

-Console game flops
-Lack of console participation ruins the fun in EVE for a week or two
-CCP is collectively sad and heartbroken, but not retarded so...
-Game impact from the console title is scaled back to 'little to none'

It's a risk - I personally feel the game is doomed, Lords of Everquest style, but hopefully they come up with a winner. And if not, there's always plan B.

[Amarr HM]

It's a company, you can't seriously expect them to be content with niche numbers for the rest of their existence.

Oh I don't and this was the way I felt about ambulation, it's their business if they want to branch out to the wider audience.

[tazelbain]

Hey, what happen to that anyway?