Why is PC not part of the "Next Gen" Live?

[Wayansfan]

they don't care about pc guys, the way I see it they might phase out the pc and just use 360 and ps3. They will stop making the pc version

[el badman]

I dunno if they'll phase it out, but they'll certainly keep underdeveloping it...

[Voxel]

xbox 360 (that has higher technical specs than every PC to date, all this running at 30 FPS)

I dunno where u got that but this is certainly not true. The 360 is a freaking NES compared to some of the best PCs, which at least don't have any fps limit...Any current console just can't handle recent shaders, HDR, AF or AA like the lastest video cards do.

dude just look at any xbox 360 tech specs.

it features 3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2Ghz. intel's and AMD's latest processors are dual (2) cores running roughly at 2ghz-2.5ghz...

here's a link to some data about the graphical processing unit, which features 48 shaders (2x the amount of a nvidia 7900gtx which is considered pretty hight end).

http://techreport.com/etc/2005q2/xbox360-gpu/index.x?pg=1

[Jugs]

The Next Gen build or what ever isn't ready to be ported. Remember, they created the Next-Gen from scratch. It still isn't perfect yet.

[OldFoolStyle]

First let me expand on something that Voxel mentioned, the 360 has 3 seperate 3.2 Ghz core processors. Thats like taking an average piddly-little single 2.25 GHz processor, adding 33% more power, and then stacking three of them together. Put another way, 360 has three core processors that are each much more powerful than the average PC's single processor. Not even high-end PC's are "next gen", and won't be 'till the middle of next year.

Second, 360 can match all the shading, reflections, and other doo-dads that high-end graphics cards offer. Because the 360 has a high-end ATI graphics card built in, add that to a 40inch flat screen plasma HDTV and you have a gaming rig that puts any PC to shame.

The one place PCs have better numbers than the 360 is RAM. 360 has 512 MB of RAM, the average PC has 512 MB of RAM, high-end PCs have 1000 MB or more RAM. The difference is that PCs have dozens of processes runing in the background, consoles have almost none. As a test, hit ctrl-alt-delete right now, open the Processes tab and look at the Mem Usage. svchost.exe, iexplore.exe, McShield.exe and the rest simply don't exsist in the stripped down version of Windows CE that the 360 runs on.

And finaly, EACananda is not being cheap. Having two seperate design teams means twice as many workers, twice as many workers means twice as many saleries, twice as many saleries and the same amount of sales means less proffit. If EA were cheap there would be no PC, PS2, or XBox1 version whatsoever, hell they could drop the NBA which takes 40% of the box price and go Blitz style and save all kinds of money.

On the upside, Wii is not at all next gen, PS3 is priced out of most gamers and developers range(you all do know that game companies have to pay a licensing fee to release games on consoles don't you?), and Microsoft is trying to market Windows Vista as a gamer's OS.

Keep in mind when you decide to flame me for pulling this debate out of Bush style anti-logic, i do not own a 360 and do not plan on buying one any time soon. I am 100% PC, but realistic about my lot in life.

[el badman]

And finaly, EACananda is not being cheap. Having two seperate design teams means twice as many workers, twice as many workers means twice as many saleries, twice as many saleries and the same amount of sales means less proffit. If EA were cheap there would be no PC, PS2, or XBox1 version whatsoever, hell they could drop the NBA which takes 40% of the box price and go Blitz style and save all kinds of money.

Dude, I don't need your lectures, I probably know more about general business than you do, and I don't think it's being unreasonable to expect the first game developer in the world to spend the time and money so that its new products will be aligned on as many configurations as possible.

Keep in mind when you decide to flame me for pulling this debate out of Bush style anti-logic

Where the fuck does that come from?

If the 360 is such a wonder, why are the games on this support consistently inferior to their PC counterparts? I know that it's gonna take developers some time to fully exploit its capacities, but if the 360 is already so far beyond the performance of even the best PCs, I'm pretty sure it would already be very visible through its games, which is not the case so far.
Oh, and 512 MB of RAM does make a pretty big difference compared to 2GB, so does the fps capping...

[Voxel]

If the 360 is such a wonder, why are the games on this support consistently inferior to their PC counterparts? I know that it's gonna take developers some time to fully exploit its capacities, but if the 360 is already so far beyond the performance of even the best PCs, I'm pretty sure it would already be very visible through its games, which is not the case so far.

Oh, and 512 MB of RAM does make a pretty big difference compared to 2GB, so does the fps capping...

you just answered that question yourself. the developers still don't know how to exploit the superior technological capabilities that the next-gen systems can offer; specially on games that are designed and intended for the PC market and are ported over to the consoles.

also this is not a question of the xbox360 "beeing a wonder" or not. the tech specs are there for you to read and are facts. stop beeing so naive saying that "the xbox360 is a NES compared to a high-end PC cause X game runs better on PC".

i don't own a xbox360 and i play the game on PC, but it doesn't take so much brain to understand that if their goal for the next gen version of the game is to make use of technical capabilities that current PC can't offer, it's pretty logical that they won't half-ass their main focus in order to be able to port it to their least profitable platform.

[Patr1ck]

Well, I am personally a PC gamer, but I do intend to get a 360 next year. The thing I love about PC games, is the modability. Unless you can hack the 360 to run games from a hard drive, and hack the game files so you can add mods, games on the 360 will be limited to content from within the game.

Here is a good quality video showing the visual difference between the PC version of FarCry, and the 360 version of FarCry Instincts(basically the same game). Its 34 megabytes so it will take a bit to load. The 360 is amazing.

http://xboxmovies.teamxbox.com/xbox-360 ... omparison/

I'd like to add that FarCry was released for PC in 2004, and it won many awards. If you like first person shooters and haven't played it, I suggest you try it out.

I think when Vista, DirectX 10, and Shader Model 4.0 appear, PC games will surpass the next-gen consoles visually.

There is always pros and cons of each, like needing to upgrade a PC to keep up with high-end graphical games, or NOT being able to upgrade a console when the PC version of a game has much more detail, or ease of use on a console, vs possible compatability problems on a PC, etc.

With next-gen consoles, the high-definition of the games is incredible. PC technology upgrades will surpass the consoles. Then new consoles will come out to surpass the PC's, so on and so forth.

For the NBA Live PC next-gen issue, I think that EA has a program/system to make porting console games over to the pc easier. I don't believe they have it for the next-gen consoles, yet. Releasing a next-gen version is not cost effective because most pc users who play the game don't have high-end systems capable of running it. Remember they have to release this game every year, so they would have to do as much testing(or even more because of all the different possible configurations) to the PC version as they would the 360. Besides, they know we patch the shit out of the game every year.

[spreeul8r]

Im definately not getting a next gen console just to play one game.

I did that for Fight Night 2004. Purchased an XBOX because im a massive boxing fan and it was the only decent boxing game available on any platform. I havent purchased or rented another game since...for some reason i just dont like playing games on consoles. You cant patch them and i hate using a controller to navigate menus.

EA: Please bring next gen live to PC, and offer options to scale down the next gen graphics/features for lesser pc's.

If they dont do that next year...someone i know might resort to dl the game. Im only going to pay for it if its worth it. This year its barely worth it...but since im a big fan of dynasty mode, and this edition features plenty of enhancements...they just get my business...for now

[apocalypse]

since PC is not part of "Next Gen" then footplanting feature will not in PC version?

[Patr1ck]

No, footplating technology is not in the PC version. But, JonathanAu got the game today and said they are no longer slidiing - http://www.nbaliveforums.com/ftopic41629.php. I bet EA improved the animations, but I speculate that there is still a little ice skating going on.

[apocalypse]

JonathanAu got the game today and said they are no longer sliding

i hope so and every year we telling them to get rid of the skating

[zkik]

I agree with a lot said about the differences between PC and console and the speculative reasons for EA not spending so much time on the PC version of NBA Live 07.

BUT that said, i still dont understand why they cant even take the time to let us choose the menu resolution, i heard it is still at 640x320! Whats up with that, really...

[ImDuncanOnYou]

I was on gamespot a while back and they were comparing low-end pcs, medium pcs, and high pcs against the xbox 360 on a certain game, I can't remember. The xbox clearly was much better than the low one, better than the medium one, but the high-end pc still had tops over it. It wasn't much, but the pc had better quality for the mist and stuff leaking out of pipes and textures etc. And pc's are always getting better.

Btw, they were comparing screenshots of the same place on xbobx 360 and the pcs.

[copecowboy]

360,s dont have an os and other shit running too, thier made directly for gaming. A lot of people cant even run current gen versions maxed out with full aa and af...........

[Spurs4tw]

I find it funny how ppl still think that consoles are better than pc's especially when a new console is made. Think about it. Consoles take time to make and build so all the equipment it uses will be older than when it’s first put into the machine. Finally the console is released and the word 'next gen' comes up.

Now this has turned into a 360 over pc. I tell you this, xbox 360, ps3 whatever will never be better than a top of the range pc. Now I have a good pc yes but it’s not the top of the top stuff. I still have room for upgrades but I am already passed the power that the 360 can offer. Consoles are made differently that pc, so even though the it has 3 core processors it doesn’t actually have the same amount of power that say a 3800 cpu on a pc. And the whole consoles are cheaper than a pc arguement is slightly misleading. Simple I like to add this. If you were to buy a new pc, that is at the same level as the 360, it will cost around 2 grand Australian dollars MAX. Aus dollars is around 70c for ever USA dollar. So you work it out. Hang on pc'ers, I am not finished yet. That includes everything. LCD screen, keyboard, decent mouse, controller, speakers etc. I am excluding software here btw. So 2 grand aus MAX, but the 360 is $650 aus. But wait, for the 360 to be better than that it will too need to buy a high res monitor. thats 400 bucks there. Plus lets buy some speakers, thats an extra 100 dollars pls. so the 360 is only a little bit cheaper than a pc. So what you save $700, but you cant upgrade it, yep thats it, for the next 3 years or so, you stay with that machine. Meantime pc users spend an extra 100dollars in a years time to buy their same vid card so they can use sli. now we have 2 vid cards playing and all of a sudden, we have better games, better hardware in less that 2 years. Now the 360 price is 450 and my pc is worth a bit. so really console buyers have no really saved that much. In the long run, the new next gen consoles comes up and we have slowly kept our pc updated.

Now as one person mentioned above, lets just say the 3 core processors is as powerful as it sounds a word that a few of you may know 'bottle neck' comes to mind. Though it has been said by a few that the 360 does not bottle neck, it in fact does cause it has to. If some IT wizz can correct me, pls do so and explain why it does not but all signs point to the fact that the 360 does. Put it this way. A highway with 3 lanes but only one tollbooth. Hope that makes sense.

But back to the topic. There is no way that EA's excuse that the pc live 07 lacks so much in details has got to do with what the pc has to offer in terms of hardware.

What I believe has happened is this. EA has always done a fine job from converting pc games to consoles and vice versa. And we will exclude things like battlefields as the game was released on the xbox 2 years latter than it was on the pc. They obviously know the language however this 360 language may be to different and maybe they didn’t have time, were under budget, don’t have the experience with the new language to create a next gen game for the pc in a certain time frame.

Has anyone noticed that all EA's sport games on the pc is 'current gen' Maybe live 360 is better than the pc live but I work for EB games and I have seen so many ppl take back madden and bought the current gen version cause its better.

But this is what I really think has happened. Microsoft has paid EA big bugs to focus on the 360 while still creating games for its current console for the first year of its release. P2 would have promoted that idea as they too will be losing money if EA neglected to forget about the current gen. EA has spent a lot of time making games on the 360 and for current gen that it simply didn’t have the time to learn to new language of conversion. In saying that they rushed out the pc game making us have no subs etc and making it very simular to the current gem counter parts. Otherwords EA, thanks alot, you better bring out some very nifty patches.

[Spurs4tw]

Btw i will add this. I am not a console hater. I have only just converted from 10years of console gaming to pcing. Also the farcry pc vs farcry 360 debate is a joke. Farcry came out in 2004 before half life 2 and I even believe it came out before doom 3. 2004 and it comes out midway through 2006 and its better. wow it better be shouldnt it.

Then you hear reviews like how fear360 graphics is just as good as the pc's fear. that game came out at the end of 2005. Fellars thats a year, surely if the 360 was as good as it is, wouldnt these games that had a year to play around with would make it that much better?

[copecowboy]

pc sport games dont sell, its gonna be a while before they go next gen.

[Crystallas]

95s Minimum Requirements
VESA compatible Video
33MHz 486
So this means that in 1994, I could realistically play the game on a 2 year old computer because of the video adoption of the VESA standard.

2007s Minimum Requirements.

CPU 1.3GHz
256MB Ram
DVDROM 8x
Geforce3 64mb

So that means that I could have realistically played this game in May of 2000 with the required hardware list. 6 years! WOW... EA must love somebody, because their older non-sport titles require a heck of a lot more.

At this rate, with my top of the line rig now, I will be able to play NBA Live 2015!
Awesome. w00t.

[copecowboy]

Minimum Requirements suck tho, i like to be able to have everything maxed with maxed res with max aa and af

[Crystallas]

pc sport games dont sell, its gonna be a while before they go next gen.

Coulda fooled me. There seems to be a decent number of people here that play PC Sport games.

[copecowboy]

pc sport games dont sell, its gonna be a while before they go next gen.

Coulda fooled me. There seems to be a decent number of people here that play PC Sport games.

Its a common fact that pc sport games "SELL" a VERY SMALL fraction of console games, madden is the only one that sells good and it still way low.

[Crystallas]

Minimum Requirements suck tho, i like to be able to have everything maxed with maxed res with max aa and af

My point exactly. But in my situation, there are no advatages of running beyond a system with 2GHz and a radeon 9800 maxed out over running it on a x1950xtx crossfire system with a CPU equal to a 4.5GHz system using the old TFLAspec of clockspeed(like the 1.3GHz CPU that they mention.)

So that still sets me back 3 years of being able to max this game out. And with 95, you couldnt max the game out on release day, there was still some room for improvement.

[copecowboy]

PC sport games don't. They sell about 1/10th of what the console versions do. Doesnt help that more people download the game than buy either.



You deleted your post, now it looks like im talking to myself,lol.

[Crystallas]

Sorry, LOL.. I misread you and deleted it. If you say 1/10th of PC gamers buy these games. Thats amazing. EA controls the PC Sport gaming world, and if they release stuff that is this weak, then I couldnt imagine if they went back to their cutting edge tactics on the PC. Esspecially if they have to develope them on computers to begin with. It might be more cost effective than they make it.