Porting console games to PC?

[Hellser]

Technically, a console is a computer. The Nintendo Wii (and Wii U) for an example uses a PowerPC CPU. Modern versions of Linux can still run on the PowerPC architecture. The last known major computer company to release a PowerPC-based system was Macintosh back in 2006 before they switched over to Intel's Core Duo.

I'm not sure what voodoo one has to do to run a game on the Nintendo Wii, but it's not to say that these consoles can't emulate PC games. They can, just with varying degrees in performance... In fact. How do you think games native to the consoles were coded and where the initial testing took place on? Especially for cross platform games like Call of Derpy Duty?

[Caligari87]

Call of Derpy Duty?

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[Jaxxoon R]

I expected COD with broken GMod animations and I was sorely disappointed.

[Reactor]

Technically, a console is a computer. The Nintendo Wii (and Wii U) for an example uses a PowerPC CPU. Modern versions of Linux can still run on the PowerPC architecture. The last known major computer company to release a PowerPC-based system was Macintosh back in 2006 before they switched over to Intel's Core Duo.

I'm not sure what voodoo one has to do to run a game on the Nintendo Wii, but it's not to say that these consoles can't emulate PC games. They can, just with varying degrees in performance... In fact. How do you think games native to the consoles were coded and where the initial testing took place on? Especially for cross platform games like Call of Derpy Duty?

Well, that footage which shows that a console can emulate an old DOS game is certainly promising. After all, there were a gazillion extremely good games before the modern PC-era, and it'd truly be a shame if someone could not play'em just because the console is not designed to perform such a task. Creating an emulator for the sole purpose of playing Call of Vérpistike is a bit uneconomical.

[Hellser]

Not so much in emulating, was pointing out that PCs were used to create these games, but probably compiled differently for each system (like what we have today for PC, Linux and Mac for ZDoom).

[scalliano]

(Very obvious) answer to OP's original question.

In other words, yes, but only if you're Kaiser

[Nevander]

In other words, yes, but only if you're Kaiser

I wonder if he'd have any interest in trying to reverse engineer BLACK. The game has a pretty decent cult following, if you start searching on YouTube you'll find tons of Let's Plays and stuff by many different people. I'd kill for a "port" or reverse engineer of BLACK for PC. Emulating it through PCSX2 is nice, but it's nowhere near as good as a proper "port" could be.

Too bad Criterion most likely wouldn't give a hell about it 10 years after release. It's disappointing to see games that aren't even that old get remasters and remakes, while the true gems are left to become dust.

[edward850]

I wonder if he'd have any interest in trying to reverse engineer BLACK. The game has a pretty decent cult following, if you start searching on YouTube you'll find tons of Let's Plays and stuff by many different people. I'd kill for a "port" or reverse engineer of BLACK for PC. Emulating it through PCSX2 is nice, but it's nowhere near as good as a proper "port" could be.

Unless Night Dive somehow get ahold of the license, it is very unlikely Kaiser will ever be able to get around to it in the next 10 years or so.

[Nevander]

I wonder if he'd have any interest in trying to reverse engineer BLACK. The game has a pretty decent cult following, if you start searching on YouTube you'll find tons of Let's Plays and stuff by many different people. I'd kill for a "port" or reverse engineer of BLACK for PC. Emulating it through PCSX2 is nice, but it's nowhere near as good as a proper "port" could be.

Unless Night Dive somehow get ahold of the license, it is very unlikely Kaiser will ever be able to get around to it in the next 10 years or so.

If I wanted to try and get the license to a developer like Night Dive, what would be the first step (assuming it could happen)? I imagine Night Dive would need to show interest in the game itself, then they would need to contact Criterion and see. I have a feeling I know what their answer would be.

[edward850]

Pretty much. Basically they need to track down who actually holds a license for a property, the first step would be talking to EA, who would likely have access to the license. They've managed to pull more obscure ones before (Strife, notably), however there would also need to be considerable public interest for both Night Dive and EA to consider it.

[Nevander]

Started a petition for this! Please sign!

https://www.change.org/p/electronic-art ... xbox-to-pc

[InsanityBringer]

Because change.org petitions have a 100% chance of making companies start an expensive porting process to the PC. Right.

Realistically, if EA felt they absolutely had to fulfill this online petition signed by a relatively tiny amount of people, they'd end up doing something dumb like just giving you a special stripped down emulator that runs the game, similar to what some other companies have done. But I seriously doubt they'd care at all.

[Kinsie]

Let's ask EA's CEO!

October 2015

It feels like pushing stuff out because you’ve run out of ideas. Remakes, because of who we are, and this broad portfolio of intellectual property...you add all that together, I don’t know where we find the time to do remakes ... We’re a company that just likes to push forward. For a lot of companies, remakes are a way to drive revenue. It's sub-cost, it's an IP that's there, you can remaster, and that's great. We don't do that here. I don't think that’s ever been in our culture.

August 30th 2016

We're a company that is focused on delivering for the future ... I was asked a question once [about remasters and I said] it's just not what we do. We've got incredibly talented dev studios around the world who are focused on delivering new IP, new experiences, [and] more and more live services. Can we make an easy buck on remastering Mass Effect? Yes. Have a thousand people asked me that? Yes, they have. We just feel like we want to go forward. There's a little thing called Mass Effect: Andromeda that we're totally focused on at BioWare and it's gonna be magnificent.

Do we have teams lying around that are doing nothing right now that [can go and make remasters]? No we don't. We want to focus on the future and delivering new IP and new experiences ... There's easy money to be made all over this industry. But the real focus should be on being player-first and focused on delivering new IP and new experiences and that's where our real focus is. Is there demand? Yes, there's thousands of people who want it. Do we need millions? I don't know ... Our blinders are on and [we are] looking toward the future.

We're a 34-year-old company that has thousands of pieces of IP around the world. Road Rash! If you allow yourself to take the easy road--not to diss remastering great franchises, but there are so many opportunities for us to have people go to something else.

So, uh, good luck with your internet petition, there.

[scalliano]

And yet how many times have they tried to reinvent NFS and cocked it up evey single time? Last good one was MW2005, work that one out.

Black for PC would be cool, but well, you know, Origin.

[Nevander]

Can we make an easy buck on remastering Mass Effect? Yes. Have a thousand people asked me that? Yes, they have. We just feel like we want to go forward.

What a load of shit. Who doesn't like making more money from old products? EA actually said that? For real?