No Gears of War 2 for PC

Just as I finish venting my frustration after The Force Unleashed skips the PC platform, Epic Games lead designer Cliff Bleszinski goes and releases this statement:

"Gears of War is a great franchise first and foremost for Xbox 360 and therefore we're focusing on that platform for Gears of War 2. We've decided we're not going to do a PC version this time around".

Not that we didn't expect that, in order for the whole 'release on console then later release on PC' trick to work you've got to pretend you're not ever planning on releasing on PC so that [pirating] PC enthusiasts don't just wait it out.

Although this case is more about promoting the 360 than piracy, piracy is a huge problem and PC gamers are shooting themselves in the foot every time they do it, potentially killing the concept of gaming on the PC. The alternative to this is dumbed-down games designed for more casual play on consoles as AI reaction times and accuracy are drastically reduced and auto-aim mechanisms are installed.

Some of the smaller studios, Atari and Codemasters, just to name a couple, have started taking it out on pirates themselves by issuing an ultimatum of a £300 settlement or face a full-blown law suit. Our good friends at EA, one of the largest game publishers and developers, are refusing to go down this path as they have declined in participating with the recent law suits and continue to publish on the PC platform. Read on for reasons why.

So what makes EA different to the smaller publishers? Maybe the smaller guys are just getting pushed out of the picture by larger firms and they have no choice but to tackle piracy. EA have another approach to gaming, in fact, piracy has a much smaller effect for EA, if not even help them to some degree. EA keep themselves very close to Massive and IGA, the two largest in-game advertising agencies.

It's not like other publishers don't, if you check out their partner pages you'll see almost every face in gaming that you know, but when you hear the term "in-game advertising" what comes to mind? Need for Speed, Battlefield 2142, EA Sports? Perhaps next time you hear someone complain about in-game advertising you can remind yourself that the ads you're seeing in your games are keeping your game on the PC platform.

I can't help but think that the solution to this problem is also the solution to another problem. Single-player gaming died a long time ago and yet developers still persist with it. Gamers no longer want "single player" and "multi player", we want "co-op" and "vs". By making a game all about multiplayer then you've given yourself a way to control piracy. Multiplayer requires you to log onto a server and verify your authenticity. Even LAN games can be controlled by requiring it to be setup via online mode (CoH: OF, for example).

A game set for release soon that, in my opinion, is exactly what the gaming industry needs, is Red Alert 3. EA (oh surprised?) have taken a smarter approach to this game and designed it's single player mode so it is by default actually co-op mode. You can play by yourself but the game is modified so that solo play is the unintended mode and you have to substitute your co-op buddy with an AI. Red Alert 3 will be a game offering the much desired "co-op" and "vs" modes. Kudos, EA.