I'm sad to say it, but I suspect that your take on this might be right. I say that because if Epic had ever had any desire of producing a good UT game for the PC they would have just done it with UT3 and Epic's consolization seems like an overwhelming influence; it's no longer a PC gaming company. I don't blame them for following the money; programmers gotta eat, but I wish it hadn't worked out that way. One way to verbalize the change in Epic's attitude and approach might be to say, "Gone are the days of making PC games for adults and here are the days of making console games for kids." That is to say that UT99 and UT 2004 were about online multiplayer PC gaming, custom maps and mods, and freedom. In contrast, UT3 is about logging into Gamespy and having few adjustment and customization options (unless you want to muck around with the .ini files).
Id have to say I disagree with this in part! Ive said it before and Ive said it plenty of times but I'll repeat it, platforms dont sell games, games sell platforms. All this move to console is showing is what happens when developers favour one platform over the other, it happened in the glory days of PC gaming as well (well okay the glory days arnt over but when PC games held the major market share).
What do you think caused consoles to be more popular in the first place, lets say the PS2 for instance, do you think it was the hardware like wow DVD player. By that time people were picking them up for next to nothing for their PC and they could burn on em as well. It was most defiantly the games, the same thing thats kept Nintendo going and strong all this time, mind you the wiimote is pretty kewl but games go with that so thinking of new and interesting games to use that feature is where its at for that platform. Thats how it should be for any platform but for PC atm its like the Amiga days where we have acouple of dedicated PC dev's along with all the 360 dev's simply porting things over.
Theres no proof that Ive seen that says a game will sell better on console no matter what, it depends very heavily on the game, you can even add the money saved from testing and whatnot but I still fail to see what makes them a more popular choice over an industry trend.
I certainly agree programmers need to eat, what they dont need to do is drive Ferrari's if the Lamborghini is in the shop (thats the shareholders job). I think greed is driving the industry more than ever before and its rather sad, there has been some really stand out titles which dont cost an arm and a leg and offer alot in terms of playtime and fun. Thats what it should be about!
With companies looking harder and harder at the bottom line trying to get every cent they can things are only going to get worse, crys of "we'll patch it later" are being heard all across the world and many a gamer gets a half finished game. No one is free from this anymore, the once solid console release is now a myth with the advent of them being connected to the net. Not only that but there must be some sort of questionnaire that gamers answer that tells developers we are all retards so they make their games easier and easier while the bottom line born and bread gamer keeps getting stronger.
So they keep plugging at it making games for little kiddies but the games receive a rating saying 15+. Now this isnt entirely related to UT3 or the topic at hand but I just have to say, where are our intelligent games? You dont need to be a brain surgeon or anything to understand the complexity some games offer, some people fail to miss a few things here and there but it does take time. Itd be nice to get a gamers game once in awhile instead of an hour long tutorial on the intricacies of playing a simple console game.
In the end, some trends just arnt all that positive, even if people are raking in the money! Where are the developers who are in it only for their supper money and nothing else? I mean what more could you want then to wake up every day and say "yes, Im a game developer" for me thats all Id ever need. I could care less if Im breaking even including development costs, atleast the development costs can be recycled and I wouldnt be looking to bump my profit margin from 10million to 20
Sure no game is perfect and neither is UT3, patch releases have been slow to say the least and the fixes well if they actually fixed stuff there wouldnt be "beta" patches. Its good to be part of the process I guess but the turn around is slower than a granny in a moped, you tell Epic about something and youre lucky if it'll be fixed two patches later. At this rate the game will be done... after the next UT game is released. I mean Im willing to help identify and report bugs or find features which could be helpful for upgrades but theres no clue as to whats going on at all unless you ask specifically.
Anyways Im gonna dribble on if I dont finish up here...
Everything about this game has been beta, from the demo, to the release and even the patches, with no post release
non-beta demo on the horizon I would start to speculate as to when we'll hear about the next UT game. Will it be sooner or later, who knows, maybe Epic will continue to support UT3! If they do Id defiantly have to say they arnt in it purely for the money as some developers might have cut and run by now. Maybe UT3 is just the demo for a bigger thing to come, from what Ive heard of Gears 2 it sounds like Gears 1 is in a very similar position as UT3.
Does it really take Epic 2 games to get it right? Well for a new franchise like Gears it makes sense it gets alot more refined but with UT we are on the 4th game going into a possible 5th so perhaps its time to get it right again! Actually I wont say they got the whole of UT3 wrong, but there is alot less that could be wrong next time though.
I just believe that there is certain problems with UT3 that cant and probably wont be fixed in patches but it is possible to fix them with a new title. Much like 2k4 tried to fix problems with 2k3, this time though as Ive said Epic is in a much better position moving forward. Im not sure if Id agree with another title in a hurry but it could certainly do alot to help the franchise and for that reason alone perhaps it would be for the best. I just hope that now the 360 version is released we'll see the pace on patches quicken