Why Is Madden Still Not Available On PC At This Point?

[Haval93]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nza

"Games are coded on the PC" is a bit of a misleading statement. Games are coded in source code. Whether you do that on Mac, Windows or Linux, and x86, PPC or ARM doesn't really matter. Source code doesn't do anything by itself - it needs an interpreter or a compiler, and these are either themselves compiled to an arch/platform, or compile to an arch/platform. Part of any medium plus sized software development team these days is a remote build process that normalizes build environments between developers, so the development machines themselves don't matter. The fact the compiler for XBOne and PC may very well be similar isn't really the point. It is far more important that the OS and hardware APIs used in the code are as close as possible. Now, I don't know how close PS4 and XBOne is in this regard, but I'm guessing they are fairly different. So XBOne and PC, both being Microsoft, would probably be much closer, but keep in mind that most MS Windows PCs out there today would be running a version of Windows developed well before the XBOne, and there are a a whole host of other issues to consider as well. tl;dr - I think people make too much of the arch similarities between the new consoles and PC, when using the argument that it should mean more games for PC. Madden used to be ported from PS2 to PC on the cheap by a 3rd party company for EASports (HeadGate Studios). That's about as different as you can get, but it was still just a matter of rewriting all the API calls and compiling to x86, which is pretty much exactly the same process now days.

I understand what you are saying. I think there has been some words loss in translation. When I say games are coded on a PC, I mean that typical you use a PC to write your code and compile. Yes, I understand that source code needs a interpreter to actually do anything. As for coding in Windows, Linux, or iOS, there is no difference if you write non-managed code, in video game cases, that means writing C++ that doesn't rely on any specific library, run times, or frameworks that isn't included into the standard library or is cross platform available(Graphics API like OpenGL). As for the hardware side of coding, x86, Power PC, ARM, these are completely different in architecture and use a completely different instruction set.

What I was trying to say is that you can use the same API calls for DirectX on the PC and the Xbox One. Which means that you can compile and run your code without any changes if you aren't using a specific instruction set or function that isn't available to the PC. As for the PS4 it uses a similar API to DirectX 11 that also includes specific instructions and functions that let you get more low-level access and can help you reduce overhead.

As for the x86 and architecture talks and conversations, it isn't a point of everything being the same, it's more about the familiarity of the architecture and is something that is commonly used to program and compile on. I would say that anybody that has a gaming PC has a x86 processor. Rather than having to learn a whole new architecture for the new generation of consoles which takes a ton of time and resources (like the Xbox 360 which had the Power PC and the PS3 which had the Cell architecture), this new generation that went back to the standard of processors which is x86 which means they can target three audiences without investing into making huge changes. This is what most people are happy about because it means there aren't any differences architecture wise and most of the changes are API calls and functions, which means that instead of having to dedicate a whole team and a lot of time just to porting the game to PC, it can be done much easier and quicker.

Anyways, I think I just restated everything you said looking back at my post. LMAO

[bucky60]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nza

"Games are coded on the PC" is a bit of a misleading statement. Games are coded in source code. Whether you do that on Mac, Windows or Linux, and x86, PPC or ARM doesn't really matter. Source code doesn't do anything by itself - it needs an interpreter or a compiler, and these are either themselves compiled to an arch/platform, or compile to an arch/platform. Part of any medium plus sized software development team these days is a remote build process that normalizes build environments between developers, so the development machines themselves don't matter. The fact the compiler for XBOne and PC may very well be similar isn't really the point. It is far more important that the OS and hardware APIs used in the code are as close as possible. Now, I don't know how close PS4 and XBOne is in this regard, but I'm guessing they are fairly different. So XBOne and PC, both being Microsoft, would probably be much closer, but keep in mind that most MS Windows PCs out there today would be running a version of Windows developed well before the XBOne, and there are a a whole host of other issues to consider as well. tl;dr - I think people make too much of the arch similarities between the new consoles and PC, when using the argument that it should mean more games for PC. Madden used to be ported from PS2 to PC on the cheap by a 3rd party company for EASports (HeadGate Studios). That's about as different as you can get, but it was still just a matter of rewriting all the API calls and compiling to x86, which is pretty much exactly the same process now days.

You are making an assumption that all the code is in a high level language. i would not be surprised if some of the real time code is in machine language. if it is, the same cpu arch would make a big difference.

[aholbert32]

Why are we still discussing this? Lol. I don't think anyone realistically thinks that the reason madden isn't on the PC is because of difficulty in porting the game to PC. It's purely financial. Sports games on PC don't sell in the us and the nfl is purely a us sport.

[Big FN Deal]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Why are we still discussing this? Lol. I don't think anyone realistically thinks that the reason madden isn't on the PC is because of difficulty in porting the game to PC. It's purely financial. Sports games on PC don't sell in the us and the nfl is purely a us sport.

I guess I get your general point about porting but we are pretty much still discussing the general topic to speculate and pass time, like we do in most Madden threads. Not like anything that gets posted is likely to have any effect on whether Madden is made available on PC or much of anything else concerning the game. Personally I try to find interesting things to discuss concerning Madden as some small substitute for the lack of being immersed in the actual game.

To that point, I think most agree it's a financial decision but that has many potential specifics, for which I thought would be interesting to speculate on and discuss. Once that's no longer the case, I'm sure this thread will slowly fade into the background.

[DCEBB2001]

Quote: Originally Posted by aholbert32

Why are we still discussing this? Lol. I don't think anyone realistically thinks that the reason madden isn't on the PC is because of difficulty in porting the game to PC. It's purely financial. Sports games on PC don't sell in the us and the nfl is purely a us sport.

Yeah! Why are we discussing this? Aren't we supposed to be getting super-hyped for NCAA Football 15 right about this time of year?


Oh...wait...

[roadman]

If this thread is anything like the other thread in the 360/PS area, it will have a lot of legs and I'm adding to it. lol

[NicVirtue]

Okay, but NBA, and FIFA have PC versions. And no doubt the NFL is the more popular brand than the NBA in America. So why does the less popular game receive more games on the PC?

[kehlis]

Quote: Originally Posted by Big FN Deal

I guess I get your general point about porting but we are pretty much still discussing the general topic to speculate and pass time, like we do in most Madden threads. Not like anything that gets posted is likely to have any effect on whether Madden is made available on PC or much of anything else concerning the game. Personally I try to find interesting things to discuss concerning Madden as some small substitute for the lack of being immersed in the actual game. To that point, I think most agree it's a financial decision but that has many potential specifics, for which I thought would be interesting to speculate on and discuss. Once that's no longer the case, I'm sure this thread will slowly fade into the background.

Quote: Originally Posted by DCEBB2001

Yeah! Why are we discussing this? Aren't we supposed to be getting super-hyped for NCAA Football 15 right about this time of year? Oh...wait...

I could be wrong but I don't think he was asking why are we discussing the topic of the thread but instead the tired discussion of programmers who kept trying to show each other who knew more about programming despite the fact we all agree it could be done if EA wanted it done.