Why EA failed

I was listening to the Gamers with Jobs podcast (mainly because Shawn Elliot was on it) and heard Jeff Green let slip that EA was unhappy with the PC sales for their games and it was likely that they would not be supporting them anymore (or something along those lines). It's pretty clear that when you are putting a game like Dead Space out on the PC it's not going to sell very well because the game is designed with a specific set of hardware in mind; it's not made to run on that average World of Warcraft computer everyone has lying around their home.

The ugly truth is that games like Crysis are a thing of the past. Crysis did not play the same with a gamepad, it supported it wonderfully, but many key features were missing. You could not go prone (only crouch) and you could not lean left and right (vital if there is foliage obstructing your view). FarCry 2 is a game that could have used these controls on the PC version, however it was excluded because the number of buttons on the controller wouldn't allow it, therefor the PC version suffered slightly. The lack of control in FarCry 2 is a shame, however the game was still very much superior on the PC and I think it's a great example of what western games with big budgets will look like on the PC from here on out. The upcoming Mirrors Edge and Burnout Paradise PC versions further my point, Mirrors Edge will support PhysX (and apparently have a set of modding tools) while Burnout Paradise will have higher quality textures among other things (here's to hopping i can find a way to make my dual monitors work with the game).

Most PC gamers I would assume also own consoles so chances are high that they will buy the console version of Dead Space over the PC version since there is no incentive to buy the PC version other than the control scheme. The PC version of Dead Space is great (trackball for lyfe) but I can't even set the AA higher than X2. Why couldn't they include higher quality textures for the PC version? People with both sets of hardware (I'm guessing the majority of PC gamers) need to be enticed to own the PC version, Dead Space clearly didn't do that which is why it didn't sell well.

You're going to drive the enthusiasts away if you don't do anything to take advantage of the open nature of the PC. Valve, Blizzard, and CD Projekt are living proof that PC gaming is alive and thriving despite piracy, and i think it's safe to say that Bethesda also has the right idea when it comes to supporting the PC. If EA wants to back away from supporting the PC that's their choice, but in all honesty they never really did support the PC and its strengths, they simply tried to move the console experience over to the PC and that is clearly not why we maintain this hardware.