Deus Ex 3 not exclusive to PC after all?

By Ellie Gibson Published 27 November, 2009

Eidos puts kaibosh on internet rumours.

A spokesperson for Eidos Montreal has dismissed talk that the third Deus Ex game will be exclusive to PC.

The rumours began after a story on Bit-Tech stated, "[Deus Ex 3] won't be getting a console release due to the complexity of the game."

However Eidos man Rene, writing on the company's forum, stated, "Only the PC version has been announced so far... I dunno where that website is getting its info from!"

The Bit-Tech story has since been changed to read, "Eidos has previously hinted that it might not be getting a console release."

So, er, only the PC game is official, but it's probably coming to consoles too. Or not. Yep, slow news day. Might as well watch the trailer.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (41) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • RumpyStumpy #1 2 years ago

    Couldn't watch the trailer all I got was an advert for Avatar the game....COMING DECEMBER 2009

  • des #2 2 years ago

    Oh what a surprise,sky is blue...oh wait its not,but it certainly looks blue.

  • JahB #3 2 years ago

    of course this is coming to consoles, anything else would be commercial suicide.

  • Apostle #4 2 years ago

    Never normally have a problem dumbing down PC games for console, why would they this time?

  • JonFE #5 2 years ago

    In this time and age it does *not* pay to stay PC exclusive in my opinion...

    EDIT: I'm afraid I left out the 'not' in my original comment. Thanks Doctor_What for pointing that out.
    Edited by 2 at 27/11/09 @ 09:39

  • GamesConnoisseur #6 2 years ago

    PC is where Deus Ex all started, but can you imagine a company turning down a massive market, where PC version of MW2 which respectable but compared to consoles.

    Though I do sincerely want to see a proper speccied up version of DX3 and a reasonably fanastic port for the consoles.

  • Doctor_What #7 2 years ago

    Why, Jon FE? I'm genuinely curious.

  • mkreku #8 2 years ago

    Just no more unified ammo, please?

  • Penguinzoot #9 2 years ago

    This is one of those "... it ain't happening till it's officially announced" stories.

  • flaming.carrot #10 2 years ago

    It's the unannounced mac version he is hinting at obviously.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #11 2 years ago

    I don't know why everyone has such an issue with the unified ammo in DX2. I hate ammo scavenger hunts, and have done ever since Doom. Nobody complains that there aren't segregated ammo pickups in Left 4 Dead (oh my god, everyone can use the same incendiary round in all the gun types???).

    Is it because irresponsible play means you can chew through all your ammo too quickly with a machingun and not be left with any in reserve for your pistol or something? That's the only tangible disadvantage I can think of.

  • pinochet_cz #12 2 years ago

    Hope they learned lesson from DE2, we are not complete idiots just because we have consoles.

  • ZuluHero #13 2 years ago

    I’m probably going to get shot for saying this but I usually find that console games on PC are usually better for it. When a game is made for a console it has to be optimized like hell to get it running to a certain quality. This usually translates to the PC version, keeping the specs needed to run it lower and making it look and run better because of the extra oomph of most PCs.

    There have been very few "pc exclusives" that have ran for me smoothly and without hiccup, as I think PC exclusivity makes certain developers lazy and most PC engines don’t scale very well, even if touted to.

    That aside, why does it even matter to people that much? Does it really matter that 360 users can play the game as well? TBH I'd rather the experience be shared by as many people as possible. Not only does it better the chances of new games in the series (or new IP) but it also brings people together.

  • wellzy4eva #14 2 years ago

    @pinochet_cz

    The problem is the companies don't care about proper gamers, they care about the complete idiots as they are more likely to buy a game because it has a flashy tv spot rather than performing well in a weighed review. (And this is not a stab at MW2, but watch the advert and notice how the action is as intense as bad but popular action movies and anything by Michael Bay)

  • kangarootoo #15 2 years ago

    "Is it because irresponsible play means you can chew through all your ammo too quickly with a machingun and not be left with any in reserve for your pistol or something?"

    Yes :)

    Though I'm not sure what "irresponsible play" means. I was just shooting bad guys.

    My issue with it is that it makes all weapons more similar than they would otherwise be. A rocket launcher with a few rockets is a rare treat in many gamnes, saved for the times when it really matters. But in DE2, it all came down to working out which weapon did the most damage per ammo unit, and sticking with that.

    And scavenging ammo still happens in DE2, more so if anything as running out of ALL ammo for ALL weapons is a more frequent occurrence.

  • Farfarer #16 2 years ago

    I'm glad the PC version seems to be taking the fore with development, rather than making a console version then porting that over to PC. The second game suffered massively from being a primarily console game that got PC controls pasted over it.

  • kangarootoo #17 2 years ago

    "The problem is the companies don't care about proper gamers, they care about the complete idiots as they are more likely to buy a game because it has a flashy tv spot rather than performing well in a weighed review"

    I'll admit, whenever I see someone use the term "proper gamers", I immediately form an stereotyped opinion of them. Ah well.

  • Evolution #18 2 years ago

    @Mentalist(air)

    It was an appalling gameplay choice in DX2 because you had no idea how much ammo you really had because every gun used a vague amount of your supply per shot. It felt like you were carrying around a giant battery or something. It also made no sense, how exactly does a ammo you pick up manage to be both bullets and high explosive rockets? Irresponsible play is one thing, but in my case I was reluctant to use any weapons at all, quite handy for playing stealthy you might think but it just felt annoying. Then one firefight and suddenly you have no ammo.

    I also like scavenging for ammo, it forces you to use different weapons which aren't always ideal for the circumstances.

  • metalangel #19 2 years ago

    @Mentalist: that is indeed the issue, together with what I felt was a lack of ammo to be picked up. So yeah, unlike every other game ever, if you fired through every machine gun round, you had no further guns to fall back on! This was made still worse by the effective removal of hacking from the first game which allowed you so many alternatives to combat.

  • hiddenranbir #20 2 years ago

    So the game won't be complex as we want because they want it on consoles too.

  • davisorle #21 2 years ago

    "Deus Ex 3 not exclusive to PC after all? News "

    Whats up with the missleading article titles today? This is not professional you know.. First with Bioware and now this ' When someone says "Only the PC version has been announced so far... I dunno where that website is getting its info from!" means : Where the fuck did your source come up with those things?! Where along the lines did you get the impression that Deus Ex 3 is coming out on a console..? Wtf is going on here, I have to be missing something. VERY slow news day isnt it?

  • kangarootoo #22 2 years ago

    "So the game won't be complex as we want because they want it on consoles too."

    DE1 wasn't that complex you know.

  • systems #23 2 years ago

    As long as there's no unified ammo and the levels are larger than my house I'm up for some more.

  • Hunam #24 2 years ago

    A game of that magnitude would never be PC only, but it does sound as if the PC is the lead platform. Hopefully they'll give each platform its on specific interface and controls rather than just trying to unify the systems.

  • ignatiusjreilly #25 2 years ago

    A game of that magnitude would never be PC only

    Is it really that big? I know it has a huge reputation on PC but most of the console gamers I've spoken to in my office have never heard of it.

  • wellzy4eva #26 2 years ago

    Well the 'proper gamers' bit is not a stab at console gamers or a snobby PC gamer only thing.

    I'm talking about gamers who want a bit of investment from games and have more than a passing interest in the latest fad.

    Bioware have shown games don't need to be simplified for consoles, I just wish other companies follow suit and give the gaming population the experiences we used to take for granted.

  • IneptPercy #27 2 years ago

    By all means make a great PC game then gimp it onto the consoles, but don't gimp it from the start to get it on consoles.

  • ZuluHero #28 2 years ago

    "Bioware have shown games don't need to be simplified for consoles, I just wish other companies follow suit and give the gaming population the experiences we used to take for granted."

    I don't think that's true at all. All Bioware have done is made their games accessible to everyone. You can play both Mass Effect and Dragon Age with as much or as little involvement as you want. ‘Hardcore’ PC games can control every nuance, every skill tree and upgrade path, delve Into crafting, control every characters attacks and movement individually and so on..

    But likewise ‘casual console gamers’ can also play the game with as much or as little involvement as they like. Personally I fall into this camp. I still enjoy Bioware games for their storycraft, but I leave the game to auto level party characters and use the preset tactic macros to control what they do during fights and do all the other stuff that I would consider mundane .

    I don’t know if the same sort of thing could be translated in a single character FPS like Deus Ex though. Perhaps it could do what Bioshock did by relying on Difficulty to trim all the complex extraneous stuff out at lower difficulty levels?

    My mere mentioning of Bioshock has probably discredited me now though and caused a collective gasp amongst the elitist PC gamers forcing them to reach to the negative rep button! ;)
    Edited by 1 at 27/11/09 @ 14:14

  • hiddenranbir #29 2 years ago

    DE1 wasn't that complex you know.

    More enough than its sequel.

  • Hunam #30 2 years ago

    "Is it really that big? I know it has a huge reputation on PC but most of the console gamers I've spoken to in my office have never heard of it."

    It is a very cult classic game sure, but I'd imagine Eidos are going to market the series as the father of the RPG shooter and try and out do Bioshock.

  • WinterSnowblind #31 2 years ago

    I really don't like the whole PC user elitest attitude.

    Yes, the sequel was massively dumbed down, and that could be blamed on the consoles, but primarily it was done just to appeal to a wider audiance. The same way Oblivion was massively dumbed down, not because of console users, just to make it appeal to a broader audiance as a whole. The Xbox version of Morrowind sold just as well as the PC version, if not better.

    And there were plenty of PC users who didn't get into it because of it's complexity. We've started seeing a trend lately of developers being less afraid of making their games difficult or complex, so hopefully it's something that continues with Deus Ex.

  • Windypops #32 2 years ago

    I didn't think Deus Ex 2 was dumbed down, it was just small. It seemed to exemplify a shift in gaming from vast, sprawling, open-air levels which had multiple paths through them, to skulking about behind someone's sofa deciding whether you wanted to take the stairs, the lift or the vents to the next floor. Thief 3 did it too, though there was a little more intricacy to its levels.

    I'd love to see a return to that big-world gaming, and I'd happily lose a few atmospheric lighting effects and triple mip-map wibbling to get them. Couldn't give a monkey's about ammo, unified or otherwise.

  • metalangel #33 2 years ago

    @WinterSnowblind: Why do things have to appeal to a broader audience (to sell me, yes yes) if it's starting to compromise the game itself? The moment I start feeling that a game is restricting my options then my interest trickles away a little bit.

  • WinterSnowblind #34 2 years ago

    @metalangel
    I'm not saying it was the right thing to do, I was just trying to explain that consoles aren't the reason why games like Oblivion and Invisible War were simplified.

    I'd completely agree that both games were ruined because of their over simplicitiy compared to their predecessors.

  • Mark1412 #35 2 years ago

    "Why do things have to appeal to a broader audience "

    Because it's business... when you're making a AAA title you're making it for money, to put food on your table, to keep your job, and to satisfy whoever is paying for it. It doesn't matter if your game gets a 94% on metacritic, if it only sells a hundred thousand copies it failed. Just business.

  • Quixz #36 2 years ago

    I have become an achievement whore so I'm only getting this if it comes to the 360.

  • TRUTH #37 2 years ago

    ...Just don't dumb it down to a fps for consoles pleeeeease!

  • mkreku #38 2 years ago

    @Windypops : The reason Thief 3 did it too was because Deus Ex 2 and Thief 3 shared the same game engine. And the only reason the levels were so small (compared to the vast levels of the first Deus Ex) was that they were forced to try to squeeze the game onto the original Xbox (64 MB of RAM!). It wasn't a design decision by choice, it was a design decision by necessity. And the game suffered from it.

  • metalangel #39 2 years ago

    @Mark1412: So why are they even making this game then if 'business' dictates that they should make something mass market? Surely then something about space marines or street racers or pretending to exercise?

    Does all that mass market Wii shovelware you see clogging the shelves in anywhere that sells games (seriously, the Tesco near me doesn't bother with anything non-Nintendo any more) really make every publisher that much money? If so, why make anything else?

    And is it *really* impossible to make a hardcore/connoisseurs' title? Does catering to the specialists not exist in business? Are Bang & Olufson or Aston Martin just anomalies?

  • mkreku #40 2 years ago

    The problem with that analogy is that it would make Deus Ex 3 have to cost 500£ instead of 50£..

  • Windypops #41 2 years ago

    @mkreku: Yes, I'm aware of that: both were done by the same developer weren't they? The point I was trying to make, however, is that both chose graphical excellence over scale, and that's what made them suffer. Deus Ex and the earlier Thief games looked like eczema.

    Even if both games had been PC-only, can you imagine the specs required to create, say, the Liberty Island level from Deus Ex with all the graphical doohickies implemented in the sequel? The minimum spec for the "dumbed-down" version still required 256MB RAM back in 2003. That's before we even consider if both games would have made it past the accountants as a PC-only release.