Rein laughs off CliffyB PC comments

By Tom Bramwell Published 25 February, 2008

"Cliff's an idiot!"

Epic Games VP Mark Rein has laughed off Cliff Bleszinski's recent claim that PC gaming is in "disarray", pointing out that PC gaming is Epic's "heritage".

"Cliff's an idiot!" Rein joked when we asked about the comments during a GDC interview. "I'm kidding, obviously."

We asked if he had words with the Gears of War designer. "Oh yeah," said Rein. "Hey, Cliff is Cliff, and he's making a console game, and that's what he's focused on, so that's what his thinking is all about.

"But as a company, we make PC games. We love the PC, it's our heritage, we want to see it be strong, and we want to sell games like Unreal Tournament III and Gears of War on PC, and have them sell as well as they do on console."

Epic Games is among the first to sign up the PC Gaming Alliance - an organisation set up to help promote PC gaming, and Rein said it was an easy decision.

"As soon as they invited us we said 'yes, here's our cheque'. It took all of ten minutes to decide we wanted to be involved in this."

Check back soon for the rest of our interview with Mark Rein.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (47) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #1 4 years ago

    Oh Cliff.

  • killest #2 4 years ago

    Fight! Fight! Fight!

  • KingOfSpain #3 4 years ago

    Who would win in a knife fight???

  • Mugwum Verified Operations Director, Eurogamer Network #4 4 years ago

    A knife.

  • Monkey #5 4 years ago

    Mugwum, funny! Best laugh I've had today.

  • Cider-X #6 4 years ago

    PC gaming is dead. Fact

  • JediMasterMalik #7 4 years ago

    "Cliff's an idiot!" After that GDC presentation? I'm inclined to agree...

  • Eraser #8 4 years ago

    So there's going to be a PC Gaming Alliance huh....
    I think that says enough about the current state of PC gaming.

  • JediMasterMalik #9 4 years ago

    The PC gaming alliance is more about destroying the current popular view of PC gaming as a dead format as it is about changing the condition of the format. The format is fine, people just don't know it.

  • Katsumoto #10 4 years ago

    I think the alliance's first task should be to let people know how many copies of Crysis have actually sold. That should be enough to shut people up in the short term.

  • Freek #11 4 years ago

    Epic: "PC is in disaray!"

    /moneyhats

    Epic: "PC is awsome!"

  • fingersthebeaver #12 4 years ago

    PC gaming is dead. Fact

    tell that to the 10 million WOW subscribers

  • JediMasterMalik #13 4 years ago

    Only in the US, sold very well in Europe.

    Also, OB apparently sold significantly more through steam, then on the consoles. NPD should be ashamed ;)

  • haowan #14 4 years ago

    "Cliff's an idiot!"

    That's exactly what I said

  • Garulon #15 4 years ago

    "I think the alliance's first task should be to let people know how many copies of Crysis have actually sold"

    sold sold, like people walking into GameStation and buying them, or "sold" as in given away with a graphics card for free?

  • Freek #16 4 years ago

    "tell that to the 10 million WOW subscribers"

    WoW is an MMO, not many of those are verry succesfull because of it. The game also has low system specs. It's pretty much the opposite of what everybody else is doing on the PC.

  • Katsumoto #17 4 years ago

    "Didn't Crysis sell terribly because of the high system requirements?"
    "Sold, sold?"

    Sold as in over a million retail sales worldwide, sold! That was my point, everyone is convinced because of an article from early December that Crysis hasn't sold, whereas in fact it's already platinum!
    Edited by 1 at 25/02/08 @ 12:17

  • Chaser #18 4 years ago

    CliffyB is like an overactive child on orange juice sometimes.... some of his video diaries for previous UT releases have been a bit bonkers.

  • fingersthebeaver #19 4 years ago

    "WoW is an MMO, not many of those are verry succesfull because of it. The game also has low system specs. It's pretty much the opposite of what everybody else is doing on the PC."
    But that is the point PC gaming aint dead there are a lot of people out there playing PC games.

  • Genji #20 4 years ago

    "Cliff's an idiot!"

    Such a convincing argument! Surely this is a topic worth - you know - discussing?

  • warbo #21 4 years ago

    The PC games market is strange at the moment. Everyone has a PC and millions of people buy The Sims and WoW, yet games like UT3 sell 10x better on PS3.

  • Genji #22 4 years ago

    The best PC game ever is Minesweeper.

    There. I said it.

  • Xerx3s #23 4 years ago

    The PC industry is far from dead. The problem however is that people are easily swayed by media shows. People are bombarded at every convention about how great the next line-up of [insert games console x] is. What the PC needs is an organisation to promote it. To go on-stage at E3 and say: Look at all these fantastic games, exclusive to pc!

    Besides that it should also be made easier to play games on pc's and hardware standards should be more uniform (maybe something like a certain range of graphics cards for a certain amount of years). This will drasticly drop prices and make it easier for game developers to get more out of the hardware. It should also drop prices of games by at least 10 € to compete more (which is possible as pc games have a far longer sell down phase than console games) and it should focus on hooking young gamers.

    I had hoped gfw did this but the effect seems marginal.

  • Whizzo #24 4 years ago

    yet games like UT3 sell 10x better on PS3
    It's the fourth version of the same game, people have moved on.

  • crozon #25 4 years ago

    not just wow and sims. valve said the orange box sold a lot better on the pc than consoles.
    at the moment though they did say audiosurf is selling better than the orange box on steam :)

  • fingersthebeaver #26 4 years ago

    an U3 was competing with crysis and the orange box two of the better fps on the market and both huge on the PC

  • espy #27 4 years ago

    That's actually a good point, Whizzo. I used to love Unreal Tournament on the PC, but now the thought alone bores me. There's so much other good stuff on the platform, why should I bother with that? But on the PS3, the selection of shooters is rather slim, and the franchise (and indeed the genre) hasn't been done to death on the console. So I suppose that could factor in as well.

  • UncleLou #28 4 years ago

    Yup, says a lot more about UT3 and the competition in the genre on the respective platforms than about the PC, really.

    And Xerx3s makes a good point. What with the platform holders and the fans constantly whoring for attention (well it's their job, really, in the former case) and making a big fuss, everything else can get a bit lost. Which is why the idea of a "PC Gaming Alliance" isn't necesarily a bad one per se.

  • MoGamer2006 #29 4 years ago

    As Cliffy B said to Rein after his chat... "I feel sorry for you, you zero, you nobody. What's going to live on after you die? I'll tell you -- nothing, that's what!"

  • Krusty #30 4 years ago

    The PC is where the boundaries get pushed since the platform evolves (yes, yes, upgrades).
    Consoles quickly get stale, at least for me they do - although Forza2 does keep me coming back at times.

    I for one am happy to keep my PC specced up to play the superb games we get the opportunity to play.
    CoH, Darwinia, WiC, LOTRO to name but a few... have Crysis, but waiting for next gen cards to play it "properly".

    Devs will never leave the PC!

    Oh, and HL2 with a pad - no thanks!

    /my two penneth

  • JayPee #31 4 years ago

    I'd say Cliffy had a point.

  • fingersthebeaver #32 4 years ago

    Plus PC gaming is the only true open platform anyone can code for it and you don't have to pay stupid royalties just to release a game on the platform. It's such a successfull model for encouraging new devs and interesting titles. Why else does XNA or whatever it's called even exist. But to get on that you need certification.

  • Garulon #33 4 years ago

    "Sold as in over a million retail sales worldwide, sold! That was my point, everyone is convinced because of an article from early December that Crysis hasn't sold, whereas in fact it's already platinum! "

    Retail as in "I'd like a copy of Crysis please" or Retail as in "I'd like a GeForce X68000!!! card please, oh look Crysis is in the box, shame I've already pirated it."

  • Garulon #34 4 years ago

    "Why else does XNA or whatever it's called even exist. But to get on that you need certification."

    No, just a creators club membership, completely destroying your argument.

    PC makes a great development platform but a shitty sales platform; if you don't dongle up your PC title good (through Steam, for example) then you'll get some sales but otherwise it'll be a hundredth of a console title because of rampant piracy. So the only way of selling PC games without them being horribly pirated is a mechanism that currently isn't picked up by any of the major charts.

    Selling to the same group of technically savvy people that know how to get a PC game running also know how to pirate software really hurts sales. The fact it's technically such a flaky mess gives not-a-pirate-but pirates yet another reason to pirate "I'm not a pirate but I need to find out if it'll work on my system before I buy it".

  • fingersthebeaver #35 4 years ago

    Not going to deny piracy is a big problem for the PC, but saying that it is not good for new devs just doesn't hold up in daylight. Look at the recent independant games features on EG and compare to the XNA stuff up. People are much more creative with the PC plus the casual game market really is PC centric, no matter how many Wii's selll there are more PC's and companys like popcap making huge profits on them.
    Edited by 1 at 25/02/08 @ 14:35

  • UncleLou #36 4 years ago

    Retail as in "I'd like a copy of Crysis please" or Retail as in "I'd like a GeForce X68000!!! card please, oh look Crysis is in the box, shame I've already pirated it."


    Even less need to worry about PC gaming if one million X68000 have been sold. :p

  • Xerx3s #37 4 years ago

    "yet games like UT3 sell 10x better on PS3
    It's the fourth version of the same game, people have moved on. "

    The fourth version still not getting close to the quality of the first I might add. The first is still as popular as ever online.

  • sharpfish #38 4 years ago

    He sounds like he's doing us a favour by saying they joined the alliance and will make games for PC. He should be thanking PC players/buyers not the other way around. There are plenty of cool games for PC and as it happens games like Crysis are not only the best looking but some of the most advanced/best playing games in the world. No console has given me an experience like Crysis did on an 8800gtx (anything much slower I admit it won't look quite so cool but it will still FEEL great!).

    Stuff like COD4 etc also shows that PC gaming is healthy, COD4 on a top spec PC with Mouse/KBD is much better than the inferior console versions.
    The only place consoles have it there way at the moment is in decent driving games and exclusives, for which they are a good purchase (well the PS3 is, the 360's 'exclusives' are mostly on or coming to PC and of course it's an unreliable piece of shit). :)

  • Freek #39 4 years ago

    "WoW is an MMO, not many of those are verry succesfull because of it. The game also has low system specs. It's pretty much the opposite of what everybody else is doing on the PC."

    But that is the point PC gaming aint dead there are a lot of people out there playing PC games.

    If everybodies playing WoW what good is that for the developers who aren't Blizzard?

  • penhalion #40 4 years ago

    Anyone who remembers last years Cliffy comments will remember me calling him an idiot back then! His arrogance is just amazingly unjustified. Gears is a good game but, it wasn't written or coded by him as an individual. You wouldn't know that from the way he runs his mouth though.

  • fingersthebeaver #41 4 years ago

    Just making the point that certain games just work better on the PC Simulations, RTS, Casual games, MMO's argably FPS due to the mouse keyboard combo. These games can be done on Consoles but the are better on PC's. Plus PC's provide higher res graphics, and you can play them on your sofa on your LCD screen. Blizard, Valve, Popcap to name a few developpers who have nothing but love for the format. A lot of games companies now realise you need to code games to run on more PC's Crysis runs on my P4 with a ATI 1650 a shit computer. It isn't as pretty as it can be but it looks as good as most FPS on consoles.
    Roumers of the death of PC gaming are grossly exagerated.

  • Garulon #42 4 years ago

    "Even less need to worry about PC gaming if one million X68000 have been sold. :p "

    Weird. I have no idea what the flavour of the month card is in PC land right now and just typed some numbers in at random. Is that an actual card?

  • Garulon #43 4 years ago

    "Not going to deny piracy is a big problem for the PC, but saying that it is not good for new devs just doesn't hold up in daylight. "

    Is anyone saying that? If you're a hobbyist and have a fantastic idea for a new game by all means go for it on the PC (I really recommend XNA, as well as XBox it runs damn fine on the PC as well, it's freely available at creators.xna.com; you need C# express 2005 which is a free download at msdn.microsoft.com), but for AAA need-to-sell-a-million-copies-in-our-first-month games? The pirates'll rip yer head off. :(

    Edited by 1 at 25/02/08 @ 17:21

  • Katsumoto #44 4 years ago

    "Weird. I have no idea what the flavour of the month card is in PC land right now and just typed some numbers in at random. Is that an actual card?" - no, they were taking the piss

  • agparrot #45 4 years ago

    How can you call a man who breaks through a paper wall with a plastic gun an idiot?

    Ohhhhh.

  • paketep #46 4 years ago

    You love the PC, Mark?. Prove it!. Fix GoW and UT3. It's about damned time!

  • JediMasterMalik #47 4 years ago

    What's wrong with them?