“Consolitus” is a word that a lot of console gamers hate. This word describes how some games “change” in order to be released on consoles. Developers do a lot of changes regarding the level design, the control mechanics, the AI, the graphics, and – generally speaking – everything in order to make the games enjoyable on consoles.
This phenomenon mostly happens when a game mainly targets consoles instead of the PC, and Warren Spector has just revealed something we all already knew; Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows were consoles game and their PC versions was an afterthought.
As Warren Spector said during this year’s E3 PC Gaming Show:
“When we started working on Deus Ex: Invisible War and Thief: Deadly Shadows, we had new marching motives. Those games were to be developed for the Xbox. The PC version was… well I probably shouldn’t say this but… the PC version was kind of an afterthought which some might have noticed.”
Warren Spector also said that he – and other developers – were kind of forced to develop for consoles as that’s where the money was a few years ago.
“The bottom line in all this; publishers wanted console games and developers like me had no choice but to go where the money was. And the money was on console.”
Things are obviously different now, however this will give you an insight at why some of your beloved franchises have “evolved” into something completely different from their original vision.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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