GDC ’10: Panel Defend PC Flexibility, Console Quality Control Too Rigid

A GDC panel that included Valve’s Jason Holtman and Blizzard executive Rob Pardo delved into the PC vs. console debate from a developers’ point of view.

Both men spoke about the rigidness that consoles offer developers, especially when it comes to patching titles or editing them. Holtman referenced the recent Portal 2 easter egg that Valve pushed to the PC version of Portal, which he said is something ‘œwe can do on the PC’ but not on a console.

Pardo expressed scepticism about bringing World of Warcraft to consoles because ‘œyou have to go through all sorts of [certification] processes’ with Microsoft or Sony.

These slow QA processes would prevent Blizzard from fixing bugs quickly like on the PC where they can ‘œfind a bug that will completely unhinge a game… [but] we’ll actually do a hot fix.’ On the console, such a problem would take weeks to get through Microsoft and Sony’s testing methods, something that both Valve and Blizzard obviously don’t like.

This is a big issue for developers, but I can’t see Microsoft or Sony loosening their grip on quality control or testing. That might be a good thing for creating games that are as bug free as possible, but bugs are always going to happen, so it could be argued that developers being able to patch them directly would be a better solution. Both Valve and Blizzard seemingly agree.