Could Doom 3 be a Xbox Exclusive?

acehole writes "Doom III, id's latest and greatest in the realm of first-person shooters, may be coming out as an Xbox exclusive... if Microsoft has its way." This story is very brief, has no real evidence, and should be treated as entirely speculative. I'd be sad if Doom 3 required me to use the X-Box's controller. It's just not right without a mouse!

Comments

Re:Still MS-Exclusive

[OldMiner]

Does it make sense for id to create software for one console, when there are several choices out there? Microsoft would have to pony up a lot of cash to make up for lost revenue from other consoles, which we are all well aware that they can certainly do.

Having not pried into the numbers of this field which are what ultimately determine whether any of your or my points are valid, allow me to offer a converse assertion.

Porting costs can be very high. Each additional platform Doom3 goes on will require (1) rewriting potentially large chunks of graphics code, if not other things if it turns out some things have to be squeezed a little extra to fit inside the console; (2) perhaps more expensive, extensive play testing to confirm the new hardware doesn't cause strange new problems; (3) creating a production line for creating media and packaging; (4) negotiating with stores shelf-space for an additional title; (5) providing tech support for yet another platform.

You seem to assert that for every additional platform the game is available for will mean more incoming revenue. Whether you meant this or not, it is not the case. Many people have multiple platforms -- XBox and a PC, PS2 and a GameCube, etc. Once more, some people may buy a new console simply for the newst, hot game out. And Doom3 will be coming out with a rather large amount of fan fare. If these two groups are a significant portion of the purchasers of Doom3, you start seeing diminishing returns very quicly -- perhaps even after supporting only two platforms (e.g. Windows and XBox)

Further, the game is already going to run in a Windows environment, doubtlessly. This means that XBox will be the easiest to port to, both because of a minimal amount of code rewrite being necessary and because the mostly stock hardware means that not as much XBox specific testing would be necessary.