Massive companies with colossal war chests usually make AAA console games.
Yet, when they port these titles to PC, they’re often riddled with tons of issues.
But why is that so?
Here’s why AAA PC ports are so problematic.
What Makes a Bad PC Port?
So, what is a bad port?
Image Credit: Jhet Borja
The most obvious thing about a bad port is the performance.
Often these are low or jittery frame rates, even with high-end systems.
Besides the performance issues, it can be plagued with visual and gameplay bugs.
These kill the immersion, and some bugs prevent you from progressing through the game outright.
Another annoying thing about bad ports is the controls.
Some games like Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty are unplayable on a keyboard and mouse.
You should know, though, that not all games first launched on consoles are ports.
What Causes Bad PC Ports?
There are many ways that a PC port could go wrong: from corporate greed to just plain incompatibility.
Here are the most common causes of PC ports not performing as they should.
However, the components inside a console are all predictable.
Consoles usually have a shared pool of system and graphics memory.
Image Credit: Jhet Borja
While on computers with dedicated graphics cards, the system and graphics memory aren’t shared.
Console games are developed to run as efficiently as possible on the hardware that they’re given.
The infamous The Last of Us Part II is an example of this outsourcing.
Part I was also a bad PC port, with both games suffering memory and CPU management issues.
Some games just weren’t made for keyboard and mouse.
This is often the case with souls-like RPG games that are console-first.
The Dark Souls series and even Elden Ring are known for lousy keyboard and mouse controls.
Then again, this could be solved by just playing on a controller or gamepad.
Will PC Ports Improve?
The demand for console games within the PC gaming space has only increased.
Those games were made for consoles that don’t have as much power as we have today.
