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Piracy versus PC Gaming

[Mar 09, 2007, 8:23 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Next Generation recaps a GDC talk titled "The Videogame Piracy Problem: Fifteen Men on a Dead Man’s Chest" by id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead about the impact of piracy on the game industry. They outline how Mr. Hollenshead says the estimated $3 billion economic loss caused by piracy in 2004 does not include piracy that takes place on the Internet. There is also an article about this talk on Joystiq that focuses on the statement that piracy is a factor in id's embrace of consoles, quoting Todd as saying "Piracy has pushed id as being multiplatform." On a related note, Can PC Gaming Survive in a Console World (thanks Digg) recaps a panel discussion on the topic that brought up a similar point:

Part of the problem is piracy. Big titles get stolen by cyber thieves, and it hurts revenue. "The market," said Capps, "that would buy a $600 video card knows how Bittorrent works."

Does that mean casual games, which exponentially outsell what PC gaming traditionalists think of as A-list titles, will one day rule? Hilleman made a point: casual is a poor choice of words. The average player on EA's Pogo "casual" game network plays "for 24 hours a week. There's nothing casual about that."

There is some light in the PC gaming world. World of Warcraft, for instance, is a massive hit, and the upcoming Spore looks not only creative and different, but promising. The MMO and other social networking games could become the norm for PC gaming, with big-ticket titles growing rarer with each passing year. Johnson added that MMOs are "successful because you can't pirate WoW. You cannot pirate an MMO. Period." Therefore, he said, "game design on the PC is going to bend toward persistence."

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128.

Re: No subject

Mar 10, 2007, 06:21

Riley Pizt

the best way to buy a house is to live in it for twenty years first. How much of a demo do you get with a product that takes you twenty five years to pay for? Normally a few hours at most. Cliff, your home buying analogy is specious. Home buyers in the U.S. have laws which protect them from misrepresentation, fraud, and even dissatisfaction in some cases with their home purchases. There are no such laws protecting consumers when it comes to software purchases including video games. In addition most EULA's are crafted in such a way to absolve developers and publishers of any responsibility for their software and provide consumers with no recourse in the case of dissatisfaction with their purchases. In addition no retail stores will accept returns on opened software for refund so consumers have no recourse for compensation if they are dissatisfied with their purchases. Before video game publishers and developers complain about about unauthorized use of their products, they should first stop taking their customers for granted and treating them like criminals, stand behind their products, and offer a fair return policy instead of hiding behind their EULA's. When you treat your customers with disdain, you shouldn't be surprised when some of them return the favor.

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