I have 183 games on Steam, guess I pirate SO MUCH...ffs

Endo wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 22:06:
If only 50,000 people buy your game (and you don't turn a profit) it's because:
a. Your game sucks
b. Your marketing sucks
c. All of the above

It has zero to do with piracy. Even mediocre games sell 100K + units and turn a profit, all the time.

If little developers like Robot Entertainment can make money on Orcs Must Die using a single platform then it's pretty telling when Ubisoft still can't figure out how despite having 100x the resources at their disposal.

If only 50,000 people buy your game (and you don't turn a profit) it's because:
a. Your game sucks
b. Your marketing sucks
c. All of the above

It has zero to do with piracy. Even mediocre games sell 100K + units and turn a profit, all the time.

ASeven wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 11:57:

Verno wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 11:25:
I think the industry has a lot more at risk financially with the cheap foreign key sites eventually devaluing games if they continue unhindered.

This is a problem, because a lot of those keysites are legit and legal. Though a lot of them steal keys, the bigger ones do buy legal retail games in bulk, which is why they are able to present cheaper prices. That, by itself, is not illegal in any way.

Its not because they buy in bulk. They buy the games from china or russia where they HAVE to be priced much cheaper than normal to compete with the pirated versions sold on every street corner. It's like buying the international version of a college text book. It tends to be identical in every way to buying whats here in the store.

Remember the flap over the orange box purchases where valve deleted the game from a lot of people's accounts because they bought the russian version but weren't from russia? Thats why. Its up to the individual company if they want to permit key activations such as this. I know valve can restrict key activations to certain regions, and I'm sure other companies can too if they want.

This dickhead, Stanislas Mettra, seems to be going on the arrogant assumption that the console versions of the game are going to sell alot more than 50,000 copies. I've seen the trailers and I'm not impressed with the way the game looks or even the general story/premise of the game in the first place. Even if I had a console, I wouldn't buy this game.

For the record, I'm a PC gamer, but I BUY ALL MY GAMES. Pirates are worthless pieces of shit who need to fucking die.

Verno wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 11:25:
I think the industry has a lot more at risk financially with the cheap foreign key sites eventually devaluing games if they continue unhindered.

This is a problem, because a lot of those keysites are legit and legal. Though a lot of them steal keys, the bigger ones do buy legal retail games in bulk, which is why they are able to present cheaper prices. That, by itself, is not illegal in any way.

So a game I've never heard of, isn't coming to PC, because all of the people "bitching" for it are pirates?

No great loss...

We will remember this forever. Just like RDR screwed us and now we wont buy anything rockcrap makes in the future. Now they do it to us and they are going to get black balled.

There is one reason why their game wont sell on the PC. BECUASE IT SUCKS

I think the industry has a lot more at risk financially with the cheap foreign key sites eventually devaluing games if they continue unhindered.

Mad Max RW wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 10:54:
If they started making better games that were finished at launch and didn't screw over foreign versions with delayed releases and annoying censorship, as well as inflated prices depending on the region (obviously those last reasons aren't the faults of the studios) then maybe they'd cut down on piracy.

Quite easy:
1. You need to know, if non-commercial software piracy hurts sales.
2. If no, ignore it and make the best possible product for your paying customers.
3. If yes, you have to determine how much.
3. If this is just a minor annoyance, barely distinguishable from statistical fluctuations, fuck it, go to 2.
4. If not, do something to minimize piracy and go to 2. because DRM does NOTHING to prevent piracy.

So ... what do you do? Right! Make the best possible product for your paying customers! Make them paying customers. Make them throw money at you, because THEY WANT TO THROW MONEY AT YOU and not because you forced them to.

Christ!

If they started making better games that were finished at launch and didn't screw over foreign versions with delayed releases and annoying censorship, as well as inflated prices depending on the region (obviously those last reasons aren't the faults of the studios) then maybe they'd cut down on piracy.

InBlack wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 09:56:
This guy has such an unusual name, Stanislas Mettra....Hmmmm

The studio is based in China, though I can't say the name looks particularly Chinese to me. Possibly Eastern European. *shrugs*

Paketep wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 05:55:
Title is wrong, should be "Why Ubi is Dead to PC Gamers"

Beat me to it. Ubisoft is an automatic "no buy" from me. I don't give a rat's ass if they stop making PC games altogether. They've proven over and over again their disdain and disrepect for the PC platform and PC gamers. Not getting my money, ever.

This guy has such an unusual name, Stanislas Mettra....Hmmmm

I wonder if he has a facebook account, maybe some harmless trolling would be in order....

I imagine Dungeon Defender devs were surprised that PC gamers bought 4 times the copies that xbox gamers did (200k vs 50k) even with piracy.

It would be easy enough for devs like this to do a kickstarter project, one where people commit to pre-orders, but don't get charged if the funding level is not reached. They could set the funding level at a point where they are breaking even, and then every other sale besides the pre-orders is profit.

That way, if there's NOT enough interest, no customers are out any money , and the devs aren't out any resources spent porting the game.

But no, this makes too much sense compared to just spouting off "PIRACY PC GAMING IS DEAD."

Kajetan wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 07:56:

Prez wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 06:50:
The myth that the two groups are mutually exclusive of one another really needs to die.

But it's a convenient myth. It makes good "bad guys". No need for self criticism, no need for overhauling a business model, no need for telling the truth and admitting errors. Just blame teh pirates!

Spot on.

Kajetan wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 07:56:

Prez wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 06:50:
The myth that the two groups are mutually exclusive of one another really needs to die.

But it's a convenient myth. It makes good "bad guys". No need for self criticism, no need for overhauling a business model, no need for telling the truth and admitting errors. Just blame teh pirates!

Well said.

Prez wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 06:50:
The myth that the two groups are mutually exclusive of one another really needs to die.

But it's a convenient myth. It makes good "bad guys". No need for self criticism, no need for overhauling a business model, no need for telling the truth and admitting errors. Just blame teh pirates!

Kajetan wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 06:49:
It isnt a marketing or PR idea. Its just a Creative Director of a game project, who has no clue about sales, revenue and the changes of digital distribution.

Giving an interview is PR, which relates to marketing. There should be a policy - either at the developer or publisher level - that stipulates what is and is not allowed to be said. The biggest problem here is that the game was previously announced for PC. My guess is that the game is a disaster (pun intended) and they're trying to minimise their losses. Pissing off PC gamers is probably just what this guy does for shits and giggles.

Hey - their business, their choice. I'm always interested in games like this and I was hoping for a PC release, but if they don't want to release on PC, that's fine (Even if their stated reason is BS). There are plenty of other devs that aren't so short-sighted - I'll give them my business. The thing that tweaks me a bit is when he says "so few people are PAYING for PC games", as if there isn't tangible and significant crossover between pirates and customers. The myth that the two groups are mutually exclusive of one another really needs to die.

This comment was edited on Nov 24, 2011, 07:02.