Numinar wrote on Mar 5, 2012, 13:11:
Rah rah rah evil xbox pirates! They got it a week early, so what.
I wager the number of sales is lower on PC, and the percentage of pirates vs buyers is higher for these big release heavily marketed games. This is why developers whinge about the PC. Less money, more making shit for cunts who wont pay for it. Don't act all hard done by and holier than thou with your "And they say PC gamers are the worst!" Business. We kind of are.
I'm sure there are plenty of dudes here who have been a bit short on funds one week, not quite sure if that bug ridden euro release is worth it, or have the wife complaining about all the money going to steam on the credit card invoice. A quick torrent download whilst you are eating lunch and you are probably up and running faster than steam or EB could manage without endangering steak night.
Casual piracy is rampant on PC. I imagine it's is partaken by the majority of "Enthusiasts" like us on some level. Where as a committed Modchipper is beyond redemption, he is probably a significant minority within the console userbase that does not cause the kind of headache the pandemic PC ISO release disease does for the beancounters at your favorite devloper inc.
The number of sales is lower on PC because the PC audience is smaller...period. That won't change even if you could 100% stamp out piracy. I know its hard for people to accept, but lower profits due to a smaller audience is the only thing that drove publishers away from the PC.
Piracy or not...we're pickier buyers than the console crowd who will just eat up whatever publishers tell them is cool. You can't make the same amount of money on PC that you can on console without a
damn good exceptional game.
I'm sure that Skyrim sold very well on PC, but those sales alone probably would not justify the cost of making the game. And I don't think that's due to piracy...its just the size of the market at work.
The big publishers are interested in AAA blockbusters and not much else. The PC market is extremely diverse with a lot of genres that don't work well on console.
Piracy is there and it's going nowhere. Games can still be successful on the PC. Indie devs and smaller developers and publishers have been proving that for a while now. Hell, even Bioware said that Mass Effect 1 and 2 sold very well on PC, as did Dragon Age Origins.
Piracy is the quick and convenient smokescreen that the industry uses to justify their focus on consoles and their excuse when a game that is sub-par doesn't sell well.