Ruffiana wrote on Aug 22, 2012, 12:53:

Beamer wrote on Aug 22, 2012, 10:46:

RailWizard wrote on Aug 22, 2012, 10:42:
Who's ass were those stats pulled out of? (edit:dammit beat me by 1 post! lol)

..and how does one pirate a F2P game?

Geez these guys are some whining babies. Blame everyone and everything but yourselves, that's right.

No one said anything about pirating f2p games...


I'd like to see one of these companies show how they get to these numbers. I'm guessing it's comparing trackers to sales, but even then it's probably more like 50% at the high end...

Number of copies sold / Number of copies downloaded illegally + sold. Not that difficutl to come up with the number. Keep in mind they're not saying these are 'lost sales', they're simply saying that of the people playing their game, only a small percentage has actually paid for it.

More to the point, this is the number they've determined for themselves to steer their business model. They've tried sans-DRM, they've tried draconian DRM, now they're shifting to free-to-play model because it's proven, is pretty much immune to piracy, and the percentage of people playing and paying is roughly the same as it is now...except there's more of an opportunity for a constant revenue stream.

I've been saying this for years, this is the way the entire game industry is headed. Like it or not, a real problem or not, piracy is the 300lb elephant in the room that's forced this shift. I stopped caring about piracy/used-game trade a few years back because it had become moot. Game companies had tested the waters for a free-to-play/micro-transaction model and found it to be more secure and more lucrative. They don't give two fucks that it fundamentally changes how games or made or the scope of what's put out as a "game"...it makes money, and that's the way it's going to be.

So blame whoever you want, won't change anything. The number of holdouts making traditional, AAA 'boxed' games with complete experiences for $59.99 will continue to dwindle away like the coin-op games of old.