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."
Okay, basic economic principle here: the reason why a pirate wouldn't have bought the game is because it's not worth $X dollars to the pirate that they are charging for in the stores. That's just a statement of fact.
Now the question is why isn't it worth it? Is it because he can play quite a few other pirated games at a much lower cost (download time) ? If he/she didn't have other pirated games to play, how many games would he/she have bought instead?
Fundamentally, piracy is reducing the value of all PC games, because they can be obtained for a much reduced price. And how do you measure this loss to developers? It's not just specific lost sales, but an overall devaluation of their product.
Sure, they might not buy that particular game that they pirated, but if there weren't pirated software to entertain them, they would have bought something.
Now the question is why isn't it worth it? Is it because he can play quite a few other pirated games at a much lower cost (download time) ? If he/she didn't have other pirated games to play, how many games would he/she have bought instead?
Fundamentally, piracy is reducing the value of all PC games, because they can be obtained for a much reduced price. And how do you measure this loss to developers? It's not just specific lost sales, but an overall devaluation of their product.
Sure, they might not buy that particular game that they pirated, but if there weren't pirated software to entertain them, they would have bought something.
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