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."
I used to work for lionhead and now I run my own mini-games company, so I have some perspective on this.
Perspective or bias?
Lionhead used to be PC-centric too. You don't think they notice all those Black and White torrents? Any surprise that Fable was a console title first?
They noticed the Black and White torrents but missed all the Fable torrents (and I'm talking the Xbox release, not PC). Fable was available and widely downloaded on the console, just like the PC. So obviously it's not some sort of mythical "no piracy" that's caused them to focus on the console. But it sure does make a good scapegoat, doesn't it?
People buy £250,000 houses on the basis of walking around them for an hour
Yes, they are called "idiots". Anyone with an ounce of sense hires a professional to check the house out to ensure they don't get any nasty surprises when they buy it.
Unless any of you have worked for 2 years on something working long hours and putting tons of effort in, just to see some 9yo git dsitruibuting it for free, you really have no idea how that feels, or the real impact it has.
Been there, done that. Yes, I've had my software pirated pretty widely - they weren't games, but in this case, I hardly think that's relevant. Does it suck? Absolutely. Do I wish every one of them paid for it? Again, absolutely. Do I sit up nights stressing about it? Nope. I look at it much like I look at taxes. Both are going to cost me money and both are inevitable. And I certainly don't get bent out of shape about paying taxes (although some people certainly do).
I'm not trying to belittle your work, yes, it totally sucks to see "warez kiddies" trading your software. But don't try and turn that fact into some sort of lame justification for business decisions that aren't related. Despite your claim, there is plenty of piracy for consoles these days. Companies aren't flocking to consoles for the mythical "no piracy", they are flocking because the market is so much larger. And they shouldn't pretend otherwise.
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