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."
Yet still people pirate my games.
What you must understand is that your games have no marketing, no hype, no exposure. They are 2D and have very simplistic graphics. Your games cater to a very, very small niche of the market. Do you honestly think people would buy them if piracy didn't exist? They wouldn't. You need to let go of your cynicism and look at the reasoning and logic that I and others in this board have presented.
As for the house thing, we are avoiding the minor issue of the hosue costing 10,000 times as much aren't we?
Aren't you avoiding the minor issue of everyone refuting your analogy and pointing out its flaws?
Do you get a full demo of an apple before you buy it? do you get to digest it first? What about a meal?
Another flawed analogy. There is no way to try food for free, unless you count those tiny samples they give out at CostCo. In addition, food is a lot easier to judge than games. You take the food, put it in your mouth, chew and swallow. If you like the taste, you buy more. If not, you don't buy it again. You don't exactly have to invest hours into tasting an apple.
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