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."
"What I don't understand is, if the console market is so huge (which we know it is), why are the console game prices higher than PC games? Wouldn't you expect these higher volumes would lead to lower prices?"
The industry would have you believe its the high development costs, high costs of media, and piracy. In most cases, those are half truths if not flat out lies.
The "HD era" games are at $60 a piece for the same reason Bethesda expects you to pay $5 for horse armor.
The high cost of buying new has led me to prefer used purchases over new. Obviously this is bad for the developer and in some cases (such as Test Drive Unlimited) I would have really liked supporting the company with my dollar, but why pay a $30 premium just to do that? Especially when half the cars advertised with the game must be purchased seperately on Marketplace.
The industry would have you believe its the high development costs, high costs of media, and piracy. In most cases, those are half truths if not flat out lies.
The "HD era" games are at $60 a piece for the same reason Bethesda expects you to pay $5 for horse armor.
The high cost of buying new has led me to prefer used purchases over new. Obviously this is bad for the developer and in some cases (such as Test Drive Unlimited) I would have really liked supporting the company with my dollar, but why pay a $30 premium just to do that? Especially when half the cars advertised with the game must be purchased seperately on Marketplace.
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