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."
Unfortunately Company of Heroes turned out to be the most pirated game in THQ history (based on some odd research methods we used for this).
I'm assuming you can't comment on the research method?
I'd feel confident hazzarding a guess, however, that "most pirated" refers to raw numbers, not a percentage. The reality is, Company of Heroes was a damn good game - and was damn popular to boot. That popularity is going to translate into more sales AND more piracy. But I doubt the percentage of piracy was higher for it than any other random game (allowing for normal deviance).
I see on a daily basis the disdain that executives have for PC product because it's not as easy as the consoles. It's not as easy to predict, it's not as easy to market, it's not as easy to sell. We struggle every day to make sure that the PC is well represented at THQ, and it's getting harder and harder every day, and piracy is a big reason why.
Sorry, I don't buy that. I don't buy that piracy makes it harder to market a game. I don't buy that piracy makes it harder to predict a game's success. I don't buy that piracy makes it more difficult for the PC than the console. As I've pointed out repeatedly in this thread, piracy is rampant on consoles. The only reason this doesn't affect the console market as much as the PC market is because the market is bigger. Ok, two reasons - the console market allows for inexpensive game rentals, providing a more convenient/cost-effective way to play a game. But it's not because there's no piracy for consoles.
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