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'm noticing a lot of people blaming everything on the developers.
Here's what I have to say about it...
If you don't like it, don't buy it, don't pirate/steal it, because you don't agree with it, this is a self solving problem.
I kind of started the "developer blame" early in this thread. But you are misunderstanding what the blame is about.
I don't pirate games.
But THEY are (or rather Todd is) blaming everything on piracy (as far as needing to go multi-platform)... and not looking at themselves as far as why PC gaming is REALLY dieing.
The things I mentioned before are:
~The hours of gameplay in a game are getting shorter and shorter.
~The bugs are getting greater and more game-breaking.
~The gameplay is getting to be the same shit with different paint.
~The constant barrage of new engines that force hardware upgrades is getting at a ridiculous pace.
Now, think about it. Is piracy really the root of "selling out" to consoles???
let's take it a step further...
~Consoles are cheaper than PCs.
~Consoles last about 5 years without having to upgrade.
~You can rent console games at just about any video store and find out whether you like them or not, before purchase. (Not some lame, buggy demo that doesn't show off near enough of a game in question).
~The ability to purchase used console games is much more penetrated in the market place than PC games.
Now with all that said... I think it's just plain ignorant of Todd (and like-minded developers that have posted in this thread) to blame everything on piracy.
If anything, as more people buy PC's... the legit purchase of games has gone up (well, maybe not in Asia)... while piracy has probably remained roughly the same ratio to legit purchasers (Again not counting Asia). With MS running around focusing on piracy... all the other dumb ass software developers are doing the same thing... instead of doing what they SHOULD be doing... making GOOD products.
GOOD products sell well, regardless of the piracy problem. Period. (As Parallax Abstraction pointed out Company of Heroes, Oblivion, and Galactic Civilizations II in post #55 that don't have copy protection). The more you fuck with combating piracy... the more you take away from developing a GOOD product. Also... the more intrusive you get with combating piracy... the more you piss off your legitimate customers.
Two things PC Game Developers need to do...
1. Focus on producing a good game instead of focusing on what pirates are doing.
2. Quit pushing the minimum requirements to play your game to where 80% of the potential market can't meet them. You're only slitting your own throats. Look at shitty ass Sims and Sims 2 sales to see what I mean.
This comment was edited on Mar 10, 21:23.
Get your games from GOG DAMMIT!
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