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 don't know if this has been covered earlier or not, i can't be arsed to read 260 odd posts. But so far people have been saying "there's always a certain amount of risk when you buy things like cars, houses, dvds etc etc". Yeah true.
The big problem comes when you get to PC games. Why? You can't return them. Well at least all shops near me wont allow me to return them because of the whole piracy issue. Now with almost ALL other kinds of media, you can return the rpoduct and exchange it for something you actually want. That's not allowed for PC games.
So why the fuck should i shell out £30 for a PC game that turns out to be utter bollocks without the ability to return it for an exchange/refund? I gladly pay £45 or so for 360 games because i know i can trade them back in and get the next title i want cheaper. Now that's not to say i haven't just bought PC games, i have, and most of the games i bought were the stupidist purchases i've ever made.
I've downloaded some triple A titles, i wont deny that, but the fact is that if they were worth it, i'd buy them. I did it with Operation Flashpoint, Deus Ex, the Patrician series, FEAR and a couple other big titled games. Then again there have been some triple A titles i wish i hadnt bought. HL2, Doom 3, Imperial Glory and a couple others.
Not only that there's a couple i downloaded, that i never bought in the end because they were shit. Vietcong 1 and 2, Fable, C&C Generals and a couple of others. Now if i had payed for every single game that i had an interest in, i'd be down a couple thousand. If more games came out with more extensive demos, i'd torrent games less. It's pretty simple really.
A single playable level demo is pathetic. Give us a 4 or 5 level demo that gives a teaser for the main storyline and stops at such a place that you want to know what's happening next. Otherwise, i'll happily torrent the fucker and find out for myself.
The big problem comes when you get to PC games. Why? You can't return them. Well at least all shops near me wont allow me to return them because of the whole piracy issue. Now with almost ALL other kinds of media, you can return the rpoduct and exchange it for something you actually want. That's not allowed for PC games.
So why the fuck should i shell out £30 for a PC game that turns out to be utter bollocks without the ability to return it for an exchange/refund? I gladly pay £45 or so for 360 games because i know i can trade them back in and get the next title i want cheaper. Now that's not to say i haven't just bought PC games, i have, and most of the games i bought were the stupidist purchases i've ever made.
I've downloaded some triple A titles, i wont deny that, but the fact is that if they were worth it, i'd buy them. I did it with Operation Flashpoint, Deus Ex, the Patrician series, FEAR and a couple other big titled games. Then again there have been some triple A titles i wish i hadnt bought. HL2, Doom 3, Imperial Glory and a couple others.
Not only that there's a couple i downloaded, that i never bought in the end because they were shit. Vietcong 1 and 2, Fable, C&C Generals and a couple of others. Now if i had payed for every single game that i had an interest in, i'd be down a couple thousand. If more games came out with more extensive demos, i'd torrent games less. It's pretty simple really.
A single playable level demo is pathetic. Give us a 4 or 5 level demo that gives a teaser for the main storyline and stops at such a place that you want to know what's happening next. Otherwise, i'll happily torrent the fucker and find out for myself.
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