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."
If you have a valid reason such as it was not as agreed between you and themThat is the problem in a nutshell. The video game industry's terms of purchase via its complicated EULA's are far too restrictive, broad, deceiving, and unconscionable. The purveyors of other types of media such as books, music, and movies which are sold to consumers get no such EULA's to hide behind. The consumer's rights in the ownership and use of those products are defined solely by copyright and other laws. Software sold to consumers including video games should be no different. There should be a standard enshrined in law which determines consumers rights and use of such products and no company should be allowed to circumvent it with an additional license for its own products. While specific license agreements are justified for customized software designed for use by businesses, they should not be allowed for products designed for mass consumption by consumers especially for entertainment products.
If a company churns through customers eventually it will disappearThe problem is that does nothing to compensate those who have already lost. Companies can't be allowed to keep the money in the first place regardless of whether they shutdown later.
This comment was edited on Mar 11, 11:28.
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