THQ Director Blames Piracy for Iron Lore Closure [Mar 03, 2008, 10:06 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
GamesIndustry.biz reports on a post on the
Quarter
To Three Forums by THQ director of creative management Michael Fitch venting
his frustrations with the state of PC gaming following the closure of Iron Lore
Entertainment (story). The lengthy post outlines concerns about
rampant piracy, how Titan Quest's reputation suffered when pirates reported
crashes (which were caused by failure to properly crack the game's DRM),
complaints about hardware vendors creating compatibility issues, stupid users
and bad reviewers. He concludes trying to look at the bright side: "Alright, I'm
done. Making PC products is not all fun and games. It's an uphill slog,
definitely. I'm a lifelong PC gamer, and hope to continue to work on PC games in
the future, but man, they sure don't make it easy."
By this logic, high budget, PC exclusive "hard core" oriented titles (and by this I only mean no Sims or Barbie) should do noticeably better on PC than the multiplatform games do.
When was the last time there was a high budget, PC exclusive hardcore game? Crysis? I hardly consider that hardcore. It had regenerating health, was a breeze on Delta difficulty and only lasted ten hours. Sins of a Solar Empire is a hardcore game but it isn't exactly high-budget.
As for Bioshock and CoD4, I don't know how well those sold on the PC but since they were multiplatform, they got a hell of a lot more marketing than any PC-exclusive would ever get. Orange Box was multiplatform too but still sold better on the PC because it was actually designed for PC gamers unlike every other multiplatform title.
And yes, we know that none of these arguments are going to change anything. Publishers believe what they want to believe. That doesn't mean we can't stop criticizing them for it.
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