"PC game piracy is a serious problem and it - not DRM - is the single factor that is going to KILL PC gaming."

How many people people have you heard say they won't buy a game because it was pirated? How many people have you heard say they won't buy a game because of DRM? Is the industry losing more customers or gaining more through the use of DRM? You sound pretty sure. I hope you have more than anecdotes. Since they don't ADVERTISE the restriction of use that come with DRM on television and in ads, i have to think they realise DRM is not in the best interest of the individual customer. Word getting out about these restrictions PROBABLY isn't winning over any hearts and minds. It sure hasn't stopped the illegal downloading, that's for sure. 1,000,000 downloads of Spore indeed...

Guess how long that would take - assuming it ever happens if you are losing even 50% of your sales to piracy.

Speaking of numbers pulled out of asses and foolish assumptions...

Yes. ".001" was a number to illustrate a point but I call your assuption that "50%" (you're suggesting it's higher...) of sales are LOST due to piracy equally braindead, foolish, and without merit. I do belive it's impossible to prove intent except on a case by case basis and you're suggesting it's SO OBVIOUSLY even higher than 50% of sales that are lost to piracy.

(the number .001 was made up to illustrate CONSOLE GAME sales lost because the PC VERSION was pirated. Spore piracy numbers prove dick since that isn't a console release. Please don't tell me you mean the DS version, for the love of god...)

The mcdonalds analogy was intended to imply a concept of "intent" - which you seem to have a super human understanding of. So go ahead and come up with a better one or just simply explain how you KNOW FOR A FACT that more than 50% of sales are regularly LOST to piracy. That is, a person who downloaded the game WOULD HAVE BOUGHT IT. And please don't quote numbers of times Crysis or Spore was downloaded without actual PROOF that those numbers would have acutally BOUGHT THE GAME.

It is already a KNOWN fact that more and more triple-A games are coming out first on the console and then on the PC.

I don't even know how this "fact" is supposed to refute what I claimed about poor sales being related to things other than piracy. It's an argument for something, i think, just nothing that I said.

no matter HOW to slice and dice it, if piracy wasn't a problem in various mediums (music, movies, games) that DRM wouldn't even be an issue.

You arent that naive, I know you don't believe that. It has been admitted by people at the RIAA that various forms of copy protection and their hardline stance against copying music from a CD you own onto your ipod is intended to create NEW REVENUE streams, by selling you the content more than once, ie: ringtones, DRMed copy for your ipod AND a physical CD. It also serves to squash out the second hand market by not allowing you to resell your CD or DVD, forcing others to buy new store bought copies.

This comment was edited on Oct 9, 2008, 12:21.