PCGA on Piracy's Benefits [Feb 13, 2009, 02:05 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
The
PC Gaming Alliance Interview on Big Download talks with Randy Stude of Intel
and the PCGA about their new membership options, and progress of their various
committees looking at various aspects of PC gaming. His answer to a question
about the approach Valve and Stardock take to DRM and piracy yields an answer
with an unusual point-of-view from someone in his position:
If you ask both of the publishers that you mentioned here about the rate of piracy for their games you may find that one has rampant piracy and the other has almost none. The PC Gaming Industry's history is littered with examples of startups (including Stardock and Valve) that actually benefitted from wide spread piracy to grow a market for their future titles. Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating piracy... However, how would Quake, Doom, Starcraft, Counter-Strike, or Half-Life have been able to grow widespread brand recognition without a widespread network of gamers openly sharing these games. These titles (and many more) defined the industry. Personally, my first experience with a first person shooter was with Doom (back in the day) and I did not pay for it. Id Software turned the corner and has a very successful business built on the back of the early free/open source exchange of their games...
However, how would Quake, Doom, Starcraft, Counter-Strike, or Half-Life have been able to grow widespread brand recognition without a widespread network of gamers openly sharing these games.
Those games didn't become famous because of piracy. They are famous and incredibly successful because they were revolutionary. For example, people weren't hesistant to buy doom and needed to pirate it to make sure it was good, they knew it was good because they saw the absolutely awesome screenshots online or in the news or on the box. Or they played the shareware.
That future-paying-thief mentality is irrational. If a person steals a carton of ice cream from the grocery store and really enjoys the taste, they don't go back the next time and buy the ice cream-- they go back and steal it again!
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