The blame of PC-pirating doesnt make any sense.

Pirating existed since NES days. Thefts existed since the beginning of time in all industries.

Developers should just take it as a cost of doing business, just like:
-banks have to accept some defaults on mortgages
-hospital have to accept some non-payments
-retail stores have to accept some goods to be stolen

Those % are all accounted for into their P&L budgeting.

All the other industries have accepted that businesses does indeed work with the principle of a free market. The better your product/service is, the less your losses.

What, the gaming industry does not have to accept how the free market works?
They want to make money on crappy games?

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Originally Posted by richardginn

Did it make a profit though???

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I read somewhere that it had a very low production cost.

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Originally Posted by Kamakazie

This is a very shaky subject, but I definitely think its worth discussing.

Software piracy has been around for as long as software has existed and while it definitely is a problem, I believe companies have begun using it as a scapegoat for poor sales numbers, ignoring many other influential factors. In the case of Spore, you had a draconian and even offensive protection system in place, with Crysis it was extremely steep system requirements. Both of these games had a very high budget that the publishers hoped to make back in sales - surprise, the game doesn't do too well and you don't want to blame this expensive copy protection scheme or that nobody wants to play your game if it doesn't look as intended or if your game is simply crap. Nope, its time to point fingers and make excuses.

So the big companies are complaining and blaming PCs, saying consoles are the answer, but even consoles aren't safe either, piracy is rampant on all systems except the PS3 currently. I'm sure its not as bad as on PC, but its not as if this is some haven from illegal activities. So why consoles? When developing for a console there is less overhead; no need to worry about different configurations, no need to implement copy protection. You know that if the game is running on one system, its going to be running exactly the same on the next system. And then there's the big factor that more people around the world game on consoles than PC, and that these console gamers are willing to spend $60 on their games instead of $50 as is the case with PC.

So I truly think that all of this talk about piracy lately is just mass-scale QQs. Valve, Stardock, Relic and several others have proven that developing for the PC is not a risky maneuver as long as your game is awesome enough for people to buy and that the budget is reasonable enough to warrant a profit. Hell, Sins of a Solar Empire probably made back its cost in profit within the first month of release (and hey, no copy protection).

So stop whining, companies. Either admit that you want to go develop for consoles because its easier and more profitable or start making games that people want to buy.

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QFT. I'd even go as far to see that modding on consoles is becoming even more rampent and easier then PCs. We've already seen this on the 360, wii, DS, Xbox and PS2.

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5...tyoutp2.th.jpg

Also,





















STEEL BE WITH YOU

I remember when a guy in my high school was the first one to get the original Sony Playstation. Within a few months he had the thing modded and was playing import and CD-R burned games like anything. News spread around, and pretty much everyone I knew had a modded PS1. The same thing happened with the original Xbox too.

But anyways I myself am a PC gamer, but I have shifted some of my time to consoles now. Only because its fun to chill out on the couch and play on a big screen. The thing is that pirates always pirate games. Always have, always will. They will never buy games, so in essence its not really a lost sale. But I can see how it frustrate developers.

One thing lately though is how CliffyB keeps running his mouth at how great the 360 is, and how he is happy that he won't be releasing Gears 2 on PC. Well fine then, I mean I have no problem with you choosing not to pursue a PC version for your product. But blasting us and calling us pirates because we know how to build a PC is a slap in the face. Also, PC gamers are what made him today, if it wasn't for the success of the Unreal series on the PC, he would still be developing the next version of Jazz Jackrabbit or Jill of the Jungle.

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Originally Posted by mr_oh_so_ice

But blasting us and calling us pirates because we know how to build a PC is a slap in the face.

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Think of it this way:
Cliffy is essentially telling PC Gamers is smarter than he is and he admits defeat. But being the kid that he is, he is going to release the game for people of his intelligence.

I won't mention the pirates. I hope most of us believe that hard work should be rewarded. The issue here is does DRM stop piracy or does it prevent used games sales. Is it crippling the pc game market, or is just game companies blaming lost sales on poor games? Was sins a fluke or do consumers reward good work. Does DRM even work? I mean most of the drm games have been cracked, sins sold well without any drm. What would a rational person conclude?

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Originally Posted by Mindwarper

I won't mention the pirates. I hope most of us believe that hard work should be rewarded. The issue here is does DRM stop piracy or does it prevent used games sales. Is it crippling the pc game market, or is just game companies blaming lost sales on poor games? Was sins a fluke or do consumers reward good work. Does DRM even work? I mean most of the drm games have been cracked, sins sold well without any drm. What would a rational person conclude?

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I'm sure most of this was rhetorical, but...

DRM does not stop piracy, this is obvious. It doesn't prevent used game sales either, a cd key would do that. I'm not sure that its crippling the PC game market but it is definitely hurting it. Game companies are blaming piracy for lost sales on poor games; Sins is a perfect example of this - the game is freaking excellent and it sold very well and [apparently] made a solid profit.

A rational person would conclude that game companies are not being rational!

I think it's a combination of things. The slow adaption rate of Vista has put the market for Direct X10 titles in shambles, and consiquently hardware sales slow as well. That's probably the biggest single factor in the decline of PC games. But when a publisher blames piracy for not making a PC port it has a better ring to it than saying, the market for consoles is huge and I don't want to spent the time any money to make a PC game that only a handful of people can play. As long a games like Mass Effect keep coming out for the 360, I can't complain too much.

Mass Effect for PC was pretty much awesome as well.

The three install limit of Spore will curtail the used market. Steam charges 10$ to change accounts. I can sell my pc games used, unless they have drm or are account based. Sins is a great example. I wonder if EA is listening? How much does the drm cost to use for EA? I didn't work, so I hope they learn .

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Originally Posted by Kamakazie

I'm sure most of this was rhetorical, but...

DRM does not stop piracy, this is obvious. It doesn't prevent used game sales either, a cd key would do that. I'm not sure that its crippling the PC game market but it is definitely hurting it. Game companies are blaming piracy for lost sales on poor games; Sins is a perfect example of this - the game is freaking excellent and it sold very well and [apparently] made a solid profit.

A rational person would conclude that game companies are not being rational!

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You can't compare pirating now with pirating of the NES days. With broadband internet everywhere and the fact that any idiot off the street can torrent, it's certainly a bigger problem than it once was.

I'm a huge Steam fan. I love the way it works, how easy it is to buy, etc. It's an awesome system IMO.

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Originally Posted by vertices

You can't compare pirating now with pirating of the NES days. With broadband internet everywhere and the fact that any idiot off the street can torrent, it's certainly a bigger problem than it once was.

I'm a huge Steam fan. I love the way it works, how easy it is to buy, etc. It's an awesome system IMO.

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I know what you mean.. even though I've compared my early pirate days of video taping tv shows, taping songs off the radio to what goes on now. LOL, there really is no comparison. It's so much better now:D

I know it should be illegal (It isn't illegal where I live btw) especially when you can grab the entire Pink Floyd discography in one click but I still have mixed feelings. They keep changing the media, not only for music but for movies. I got a whole rack of classic Video Tape box sets and I don't even have a VCR anymore. I must have bought the Meat Loaf album as a record, then a tape (x2) then as a CD and then I downloaded it also.

In Canada it's still legal to download music, but it isnt legal to sell it.
I'm sure now that Mini-Bush has been re-elected, that'll be the first thing on his list, after attacking Iran , of course.

My problem with steam is charging full price for a digital download that has no packaging or manuals. It also charges to change accounts, so selling games is not fesable. But it is nice not to have a cd in the drive.

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Originally Posted by vertices

I'm a huge Steam fan. I love the way it works, how easy it is to buy, etc. It's an awesome system IMO.

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