Piracy ruining PC, forcing it online

Not to fear, I'm not targeting PC's only as the story ends with this...

EDIT: I should include the way it starts off..

"Piracy is "ruining" PC games and "forcing" them online, Michael Pacther has told Eurogamer.

The same thing happened to a piracy-riddled Asia which, in response, invented free-to-play gaming.

"Yes, piracy is ruining PC gameplay, and yes, it is forcing PC games online," Pachter told Eurogamer, as part of a wider investigation into PC piracy and DRM. "This happened in China 15 years ago, and in Korea in the last decade, and it's happening in the West now."

ENDS with this...

"But the PC isn't the only platform suffering here.

"Piracy exists on almost every console to varying degrees," said Svensson. "The only one I would say is fairly inconsequential to our business, as much as we can tell, is PlayStation 3. Obviously the PlayStation 3 was opened up [jailbroken], and through a variety of systems, Sony has managed to largely put that genie back in the bottle, to the point where the scene is nowhere near as large as it is on other platforms."

Matt Ployhar told us piracy had grown on console over the past decade, and demand for modded consoles that will play illegal copies of games is, in less established gaming markets, "strong".

In May this year, Lionhead said second-hand console game sales were a bigger problem than PC piracy. Many baulked at such a claim. But Matt Ployhar agrees.

"Secondary sales have been devastating to the console markets and continue to be a key detractor," said Ployhar. " While it's great for the EBGames/GameStops of the world, very little of that money ever trickles back down to the games ISVs if at all.

"You add up secondary sales plus growing piracy in the console space, which is largely subsidised by the content, and you have a very real threat to the continued existence of consoles being able to survive."

So, which is worse, PC or Console ? :P

The full Story,

---

...http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-30-piracy-ruining-pc-forcing-it-online

Piracy isn't ruining anything. Publisher's overreaction to a relatively small problem is.

You cannot beat the pirates. Even if you load your game up with DRM, they will win. Either they'll pirate it and play it, or they won't by it at all. The best you can do is make sure the game is as accessible to as many people as possible. That's the best you can do. The second thing you can do is lower the price of your game accordingly. Some games will cost $60, ones with high demand and high production costs. I think we can all agree on that. Some games DON'T cost $60 yet are priced at $60. A pirate is more likely to pirate something they don't think is a good deal.

Even after all of that some people will pirate just to pirate. You can't beat these guys. They have no intention on buying your game and you're hurting your consumers by puting tons of pointless DRM on.

The used market will sell a lot of games. Most trades go to new games and reservations.

The cloud is coming which isn't all that different from Steam and it's DRM, you don't own it, policy. Get used to it.

I don't care what you say, second hand sales are just as bad as piracy. Technically you're paying for it, but your moneys not going to the right people, the ones who deserve it.

This is why DD is going to be the norm within a few years, and possibly stream services like Onlive(or whatever it's successor will be).

Piracy isn't ruining anything. Publisher's overreaction to a relatively small problem is.

You cannot beat the pirates. Even if you load your game up with DRM, they will win. Either they'll pirate it and play it, or they won't by it at all. The best you can do is make sure the game is as accessible to as many people as possible. That's the best you can do. The second thing you can do is lower the price of your game accordingly. Some games will cost $60, ones with high demand and high production costs. I think we can all agree on that. Some games DON'T cost $60 yet are priced at $60. A pirate is more likely to pirate something they don't think is a good deal.

Even after all of that some people will pirate just to pirate. You can't beat these guys. They have no intention on buying your game and you're hurting your consumers by puting tons of pointless DRM on.

Wasdie

"There's a huge chunk of people that no matter what you do, no matter what measures you put in place, even if you deny them access to the content - they will never be a paying customer."

Christian Svensson, Capcom and the PCGA"

I don't care what you say, second hand sales are just as bad as piracy. Technically you're paying for it, but your moneys not going to the right people, the ones who deserve it.

This is why DD is going to be the norm within a few years, and possibly stream services like Onlive(or whatever it's successor will be).

balfe1990

A totally absurd notion. Are we going to change our concept of ownership all because of video game developers who can't see the forest for the trees? How many reservations are plunked down with trade in money so a devleoper can say "we went gold!" before release? How much does Gamestop do to push their games? Why do they keep giving incentives to purchasing at Gamestop, then?

As for the PC, gamers showed how they will lay down and take it with Steam. Valve retains ownership of all your games. I dare you to make a 99cent charge on Steam, then call your CC company and dispute it. Valve will take your 100 games. We layed down for that and it set the stage for things to come. It's our own fault.

Not to fear, I'm not targeting PC's only as the story ends with this...

EDIT: I should include the way it starts off..

"Piracy is "ruining" PC games and "forcing" them online, Michael Pacther has told Eurogamer.

The same thing happened to a piracy-riddled Asia which, in response, invented free-to-play gaming.

"Yes, piracy is ruining PC gameplay, and yes, it is forcing PC games online," Pachter told Eurogamer, as part of a wider investigation into PC piracy and DRM. "This happened in China 15 years ago, and in Korea in the last decade, and it's happening in the West now."

...

SecretPolice

Luckily everything Pachter says is false, so piracy actually isn't ruining PC games at all.

[QUOTE="SecretPolice"]

Not to fear, I'm not targeting PC's only as the story ends with this...

EDIT: I should include the way it starts off..

"Piracy is "ruining" PC games and "forcing" them online, Michael Pacther has told Eurogamer.

The same thing happened to a piracy-riddled Asia which, in response, invented free-to-play gaming.

"Yes, piracy is ruining PC gameplay, and yes, it is forcing PC games online," Pachter told Eurogamer, as part of a wider investigation into PC piracy and DRM. "This happened in China 15 years ago, and in Korea in the last decade, and it's happening in the West now."

...

peterw007

Luckily everything Pachter says is false, so piracy actually isn't ruining PC games at all.

I don't know you can suggest this when all it takes is for developers to believe it's true. If they believe then it has an impact.

Do what the No Time to Explain devs did and release a "pirate" version to torrent sites, in which all the characters are actually pirates. It boosted the sales of the game and they got a ton of feedback from the pirating community.

Is this in response to you being sad you dont have a current rig? :D BF3 MP looks stunning in HD btw. :P On topic, wasdie and the article is right, no matter what you do, some people will always pirate it. Try not to punish the people who are buying games with intrusive DRM.Heil68

How did CDProjekt make out with The Witcher 2? They're the best out there now. They know it's none sense to try and control what happens to every copy of your game. They focus on good games and are anti-DRM. I hope The Witcher 2 sold like it deserved to. An amazing game and a developer that treats it's customers with respect.

[QUOTE="Heil68"]Is this in response to you being sad you dont have a current rig? :D BF3 MP looks stunning in HD btw. :P On topic, wasdie and the article is right, no matter what you do, some people will always pirate it. Try not to punish the people who are buying games with intrusive DRM.SecretPolice

How did CDProjekt make out with The Witcher 2? They're the best out there now. They know it's none sense to try and control what happens to every copy of your game. They focus on good games and are anti-DRM. I hope The Witcher 2 sold like it deserved to. An amazing game and a developer that treats it's customers with respect.

Kiyobear

It was close to a million for the first half of 2011 ( Link). Not bad, considering it was released in May.

[QUOTE="SecretPolice"]

[QUOTE="Heil68"]Is this in response to you being sad you dont have a current rig? :D BF3 MP looks stunning in HD btw. :P On topic, wasdie and the article is right, no matter what you do, some people will always pirate it. Try not to punish the people who are buying games with intrusive DRM.Heil68

OT, is it back to cartride tech somday because of this ? :lol:

lol, Patcher If someone makes up enough s***, they are bound to be right once in a while. Piracy is an industry-wide problem that effects all platforms relatively equally (it is only talked about more on PC because that can be tracked). The only way to "stop" it is to ignore it, and keep making games people want to spend their money on. Not treating them like criminals.foxhound_fox

Or move to the cloud. Which I don't know, maybe people will hack into the cloud. Ten years from now we will stream our games and kids won't think anything of it, and neither will we.

[QUOTE="Kiyobear"]

How did CDProjekt make out with The Witcher 2? They're the best out there now. They know it's none sense to try and control what happens to every copy of your game. They focus on good games and are anti-DRM. I hope The Witcher 2 sold like it deserved to. An amazing game and a developer that treats it's customers with respect.

lundy86_4

It was close to a million for the first half of 2011 ( Link). Not bad, considering it was released in May.

The bit about the DD sales was interesting. It was the only PC game in years I purchased at the store. I went to get it because I stopped buying off Steam but when I got home and realized what an amazing package it was I couldn't believe it. It was a throw back to the old days of buying games. Too bad I think it won't happen again.

I dont see much piracy on xbox 360 either, with Gears 3 selling 3 million copies in a few days

The bit about the DD sales was interesting. It was the only PC game in years I purchased at the store. I went to get it because I stopped buying off Steam but when I got home and realized what an amazing package it was I couldn't believe it. It was a throw back to the old days of buying games. Too bad I think it won't happen again.

Kiyobear

It was a really good hard copy release apparently. I got the DD version, which is nice, but the hard copy would've been cool :P

I dont see much piracy on xbox 360 either, with Gears 3 selling 3 million copies in a few days

loosingENDS

Not seeing something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It's definitely not as harming, but like a few individuals brought up, combined with used sales it's an issue.

PC Gaming is moving online because the overall shift in anything related to PC is going towards cloud based.

Piracy isn't ruining anything. Publisher's overreaction to a relatively small problem is.

You cannot beat the pirates. Even if you load your game up with DRM, they will win. Either they'll pirate it and play it, or they won't by it at all. The best you can do is make sure the game is as accessible to as many people as possible. That's the best you can do. The second thing you can do is lower the price of your game accordingly. Some games will cost $60, ones with high demand and high production costs. I think we can all agree on that. Some games DON'T cost $60 yet are priced at $60. A pirate is more likely to pirate something they don't think is a good deal.

Even after all of that some people will pirate just to pirate. You can't beat these guys. They have no intention on buying your game and you're hurting your consumers by puting tons of pointless DRM on.

Wasdie

Witcher 2, Single player only, hardcore RPG aimed at niche crowd, no marketing, only runs on highend PC's (all PC gamers with high end rigs know how to pirate), most importantly, it had no DRM, sold 1mil copies in 4 months

everyone said Russian video game market was dead, because they were all pirates, Russia is now Steams 3rd biggest market

lol piracy, greedy publishers just being greedy, move along people

[QUOTE="Heil68"][QUOTE="SecretPolice"] Some day I may :shock: you and buy me that monster of a gaming PC just to spite you and if so, I'll tease you by telling you how much saweeter BF3 looks and plays on mah PC. :twisted: :P

SecretPolice

OT, is it back to cartride tech somday because of this ? :lol:

I love how misleading the title is when the guys talking about big piracy on consoles also... Oh well... AzatiS

Oh well. :P

I don't care what you say, second hand sales are just as bad as piracy.

balfe1990

Piracy on consoles plus used games sales is more damaging than piracy on pc.

Piracy on consoles plus used games sales is more damaging than piracy on pc.

supdotcom

The data doesn't back that up.

Michael Patcher? The one who said RTSs are turned based and single-player? :lol:

[QUOTE="supdotcom"]

Piracy on consoles plus used games sales is more damaging than piracy on pc.

Kiyobear

The data doesn't back that up.

I hate it when they get people like ubisoft and a bunch of other developers/publishers who sell us crappy console ports ask them on what they feel about piracy.

[QUOTE="Kiyobear"]

[QUOTE="supdotcom"]

Piracy on consoles plus used games sales is more damaging than piracy on pc.

RyuRanVII

The data doesn't back that up.

''The same thing happened to a piracy-riddled Asia which, in response, invented free-to-play gaming.''

LOL 100% bullcrap...

All F2P games are online games, they dont offer a single player portion.
In theory these games can be pirated but considering that these games are only online piracy is alot less common.
The pirates that do go online often play on private servers, with just a few players, always behind updated, always full of hacks. I'm convinced that this actually leads to buying the actual product in the end.
Catching pirates on actual servers is a different matter but that is MUCH MUCH MUCH harder to crack.

"Yes, piracy is ruining PC gameplay, and yes, it is forcing PC games online," Pachter told Eurogamer, as part of a wider investigation into PC piracy and DRM. "This happened in China 15 years ago, and in Korea in the last decade, and it's happening in the West now."

What is this link between piracy and gameplay? How does releasing console garbage benefit the actual players and punish pirates?

And what happend in China 15 years ago? Massive piracy? wtf? how?
Both gaming and internet were far less common back then.

Seriously this is going way too far, how does he dare...

Meanwhile, RAGE just hit torrent sites ....FOR CONSOLES!

Which makes no sense. Selling a game new once is better than someone stealing it.KC_Hokie

I suppose in one instance people are willing to pay for the game and in the other the guy isn't willing. Which is why used games are worse to them. When a pirate steals something publishers actually lose nothing since, unless he stole the disc itself there was nothing actually taken away from the publisher. With used games however they know that they person was willing to put money out for the game so they considered it a loss sale or opportunity I suppose.

[QUOTE="balfe1990"]

I don't care what you say, second hand sales are just as bad as piracy.

Lto_thaG

Or you could just buy new...

Piracy isn't a problem for pirates.

Everytime some generic FPS underperforms sales wise the dev blames pirates. How much you wanna bet when rage flops they'll blame pirates, which will only be true for the PC version.

Piracy isn't a problem for pirates.

Everytime some generic FPS underperforms sales wise the dev blames pirates. How much you wanna bet when rage flops they'll blame pirates, which will only be true for the PC version.

Pray_to_me

Yes, as piracy does not exist on consoles... Oh wait!

Piracy is an issue, but the larger issue comes from developers/publishers seeing them as customers in the first place. Does this mean no pirate can become a customer? Nope. That would be ridiculous. However, developers do need to find the price point at which you can turn a pirate into a potential customer.

No Time to Explain devs released a "pirate" version of their own game to torrent sites, and due to the humour (the characters were dressed as pirates) it was a huge promotion for them, and they are quoted as saying that many of the pirates actually went on to purchase the legitimate version.

[QUOTE="Lto_thaG"]

[QUOTE="balfe1990"]

I don't care what you say, second hand sales are just as bad as piracy.

balfe1990

Or you could just buy new...

[QUOTE="balfe1990"]

[QUOTE="Lto_thaG"]
This is so stupid.I might as well download and stop spending money on used games if it's just the same.

Lto_thaG

Or you could just buy new...

You are missing the point. It's not as bad as piracy but used game sales do hurt developers. It's like 1 copy of the game gets sold where someone who buys the used copy is paying money to the original buyer. Developers never get that money.

[QUOTE="Lto_thaG"]

[QUOTE="balfe1990"]

Or you could just buy new...

harshv82

You are missing the point. It's not as bad as piracy but used game sales do hurt developers. It's like 1 copy of the game gets sold where someone who buys the used copy is paying money to the original buyer. Developers never get that money.

piracy is a real problem but blaming used game sale are ridiculous , every product can be resale ,imagine if GM blame sale of used cars yeah its make no sense.

Piracy is an issue on both consoles and the PC (well except the PS3), but the bigger issue imo is used game sales. A large portion of the pirates and sales lost to piracy are well sales that never would have happened. Most of the time, if a pirate cannot pirate a certain game, they will never buy that game anyway, and well piracy is technically not a lost sale given that the person who pirated would never buy the product in the first place. On the other hand, with the used game market, you have maybe 5 people buying the same exact copy, except the money goes to the dev only once, while the other 4 times it goes to Gamestop. In this case, the 4 lost sales are actually lost sales given that these are people who were willing and able to pay for a game. Due to the used games market, a lot of devs dont see the returns for the hard work.

piracy is a real problem but blaming used game sale are ridiculous , every product can be resale ,imagine if GM blame sale of used cars yeah its make no sense.

legol1

It's pointless for them to keep wasting so much time fighting piracy. Even always-on BS DRM will be hacked. They should literally stop fighting it and focus on making a game worth owning instead of ****ing about it. Make a game worth buying and people will pay for it.