General Discussion

I was quite shocked when I read this. According to this article, Piracy in gaming makes is around 80% in the US. In Europe, the number is 90% and in Asia it's completely off the charts.
it's no wonder that some of the smaller developing companies are struggling.

It's no wonder that Epic Games is dumping PC games for the greener pastures of console gaming: piracy rates for the U.S. market alone are hovering around 80%!

And beyond the U.S., the piracy picture becomes even larger and more menacing -- especially if you're an independent developer without "Madden-sized advertising budget," said THQ Director of Creative Management Michael Fitch, who laid out his case against piracy and hardware manufactures in an epic rant at the Quarter to Three forums.

In the post, Fitch attacked pirates, the PC software security model and everything in between. In Europe, he said, piracy rates approach 90%. In Asia, those figures are "off the charts."

"I didn't believe [the data] at first. It seemed way too high. Then I saw that Bioshock was selling 5 to 1 on console vs. PC. And Call of Duty 4 was selling 10 to 1. These are hardcore games, shooters, classic PC audience stuff. Given the difference in install base, I can't believe that there's that big of a difference in who played these games, but I guess there can be in who actually payed for them," Fitch said.

These are hard numbers for any PC developer to ignore, and from the tone of Fitch's message board rant the other day, things are likely to get much worse before they get better. Or should that be "if" they get better?

www.gamepro.com/news.cfm

Originally posted by Gameloading

I was quite shocked when I read this. According to this article, Piracy in gaming makes is around 80% in the US. In Europe, the number is 90% and in Asia it's completely off the charts.
it's no wonder that some of the smaller developing companies are struggling.

 

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It's no wonder that Epic Games is dumping PC games for the greener pastures of console gaming: piracy rates for the U.S. market alone are hovering around 80%!

And beyond the U.S., the piracy picture becomes even larger and more menacing -- especially if you're an independent developer without "Madden-sized advertising budget," said THQ Director of Creative Management Michael Fitch, who laid out his case against piracy and hardware manufactures in an epic rant at the Quarter to Three forums.

In the post, Fitch attacked pirates, the PC software security model and everything in between. In Europe, he said, piracy rates approach 90%. In Asia, those figures are "off the charts."

"I didn't believe [the data] at first. It seemed way too high. Then I saw that Bioshock was selling 5 to 1 on console vs. PC. And Call of Duty 4 was selling 10 to 1. These are hardcore games, shooters, classic PC audience stuff. Given the difference in install base, I can't believe that there's that big of a difference in who played these games, but I guess there can be in who actually payed for them," Fitch said.

These are hard numbers for any PC developer to ignore, and from the tone of Fitch's message board rant the other day, things are likely to get much worse before they get better. Or should that be "if" they get better?

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www.gamepro.com/news.cfm

 

 

I think smaller development companies are more likely to survive piracy than bigger publishers.

Why? Because big publishers are... Big. They sustain all this infrastructure simply to sell games, which is absurd.

If you want to know how it needs to be done look at Paradox Interactive and Stardock.

And even Steam and Blizzard. They're proving money can be made.

Exactly. The whole distribution system is a joke. The idea of binding data to a psychical token and presenting it as a product was absurd from the start. Online distribution platforms (Steam, etc) and subscribtion or microtransaction based products are the logical evolution. Consoles survive yet due to their limited options and focus so far.

It's always surprising to see just how much scum is out there

Software companies need to abandon hard copies.  Instead implement a digital delivery system combined with advertising for your products (or other products) while the download is going.  Then reduce the cost of your software by 10-15 dollars and we will see a boon in Computer game sales.  Selling a PC game for $35-40 and delivering it digitally while raking in some advertising dollars will cause revenue to sky rocket for PC game companies. 

Do this and use an online activation similar to MMO games and we will see a whole lot less Piracy.

Originally posted by n25philly

It's always surprising to see just how much scum is out there

Damn, I'm scum. That sucks.

omg... piracy is amazing lol... but i got UT3 for real.. woo hoo.... anyway... you know how to get rid of piracy, is simple, just make mmo games lol. ones that you need to create an account and connect to play and the database is on the game and done, no wait.. that wont work because the bandwidth of the net and people making emu servers.

And how are figuring out how much piracy is going on?  Is it because sales are down?

I for one have not pirated any games.  Nor have I purchased any games in the last few years.  I subscribe to the ones I like (MMO's).  And I play demos of other things.  Thats enough for for me to figure out that games are not improving and I'd rather play the ones I bought 10 years ago.  So maybe when trying to understand why sales are down, they should look in the mirror and consider the crap they are peddling these days.

Originally posted by Gameloading

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It's no wonder that Epic Games is dumping PC games for the greener pastures of console gaming: piracy rates for the U.S. market alone are hovering around 80%!

 

 

I am playing Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball on my comp right now.  :)

I do hope that companies aren't so naive as to think that i can't pirate their games just because they are made for a console.

edit: No wait, scratch that. I DO hope companies are that naive.