Avalanche Studios co-founder Christofer Sundberg has voiced disapproval for publishers who ignore the PC because of piracy, claiming that they are merely surrendering rather than dealing with a problem and trying to find ways around it.
"Avoiding a platform because of piracy rather than attacking the problem is just giving in," explains Sundberg, "so I’d recommend finding smart solutions to allow players the freedom needed to play our games full out and the developers and publishers getting their return of investment."
That said, Sundberg said that a PC version should be skipped if the game is designed primarily for consoles: "If the game is primarily a console game, we always recommend the publisher to avoid a PC SKU as PC gamers are PC gamers and console gamers are console gamers."
Sundberg has a point. Avoiding PCs because of piracy is silly, especially with platforms like Steam doing a good job already of combating the issue. Of course, you could go too far in dealing with the problem, like Ubisoft and EA have done. It's always going to be a tricky situation, one that publishers likely won't ever bother dealing with in a creative way.
Avalanche: Skipping PC “because of piracy” is “just giving in” [VG247]
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Contest:
10:00 AM on 03.25.2010
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Nothing stopping you making a PC only game, made for PC you bellend
LIKE A BOSS
Oh wait thats Sandburg not Sundberg...my bad.
Many people aren't going to feel bad if a billion dollar company gets ripped off a little here or there, but if PC gaming becomes a thing of the past, there will be a lot of anger directed at pirates.
And then, when we do get a version of a game (e.g. Mirror's Edge or Assassin's Creed 2), it's sometimes released a few months later and with some anti-piracy device. Whilst DRM doesn't really bother me (Steam, GfWL, that stuff doesn't annoy me).
I could go on some half-informed rant about being "second-class citizens" or something, but in truth I just want publishers/developers to stick a series out to the end and not to can versions near release, and to stop giving us poorly ported piles of arse (Alone in the Dark 5 is a great example).
Obviously there are exceptions to the rule: FPS and RTS, which will always have a home in the PC market even if they were console developed.
Anyway, thank you for your comments Mr. Sundberg.
"usually go bananas about PC piracy, yet get their heads right in their asses when it comes to 360 piracy, for example. "
Thank you. I was about to lose it with all of these people completely forgetting that Xbox games are pirated, generally, BEFORE a PC game is pirated. By that I mean a release group will copy and upload a game a lot of the times before a PC version is even uploaded. Certainly Xbox games are constantly pirated. Yet, for some reason nobody gives a shit.
You have people like ran24 telling people to "suck it up and buy a console", which is probably the worst possible advice you could give in this scenario. I bought consoles because I happen to want to buy a couple.. but to tell people to just give up on their platform of choice is beyond ridiculous. Get real.
@ MidnightOwl,
"Haylzorz, I'm pretty sure you've missed a lot of great games because of your decision."
I'm pretty sure she's (going by the avatar) been playing some fantastic games on the PC because of her decision. See what I did there? Hopefully you do.
Steam is not a solution because their games are still too expensive, one euro costs at best 3 times (one unit of money) from (a poor country), so there is no way people living in poor countries are going to pay $40 or more for a game which will cost them 150+ from their money. This is why piracy will not stop.
And they also come out with awesome games like Just Cause 2 (playing it right now) that work great on both PCs and consoles (well, maybe Just Cause 1 wasn't as great on PC).
It's rare to find a developer that fully backs up their philosophy with hard work and resources the way these guys do. Bravo.
I've bought several games I have pirated. I use it as a quality testbed, if I play it for free and hate it, I don't keep playing it. Some games I have pirated I have actually bought on more than one occasion. The big kicker isn't having restrictive DRM that prevents people from pirating, it is having a high enough quality product to make the pirates *want* to buy it.
nb4 OnLive
1) Smaller consumer base in so far as games are concerned
2) The average PC gamer is more 'tech savvy' in comparison to console players.
Ultimately, yeah, the Wii and 360 are pirated like crazy. But because of their larger consumer group and the lack of tech knowledge a large portion of consumer don't know how to get a hold of a pirated copy even though its about as easy as a few clicks of a mouse and some downloading time. Thus more sales on consoles and the publishers are willing to eat the loss for now.
It's not surprising though. If there's one thing that companies like it's less savvy consumers. They could come up with a system that is more secure, but that would take effort that they don't want to put in so long as there is a mass of people they can feed off of without going that extra mile. Ultimately its just easier to ignore the PC platform altogether, which sucks.
And PC gamers can like console games too, >_> "If the game is primarily a console game, we always recommend the publisher to avoid a PC SKU as PC gamers are PC gamers and console gamers are console gamers." DON'T AVOID THE PC PORT T_T
PC gaming and console gaming aren't mutually exclusive
The Xbox is just a conspiracy to defraud. with a 50% failure rate it is far beyond a lemon. Any game purchased for it is a fraud as you are being promised the right to play the game for your lifetime on a monopoly platform that has a lifetime average of 2 years - which is just plain old constructive theft.
If GM could convince consumers a car should only last 2 years, there wouldn't be a Japanese Auto Industry.
So in this instance I would argue it is technically impossible to be guilty of "piracy" regarding Xbox games - because even purchasing the game does not secure your rights to play the game, since the platform it self is a fraud.
You can't steal something that you can't purchase. Just giving money does not equal a purchase. For a sale to be binding and legal the buyer has to have rights. As it stands, you have no right to play the game in a monopoly system of manufactured obsolescence.
However, corporations also have a monopoly on Governments and Law. So I assure you you will be found guilty of piracy whether you are guilty or not.
Valve are committed PC developers and they are doing well. BioWare releases games for the PC and that has made them a profit.
I think many studios are just angry at pirates. They are obsessed with "beating them" and "destroying them", and while I understand that I think they are letting their emotions get in the way of logic. You have to understand that as nice as it would be to destroy piracy, such a goal is a deluded dream. They can't destroy piracy on consoles either. As long as there are computer programmers, there will be pirates. I'm not defending piracy, but like criminals and terrorists and drug dealers, pirates will always exist. They always have, they ALWAYS WILL.
Smart companies like Valve and BioWare focus on creating a really good game that makes people WANT to buy it. I could have pirated Mass Effect 2 days before it came out here in Australia. I didn't. Why? Because I LIKE BioWare. I WANT to support them. Same thing with Valve or, previously (pre-Bobby days) Infinity Ward.
Developers need to realize that silly tactics like what Ubisoft pulled with ACII will not work. However angry they are with Pirates, the technology to "beat them" doesn't exist yet and probably never will. In fact, the protection for ACII was broken within days.
They can either persist with nonsensical, counter-productive, infuriating, expensive and complex methods to try to "beat" or "destroy" piracy, or they can accept it as a problem that will never go away, and try to contain the situation and encourage people to buy a game first hand. Valve does this by fostering community spirit. BioWare does something similar, and has the Cerberus Network deal for free DLC. Infinity Ward had to do nothing other than craft a magnificent experience that MADE people want to buy it.
Piracy is bad, like drug dealers, gangs, crime and war. Not on the same level of course, but yes, Piracy is a problem and I don't blame a studio for feeling frustrated and angry at pirates for taking their money away from them. But they are going about it the entirely wrong way. They won't win this way. A new approach is required.
A: There is no demo
B: The demo was too short or sucked
C: No DRM (Before or after legit purchase)
D: No cash but want to play the game until they get money
E: Copy of game is not available in that area.
F: The game is no longer distributed and can't be bought.
I've rarely met anyone who downloads game simply because they are free that way. Remember when the movie industry died from people copying tapes or when the music industry died from people copying tapes, cd's, and downloading mp3s? It'll be just like that!
The arguments made by some of these companies is ridiculous. I remember when Crytek complained about how much Crysis was illegally downloaded. The game sold over TWO MILLION COPIES. They whined about how every download was a lost sell and how they know it was downloaded 10x more than it was bought. That means that company legitimately thought that Crysis would have sold TWENTY MILLION COPIES if it wasn't for pirates. The only games to sell more than 20 million copies were either included with consoles or included with some kind of accessory. The only exception to that is New Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo DS which sold about 21 million copies.