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]
