THQ Exec Rails on PC Pirates, Hardware Makers, You

290
Prompted by the closure of Titan Quest developer Iron Lore last week, THQ creative director Michael Fitch ranted on the state of PC gaming and rampant piracy in a post on the Quarter to Three forums

"The research I've seen pegs the piracy rate at between 70-85% on PC in the US, 90%+ in Europe, off the charts in Asia," Fitch wrote. "I didn't believe it 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."

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward recently expressed similar dismay at the high levels of piracy for the PC version of its popular first-person shooter.

Fitch explained that piracy doesn't just harm sales—Titan Quest took a big hit in word of mouth when pirated copies of the game crashed after various failed security checks, prompting a negative response by those who had illegally acquired the game. "A lot of people are talking about how it crashes right when you come out of the first cave," Fitch wrote. "Yeah, that's right. There was a security check there."

But piracy wasn't the only thorn in Fitch's side; the developer claims that hardware vendors make PC game developers' jobs a great deal harder, too. Everything from hardware and software conflicts to simple issues like fragmented drives or spyware, Fitch said, are inevitably blamed on the software developers by consumers.

"Put together consumers who want the cheapest equipment possible with the best performance, manufacturers who don't give a shit what happens to their equipment once they ship it... But, it's always the game's fault when something doesn't work."

There are few better examples of the 'it can't possibly be my fault' culture in the west than gaming forums," he added.

Though some development studios have claimed that making a leap to multiplatform development is the only way to offset loss brought on by piracy, not all developers have had such sour luck. Stardock and Ironclad Games recently announced that their PC strategy title Sins of a Solar Empire—which features no copy protection whatsoever—sold over 100,000 copies in less than a month after release.

Filed Under
From The Chatty
  • reply
    March 3, 2008 3:45 PM

    I like that he rails on the forum culture and the 'it can't possibly be my fault' quote but fails to admit maybe people just don't want to buy his game.

    • reply
      March 3, 2008 3:58 PM

      i think if all games had steam access encryption/decryption required to install the game. you would see pc games selling alot more then console games.

      • reply
        March 3, 2008 4:19 PM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          March 3, 2008 4:21 PM

          hahah ok yes. And its why developers are pushing publishers to goto this way. its a major reason why valve released steam. It's why valve created the 'steamworks' program. You can say haha no, but half life and all its iterations has sold almost as much as the most popular mario games.

      • reply
        March 3, 2008 4:21 PM

        I think you're wrong. ;)

        • reply
          March 3, 2008 4:31 PM

          I think I'm not. I think you know I'm not. I think there are far more direct x 8-dx9 capable pc's then there are ps3's and 360s put together, I think WoW should tell you i'm not. I think even denying the fact that the market depth of pc gaming is not as vast as console gaming is silly. Do we really want to get into statistical data? On a overall sales figure pc gaming would definatly outsell consoles.

          Just because certain publishers and developers are not creating actual new games. Rather they are rehashing old concepts. Iterating on previous design doctrines and making 'what we know sells'. This does in no way mean that pc gaming can no longer out sell consoles. Go ahead and create a revolutionary experiance like, half life 1, like quake 1, like duke. Create somthing new thats different from everything else. Stop creating rehashes, were in our late 20s and early to mid 30s now were tired of playing the same quake/doom/half-life/action quake/ counter-strike/ need for speed/ techmo bowl games with enw art and revolutionary graphics.

          We want NEW experiances. Create those and i guarentee you , your going to sell as much as any blockbuster console game. So long as it requires auth to play and auth to decrypt/install.

Hello, Meet Lola