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THQ Exec Rails on PC Pirates, Hardware Makers, You
by Aaron Linde, Mar 03, 2008 3:37pm PSTPrompted 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.
Comments
countless developers and publishers have said that piracy hurts the pc platform. countless developers and publishers have hard data to back up those claims. its not like they just make a crappy game that doesnt sell well and decide that it must be piracy. successful publishers and developers also say this is a problem.
certainly there are several other factors involved in the success or failure of a game on a particular platform. but there is no denying that piracy is huge, and that piracy is worst on the pc platform.
you name the developer or publisher, and chances are they have said piracy is a real issue for the pc. not just the guys with failed games. this is real and there is little doubt that pc gaming needs help. note the recent PCGA announcement.
yes, its obviously a stretch to say that if 85 out of every 100 unique users to start your game on their computer is a pirated copy that represents 85 lost sales. but to dismiss publishers and developers talking about piracy on the pc platform as a problem at this point is just baffling.
it is a problem. every major publisher and developer has hard stats on this stuff. something needs to change. the only point that can be argued is just how much money is lost because of piracy. but as the guy stated here, even a 5% shift is a HUGE difference.
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Also this is something I have not heard of but what are developers/publishers trying to get reduce it? Valve is using Steam, Blizzard has the MMO cash cow, and Stardock seems to target niche markets with good prices, but it seems all of the other developers are using identical methods that have been used for over a decade with no change.
Perhaps you have heard and if so I'd love to hear about it but what are people trying new basically? Adding on more DRM obviously isn't a solution.
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