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Capcom Blames Piracy for Poor DMC4 PC Sales
by Aaron Linde, Aug 01, 2008 8:00pm PDTCapcom corporate officer Christian Svensson revealed that the PC edition of the company's demon-slaying action title Devil May Cry 4 (PC, PS3, 360) saw poor sales since it debuted early last month, owing in some part to rampant piracy of the game.
"It's not doing as well as I would like in the US at retail," Svensson wrote on Capcom's official blog. "It's such a good version and it really deserves better sales. I know it's getting pirated to hell and back (it was up on torrents literally the day it shipped)."
The executive added that he had pushed for more prolific digital distribution of Devil May Cry 4's PC incarnation, but was stonewalled by Capcom Japan. Despite the frustration, Svennson reiterated his commitment to bringing more Capcom titles to digital distribution outlets.
"For the record all CEI-developed titles will be distributed extremely widely via digital channels... I've spent the last year building up that channel," Svennson stated, noting that GRIN's downloadable side-scroller Bionic Commando Rearmed (PC, PS3, 360) would see "broad digital distribution for PC."
"I have a presentation I'm making shortly that I'm hoping will make that approach something we do with all of our PC content, even those developed in Japan, but no promises. It might not happen," he added.
Comments
I am guessing most PC gamers with a GeForce 6600 or better are in the 30-70k income bracket. There is probably a smaller but still substansial group falling in 70k+ range that is less prone to piracy, but it is the minority. You take your average guy in the 30-70 range with a PC capable of running DMC4, Crysis, or anything that really requires something that is gaming-friendly (has a video card with reasonable fill performance). In this context, there is a 99% chance that this guy is going to know how to work his uTorrent. Now give this guy a choice between spending an hour on a torrent or paying 50-60 bucks. Especially if he's closer to that 30k end range, he is probably going to say fuck-all to guilt and productive societal practices and hop on the torrent. That is just the bottom line here. Your audience is also the audience most prone to piracy of software and other forms of media.
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As far as price goes, the game is cheaper on the PC versus the console, as many are. Its not enough to warrant piracy...nothing is. Games at the $19.99 price level are still pirated. There's a demo of the game, so if you don't like it, you don't buy it, period.
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