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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
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with your "data mining techniques" it makes me wonder exactly what tells you a user is pirating games.
what is your defacto evidence ? is it lime wire or other p2p being installed on the machine ?
if that is the case then just about every pc owner is a pirate .
does your software identify it self as being pirated ? if so are these pirated copies being played here in America or are they coming from overseas ?
we all hear about rampant piracy but i have not seen any reports or numbers showing any data pointing at the U.S. consumer as the pirate destroying the pc game industry . (and it really dont look like the pc game industry is being destroyed the fan base is just tired of the same average games we have benn playing fps ever since 1990 for gods sake)
and since its the us consumer who is apparently pirating all the games the game industry is doing really well.
great sales in a declining economy and heck it has even been admitted that the heavily pirated pc platform is quite possibly headed for double digit growth in the digital download arena.
and how about those digital downlads ? the orange box by valve software look at what it gives gamers half life 1, 2, counter strike, team fortress, portal and several other games that are leaps and bounds better than the half the drivel that was released last year for 40 dollars or more.
look at world of warcraft one of the best mmo's of all time why is it so popular ? not because its free .
but because it is a quality game and well supported by the developer .
what is the lesson learned from these two examples ?
develop quality entertainment and people will pay for it you want another example .
look at the mmo of star wars galaxies it had a great player base on launch but the company did not listen to the public decided they wanted to do things there way (because they felt they deserved more players than they had) and almost lost their entire player base.
one more non mmo .
a small game dev released a small game called galactic civilizations and lo and behold the first version and the second with all their updates based on fan requests ended up being a highly successful platform for that company ... you know why ? because they supported the fan base. they listened to the forums and made a game for the fans . gasp... who would have thought that developing games for their fans would net them money . i know i know, your research specialist tells you want you need to develop and these research specialist know the market and they tell you what to develop.
those fans don't know jack so screw em we will ship the same average product every other game developer is shipping and ensure that we meet the expected sales goal and if we don't we will blame it on piracy.
it appears that what is really taking place in the industry . is that developers have gotten lazy they no longer want to develop quality games that push gaming in new directions they all look at halo and say hey we can do that too so they flood the market with average fps after fps and expect the gamers to snap up the titles like they are gold.
when the truth be told the pc market is very mature in the fps market and it is going to take something pretty damn special rake in the cash for a fps .
your lil fps called joe shoots the pizza man has been done to death in this market.
but it will sell on the console because you have a lot less jaded market base. they are eager for more fps games and you have a higher chance of selling that game .
I can tell you when i see it on the shelf and look at it i pass it up because i have already been there done that since 99 in counter strike.
These companies expect me to buy a game that is based on the same formula for almost 10 years? well i tell you what keep developing the same fps for consoles for 10 years and see what happens .
There actually is a case in point for what will happen its called atari 2600 and for 3 years they released crap and killed off the market . but thank goodness pirates weren't around then because instead of the great game crash of 83 it would have been the great YAR! of 83 .
because corporate execs cant blame the real culprit of falling sales . THEMSELVES.
but unfortunately your lil data mining project will not tell you that.
you will look at your data listen to your research specialist look at the expected sales and then look at the amount of piracy you incurred and say . welp that proves it piracy is killing our product . while your forums are full of loyal fans begging you to release something they will want to play. but hell there just fans what do they know .
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