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 ... Read more

Titan Quest developer Iron Lore is breaking into console territory soon, and with that shift came two recent appointments: Jeff Goodsill to president, and former EA Mythic employee Steve Marvin to design director. Read my interviews with the two, and glean tidbits on such informative industry topics as the size of Iron Lore's gaming room, what a grognard is, and how far they are in BioShock.

At the time, PC Action-RPG franchises restricted their audiences by topic or by difficulty. We believed the casual and mass-market buyers were under-served. Diablo limited its audience with its mature rating and high level of gore. Some parents would not buy a game with a flaming skull on the box cover for their kids.

HomeLAN Fed has posted a Q&A with Iron Lore founder Brian Sullivan, asking the Age of Empires co-creator about his new company and their recently announced publishing deal with THQ. Iron Lore's first project is an action RPG.

THQ issued this press release, announcing a publishing agreement with Iron Lore Entertainment. This new company is headed by Brian Sullivan, co-creator of the Age of Empires series. Iron Lore's first game will be an action RPG scheduled for a late 2005 release, with more details on the game coming later this year. There's also a GameSpot story with quotes from Sullivan about his plans. Thanks Blues News.