Epic: Piracy Drove Us From PC Focus

[wongster]

[citation][nom]dxwarlock[/nom]has nothing to do with the steady decline of the game quality you've been putting out correct? piracy is the new buzzword for anyone not making money. We cant sell games? blame piracy!we cant figure out why the box sells are horribleblame piracy!lets ignore the increasingly annoying DRM added to drive customers off..along with crappy ports to PC no one wants to buy.I've pirated games I was going to buy BECAUSE of the DRM.And to say going to console because of piracy? is just a cop out.If a game keeps me entertained more than a few days. I go buy it. if not..it gets recycle bin treatment. and each year that goes by...there is fewer and fewer games that are worth installing..much less supporting and encouraging them to make more like it.360 piracy is just as rampant. not one person I know with a 360 isn't modded for burned games and stopped buying them.My sons Wii hasn't had a actual game disk in it for 2 years. but he gets all the new games.so stop blaming PC piracy for your own shortcomings when sales are concerned.[/citation]

get off your high horse dude. you happily enjoy games that you pirated as some faux revolutionary/protesting spirit against developers? what kind of backwards justification is that?

 

[Guest]

There's really only one way to cut down piracy entirely. OnLive (http://www.onlive.com/). Not because you can stream your games but because in order to play them you have to own them. Since the games are being hosted from their data centers all over the US, things like pirating or even using hacks in those games is impossible so developers not only get to have an increase in profits but a better user experience also. One thing I thought would be a good idea is for publishers to stop making the games for PC... that may sound like an extreme thing to do but think about...if there's no games to pirate, what are people finally gonna resort to do? Get OnLive, pay and play them of course, so one thing developers and publishers could do is to simply just focus on making the games for OnLive only when it comes to PC/Mac. They wouldn't even have to worry about dedicated servers, as far as I know, multiplayer is also hosted on OnLive data centers as well.

Oh and by the way, EPIC became one of OnLive's first partners as well as EA and Ubisoft. So OnLive is really one of the best things that could solve piracy in PC gaming right now...In the end Onlive is just gonna benefit gaming companies and gamers because again, companies receive more profits which in turn allows them to developer better games which gamers can play, lag free, hack free and without any annoyance of crashes, installations, downloads, etc.

 

[bebangs]

Since pirates and ninjas are mortal enemies. They should hire more ninjas to fight these pirates off.

 

[Guest]

Sometimes you have to pirate - i have GT Legends (Starforce - curse them all to hell !) and it wont run on win7. In fact i am pretty sure it is responsible for stuffing my win7 install (several things went strange after i stupidly tried to install it...), am i supposed to re-install my entire box to fix this (many hour operation, i'm a developer)?

Does it make me feel like purchasing anything off those Simbin people again? Not freakin likely.

RE: mw2 4.1 million downloads. Sure the single player experience was interesting but clearly these people didnt like the game that much else they would have bought it for the mp (or is there pirated MP also?)

 

[utengineer]

You can justify your reasons for piracy and low pc game sales ANY way you want it.....IT IS STILL THEFT. You DO NOT have the right to steal the game.

Just because the game is, in your opinion, not worth the $50+ retail does not give you the right to steal copyrighted material. If you bought it and don't like it, that is YOUR fault. You can demo the game, get the BETA before making the decision to buy. You can wait for the game to release and read reviews about it.

JUST STOP JUSTIFYING THEFT. The developers made a product and they want to sell it and profit from it. Piracy is rampamt among teens because they don't have much money.

Eventually piracy will get tracked and more and more thieves will get caught. Stealing a $50 will cost you $5000 and a criminal record.

 

[Guest]

[citation][nom]gaxkang123[/nom]There's really only one way to cut down piracy entirely. OnLive (http://www.onlive.com/). Not because you can stream your games but because in order to play them you have to own them. Since the games are being hosted from their data centers all over the US, things like pirating or even using hacks in those games is impossible so developers not only get to have an increase in profits but a better user experience also. One thing I thought would be a good idea is for publishers to stop making the games for PC... that may sound like an extreme thing to do but think about...if there's no games to pirate, what are people finally gonna resort to do? Get OnLive, pay and play them of course, so one thing developers and publishers could do is to simply just focus on making the games for OnLive only when it comes to PC/Mac. They wouldn't even have to worry about dedicated servers, as far as I know, multiplayer is also hosted on OnLive data centers as well.Oh and by the way, EPIC became one of OnLive's first partners as well as EA and Ubisoft. So OnLive is really one of the best things that could solve piracy in PC gaming right now...In the end Onlive is just gonna benefit gaming companies and gamers because again, companies receive more profits which in turn allows them to developer better games which gamers can play, lag free, hack free and without any annoyance of crashes, installations, downloads, etc.[/citation]

You forgot to mention the fact that people don't have to upgrade their PC or have a $3000 one, they can even play Crysis 2 on highest settings on a 4 year old PC even an Iphone or netbook .

 

[scuba dave]

I think Tayb and dxwarlock should get an all expenses paid trip to talk to epic. Maybe if both of them yell enough at them, some of it will sink in, and they will do something worth the money in my wallet.

And on topic.. I let other people buy games, and i ask to see theirs to determine if its worth my money. Beyond that.. I'll just stick with the games i got already, or just go to the beach.

 

[mdbrotha03]

[citation][nom]dxwarlock[/nom]I never said that was an excuse..your twisting my words into a weapon of retort. I was pointing out that I buy games worth buying. hell I've REBOUGHT lost copies of good games because I didn't feel right pirating a new copy.plus for MW2, got tired of the 4000 army/ww2/combat clones years ago. didn't see it worthy of a purchase or a download. what message do I send with that? that the game isn't even worth pirating in my opinion? will that make them stop making thoughtless tossed together games?I never said I wasn't part of the problem...but I did say the devs making more and more disposable forgettable games also contributes to it.so dont lay the blame all on us..and ignore the rest.Just because I fanned the fire, doesn't mean the fellow that set the blaze going is without blame.[/citation]

For everyone person like you downloads then buy the games you enjoy there are 5 or more who will never buy the game but continue to play the downloaded copy. I've seen it with my own eyes and have been guilty of of it a few times myself. I bet the 360 version of COD has 3 times the amount of players of the PC.

Also, when was the last time you have seen an ad for a Windows based PC as a gaming platform. How many people do you think you see while you walk down main street have a GPU capable of playing BF: BC2 at max. How many people have the knowledge to upgrade their PC GPU in order to play COD4. How many Dell's, HP's, Sony's, Gateways at best buy have a PSU capable to handling a high power GPU that can play BF: BC2 at max.

I have seen a few people buy PC games only to find out their video card isn't supported.

I used to be a console only gamer. I only had a 1300 dollar laptop that wasn't capable of playing COD 4 max at my resolution.

Why buy a PC game that will look ugly on my computer when I could buy a console game that will have most of the detail PC version with less AA.

 

[jeremiahpope]

90% of games that I pirate get deleted within a couple of hours of gameplay. Give me a demo and I won't pirate your crap games. If I like the game I go to a game store and pick up a copy. For example, BF2BC or any battlefield title before it. I will never drop 50 bucks on a game without knowing what to expect. Produce better quality = sell more games.

 

[darkguset]

[citation][nom]tayb[/nom]What? Are you people delusional? Console piracy isn't anywhere NEARLY as bad as PC piracy. It's not even close. http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_4.htmlFrom the article, Fallout 3 was downloaded 270,000 times during 'x' period of time compared with 20,000 for the Xbox 360. COD4 was downloaded 560,000 times compared to 59,000 for the 360. The idea that 'Xbox 360 has 10x the piracy of pc' is just insane.[/citation]

It seems that research was based only on online content and downloads. The guy at the corner of where i live is a console games pirate and does mods (hardware) as well. He only bothers with console games which he downloaded ONLY ONCE but he has sold hundreds of copies. You will therefore never see his piracy contribution in that link or any other "PC piracy" claims. Which do you think is easier, finding a torrent, downloading for a few hours, then trying to make it work on PC or just go down the street with $5, go home and start playing? His shop is always busy with 10 year old kids with $5 bills easily handed out. So don't tell me PC piracy is much bigger.
It is also much easier (and less costly) for a developer to design and compile a game for a console as minimum testing and patches are needed required for a standard platform, as opposed to the PC where there are thousands of different configurations.
I rarely spend $100 for a game that just came out. I wait for a year or 2 and get it from a bin for $10. Not only it save a lot of money, it plays better since there are all the patches and expansions out by that time and most bugs are ironed out. If they want me to spend $100 they better design something good and put some effort into it; if they don't like it, then go ahead move to the consoles with my blessings.

 

[jeremiahpope]

Adding just one more point, You cannot say that just because a game was downloaded so many times means that you lost that many game sales. I am sure that a VERY large percentage of the people who downloaded a specific game would have never actually purchased it to begin with. Whether the reason be not having the money or any number of other reasons. Pirating is "crime" of opportunity.

 

[henrystrawn]

The only thing I have to add to to the discussion,that has not been mentioned is The return policy of software.

You don't see the EULA or the product before you buy. Retailers don't have PC kiosks set up like consoles so you can see and try actual gameplay.

Games are the only thing I will not consider "pirating", because I will support the PC platform.

 

[athlondude]

This is such a lame excuse, I mean think about it. Do you really think you are going to excape piracy just by devoting all your time and efforts to consoles? I know people right now that have hundreds of pirated titles for their X-Box and PS3 so if he thinks that consoles are the solution he needs to think again.

 

[husker]

The hypocrisy here is sickening. People posting here and complaining about developers being greedy and only caring about money. But then they admit to stealing software because their money is too precious to spend.

 

[matt87_50]

[citation][nom]duckmanx88[/nom]calm down. the goal of any business should be to make money. that's how the world works. do they still make a profit on the PC? sure. but when I can make a significantly larger profit and see less of my games pirated on a console versus a PC, well I'm going to develop for the console, just like any rational person would.[/citation]

if by rational person you mean someone who cares more about money than making the most awe inspiring games possible. also, who cares if people are pirating it, as long as your still making money (iphone case in point). and they are only bringing up the P word because they want sympathy, or to look like they are taking a moral high ground, the one and only reason that they are shifting away from PC is because there is less money in it, if there was no piracy at all, and 100% of the PC audience wrote heartfelt letters to Epic praising them for their awesome games and support, you can guarantee Epic would STILL be moving away from the PC market and focusing on consoles, just because there is more money. you want to do that fine. but don't you dare try and make us think that you are doing it for any other moral reason!

also, how a gaming technology company can sit there and go the future of the most powerful tech laden platform around is stupid 2D flash web games is unbelievable! sickening.

 

[Guest]

I own the games that are good. Call of Duty 4, 5. I did not buy six it was junk. Crysis and Crysis Wars great games. Few more. When I buy games I buy 3 copies for me and my two boys. If they were smart they would start doing package lan deals. Any good game out you want to buy to get the cd-key for annoyance free online play.

Some games have so much copy protection junk. I always try to get no-cd fix.

Call Of Duty 4 MW2 was a complete piece of crap. The biggest crap of the year is Command and Conquer 4.

LOAD OF CRAP. The 300,000 that bought MW2 should get there money back for the PC version. Anybody who bought Command and Conquer 4 should get their money back plus interest. I emailed and sent it back. It is garbage. My two younger boys didnt want to play it they lost 3 sales.

Lan is being killed. Everything good in PC games is being killed. So natural sales will be killed. There has been piracy since Prodigy online. If you want to see piracy see console people dont download them, you can get any game you want for a buck or two at any High Schools around here.

 

[Guest]

yar har fiddley dee, you are a pirate!

 

[zachary k]

piracy ruins pc games, don't try and justify it. you have hundreds stealing fruit from a fruit stand and you wonder why they put cumbersome anti-theft system on their fruit, or just stop selling fruit in your area. it is because thy don't like people taking their goddamn fruit! i love my pc and i am willing to use my hard earned money to pay for their hard work.
i bet you don't even seed after you finish downloading. scum.

 

[Guest]

If they move their focus away from pc games, then why would anyone buy a latest intel/amd processor??? what wud be the use of gettin excited on the launch of a radeon or geforce series cards?? what are we non-developers going to use the pc for??? watchin movies n surfindg the net??? PC gaming needs to be revived n these crappy developers should make good games which we can feel proud of playing and paying for.... something like the Sims n Crysis

 

[Guest]

Endless manual patching killed PC gaming. Platform instability killed PC gaming. CPU-hogging A/V software killed PC gaming. I was PC-only for many years until I realized just how much $ I was spending on endless hardware upgrades and time spent optimizing the system afterwards. You can now spend $ on games that will patch automatically and will run with "max" settings always. How many games could you buy/rent for the cost of an SLI/XFire setup - required for an optimal experience with the latest DirectX-Jabillion release.

 

[anamaniac]

I've shared PC games, and I've bought PC games. To be honest, I'm tempted to run cracks and no-cd's for my legit games just because they remove much of the hassle.
I'm trying to buy all my games now. Does that count?

 

[Cespenar]

EA has also been using the buzzword PIRACY.
Yes, somebody gave me a pirated game and I liked it so much I bought the real game.
I have 2 others in the same boat.
I will purchase both games when I have enough money.
If the game is sell-worthy piracy should not be a problem.

 

[yay]

These comments show a lot, and sometimes provided a decent discussion.

 

[TMSter]

They use to chopping hands off. The good old days.

 

[yay]

Oh, and i recently bought a new pc, 5870, new 24 inch samsung LED monitor, phenom quad at 4ghz with a minor voltage jump and a mammoth heat sink. I am a Uni student so don't have a lot of money. But the one thing that helps me relax is my computer, and one of my favorite things about it is the games. I played crisis on friends pc's and wanted to wait for my new one to enjoy it. So i went out and bought about 15 games in bargain bins and on special. Even got BC2 for $46 on special and play it daily, when i have time.

I bought 15 games from the last 3 years, not including steam games because they are almost never counted by anyone. But how many games were released in that time? of all of them i only had time/ cared enough to buy 15 of them. They were some of the greatest ones. As far as im concerned there is only two classes of games, Worth it. And not.