Epic: Piracy Drove Us From PC Focus

Status
Not open for further replies.

Pyroflea

Distinguished
Mar 18, 2007
2,156
0
19,960
This is such a lame, grossly over-used excuse.

First off, there's an enormous amount of piracy going on with consoles. Hundreds of thousands of people play pirated games on the 360. Wii games are even easier to pirate. Switching to consoles won't solve your "problems".

Another thing that's been covered by members here before. Just because somebody pirates a game, doesn't mean they would have bought it in the first place. I'll admit I've pirated my fair share of games, and every one that was worth playing I purchased for either PC or Console of some sort. It's ridiculous how they expect us to pay $70 for a mediocre online experience and a 5 hour campaign. Most of the people who pirate games wouldn't have bought them in the first place, therefore they're not losing more than 5-10% of sales.

The PC market is declining, and not due to piracy. Most people can't justify spending $700-$1000 for a PC to game on when they can spend $200-$300 for a console.
 

dxwarlock

Distinguished
Sep 20, 2008
190
0
18,690
has nothing to do with the steady decline of the game quality you've been putting out correct? :p

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 horrible
blame 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.
 

tayb

Distinguished
Jan 22, 2009
1,143
0
19,280
You can't ignore piracy. It is an issue that all developers deal with but it is erroneous to claim that it is the 'only' reason for abandoning the PC platform. If you make a good game people will still buy it.

I don't know what you expect developers to do when their title sells only 300,000 units but is downloaded illegally 4,100,000 times. Compare that to console sales of 6,000,000 and illegal downloads of 900,000. Which platform would you develop for?
 

tayb

Distinguished
Jan 22, 2009
1,143
0
19,280
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.html

From 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.
 

Trueno07

Distinguished
Apr 15, 2009
508
0
18,990
Piracy is not the reason that devs and publishers leave the PC market, money is the reason that devs and publishers leave the PC market.

Sadly, the PC versions of many titles are simply afterthoughts to most developers. Also, if Piracy was really as bad for business as rage is saying, we wouldn't have a Movie or Music industry.

I think it was stardock who said "Customers aren't Criminals"... I wonder what would happen if some other publishers lived by that rule...
 

rhino13

Distinguished
Apr 17, 2009
590
0
18,980
Just reading these comments makes me want to cry!

What will it take to make you guys stop pirating?

You just keep making up lies that it's someonelse's fault. It's the developer, it's the producer, it's DRM, it costs too much, it really isn't any good, I can't afford it... and on it goes. A virtually boundless number of excuses why it's OK for you to pirate and ruin PC gaming for the rest of us.
 

Blessedman

Distinguished
May 29, 2001
582
0
18,980
The question is tayb, out of those 560k downloads, how many were truly ever going to buy COD4? If they were smart they would go back to their old model of try before you buy (a beta if you will) and let people see the game. The reason they don't do that anymore? Cause then people see how crappy their games are and won't buy them at all. I must agree that piracy is wrong and that it is killing certain markets, but this is not the reason why epic is leaving the PC market. They are just to much of cowards to admit the real reason...
 

tayb

Distinguished
Jan 22, 2009
1,143
0
19,280


Customers aren't criminals but people like dxwarlock and others in this thread are not customers, they are criminals. I am always shocked about how many people come into these forums, openly admit to being the problem, and bash the developers for bailing. STOP F****** PIRATING. You are the problem. When a game gets illegally downloaded 13 times more than the actual unit sales there is a freaking problem whether the thieves in this thread want to admit it or not.
 

Abrahm

Distinguished
Jul 29, 2007
369
0
18,780
[citation][nom]Pyroflea[/nom] Most people can't justify spending $700-$1000 for a PC to game on when they can spend $200-$300 for a console.[/citation]
I really don't think this is as valid of an excuse as people make it out to be. Most people with consoles have a computer too. So you are looking at spending $200-$500(depending on how old the console is) on a new console that is only capable of playing games, and then spending another $400-$1000 on a computer for every day use. You can build a nice gaming rig for $700-$1000 that can play games and serve as an every day computer.
 

dxwarlock

Distinguished
Sep 20, 2008
190
0
18,690
[citation][nom]rhino13[/nom]Just reading these comments makes me want to cry!What will it take to make you guys stop pirating?You just keep making up lies that it's someonelse's fault. It's the developer, it's the producer, it's DRM, it costs too much, it really isn't any good, I can't afford it... and on it goes. A virtually boundless number of excuses why it's OK for you to pirate and ruin PC gaming for the rest of us.[/citation]


games like we had in early 90's..games that had a reason to buy.
games that didn't take longer to buy, install, and play than it did to realize you wasted 40 bucks.

there has been MANY games I pirated, then bought because I thought they was worth the effort.
and many many more I deleted because I thought the free version wasn't even wroth the diskspace to save them.

how are they loosing money by me pirating a game? seeing as how I wasn't going to buy it in the first place, and figured
"ill give it a try..if the reviews are wrong..then i'll pay for it..most the time I'm right in saving my money".

now a days maybe 1 in 20 games that come out I even deem worthy of trying to install, much less buy.
all rehashes of the same thing with most the time ported from console problems. or the "its a PC release..we can patch it later..let the players do bug testing" mentality.
 

mdillenbeck

Distinguished
Jun 11, 2008
504
0
18,980
[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]

Raw numbers are nice, but do you have stats for rates (number of pirated copies vs number of pirated and purchased copies)? I just have a suspicion that the raw piracy numbers might be due to the huge number of PCs in the world versus the number of console systems.
 

dxwarlock

Distinguished
Sep 20, 2008
190
0
18,690
[citation][nom]tayb[/nom]Customers aren't criminals but people like dxwarlock and others in this thread are not customers, they are criminals. I am always shocked about how many people come into these forums, openly admit to being the problem, and bash the developers for bailing. STOP F****** PIRATING. You are the problem. When a game gets illegally downloaded 13 times more than the actual unit sales there is a freaking problem whether the thieves in this thread want to admit it or not.[/citation]

I have bought more games since '85 than you've played Im sure. so don't assume I'm some 16 year old "pirate everything I see" because I can type.

either lower the prices to the level they need to be for the quality we get now a days..or release demos so we can see if we are going to waste 50 bucks on a game that entertains for 3 hours...

After 2005-2007 with the decline of games worthy buying,
I spent more money on games that didn't make it a day on my machine, than many people spent on other hobbies.
I learned my lesson.

sure piracy is wrong..but anything I think is worth the money. I buy a legit copy. the rest I see it as no demo, im not tossing 50 bucks at you before I test drive it.
 

tayb

Distinguished
Jan 22, 2009
1,143
0
19,280


What? COD4 was critically acclaimed. It was a great game. And what does it matter how many were truly going to buy the game? No one here made the claim that each download equates to a lost sale. What I can conclude is that because of the high download rate there was high demand for the game. This high demand did not translate into unit sales. Changing games here but do you expect me to believe that 4.1 million people just "wanted to try" Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and then only 300,000 of them liked it enough to buy it? That argument is laughable.
 

Trueno07

Distinguished
Apr 15, 2009
508
0
18,990
[citation][nom]tayb[/nom]Customers aren't criminals but people like dxwarlock and others in this thread are not customers, they are criminals. I am always shocked about how many people come into these forums, openly admit to being the problem, and bash the developers for bailing. STOP F****** PIRATING. You are the problem. When a game gets illegally downloaded 13 times more than the actual unit sales there is a freaking problem whether the thieves in this thread want to admit it or not.[/citation]

I would like to make it clear that i don't pirate, so i have caused none of this; and the "Customers are not criminals" was directed at companies like Ubisoft, who feel the need to unleash their heavies DRM schemes on us.
 
G

Guest

Guest
Well, your gears of war on PC was sooo horrible, that if I'd paid for it, you would've been pirating from me. and I bought your Unreal Tournament 3 you whining little babies. Don't forget your routes Epic, if it weren't for the PC Platform, and us players, you wouldn't have half the ground to stand on as you do today. Unreal wasn't very fun. Unreal Tournament was great. Unreal 2, didn't really like it either. Unreal 2k3/2k4, great, amazing. And you can't play it online without a legit CD Key, so where's your piracy there? People still play UT2k4, legitimately. The Mod's out of that Engine, Unreal 2.0, Killing Floor, great games like Brother's in Arms... even Postal 2 :D on Unreal Engine 1, and IL2 Sturmovik on Unreal Engine 1... god you people are dinks. You still use PC's to make the games on the console. Blah Bulletstorm looks like t3h gh3y anyways.
 

deadly4u

Distinguished
Mar 29, 2009
18
0
18,510
[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]

Having read this (completely), I must say, I'm disturbed that PC Gaming is truly dying.

I am so god damn tired of hearing about consoles.

I hate console controllers SO MUCH!!
The boxed in experience is trash!!
There is no customization!

IM TIRED OF "DLC this & that". 15 bucks for a few maps? Go burn in hell.

I'm currently studying to be a Game Developer. What the **** am I going to do with myself in a console dominated world?
 

tayb

Distinguished
Jan 22, 2009
1,143
0
19,280
\

Cool story about the amount of games you have supposedly bought. If only "hey I bought a ton of games back in the 80s" was a viable defense for illegally downloading games.

You don't have an argument. If you think game prices are too high the simple solution is to not buy the game. If you think games are too expensive don't buy them. The only thing you are accomplishing when you download a game is to tell a developer that 1.) There is demand for this game and 2.) The demand isn't translating into sales, people are downloading it instead. You are delusional if you think that you are helping your cause by downloading expensive games.

Well if that is your stance (last paragraph) please explain to me the phenomenon that is Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. 4.1 million downloads, 300 unit sales. You suggest that people downloading are merely "trying before buying" so are you concluding that literally 1 in 13 people thought MW2 worth buying? Really? When you compare this to console numbers (6 million sales, 900 downloads) the idea that the game isn't worth owning doesn't make much sense. How in the world do you explain crap like that?

Once again, you are the problem and, ironically, you are here whining about the effects of yourself.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.