Gears of War 2 Designer: Savvy Gamers Know How to Pirate

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10 million to 300,000 was an example, not an actual number. The number reported is 5.2 million (http://xboxoz360gamer.com/2008/05/28/gears-of-war-2-sales-prediction-the-game-will-sell-10million-copies-worldwide/)

Here is another article showing the sales difference between Xbox and PCs.
You can say Console people steal just as much as PC users, but the numbers beg to differ. Whatever the reason, the money is in Consoles more than PCs

 
I never liked "Cliffy B" just because he has an arrogant, smug attitude about himself. Or maybe that's just the way he comes across. He could be a nice guy for all I know. But his statement is just retarded and I'm guessing it's just a cheap cop out. Basically, he's saying most people who have high-end computers pirate games. Anyone is smart enough to pirate software. I've said it once, and I'll say it again, the idea that piracy is so rampant on the PC that companies are losing millions is a myth. Piracy was just as big in the 80s and 90s if not bigger. And console piracy is just as big. I can understand the fact that the average Joe doesn't have the hardware to run graphic-intensive games and that it's easier to just create a generic console version. But no, he gives the tired, weak excuse of piracy. People complain about DRM, but it's smug developers who completely ignore a platform that make me want to see a huge organized campaign to pirate the game on consoles. It uses the Unreal engine. It should be easy and cheap to port to the PC. I wouldn't have wasted money on it anyways, but I just hate ignorant comments.
 
GOW sold like crap on the PC because you had to pay for the multiplayer component only to be able to play against like 4 other people. Why bother when games like UT 2k4 and C)D4 with free multiplayer exist with up to 50 players total? Not to mention that GOW was not optimized for PC. I bought it, and I wish I didn't. The game stutters like mad on an E2200 @ 3 Ghz and 8800GT. No new drivers helped. Loads of people on epics forums had the same issue. For a company that got its stary in the PC gaming world, they failed massively with GOW PC.
 
Opps, here the link I meant to post in the other thread
http://www.primotechnology.com/2008/04/01/editorial-the-new-pc-gaming/
It doesn't have Gears of War sales numbers, but other popular titles like Bioshock and Call of Duty 4

*snip*
"..but a Bioshock 360 to Bioshock PC (800,000 in its first month to the PC version’s 80,000) or the order of magnitude difference between the 360 and PC versions of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (383,000 for PC and 3.04 million for Xbox 360). Infinity Ward’s Community Relations manager Rob Bowling attributed the low PC sales numbers to rampant piracy..."
**Snip

Pretending GoW had the same PC vs Xbox sales numbers. It's pretty easy to see why they wouldn't bother with a PC version. Please note, I'm a PC gamer, not a consoler
 
First off, it would be pretty easy to stop pirating if they weren't so damn lazy. You don't even need to include any drm to do it either. Secondly, the games that are ported to the pc usually feel terribly out of place as far as controls and UI go, so I purposely don't buy them.
 
This is MS fault... They could shut the door on this in a heart beat.
yeah the idea to create a console game first then port it to the PC and they wonder why we don't those games... hello I will buy a console if I wanted to play those games. Stop this butchery of FPS mechanics cause its harder for the console players. Blah, same old same old until the market crashes on them again and a new Carmack has to reinvent the gaming world.
 
The ACTUAL reasons that consoles are more profitable;

A. Single architecture per console
B. Ease of use(put disc in, play)
C. (Relatively) cheap hardware

These qualities of console gaming will always make them more attractive to those are not as tech savvy. And therefor consoles will always have SMALLER piracy issues.

However, Bleszinski, like many others in the game dev industry, ASSUMES that every pirated copy of a game is one that would have been purchased, new, from a store.

The truth is most pirated games are ones that the pirate would NEVER consider BUYING!

I myself pirate every game without a demo, and play the demos of the rest. The difference between the good games and the rest is that I actually pay the dev of the good game, the rest I either just play the demo, or flat-out pirate with no concern at all.

And so, every studio that chooses to not support PC gaming is most likely just unable to compete.

Pirates forced you to leave the PC game-dev arena by not paying you? No, they weren't going to pay you a dime either way. Your lack of skills relative to the rest of the PC game studios forced you to leave and you chose to shamefully play the blame with pirates? DEFINITE YES!

This isn't the death of anything...


...except for lazy studios that don't want to compete in the (relatively) elite world of PC gaming.
 
to the ones that talk about where the sales are. Have you been to a local wal-fart lately they cater this big wall of console games right there in your face kinda of thing & then they put the PC games way back in the corner where most everyone misses them. Then if you do happen to see them there is a rotten selection to choose from I have been waiting & asking for Grid at our local wal-fart since the game came out they just won't bring it in I was told to buy the 360 version since the kid new I had one of those I told him if I wanted that version I would have bought it. I didn't spend 4K on a gaming PC just to use my old dusty 360 which is way outdated & the same goes for the PS3 as well.
 
I'd go console only if I wanted to only develop to an arcade-depth too.

The thing with the pirated console stuff is that once the unit's modded, people seem to never buy another title for it again.

Well, not arcade-depth games at least.
 
game developers try to compare the PC gamers with console gamers and blame piracy for their lack of sales. Is part of the problem but NOT the whole problem.

The average user PC would like to play their games but the average PC computer is not capable of doing that at the same quality and performance as a console. It would most likely take a PC at least a 3Ghz dual core CPU and 260GTX level video card to equal the performance of an optimized console game.

How many people do you know personally that have that? So maybe 1 in 20 people with PC computers being a low ball estimate compared to 20 out of 20 console users.

So the only choice for console user is, do I want that?

For the PC user, its do I want that and can I play that?
 
as if piracy dont exist on the xbox360..

do people at epic do market analysis and such? if you dont want you're game to be pirated go for the ps3. i see tons of pirated copies of games for the 360 and wii but none for the ps3.

blu-ray rules!
 
Piss on Epic and GOW ...whatev. Epic u get hacked but not because anybody wants your krap but just because some script kiddy finds it easy to crack your pathetic attempt to DRM. Comes down to what everybody else is saying here. MAKE A BETTER GAME AND IT WILL SELL EPIC. You want sales and profits? FIRE your entire CE0 & staff and hire a bunch of gamers and uber geeks to make your company truly "epic". Why does Epic VP staff make such Huge profits and your complaining about "Pirating" hurting your sales? How bout your own friggin very poorly run, over paid staff hurting your sales? Don't hear ya sayin nuttin bout dat! GTF outa here epic, ya don't belong and ya won't make the cut anymore. Go to console where mommy & daddy buy the console games and uhmm not to mention Blockbuster, Hollywood & companies buy alota console krap too. Sry 4da rant, Epic u suk, Dev better games w/online in mind and cut yo sry ahole prices in HALF!

TSM.
 
I actually find it exceptionally strange that it is the people with the "big graphics cards" that would be the ones blamed for pirating. Sure, the people with the big pc's are generally more computer savvy than the average person, but the mere fact that they are prepare to spend several thousand dollars on a top-end pc tells me that they are also the ones that can actually afford / pay for the games. The real question EPIC need to ask is who are there target audience and who is actually buying the games. Consoles in my opinion is a teenager's toy that rely on mommy / daddy to buy the game. High end systems generally belong to passionate gamers, produce good quality games for high end systems and they will sell. Produce poor ports of consules, priced them the same as top notch games (COD4), and then you are still surprised that you have poor sales? I find his comments offensive to say the least.
 
For one, PC designers need to stop blaming hardware components for their inability to effectively code with what's available as a baseline and work your way up like Crytek supposedly did with Crysis: Warhead.

They need to adapt to the issues of piracy by making more compelling games that actually run reasonably on a majority of platforms, and change the pricing structure to something more compelling and less likely to be pirated.
Finally, institute checkups for their games, a-la an MMO, or steam, where you have to login to the server to play.
I'm sorry, but if you have a system good enough to play a game, but no internet access to register a game before you play it, that's your problem.

Idiotic install limits are a waste of time, look to Steam, they are doing extremely well. COPY THEM.

If software developers really prefer to pay through the nose on game license fees rather than make compelling games with the hardware that exists then they are lazier than I thought.
No one person decided that you have to have ultra-mega hardware to play something well and compete, graphics aren't everything. If you make something playable and enjoyable you can get away with a lot.
Look at MMOs, they offer compelling gaming and you can play WoW effectively with an entry level card of 3 years ago.
My friend still plays it, and it looks fine, on an AthlonXP 2100+ with a Geforce 5200.
 
The argument that consoles have better graphics isn't entirely true.
They appear better because they have the benefit of only really playing up to a resolution of 720p in most cases effectively.
Thus, they tend to be a lot less intricate both in graphics and physics. If you have a character taking up 1/3rd of the screen you have that much less to render, with far less going on in the background.
For the PC developers feel the need to justify $500 video card purchases flooding the game with eyecandy that the console gamer isn't even aware of.
Consoles look great compared to the generation before them, sure, but they do not compare with the edge, or even middle, really, of PCs when it comes down to full quality.
PC developers and their proponents have completely overshot the mainstream in terms of programming and confusing graphics settings that make something play far worse than it needs to for arguable graphic benefit.
Developers badly need to streamline their options settings for mainstream cards.
 
So Cliffy B thinks people don't pirate Xbox games? Maybe you can attribute the lack of profit Epic has had lately due to the fact that UT3 wasn't finished when they released it, and a lot of PC owners already have consoles, and have played through GoW. Valve and Blizzard don't seem to have a problem making a profit with PC gaming. Oh wait, they actually LISTEN to their communities.
 
I've bought all the UT games to 2k4. UT3 was just a horrendous experience. Oh and guess what, games on xbox360 are as piratable as PC games. Try this Epic, put aside your arrogance and include security and security updates if it's such a concern of yours. Shouldn't need the players buying your games and developing game security for you. I'm not buying any Epic games until they produce results. The community has spoken on message boards for years which Epic chooses to ignore for even longer.
 
At least every individual PC game requires its own cracked EXE. An Xbox 360 console with a hacked DVD drive can play any burned Xbox 360 game under the sun, without any extra effort once the hack itself has been performed.
 
[citation][nom]nismor31[/nom]If you think piracy is not just as rampant on consoles as PCs, you're kidding yourself.I'd be more inclined to believe poor sales of GOW1 on PC were because of the really bad console port, and the game was rather boring for PC gamers. There are a million better shooter games available on PC than GOW.[/citation]
And that's the main point, I bought GoW for the PC as I played it on the 360 and figured it would be a bit better. The AI, to be frank, is retarded, I couldn't get past a particular point because one of the firendlies ran behind about 20 enemies so I couldn't get to him to revive in time.

 
GOW was a great game on both PC and xbox, i bought crysis warhead today for £20 thats a great price for a brand new game. Im more likly to go out and download a game if i have to pay like £35+ for it. Games arnt all that expensive to produce they just want asmuch profit as they want.
The way pc gaming is goin it will b pretty much gone in 10 yrs and then hardware development will slow down as there is nothing else reli pushing it. All we will see is hardware becoming smaller and with performance that is rubbish
 
I think it takes a more savvy of a gamer to pirate on the console with the actual hardware you have to go through but hey why not blame the people who are out in the open? Besides if I really like a game and its good I will pay for it because it deserves to be paid for. I will only pirate a game if I wouldn't normally purchase anyways.
 
You can blame this on whatever you like... Or say that they are lazy for not making sure pirates pay.

Simple fact is that EPIC is a company and can produce greater profitability on the consoles (so they say), so that is where the money is, that is where they will take their business.

You as a consumer are always told to vote with your feet, but turns out that companies have the same ability... ah heck huh!
 
THANK GOD! EPIC STAY AWAY FROM PC GAMES. The crap they try to pass off on us is amazing. Bought GOW like a good consumer and my ass still hurts from the stick EPIC shoved up it. IT doesnt run at all on my system, when I finally did get a THIRD PARTY HACK to play the game, I lost all of my save points. Did EPIC even try to fix the problem, well I guess with the two patches, but there is still a thousand page thread over all of the problems w/ GOW in an EPIC sponsored forum. Talk about listening to your consumer base. PIRACY = SCAPEGOAT
 
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