Twitch Asylum

Posted: **Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:55 pm**

In the last podcast, we discussed that we believed (err... at least Tom and I) piracy is one reason that publishers may look to produce console versus PC games (since it is harder to copy console games).

It sounds like Kevin Cloud and Todd Hollenshead of Id software agree...

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3152680

During a QuakeCon Q&A panel, Kevin Cloud, co-owner of Id and exec producer on Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, responded to a question about PC games disappearing from retailer's shelves by saying that piracy was "killing PC games."

"It's the primary reason retailers are moving to the console," Cloud said, continuing on to say that ways to reduce piracy are in the forefront of every PC developer's mind, and citing World of Warcraft's subscription-based nature as an example of a possible solution to the problem.

Id CEO Todd Hollenshead went on to theorize that "&about seventy percent of the landmass in the world where you can't sell games in a legitimate market, because pirates will beat you to the shelves with your own game."

"Nobody knows," said Hollenshead, "but you may literally have more games being played illegitimately than being played legitimately." Hollenshead explained how this his the PC devs by explaining that retailers would rather give up their valuable shelf space to product that can't easily be downloaded elsewhere: namely console games.

--Raz.

Posted: **Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:10 pm**

Just look around the 'net and anyone can agree with this. It is almost easier now to just download and install and play an illegal copy of a game than it is to get in your car, drive to the store and purchase a game. It's a sad sad fact and being someone who has put much of my time into gaming, like most people here, it's one I don't like having to admit to. I'm not saying I pirate games in any way, I'm just saying I wish it hadn't come to this.

Posted: **Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:28 pm**

PC games should be free..... for single player only. Being that the majority of games are multiplayer.
Guild Wars for example did it right. You can download the game for free. Want to play online? That'll be 50 bones. Thank you very much!

Now, I'm sure there is probably some kind of way to hack this (as I'm sure you can on the xbox360 games) but most moral people (I hope) would do the justice and pay for a well deserved game. Guess that's my downfall of thinking that there is good in the human race...

SjN

Posted: **Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:28 am**

iamsjn wrote:PC games should be free..... for single player only. Being that the majority of games are multiplayer.
Guild Wars for example did it right. You can download the game for free. Want to play online? That'll be 50 bones. Thank you very much!

I think you are correct in that the best form of copy protection has been the online support in games. I believe this is true for the console stuff as well as they can detect any modifications to your hardware/software and ban you from participating online. If you look at the 360, live is a huge draw, even if you aren't playing multiplayer games. The addition of achievements and gamerscores leverages your online presence even during single player games. Since PC games don't have such a unifying approach it would be harder implement such a system. Maybe the new "live anywhere" will help this to some extent.

Regardless, I think that what the Id guys are saying is correct. If I were a large-ish developer producing a title today, I would definitely lean toward the consoles due to the fact that my title wouldn't get pirated to such a large degree. I would also probably make the console the lead SKU (or at least a simultaneous launch) since delayed ports of PC titles seem to underperform (Quake IV, Doom III, etc.).

--Raz.

Posted: **Tue Aug 08, 2006 1:07 pm**

definitaly because there is no more renting and there is cd keys which i hate so much i got a perfectly good warcraft3 and the expansion!!! but i cant play it just because i dont have the cd key for warcraft3 that realy pissis me off

Twitch Asylum

Piracy Killing PC Games?

Piracy Killing PC Games?