Piracy reason PC gaming is dying?

[Kharn]

What is killing the PC gaming industry is consoles, and no not their market penetration. Most PC gamers I know like modding there game after they have finished there game most are now being developed specificity with consoles in mind and thus lacking the tools or knowledge to mod a game after market. This also expands into release dates how many times is a game released for the PC first over that of a console?

BTW I am not much of a gamer and I dislike console gaming so on the odd occasion i pick up a game and play it for more than a hour it has to have a story that interests me and good game play, most modern games lack that a million times over?
And if you want proof, when was the last time you spend 3 hours playing with a RECENT PC game and how much did you enjoy it? Compared to games like DooM or Hexen? and how long did you play them for?

 

[Trotter]

Any true creator of anything like this would prefer people liked it than how much money they get out of it. Sure, money to cover the costs and make enough money to live off of is one thing, but when you're going to complain about a .0091% loss, I don't think you can call yourself a true creator anymore. You're just a businessman then.

Almost all of the game companies are businessmen, mate. If they can't make money they won't do it. If they are losing profit they are going to plug the hole as best they can and it doesn't matter if it is people DLing it who were never going to buy it anyway.

It is a downward spiral. People download the game because they can't/won't buy it, the companies step up ways to prevent pirating it, the same people DL it, the company takes additional measures, etc,etc, ad nauseam. The true customers are caught in the crossfire of it all, treated like criminals by the game companies and paying the penalty for those who circumvent the system of things.

If the game companies would stop and listen to people... even the ideas presented here... things could be much better for everyone. But, then, if the pirates would stop DLing everything like crazy. And most of the piracy is not even from the countries represented here! China is the biggest one and nothing is done to stop THEM, we all stops are pulled out here in the US and UK.

 

[Drizzt]

Well, I don't know if there is a way to get around needing a legit key to play online, but what I do know is that you couldn't use a key online that was already being used online. So say, a pirated version as a set key and 500 people download it, only one of those guys can get online.

That's what I remember at least. I never had problems with that since I have them all legit.

Sierra had this business model and it worked great.

What is killing the PC gaming industry is consoles, and no not their market penetration. Most PC gamers I know like modding there game after they have finished there game most are now being developed specificity with consoles in mind and thus lacking the tools or knowledge to mod a game after market. This also expands into release dates how many times is a game released for the PC first over that of a console?

BTW I am not much of a gamer and I dislike console gaming so on the odd occasion i pick up a game and play it for more than a hour it has to have a story that interests me and good game play, most modern games lack that a million times over?
And if you want proof, when was the last time you spend 3 hours playing with a RECENT PC game and how much did you enjoy it? Compared to games like DooM or Hexen? and how long did you play them for?

Dragon Age origins. And I agree with the whole first part of your post, the second is opinion and I don't fully disagree with it.

 

[synergy]

One HUGE contributor to piracy--and it has absolutely nothing to do with the people on our end--are the folks that work for the devs or companies that are close enough to get pre-release software. There are plenty of people out there that get their hands on something and it inevitably gets leaked to a group which then cracks it. The companies should be focusing their efforts on that end as that would solve the problem faster than anything else.

You can't rely on a consumer, who has the option of getting it free vs. paying for it, to make a change to a problem like this. Action has to be made at a higher level before it makes its way to the Interwebs.

 

[Trotter]

^^^ True, Syn. A canary trap would stop that post haste.

 

[95BlackGA]

One HUGE contributor to piracy--and it has absolutely nothing to do with the people on our end--are the folks that work for the devs or companies that are close enough to get pre-release software. There are plenty of people out there that get their hands on something and it inevitably gets leaked to a group which then cracks it. The companies should be focusing their efforts on that end as that would solve the problem faster than anything else.

You can't rely on a consumer, who has the option of getting it free vs. paying for it, to make a change to a problem like this. Action has to be made at a higher level before it makes its way to the Interwebs.

Much like Codemaster's, and their leaked demo to DiRT2 which forced Codemaster's hand to release the demo early. I'll be honest, I watch for the latest releases, and see SEVERAL getting leaked. One of my friend's does the whole piracy thing, and I understand where he's coming from (to a certain extent). He's having to upgrade so much, just to play the newer games, that there is no budget left for the games anymore. Devs. are making extremely higher and higher requirements, and making a game playable is getting more difficult. When it takes a $200 graphics card to play most of the newer games, flawlessly it can take a huge hit on a budget. I just paid $40 for DiRT2, and only get a max of 40FPS. While completely playable at that framerate, it of course drops, just like all other games. If I want to play anymore of the newer games, I'll need to look into an upgrade, which will keep me from buying a few new games in the future. Most of the newer games, except for MW2 have been struggling on my computer, and while I don't have the most impressive specs, it still cost me a lot of money in the end, and will continue to.

 

[zmatt]

Much like Codemaster's, and their leaked demo to DiRT2 which forced Codemaster's hand to release the demo early. I'll be honest, I watch for the latest releases, and see SEVERAL getting leaked. One of my friend's does the whole piracy thing, and I understand where he's coming from (to a certain extent). He's having to upgrade so much, just to play the newer games, that there is no budget left for the games anymore. Devs. are making extremely higher and higher requirements, and making a game playable is getting more difficult. When it takes a $200 graphics card to play most of the newer games, flawlessly it can take a huge hit on a budget. I just paid $40 for DiRT2, and only get a max of 40FPS. While completely playable at that framerate, it of course drops, just like all other games. If I want to play anymore of the newer games, I'll need to look into an upgrade, which will keep me from buying a few new games in the future. Most of the newer games, except for MW2 have been struggling on my computer, and while I don't have the most impressive specs, it still cost me a lot of money in the end, and will continue to.

Most of the could be solved with better coding, but most of the major titles are console ports as said earlier and most devs don't put in the time to make a good pc version of a console title, hence bugs, low fps and often broken installs. Everyone remember GTA4? Terrible performance, what about Halo 2 PC? They made you get an xbox live account, and then the tool tips were still for the xbox controller.

If the devs want piracy to go down they need to make good games, that are priced fairly and don't require an upgrade to play. None of the current gen consoles are anywhere close to the performance of a decent gaming pc, so why do we have to put up with mediocre performance?

 

[wafflehammer]

i dunno..personally these points don't cut it.


You guys are basically saying you have the right to steal it just because it doesn't meet YOUR standards. If the game isn't good, don't buy it or pirate it. If it can't run without upgrading, don't buy it or pirate it.

All your reasons sounds extremely silly especially if you put them into another situation.

"sir, why are you stealing this car.....well if they done a better job instead of just making another upgrade to last year's model I would of just bought it"

I know there is a huge difference between $50 and thousands. And digital data over object like cars and clothes. But the point and principle is you are stealing. And there IS something wrong with it no matter how you justify it.

 

[Hefemeister]

No one is saying they pirate because the games are bad.

People are saying they do not buy games because they are bad and overpriced.

I download as many demos as I can find from companies to determine if I want to buy their game. Sadly most I will not pay $50 for, so I wait until they hit the sales rack and pick them up for $20ish.

If they made a game I deem worthy of paying $50 for then I will.

 

[Joeyboy]

But I was under the impression the games industry is going from strength to strength, I didn't know the PC sector was started to decline in profits, if it even is?

I mean in England the games market is worth more then music and film combined(they were complaining about no tax breaks) I assume that might be true worldwide?

Also surely the majority don't know/wouldn't think of, pirating a game.

Yeah sure tons of people pirate and download from file sharing sites, but there are also millions more who don't know how, yeah we know it's simple but they've never really thought about trying to get a game illegally, they'll just go and buy it, that must be the large majority or a **** of a lot more would have been done already or companies would already be collapsing from lose of profits left right and centre.