[ALL] PC Gaming piracy estimated at 75-80%

[MmmmBeeeeer]

Woe be the PC game developer these days, as various reports put piracy rates in the U.S. at approximately 70-85%.

It's no wonder that Epic Games is dumping PC games for the greener pastures of console gaming: piracy rates for the U.S. market alone are hovering around 80%!

And beyond the U.S., the piracy picture becomes even larger and more menacing -- especially if you're an independent developer without "Madden-sized advertising budget," said THQ Director of Creative Management Michael Fitch, who laid out his case against piracy and hardware manufactures in an epic rant at the Quarter to Three forums.

In the post, Fitch attacked pirates, the PC software security model and everything in between.
In Europe, he said, piracy rates approach 90%. In Asia, those figures are "off the charts."

"I didn't believe [the data] at first. It seemed way too high.
Then I saw that Bioshock was selling 5 to 1 on console vs. PC.
And Call of Duty 4 was selling 10 to 1. These are hardcore games, shooters, classic PC audience stuff.

Given the difference in install base, I can't believe that there's that big of a difference in who played these games, but I guess there can be in who actually payed for them," Fitch said.

These are hard numbers for any PC developer to ignore, and from the tone of Fitch's message board rant the other day, things are likely to get much worse before they get better. Or should that be "if" they get better?

http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=165488

I knew it was high but not that high with steam being around. I guess its pretty much next to impossible to combat though

[Maynard]

not a surprise at all. If i was a PC gamer i would be doing it too.

[Twigg4075]

Why would you even bother making a PC game unless you are Blizzard? Making a PC exclusive game is beyond retarded but why waste any of your resources on making a pc version of any game?

It's hard enough trying to make a good game that actually sells, but when only 20% of the people actually pay for it? Christ.

[Ravin]

They should spend more time trying to make an uncrackable version of PC games and then sell the software to other people so they can do the same. But basically the PC market is done. I can't think of any PC games outside of Blizzard and the stuff Valve puts out that anyone buys.

[leaffan]

lol this is from 2008. So old post is old.

The whole 80 to 90% oh noes! pirating rate is laughable and was shown half a year later that most PC games NDP figures are totally wrong thanks to digital distribution such as steam not giving out their sales figures. If you want another good laugh google search PC piracy rates. I've seen them as low as 30% and as a high as 95%. Honestly if your a sheep and believe this nonsense then I can't help you.

This is the post the mad nerd made: http://www.quartertothree.com/game-t...ad.php?t=42663

His frustration funny enough was because people bitched and moaned about their games crashing and all that before the game was released and the bad press the game got out of it. The best way to post what I feel on this is simply to quote a post from the 2k forums that another user typed up:

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16635

I am really sorry to say that, but all that guy says is nothing new. Basically he reiterates lots of points that have been made a dozen times. The only new thing he tells us is how their own DRM probably damaged Titan Quest and Iron Lore Entertainment even more than piracy itself.

Piracy is a bad thing, I concur with that. But if your attempt to fight it consists of the game deliberately crashing, without any message like "hey, guy, think about buying the game, this crash was intended because your copy is illegal!", you're downright stupid.
Why? Here's why:
1. It's a well-known fact that, no matter what copy protection you use, you're game will with a probability nearing certainty end up cracked and out there in the wild.
2. People, who use a pirated copy, will complain about crashes nonetheless. That might be pretty awkward, but it's a fact.
3. With the possibility of the "security check" failing with original discs there will also be legit customers complaining about problems caused by your DRM, which a) adds to the believability of other reports and b) makes these customers look like and probably being called pirates every now and then.

Now add those three things together, put a DRM in your game, that makes your game crash without any message to the user that this crash was intended, and you're definitely going to see lots and lots of people who complain about the game being buggy. Simple logic.
While it's great for him that he knew these crashes were because the game probably was a cracked version, it's still bad to have these reports out there on the net, because the potential customers don't know that and it shines a really bad light on your product.

Sorry, but to blame that fact on piracy isn't putting "piracy in perspective", it's blaming others instead of seeing your own fault. DRM and piracy are not the same thing, and no matter how you look at it, the way a game is protected is up to the company releasing it, not to the pirates. If you choose a stupid way to protect your product you can't blame the pirates for that. That's like blaming burglars when you get shot by the sentry gun you installed.


I'm not going to "rationalize" piracy, as Michael Fitch puts it "been there, done that". It definitely is a crime and it's a shame that it makes it harder to be successful on the PC. But I think his reasoning is seriously flawed. To take the 5 to 1 "360 to PC" ratio for Bioshock or the CoD4 10 to 1 ratio and go on and say "hey, it would have been way different without piracy" is a theory, nothing more. Another reason for those ratios could be that both of these games require a fairly high-end PC to run and look properly, or that the console versions simply don't have to struggle with hardware issues (the next big thing he rightfully curses) and just work. In fact, you can come up with lots of reasons for those ratios. But it's probably way easier to blame piracy alone for that.
Another thing he completely ignores is that there are games that sell damn well on the PC. Games from the Half-Life franchise for example sold over 16 million times according to Wikipedia, with Half-Life 2 selling over 4 million copies prior to June 2006, Half-Life sold over 8 million copies prior to November 2004. "The Sims" is another franchise selling awfully well.

It is simply not true that games cannot be successful on the PC and to blame the moderate "success" of both Bioshock and CoD4 on the PC on piracy alone is just convenient for the point he's trying to make. Both Bioshock and CoD4 are pretty big games from well-known companies, so it's not like they "failed" because they were done by a small company or something like that.


Besides all that I agree with Michael Fitch: Piracy is a problem, and the other problems plagueing the PC are drastic, too.

[MmmmBeeeeer]

lol this is from 2008. So old post is old.

I stole this from another forum, not realizing that the thread was 520 posts long and 2 years old

Thank you for pointing that out

I got burned by some jackass bumping the thread for no reason

[leaffan]

I stole this from another forum, not realizing that the thread was 520 posts long and 2 years old

Thank you for pointing that out

I got burned by some jackass bumping the thread for no reason

It wasn't houstonboy was it?

[Diivox]

the reason call of duty sells more on a console is because call of duty is the exact same game with maybe some different skins whatever the version is, and it's simply not nearly as good as playing on a PC. Halo is another great example of this, its an amazing game if your whole universe is your xbox, but in comparison to the wide library of computer games, is nothing special. PC gamers also have a way better selection of shooters available because it's practically inarguable that a mouse is a better device to aim a gunsight than a controller.

you could also go further and say that most of those console buys are guys who wish they hadnt. on a pc you can pirate a game and if it fucking sucks you never buy it. if it is pretty good you buy it for the multiplayer. if your game both sucks and has no multiplayer, then yeah, maybe you do reach these kind of panic mode numbers. and thats exactly what you deserve if you meet those two criteria

[MmmmBeeeeer]

PC gamers pretty much only play CS, COD4, and TF2

Am I right?

[leaffan]

PC gamers pretty much only play CS, COD4, and TF2

Am I right?

Umm no?