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Game piracy in the US: 80%!?
Gameloading
Member UncommonPosts: 14,182
I was quite shocked when I read this. According to this article, Piracy in gaming makes is around 80% in the US. In Europe, the number is 90% and in Asia it's completely off the charts.
it's no wonder that some of the smaller developing companies are struggling.
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?
Comments
I think smaller development companies are more likely to survive piracy than bigger publishers.
Why? Because big publishers are... Big. They sustain all this infrastructure simply to sell games, which is absurd.
If you want to know how it needs to be done look at Paradox Interactive and Stardock.
And even Steam and Blizzard. They're proving money can be made.
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Exactly. The whole distribution system is a joke. The idea of binding data to a psychical token and presenting it as a product was absurd from the start. Online distribution platforms (Steam, etc) and subscribtion or microtransaction based products are the logical evolution. Consoles survive yet due to their limited options and focus so far.
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Due to the recent economic crisis and spending cuts the light at the end of the tunnel was turned off. Sincerely, God.
It's always surprising to see just how much scum is out there
member of imminst.org
Software companies need to abandon hard copies. Instead implement a digital delivery system combined with advertising for your products (or other products) while the download is going. Then reduce the cost of your software by 10-15 dollars and we will see a boon in Computer game sales. Selling a PC game for $35-40 and delivering it digitally while raking in some advertising dollars will cause revenue to sky rocket for PC game companies.
Do this and use an online activation similar to MMO games and we will see a whole lot less Piracy.
Currently playing:
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Looking Foward too:
Bioware games (Dragon Age & Star Wars The Old Republic)
Damn, I'm scum. That sucks.
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omg... piracy is amazing lol... but i got UT3 for real.. woo hoo.... anyway... you know how to get rid of piracy, is simple, just make mmo games lol. ones that you need to create an account and connect to play and the database is on the game and done, no wait.. that wont work because the bandwidth of the net and people making emu servers.
And how are figuring out how much piracy is going on? Is it because sales are down?
I for one have not pirated any games. Nor have I purchased any games in the last few years. I subscribe to the ones I like (MMO's). And I play demos of other things. Thats enough for for me to figure out that games are not improving and I'd rather play the ones I bought 10 years ago. So maybe when trying to understand why sales are down, they should look in the mirror and consider the crap they are peddling these days.
I am playing Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball on my comp right now.
I do hope that companies aren't so naive as to think that i can't pirate their games just because they are made for a console.
edit: No wait, scratch that. I DO hope companies are that naive.
And downloadable with an online activation does nothing to curb piracy. Or haven't you noticed the abundance of games like Half-Life 2, Portal, Neverwinter Nights 2, etc. which are all downloadableand all require online activation? Even downloaded games from Fileplanets' Direct2Drive are all over the net.
So, your next solution?
I read an interview with one of the people at Iron Lore (Iron Lore is the developer of Soulstorm, and just announced it's closing its doors), and he put most of the blame for the company going under on piracy. I'm not really sure exactly how you track piracy, but if it really is becoming that bad I can't help but think Cabe's suggestion won't even be enough.
Incidently, I tend to think the piracy problems in gaming must have some correlation to the piracy problems in the music industry. Technology has made it really really really easy to pirate both mediums.
I stopped being surprised a long time ago.
And downloadable with an online activation does nothing to curb piracy. Or haven't you noticed the abundance of games like Half-Life 2, Portal, Neverwinter Nights 2, etc. which are all downloadableand all require online activation? Even downloaded games from Fileplanets' Direct2Drive are all over the net.
So, your next solution?
Physically own the game: Create a copy with build in software in the distribution program? That will render you able to keep the game. If a company were to go down, they could give a notice about it.
Trade & Selling: Build-in trade channel? That could even create secure key transactions.
This is all small details which easily could be fixed.
The problem with steam and fileplanet, is that even though they use digital downloads, it's actually more expensive to buy from them, than it is to buy it from a retailer.
I don't know how alarming those numbers are anyways... consoles have always stood for about 80-90% percent of all game sales, and there are still a lot of piracy on the consoles.
If they embrace digital downloads and pass the savings down to us, along with creating far better demonstrations of the games... 2 minute long demoes just aren't enough to determine whether you want to fork out around $60-70 for a new game(the actual price in denmark if it's cheap)
And downloadable with an online activation does nothing to curb piracy. Or haven't you noticed the abundance of games like Half-Life 2, Portal, Neverwinter Nights 2, etc. which are all downloadableand all require online activation? Even downloaded games from Fileplanets' Direct2Drive are all over the net.
So, your next solution?
Physically own the game: Create a copy with build in software in the distribution program? That will render you able to keep the game. If a company were to go down, they could give a notice about it.
Hack the built in software to remove any restrictions on number of copies, turn into ISO format, distribute to the pirates.
Trade & Selling: Build-in trade channel? That could even create secure key transactions.
Could work, but would have no effect on piracy.
This is all small details which easily could be fixed.
That's the same thing a hacker says every time a new "copy protection" scheme is put out.
The problem with steam and fileplanet, is that even though they use digital downloads, it's actually more expensive to buy from them, than it is to buy it from a retailer.
True. Only thing really good about 'em is the convenience factor, which as you said, you pay more for.
I don't know how alarming those numbers are anyways... consoles have always stood for about 80-90% percent of all game sales, and there are still a lot of piracy on the consoles.
True.
If they embrace digital downloads and pass the savings down to us, along with creating far better demonstrations of the games... 2 minute long demoes just aren't enough to determine whether you want to fork out around $60-70 for a new game(the actual price in denmark if it's cheap)
I agree. The only thing that will cut down on piracy is making the games more affordable. It will not kill piracy, but it would put a nice dent in it.
Again, the only problem is that there are many people who prefer physical games, with boxes/maps/manuals/etc. So downloadable only will not bring profits up, but will bring them down. Unless the downloads are markedly cheaper than the box versions, so that those downloading get a nice discount while those who buy boxes pay a bit more (relevant to the cost of the materials) but aren't having to pay out the nose for their versions.
Now, perhaps if the game itself was downloadable from a key provided in the box so their were no physical media. But then, you're right back to the old Daemon and ISO bit.
See, it's not going to be so easy.
I don't think making games cheaper will help. It's difficult to compete with free.
Zorvan: I'm glad to see we agree on the major parts. Yeah, it's going to be very difficult getting down pirates. But I personally think they could create so much better Copy Protection if they stopped thinking with their asses. SecuRom restricts what kind of legal software you can have running(e.g. Process Explorer -> I've used this a lot of debugging, and it sucks to have to restart your comp when you want to play a game with SecuROM... the creators of PE fixed this issue as sony wouldn't). StarForce might cause physical damage on your disc drive. SafeDisc provides a vulnerability which can be exploited to gain access to your system.
I wouldn't mind a copy protection that would call home once in a while when playing the game to check various things, as long as I can use any legit tools when running the game(including virtual drives) along with no damage to my system whatsoever(exploits and physical). Now I know you can create programs to fake hand shakes with a server and all that, and I'm no securty programmer either, but I'm quite confident they could create so much better programs than what we have now. I mean, I'm much less likely to download a crack for my legit bought CnC3 if it didn't restrict me from having used Process Explorer on my system in that session.
GameLoading:
And I suppose you don't think Itunes is a smash hit? I'd be happy to pay $40-50 dollars for new games to be able to play online, get any patch and support without any hassle, if I could get a good demo of the game along none bullshit copy protection.
There is an old computer saying:
It is imposible to make one universal crack, that breaks all security, as well is imposible to make a security that cant be cracked.
If they could find a way to make it so your computer shoots electricity into your balls when you try to pirate something I would be all for it.
member of imminst.org
Much like the music bussiness the gaming companies, or rather the distributors, has made a series of errors in predicting and adapting to the consumers needs.
Obviously it is the pirates faulth that they steal, but the companies can only blame themself for not making any money.
I do not think most people pirate because they are cheap, they do it because it is convenient, faster and simpler then going out and purchasing the product.
Aside from MMO's I have purchased very few games in the recent years, and those that I have has been from steam, D2D and EA's online download shops.
It is ok to blame the pirates for being thiefs, after all they are.
But I can only blame myself for poor bussiness decisions.
If I do not take into account that most people are in fact, lazy and convenient then I do not even deserve to make any money.
Hoping that humans will adapt, change and embrace any sales model instead of trying to adapt and change my model to fit most humans is folly.
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Originally posted by Jerek_
I wonder if you honestly even believe what you type, or if you live in a made up world of facts.
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I call bullshit on their reported numbers. 80% my ass...
There's no way they can track pc piracy because people who are downloading would not buy it anyway. They just want to develop for console because its easier and they can sell these weak ass games to console morons and 5 year olds who think halo is a great game.
There is two problems... first they can just put some fake balls around to make the electric arc hits them, instead of the ones of the pirate...
and second...
What if the one doing piracy is a girl?
There is two problems... first they can just put some fake balls around to make the electric arc hits them, instead of the ones of the pirate...
and second...
What if the one doing piracy is a girl?
make them go out with me. I can't think of a worse punishment
member of imminst.org
you want the one with the balls or the girlie version of pirates?
Dont worry I also have something against halo...
All Platform games have always sold 5 times better on console than on the PC.
Why the look of surprise? Has something suddenly changed?
Unreal 2003, uses a centralised login server, it isn't even affected by piracy. It's just crap.
It's not PC games that are in a state of disarray, it's Epic games.
Bioshock was released as a DX10 game only at a time when very few people owned Vista and even less owned Vista and an 8000 series GFX card.
COD's target market is 15 year olds and you only get about 6 hours of gameplay for your money.
Those games not only didn't just not sell that well, they didn't get pirated that much either.
Piracy has been with us since day one, I remember how all the kids at school would all share their games with each other. We would tape to tape them on C90 audio cassette. Or on Floppy drive, or we would share them over the net from our servers hard drive.
At the time the twin cassette recorder was widely heralded as the nail in the coffin of the music/video game publishing industry.
That was in 1983.
Here is a hard number for a PC developer to ignore, $1.5 billion. The yearly revenue for the best selling computer game in the world, which is a PC only product.
Anti -piracy has always been in an arms race with piracy.
First we had Serial keys, then we had serial keys in colour that would not photocopy, or on cotton not paper.
Then we had the new media's. Games on disc not tapes. Then back to serial keys. On little floppy discs, not big ones. Then CD not disk. The they needed the CD in the drive. Then back to serial keys. Then DVD, then Chipping your Xbox etc etc.
Currently the best one seems to be online authentication. Games that offer a service, a portal to meet your friends online... or free servers or a subscription service can pretty much guarentee to have no piracy.
Other games (single-player only) take the same chances they have always taken.
In the end, piracy or no piracy, games that are excellent sell well. Of course they also get pirated a lot. But then, it's not how many copies of your game that get's pirated that matters, it's how many copies of your game sells.
The essential problem for games publishers today is their distribution model. A large part of their work is advertising and distributing their product. Physically printing it on a disc, delivering it to shops worldwide and then getting it placed at eye level on the shelf in the window.
This is a real problem, because as Bittorrent and Kazaa clearly demonstrate, this isn't a service PC users require any longer.
It has been a very painful process for the music industry to change over to MP3. No different for PC games. High street sales will continue to drop and be replaced by online sales.
The next gen consoles won't have disk drives at all, they will catch up.
Actually Call of Duty 4 did get pirated alot, to the point where Infinity Ward even spoke out against piracy. CoD's target market isn't 15 year olds, the game is rated Mature for a good reason and it's appeal is in the multiplayer, not the singleplayer. The game scored 92.6% on gamerankings (pc version) and has won multiple game of the year awards. Saying it's quality is an issue is downright ignorant.
What Kazaa and bittorrent show is that people want to play the game for free, not that they suddenly want to pay for their game by credit card and spend hours and hours of downloading large files.
Bioshock doesn't require DirectX10 either, nor does it require Windows Vista.