hm... I was thinking that people do piracy with physical media, and then the idea is to jump up to online products with logins and such... that is a great idea.. but then instead of pirates we are going to have hacked accounts and emu servers... wait.. we already have them.. people hacking accounts and other making emu servers....
The point is that we are unable to stop software burglarly or piracy as they decide to call it... because this kind of burglar... doesnt take anything from other person.. they just duplicate it for itself and the result is that the one that make the original product doesnt lose anything.. they just earn less... which is like some sort of lose for some people lol.
For those that dont think piracy is bad then you are going to always have the games for be torrented.. or kazzaed or juts copied from a friend if that is the case.
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've read two of them, one from Iron Lore, the developers who said this
"Several unrelated events occurred which resulted in Iron Lore being unable to secure funding for its next project."
And one from their publisher Michael Fitch who said this about TitanQuest their game,
"If even a tiny fraction of the people who pirated the game had actually spent some god-damn money for their 40+ hours of entertainment, things could have been very different today," he wrote on the Quarter to Three forums."
So I have to ask you, did you have 40 hours of fun with titanquest, or like me were you bored to tears of it. Was it just another Diablo Clone. Was the poor reputation of the game
"Apparently the game's word-of-mouth reputation was severely damaged after pirates whose game sessions were cut short by copy protection routines - one of which dumped the player back to the desktop at the start of quests when a security check ran - started having a go on forums"
because the pirates said it was buggy, or because everyone said it was dull.
The problem with this guy Fitch is that none of it is his fault. He hasn't chosen crap games that haven't sold to publish, oh no. Criminals ruined it for him.
Piracy is an issue, Fitch's problem is that he hasn't kept abreast of it.
The shooter titles that should of sold well on PC as he claims were all crap and he has failed to recognise the massive success of the other shooters which have sold very well and have also not suffered from any particular amount of piracy.
Just another whinney industry type, blaming everyone rather than himself. He will be replaced at THQ very soon, and when he goes the stock price of the company will rise dramatically the day it is announced.
With all the respect Baff, but saying that games like Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock, both game of the year award winning games and some of the highest rated games of 2007 are crap makes you lose credibility somewhat.
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.
It's quality is fine. It has very high production values. Exemplary even.
It's very well made 15 year old tosh. And there isn't very much of it.
Did COD 4 get pirated as much as Far Cry then?
Has it been pirated as much as Doom?
Of course not.
They all come out and cry against piracy mate. All of them. Every single one. What did you think they were going to come out and say "please don't buy my game, just download it for free".
Here again the importance of selling software, is not how many copies are pirated, but how many are sold. The most pirated software in the world is Microsoft Windows. Co-incidently it is the best selling software in the world. The reason Bill Gates is the (2nd) richest man in the world is because of the numbers he sold. He too has spoken out against piracy.
How many copies of your software got pirated doesn't matter. It's a red herring.
What Kazaa and Bittorrent don't show is how many people are willing to buy your game. It makes no difference to your business at all knowing how many are willing to play for free. We aren't intrested in those people. Copies pirated are not the same as lost sales. They should not be confused with each other.
I stand corrected about Bioshock and DX10, I'd been confusing it with Shadowrun.
With all the respect Baff, but saying that games like Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock, both game of the year award winning games and some of the highest rated games of 2007 are crap makes you lose credibility somewhat.
Look at their sales figures.
They don't look all that well recieved to me.
Just another Flash in the pan.
They may have been well recieved in Console platforms, but they haven't been earth shaking successes on PC.
If as you say most people play COD4 for online multiplayer, then it should not have been affected by piracy any more than the Battlefield series was. BF2 broke all previous sales records on it's launch.
How come BF2 another multiplayer with a similar theme to COD4 has sold millions on the PC, and yet COd4 only a few hundred thousand. Same question for Joint Ops.
Could it be because BF2 and Joint Ops are better games?
hm... I was thinking that people do piracy with physical media, and then the idea is to jump up to online products with logins and such... that is a great idea.. but then instead of pirates we are going to have hacked accounts and emu servers... wait.. we already have them.. people hacking accounts and other making emu servers.... The point is that we are unable to stop software burglarly or piracy as they decide to call it... because this kind of burglar... doesnt take anything from other person.. they just duplicate it for itself and the result is that the one that make the original product doesnt lose anything.. they just earn less... which is like some sort of lose for some people lol. For those that dont think piracy is bad then you are going to always have the games for be torrented.. or kazzaed or juts copied from a friend if that is the case.
That's why the internet needs to be redone so bad, so it's possible to track down the scum that does this kind of crap
With all the respect Baff, but saying that games like Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock, both game of the year award winning games and some of the highest rated games of 2007 are crap makes you lose credibility somewhat.
Look at their sales figures.
They don't look all that well recieved to me.
Just another Flash in the pan.
They may have been well recieved in Console platforms, but they haven't been earth shaking successes on PC.
If as you say most people play COD4 for online multiplayer, then it should not have been affected by piracy any more than the Battlefield series was. BF2 broke all previous sales records on it's launch.
How come BF2 another multiplayer with a similar theme to COD4 has sold millions on the PC, and yet COd4 only a few hundred thousand. Same question for Joint Ops.
Could it be because BF2 and Joint Ops are better games?
Battlefield 2 was released over 2 and a half years ago, piracy has increased significantly apparently. I have always heard of piracy being avaible on the PC platform but it's only been recently that I have started to hear a lot of big time developers complain about it.
Also, Call of Duty 4 can be played online with a pirated copy, I'm not sure if that's possible with Battlefield 2.
When the average score of tons of reviewers is 92%, then it's surely doing something right.
And we have to take into consideration the period they were released in. Call of Duty 4 was released shortly to Crysis and The Orange Box. Since so few people actually buy PC games, there is only room for a few to do well.
I have a great, high end, computer and bought CoD 4 on ps3 instead of my computer.
I think more people who would buy the games just don't have the high end computer to run it smoothly.
-- "Any free people have the right to choose how it wants to be govern thats the essence of democracy. It's sad when America has chosen for the stability and consistency of a dictatorship and doing it democratically" -utnow
Software companies need to abandon hard copies. Instead implement a digital delivery system combined with advertising for your products (or other products)
You'll also see a greater loss in sales. Why? Because people can't physically own the game. If the game company folds, how do you download the game again? Also, some people like to sell their games when they're finished with them to buy new ones. And then what about the large percentage of customers lost due to having 56k instead of broadband?
Have a look at Steam each download has inbuilt software that allows you to print a hardcopy to disk.
In truth, the 56k sales are a very slim minority. If you are a 56ker, the market can afford to lose you.
There are markets still out there with significant numbers of 56k consumers. Particularly Eastern Europe
.
But the Primary market for PC games is Western Europe. 60% of all PC games worldwide are sold here. And our target market in Europe is those people with high disposable incomes. In short people who are willing to pay for broadband are our target audience. They are the ones that buy most of our products. They are the ones willing to shell out for home entertainment.
I agree there is no silver bullet cure for piracy. That's not to say the (very profitable) status quo can't be maintained through an arms race however.
With all the respect Baff, but saying that games like Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock, both game of the year award winning games and some of the highest rated games of 2007 are crap makes you lose credibility somewhat.
Sorry gameloading you are wrong to credit is credibility on his oppinion. The majority of sites I know about have the same reviewers for years. Did you like all the oscar winning movie of 07?
The best games I like were underrated. Bloodlines was one o them
-- "Any free people have the right to choose how it wants to be govern thats the essence of democracy. It's sad when America has chosen for the stability and consistency of a dictatorship and doing it democratically" -utnow
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.
Not true.. both these games got pirated OUt the wazoo.. to the point where both of them have spoken publicly about it.
And one of the COD developers specifically said that he was astonished at the percentage of pirated COD copies that were playing multiplayer online (and he doesn't know the amount that haven't taken the game online)
Piracy is a BIG issue. BIG BIG issue.. and developers will only neglect PC gamers more and more... if the pirating continues
Here again the importance of selling software, is not how many copies are pirated, but how many are sold. The most pirated software in the world is Microsoft Windows. Co-incidently it is the best selling software in the world. The reason Bill Gates is the (2nd) richest man in the world is because of the numbers he sold. He too has spoken out against piracy.
How many copies of your software got pirated doesn't matter. It's a red herring.
I'm 100% sure that MOST of Microsoft's income comes from corporations licencing the OS for their computers. Along with retailers and dealerships like Circuit City, Best Buy, Dell, Sony, Compac, etc etc selling thousands of computers every day.. almost all have windows pre-installed.
What's your Wu Name? Donovan --> Wu Name = Violent Knight Methane47 --> Wu Name = Thunderous Leader "Some people call me the walking plank, 'cuz any where you go... Death is right behind you.." <i>ME<i>
Battlefield 2 was released over 2 and a half years ago, piracy has increased significantly apparently. I have always heard of piracy being avaible on the PC platform but it's only been recently that I have started to hear a lot of big time developers complain about it.
I've been hearing it constantly since 1983.
Want me to spam you with a thousand links from game developers 2 years ago?
Here's the one from EA (the makers of BF2 from the release year of that game 2005) that Google pulls up.
Electronic Arts Hopes Gaming Piracy Will Drop In Central Europe"
Here's some more from 2005.... I won't bother with the links just the headlines. You have Google too.
Nintendo Asks US Government For Tougher Piracy Stance
Valve addresses piracy problem - Half-Life 2 requires online activation
The release of the Playstation 3 is being delayed due to the threat of piracy, Sony has announced.
Mac Gaming News - Piracy Eats Into Already-Slim Mac Game Sales Margins
2004
Of the 2,219 PC gamers quizzed, 52 percent admitted to obtaining cracked software while 33 percent of those reported acquiring 'ISO' files – essentially full CD images with copy protection hacked out. Alarmingly, 15 percent of respondents admitted to acquiring 15 or more pirated games within the last two years.
2003
Could specialized dongles work as a solution to PC piracy?
2002
Brazil: High Taxes and Piracy Challenge the Promising Market for Video Games
1995
Software piracy cost US computer, video game makers $2.5 billion in 1995.
Given that NPD values the total U.S software sales for 2005 (All platforms combined) at $3.2 Billion, this analysis has piracy at 78% of all games software not just PC, 12 years ago.
1990(Eidos) The anti-piracy campaign
What is piracy?
Every year thousands of pounds worth of illegal software is sold in the UK at car boot sales, markets, mail order and other outlets by unscrupulous traders. The software sold by these traders has been illegally copied without the approval of the game developers, manufacturers and distributors, and comes with no money back guarantee, instruction manuals or packaging. The only attraction is that it is cheap, often only at a fraction of the cost of
1985
Computer Chronicles: Software Piracy (1985)
Description
Meet teenage software pirates, computer lawyers and the battle over software ownership.
What's new? It's all been said before. And each year the industry grows larger just the same.
last week i stopped in TWO game stop stores for a copy of lego star wars. neither of the stores had it. their pc games selection was pathetic at best, unkept, out of order, games that are WAY out of date, (well, except for 8 copies of wow) quite sad to see actually compared to the entire wall of xbox games in meticulous order.
why was a sale lost ? not because i chose download it instead.
If those numbers are true than I definitely see why PC gaming is dying. I myself wouldn't decline that I've pirated some stuff, but as I play mainly MMORPGs I pretty much have to pay for them, which I would even if pirating was possible. The main problem with piracy is the fact that if people are given the possibility to save $60 (or whatever games cost in USA) they usually take it and don't consider the consequences until later. Hopefully we will see turn in the current development of piracy as otherwise we could as well give up playing games on PCs.
I wonder why sales sucked on bioshock. wait no I don't, It took an hour and a half of updating drivers and settings to get something that looked between playable and crap. later I rolled back the drivers in favor of other games.
sure my computer is crap compared to what people taunt on these forums(these people ignored bus speeds and load up on crapware so it's worth a few good laughs). it didn't look bad but my computer(just didn't look right) is well above average even for people who have computers only for games and messing around on the internet.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
Not true.. both these games got pirated OUt the wazoo.. to the point where both of them have spoken publicly about it. And one of the COD developers specifically said that he was astonished at the percentage of pirated COD copies that were playing multiplayer online (and he doesn't know the amount that haven't taken the game online) Piracy is a BIG issue. BIG BIG issue.. and developers will only neglect PC gamers more and more... if the pirating continues
I tell you what, when they make COD5, see if they still release a PC version.
See if they still think it is profitable to do so.
They have sold 400,000 copies of COD 4 on PC. How many man hours do you think they spent adapting it to work on PC? They should be laughing.
But they can't. The Xbox version sold millions and now they feel all cheated.
I'd have a lot more sympathy if it wasn't someone who earns three times as much as me complaining. If it wasn't the biggest selling video game of last year, or if they were in any danger of going out of business.
Boo Hoo.
Really boo hoo hoo. How I lie awake at night lamenting their misery. How I fear that they might never make another PC game.
If only.
What a bunch of whinners. Imagine what they would be like if they had made a loss. Imagine living in their house and leaving the light on overnight by accident, or buying the wrong coloured loo roll.
The only time I don't pirate a game is when it offers good online play that I have to have a legit copy for. Most of the other ones I would never buy anyway, like Crysis for example. It isn't worth 50 bucks just because it's so pretty, the rest of the game is horrible; especially the new-age mechanics that make the core element of the game, combat, boring.
Hope you got your things together. Hope you are quite prepared to die. Looks like we're in for nasty weather. ... There's a bad moon on the rise.
Not true.. both these games got pirated OUt the wazoo.. to the point where both of them have spoken publicly about it. And one of the COD developers specifically said that he was astonished at the percentage of pirated COD copies that were playing multiplayer online (and he doesn't know the amount that haven't taken the game online) Piracy is a BIG issue. BIG BIG issue.. and developers will only neglect PC gamers more and more... if the pirating continues
I tell you what, when they make COD5, see if they still release a PC version.
See if they still think it is profitable to do so.
They have sold 400,000 copies of COD 4 on PC. How many man hours do you think they spent adapting it to work on PC? They should be laughing.
But they can't. The Xbox version sold millions and now they feel all cheated.
I'd have a lot more sympathy if it wasn't someone who earns three times as much as me complaining. If it wasn't the biggest selling video game of last year, or if they were in any danger of going out of business.
Boo Hoo.
Really boo hoo hoo. How I lie awake at night lamenting their misery. How I fear that they might never make another PC game.
If only.
What a bunch of whinners. Imagine what they would be like if they had made a loss. Imagine living in their house and leaving the light on overnight by accident, or buying the wrong coloured loo roll.
So what do the developers of COD4 make? Could you link me to that? I've always been interested about HOW profitable game developing really is.
So what do the developers of COD4 make? Could you link me to that? I've always been interested about HOW profitable game developing really is.
The slave driver at the top gets paid quite well to keep his minions in line. Corporate takes most of the profits and buy lamborginis for their teenage daughters, while the slaves put in 80 hour weeks for 50k a year. You'll do a lot better as a stockholder than you will as a worker bee. So its like any other job, really.
I pretty well know squat about programming, but it just seems to me that no matter how many precautions a company takes, the pirates manage to defeat their work in record time. I remember Half Life 2, coming loaded with all kinds of anit-pirating measures and the online identification to play thingy, and it was cracked before it was even released. Are the companies that bad at security, or are the pirates just that good?
There are so many games I would love to play. But I can't get over the $60/game price tag. To me that is just too steep a cost.
Don't get me wrong, I could afford to pay it if I wanted to. But I just don't see the cost of the game equaling what's inside the box. Most of the games these days are mediocre at best anyways.
There are so many games I would love to play. But I can't get over the $60/game price tag. To me that is just too steep a cost. Don't get me wrong, I could afford to pay it if I wanted to. But I just don't see the cost of the game equaling what's inside the box. Most of the games these days are mediocre at best anyways.
Check out gamersgate. A couple of games which are more than worth their money. Especially the paradox games (Hearts Of Iron, Europa Universalis) which have immense replay value.
Not true.. both these games got pirated OUt the wazoo.. to the point where both of them have spoken publicly about it. And one of the COD developers specifically said that he was astonished at the percentage of pirated COD copies that were playing multiplayer online (and he doesn't know the amount that haven't taken the game online) Piracy is a BIG issue. BIG BIG issue.. and developers will only neglect PC gamers more and more... if the pirating continues
I tell you what, when they make COD5, see if they still release a PC version.
See if they still think it is profitable to do so.
They have sold 400,000 copies of COD 4 on PC. How many man hours do you think they spent adapting it to work on PC? They should be laughing.
But they can't. The Xbox version sold millions and now they feel all cheated.
I'd have a lot more sympathy if it wasn't someone who earns three times as much as me complaining. If it wasn't the biggest selling video game of last year, or if they were in any danger of going out of business.
Boo Hoo.
Really boo hoo hoo. How I lie awake at night lamenting their misery. How I fear that they might never make another PC game.
If only.
What a bunch of whinners. Imagine what they would be like if they had made a loss. Imagine living in their house and leaving the light on overnight by accident, or buying the wrong coloured loo roll.
So what do the developers of COD4 make? Could you link me to that? I've always been interested about HOW profitable game developing really is.
50K USD on their first job straight out of college for the artists.
It varies a bit depending where in the world you live. Junior management adds 6-10k, so lead artist etc.
And the the boffins, the AI guys, the netcoders the game engine mechanics, they pretty much name their prices. These guys are so hard to find they can name their prices and take the piss with their hours etc. Which is why so many games are just "mods". Just the same game engine as all the others with new artwork.
COD4 for example is a Quake 3 mod. So there aren't any clever employee's at all. Just an art factory. Cheap and cheerful, an investors dream. Produced quickly and with low cost labour. They pump these out at speed of one a year. With an established brandname, using an engine that works on all the new platforms too.
The publishers made decent a profit on the PC game sales alone.
A good place to look for jobs in video games would be www.gamasutra.com. Yuo can check out salaries there.
Comments
hm... I was thinking that people do piracy with physical media, and then the idea is to jump up to online products with logins and such... that is a great idea.. but then instead of pirates we are going to have hacked accounts and emu servers... wait.. we already have them.. people hacking accounts and other making emu servers....
The point is that we are unable to stop software burglarly or piracy as they decide to call it... because this kind of burglar... doesnt take anything from other person.. they just duplicate it for itself and the result is that the one that make the original product doesnt lose anything.. they just earn less... which is like some sort of lose for some people lol.
For those that dont think piracy is bad then you are going to always have the games for be torrented.. or kazzaed or juts copied from a friend if that is the case.
"Several unrelated events occurred which resulted in Iron Lore being unable to secure funding for its next project."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=33628
And one from their publisher Michael Fitch who said this about TitanQuest their game,
"If even a tiny fraction of the people who pirated the game had actually spent some god-damn money for their 40+ hours of entertainment, things could have been very different today," he wrote on the Quarter to Three forums."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=33686
So I have to ask you, did you have 40 hours of fun with titanquest, or like me were you bored to tears of it. Was it just another Diablo Clone. Was the poor reputation of the game
"Apparently the game's word-of-mouth reputation was severely damaged after pirates whose game sessions were cut short by copy protection routines - one of which dumped the player back to the desktop at the start of quests when a security check ran - started having a go on forums"
because the pirates said it was buggy, or because everyone said it was dull.
The problem with this guy Fitch is that none of it is his fault. He hasn't chosen crap games that haven't sold to publish, oh no. Criminals ruined it for him.
Piracy is an issue, Fitch's problem is that he hasn't kept abreast of it.
The shooter titles that should of sold well on PC as he claims were all crap and he has failed to recognise the massive success of the other shooters which have sold very well and have also not suffered from any particular amount of piracy.
Just another whinney industry type, blaming everyone rather than himself. He will be replaced at THQ very soon, and when he goes the stock price of the company will rise dramatically the day it is announced.
With all the respect Baff, but saying that games like Call of Duty 4 and Bioshock, both game of the year award winning games and some of the highest rated games of 2007 are crap makes you lose credibility somewhat.
It's quality is fine. It has very high production values. Exemplary even.
It's very well made 15 year old tosh. And there isn't very much of it.
Did COD 4 get pirated as much as Far Cry then?
Has it been pirated as much as Doom?
Of course not.
They all come out and cry against piracy mate. All of them. Every single one. What did you think they were going to come out and say "please don't buy my game, just download it for free".
Here again the importance of selling software, is not how many copies are pirated, but how many are sold. The most pirated software in the world is Microsoft Windows. Co-incidently it is the best selling software in the world. The reason Bill Gates is the (2nd) richest man in the world is because of the numbers he sold. He too has spoken out against piracy.
How many copies of your software got pirated doesn't matter. It's a red herring.
What Kazaa and Bittorrent don't show is how many people are willing to buy your game. It makes no difference to your business at all knowing how many are willing to play for free. We aren't intrested in those people. Copies pirated are not the same as lost sales. They should not be confused with each other.
I stand corrected about Bioshock and DX10, I'd been confusing it with Shadowrun.
Look at their sales figures.
They don't look all that well recieved to me.
Just another Flash in the pan.
They may have been well recieved in Console platforms, but they haven't been earth shaking successes on PC.
If as you say most people play COD4 for online multiplayer, then it should not have been affected by piracy any more than the Battlefield series was. BF2 broke all previous sales records on it's launch.
How come BF2 another multiplayer with a similar theme to COD4 has sold millions on the PC, and yet COd4 only a few hundred thousand. Same question for Joint Ops.
Could it be because BF2 and Joint Ops are better games?
That's why the internet needs to be redone so bad, so it's possible to track down the scum that does this kind of crap
member of imminst.org
Look at their sales figures.
They don't look all that well recieved to me.
Just another Flash in the pan.
They may have been well recieved in Console platforms, but they haven't been earth shaking successes on PC.
If as you say most people play COD4 for online multiplayer, then it should not have been affected by piracy any more than the Battlefield series was. BF2 broke all previous sales records on it's launch.
How come BF2 another multiplayer with a similar theme to COD4 has sold millions on the PC, and yet COd4 only a few hundred thousand. Same question for Joint Ops.
Could it be because BF2 and Joint Ops are better games?
Battlefield 2 was released over 2 and a half years ago, piracy has increased significantly apparently. I have always heard of piracy being avaible on the PC platform but it's only been recently that I have started to hear a lot of big time developers complain about it.
Also, Call of Duty 4 can be played online with a pirated copy, I'm not sure if that's possible with Battlefield 2.
When the average score of tons of reviewers is 92%, then it's surely doing something right.
And we have to take into consideration the period they were released in. Call of Duty 4 was released shortly to Crysis and The Orange Box. Since so few people actually buy PC games, there is only room for a few to do well.
I have a great, high end, computer and bought CoD 4 on ps3 instead of my computer.
I think more people who would buy the games just don't have the high end computer to run it smoothly.
--
"Any free people have the right to choose how it wants to be govern thats the essence of democracy. It's sad when America has chosen for the stability and consistency of a dictatorship and doing it democratically" -utnow
In truth, the 56k sales are a very slim minority. If you are a 56ker, the market can afford to lose you.
There are markets still out there with significant numbers of 56k consumers. Particularly Eastern Europe
.
But the Primary market for PC games is Western Europe. 60% of all PC games worldwide are sold here. And our target market in Europe is those people with high disposable incomes. In short people who are willing to pay for broadband are our target audience. They are the ones that buy most of our products. They are the ones willing to shell out for home entertainment.
I agree there is no silver bullet cure for piracy. That's not to say the (very profitable) status quo can't be maintained through an arms race however.
Sorry gameloading you are wrong to credit is credibility on his oppinion. The majority of sites I know about have the same reviewers for years. Did you like all the oscar winning movie of 07?
The best games I like were underrated. Bloodlines was one o them
--
"Any free people have the right to choose how it wants to be govern thats the essence of democracy. It's sad when America has chosen for the stability and consistency of a dictatorship and doing it democratically" -utnow
Not true.. both these games got pirated OUt the wazoo.. to the point where both of them have spoken publicly about it.
And one of the COD developers specifically said that he was astonished at the percentage of pirated COD copies that were playing multiplayer online (and he doesn't know the amount that haven't taken the game online)
Piracy is a BIG issue. BIG BIG issue.. and developers will only neglect PC gamers more and more... if the pirating continues
I'm 100% sure that MOST of Microsoft's income comes from corporations licencing the OS for their computers. Along with retailers and dealerships like Circuit City, Best Buy, Dell, Sony, Compac, etc etc selling thousands of computers every day.. almost all have windows pre-installed.
What's your Wu Name?
Donovan --> Wu Name = Violent Knight
Methane47 --> Wu Name = Thunderous Leader
"Some people call me the walking plank, 'cuz any where you go... Death is right behind you.."
<i>ME<i>
I've been hearing it constantly since 1983.
Want me to spam you with a thousand links from game developers 2 years ago?
Here's the one from EA (the makers of BF2 from the release year of that game 2005) that Google pulls up.
Electronic Arts Hopes Gaming Piracy Will Drop In Central Europe"
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Electronic-Arts-Hopes-Gaming-Piracy-Will-Drop-In-Central-Europe-13558.shtml
Here's some more from 2005.... I won't bother with the links just the headlines. You have Google too.
Nintendo Asks US Government For Tougher Piracy Stance
Valve addresses piracy problem - Half-Life 2 requires online activation
The release of the Playstation 3 is being delayed due to the threat of piracy, Sony has announced.
Mac Gaming News - Piracy Eats Into Already-Slim Mac Game Sales Margins
2004
Of the 2,219 PC gamers quizzed, 52 percent admitted to obtaining cracked software while 33 percent of those reported acquiring 'ISO' files – essentially full CD images with copy protection hacked out. Alarmingly, 15 percent of respondents admitted to acquiring 15 or more pirated games within the last two years.
2003
Could specialized dongles work as a solution to PC piracy?
2002
Brazil: High Taxes and Piracy Challenge the Promising Market for Video Games
1995
Software piracy cost US computer, video game makers $2.5 billion in 1995.
Publication: Software Industry Report
Given that NPD values the total U.S software sales for 2005 (All platforms combined) at $3.2 Billion, this analysis has piracy at 78% of all games software not just PC, 12 years ago.
1990 (Eidos) The anti-piracy campaign
What is piracy?
Every year thousands of pounds worth of illegal software is sold in the UK at car boot sales, markets, mail order and other outlets by unscrupulous traders. The software sold by these traders has been illegally copied without the approval of the game developers, manufacturers and distributors, and comes with no money back guarantee, instruction manuals or packaging. The only attraction is that it is cheap, often only at a fraction of the cost of
1985
Computer Chronicles: Software Piracy (1985)
Description
Meet teenage software pirates, computer lawyers and the battle over software ownership.
What's new? It's all been said before. And each year the industry grows larger just the same.
In 1995 78%
Each year gaming grows larger, piracy will too.
last week i stopped in TWO game stop stores for a copy of lego star wars. neither of the stores had it. their pc games selection was pathetic at best, unkept, out of order, games that are WAY out of date, (well, except for 8 copies of wow) quite sad to see actually compared to the entire wall of xbox games in meticulous order.
why was a sale lost ? not because i chose download it instead.
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TheCore
If those numbers are true than I definitely see why PC gaming is dying. I myself wouldn't decline that I've pirated some stuff, but as I play mainly MMORPGs I pretty much have to pay for them, which I would even if pirating was possible. The main problem with piracy is the fact that if people are given the possibility to save $60 (or whatever games cost in USA) they usually take it and don't consider the consequences until later. Hopefully we will see turn in the current development of piracy as otherwise we could as well give up playing games on PCs.
I wonder why sales sucked on bioshock. wait no I don't, It took an hour and a half of updating drivers and settings to get something that looked between playable and crap. later I rolled back the drivers in favor of other games.
sure my computer is crap compared to what people taunt on these forums(these people ignored bus speeds and load up on crapware so it's worth a few good laughs). it didn't look bad but my computer(just didn't look right) is well above average even for people who have computers only for games and messing around on the internet.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
I tell you what, when they make COD5, see if they still release a PC version.
See if they still think it is profitable to do so.
They have sold 400,000 copies of COD 4 on PC. How many man hours do you think they spent adapting it to work on PC? They should be laughing.
But they can't. The Xbox version sold millions and now they feel all cheated.
I'd have a lot more sympathy if it wasn't someone who earns three times as much as me complaining. If it wasn't the biggest selling video game of last year, or if they were in any danger of going out of business.
Boo Hoo.
Really boo hoo hoo. How I lie awake at night lamenting their misery. How I fear that they might never make another PC game.
If only.
What a bunch of whinners. Imagine what they would be like if they had made a loss. Imagine living in their house and leaving the light on overnight by accident, or buying the wrong coloured loo roll.
The only time I don't pirate a game is when it offers good online play that I have to have a legit copy for. Most of the other ones I would never buy anyway, like Crysis for example. It isn't worth 50 bucks just because it's so pretty, the rest of the game is horrible; especially the new-age mechanics that make the core element of the game, combat, boring.
Hope you got your things together. Hope you are quite prepared to die. Looks like we're in for nasty weather. ... There's a bad moon on the rise.
Its not piracy that is having a dramatic effect on sales so much as it is more about;
1. Low quality of gameplay. 10 year old games everyone already owns are better.
2. Too many games spreading the buyers thin. Leading to low population multiplayer games = dead games.
3. High system requirements and technical flaws. Equals frustration and disappointment.
I tell you what, when they make COD5, see if they still release a PC version.
See if they still think it is profitable to do so.
They have sold 400,000 copies of COD 4 on PC. How many man hours do you think they spent adapting it to work on PC? They should be laughing.
But they can't. The Xbox version sold millions and now they feel all cheated.
I'd have a lot more sympathy if it wasn't someone who earns three times as much as me complaining. If it wasn't the biggest selling video game of last year, or if they were in any danger of going out of business.
Boo Hoo.
Really boo hoo hoo. How I lie awake at night lamenting their misery. How I fear that they might never make another PC game.
If only.
What a bunch of whinners. Imagine what they would be like if they had made a loss. Imagine living in their house and leaving the light on overnight by accident, or buying the wrong coloured loo roll.
So what do the developers of COD4 make? Could you link me to that? I've always been interested about HOW profitable game developing really is.
CLICK HERE TO GET A LIST OF FREE MMO LISTS!!!
The slave driver at the top gets paid quite well to keep his minions in line. Corporate takes most of the profits and buy lamborginis for their teenage daughters, while the slaves put in 80 hour weeks for 50k a year. You'll do a lot better as a stockholder than you will as a worker bee. So its like any other job, really.
I pretty well know squat about programming, but it just seems to me that no matter how many precautions a company takes, the pirates manage to defeat their work in record time. I remember Half Life 2, coming loaded with all kinds of anit-pirating measures and the online identification to play thingy, and it was cracked before it was even released. Are the companies that bad at security, or are the pirates just that good?
it really comes down to manhours. your team of which you have a hand full to work on security.
verses whoever happens to be bored, wants to be an attention whore, and has experience in whatever.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
There are so many games I would love to play. But I can't get over the $60/game price tag. To me that is just too steep a cost.
Don't get me wrong, I could afford to pay it if I wanted to. But I just don't see the cost of the game equaling what's inside the box. Most of the games these days are mediocre at best anyways.
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</OBAMA>
Check out gamersgate. A couple of games which are more than worth their money. Especially the paradox games (Hearts Of Iron, Europa Universalis) which have immense replay value.
Baff, not gonna answer my question?
CLICK HERE TO GET A LIST OF FREE MMO LISTS!!!
I tell you what, when they make COD5, see if they still release a PC version.
See if they still think it is profitable to do so.
They have sold 400,000 copies of COD 4 on PC. How many man hours do you think they spent adapting it to work on PC? They should be laughing.
But they can't. The Xbox version sold millions and now they feel all cheated.
I'd have a lot more sympathy if it wasn't someone who earns three times as much as me complaining. If it wasn't the biggest selling video game of last year, or if they were in any danger of going out of business.
Boo Hoo.
Really boo hoo hoo. How I lie awake at night lamenting their misery. How I fear that they might never make another PC game.
If only.
What a bunch of whinners. Imagine what they would be like if they had made a loss. Imagine living in their house and leaving the light on overnight by accident, or buying the wrong coloured loo roll.
So what do the developers of COD4 make? Could you link me to that? I've always been interested about HOW profitable game developing really is.
50K USD on their first job straight out of college for the artists.
It varies a bit depending where in the world you live. Junior management adds 6-10k, so lead artist etc.
And the the boffins, the AI guys, the netcoders the game engine mechanics, they pretty much name their prices. These guys are so hard to find they can name their prices and take the piss with their hours etc. Which is why so many games are just "mods". Just the same game engine as all the others with new artwork.
COD4 for example is a Quake 3 mod. So there aren't any clever employee's at all. Just an art factory. Cheap and cheerful, an investors dream. Produced quickly and with low cost labour. They pump these out at speed of one a year. With an established brandname, using an engine that works on all the new platforms too.
The publishers made decent a profit on the PC game sales alone.
A good place to look for jobs in video games would be www.gamasutra.com. Yuo can check out salaries there.