Piracy Doesn't Matter? O....K....

The effect of piracy on PC gaming has been a hot topic lately, starting with Michael Fitch’s rant against PC piracy (Michael Fitch wrote how piracy contributed to the collapse of Iron Lore, and in the interest of disclosure, in the past I’ve worked with Michael Fitch, as well as folks high in the ranks of Iron Lore), along with Id’s change in focus to console gaming, and recently updated with the article by Brad Wardell. 

I have to say, as developer that has been focused on console development (I’ve only peripherally contributed to PC titles), I’m commenting on this subject from the outside. However, Wardell’s blog compelled me to post. 

Fanboys have responded with great fever, on all sides, arguing the impact of the pirating of console games in the Philippines or China to how “try before you buy” doesn’t actually hurt sales. That’s great and all, but I’m interested in what effects developers.

Now, back to Wardell’s article. I have to say that his article, at least to me, doesn’t do a good job to convince me that piracy doesn’t significantly hurt PC game sales (which I think is his point). Mainly, my takeaway is that putting work into anti-piracy software on PC games is a waste. That, I generally agree with. I’ve never seen a game with anti-piracy software not cracked within a day or two of its release. In my (humbly personal) opinion, all anti-piracy software does is keep the super-honest person honest, and screws a great number of consumers who want to be honest but get fucked by the bugs in the anti-piracy software. And yes, I have been one of those consumers when I have tried to install PC games.

So while I agree that PC game anti-piracy software is largely useless in stopping piracy, I don’t understand how Wardell takes this argument to come to the conclusion that PC games are (supposedly) floundering because of lack of innovation. He brings up his Galactic Civ: II as an example of a game with no copy protection, and somehow brings the attention of the gaming press into the equation, as well as developer’s focus on the “coolness” factor. I don’t see what the attention of the gaming press has to do with piracy, nor why “cool” games should suck.

Again without commenting on any specific title, I have in the past had privy to some gaming stats. A certain PC title(not one I worked on) I looked at  the online stats for sold around 300k in the first month after launch. Three days BEFORE the game launched…one MILLION people were playing online. Now of course those numbers are approximate…but I don’t see how anti-virus software and the apparent “coolness” of the mainstream game approach can touch those numbers.

Now that that’s posted, as soon as the new episode of Futurama is over, I’m going to buy Sins of a Solar Empire. I hear it’s fucking awesome. Looks like Homeworld 2 on crack.