Delays In PC Version of Tom Clancy's EndWar Due To Piracy

[213]

It's just the money-mongering hype machines crying about pc piracy really. It seems all the "waaaah!" starts when "developers" suddenly have offices full of PR and marketing executives to fluff* off every pay day.

There are, and will continue to be plenty of indie developers ready and willing to make PC titles as they themselves climb the ladder towards "Megacraporation" status. It's the circle of life Simba.


*by "fluff, I mean the porn terminology 'cause that's what these leeches expect every payday.

 

[Kronos7]

And yet there are 5 times as many people playing a game than purchased it....

I wish there were 5 times more players then whom purchased it, then maybe we'd see alot more player count on UT3.

 

[Sirius]

And yet there are 5 times as many people playing a game than purchased it....

Really? And the proof is where?
I always hear about all of these people playing pirated copies and wonder where these numbers are gathered from.

Until I see definitive proof and not speculation I'm calling BS on piracy claims.

 

[badvermin]

"Piracy's basically killing PC."
Yeah, that and developers releasing products a year later on the PC and then wondering why their not really selling all to well.

It seems more and more like devs and publishers are trying to kill the PC as a gaming platform. /

Sure piracy is a problem, but how is putting legitimate customers out, helping in any way? I'd look at a different strategy if I were them.

In fact, this seems a little strange as if you delay the game then legit buyers are just going to get it late and so are the pirates... who wins again?

I don't work for Epic, I have no connection with them. The company I work for releases our AAA, award winning, multiplatform titles simultaneously on PC and consoles, we generally don't stagger our releases. The console versions still sell 5x as many copies every time.

Lets take our premier title for last year, we can tell how many people are playing the game online, and we can see that the majority of players pirated the title on PC.

What is a developers motivation to make a award winning PC game if people are just going to steal it and come up with weak rationalizations to pirate?

 

[zynthetic]

The resolve of my opinion on the piracy issue is so strong that I had no need to read the linked article and/or understand it before replying to it.

 

[badvermin]

http://www.pcplay.hr/modules.php?r=23&id=15

"We spoke with Mark Rein, VP of Epic Games, and learned that the Unreal Tournament 3 servers received over 40 million attempts at illegitimate access using pirate keys."

http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/37203/98/

Crytek president, Mr Cevat Yerli - "We are suffering currently from the huge piracy that is encompassing Crysis. We seem to lead the charts in piracy by a large margin, a chart leading that is not desirable. I believe that’s the core problem of PC Gaming, piracy. To the degree PC Gamers that pirate games inherently destroy the platform. Similar games on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more. It was a big lesson for us and I believe we wont have PC exclusives as we did with Crysis in future. We are going to support PC, but not exclusive anymore."

PC centric developers are quickly becoming a thing of the past, all thanks to piracy.

 

[MonsOlympus]

I don't work for Epic, I have no connection with them. The company I work for releases our AAA, award winning, multiplatform titles simultaneously on PC and consoles, we generally don't stagger our releases. The console versions still sell 5x as many copies every time.

Lets take our premier title for last year, we can tell how many people are playing the game online, and we can see that the majority of players pirated the title on PC.

If you are a AAA game developer why do you need to quote other game developers? Why not just say what you need to yourself and back it up with the company's name you work for?

 

[Kharnellius]

"Piracy's basically killing PC."
Yeah, that and developers releasing products a year later on the PC and then wondering why their not really selling all to well.

It seems more and more like devs and publishers are trying to kill the PC as a gaming platform. /

Sure piracy is a problem, but how is putting legitimate customers out, helping in any way? I'd look at a different strategy if I were them.

In fact, this seems a little strange as if you delay the game then legit buyers are just going to get it late and so are the pirates... who wins again?

/edit
OK, so there is a pseudo reason, but I still don't like it.

I think they are getting released a year later because they dont want a pirated PC version to ruin revenue for the console version. This is why PC pirating hurts Console gaming as well as PC gaming.

Consider these scenarios:

1) Simultaneous release of PC and console version:
- PC version pirated, (PC version sales down).
- People who use both PC and console will have a better chance of simply pirating PC version and never buy console version, (console sales down also).

2) PC version first:
- PC version pirated, (PC version sales down).
- People who use both PC and console will have a better chance of simply pirating PC version and never buy console version, (console sales down).
- Effects are only magnified due to the game being released on PC first combined with piracy being far more rampant on PC (console sales down even more).

3) Console version first:
- Console version is very difficult to pirate, so sales are not affected as much (sales not as affected).
- PC users wait so they either buy console version or don't buy at all, (probably a wash).


None of the above scenarios are perfect, but you can see that the third one is probably the most attractive to a potential game developer (they lose the least). This is not factoring in the difficulty of developing games for the PC platform. This additional fact further puts computers lower on the desirability scale.

 

[badvermin]

If you are a AAA game developer why do you need to quote other game developers? Why not just say what you need to yourself and back it up with the company's name you work for?

I am not in public relations.

While I'm not giving away information that can't be found online, my statements could be taken as official responses. I've seen people on this forum make larger logical leaps than that.

 

[zynthetic]

(some) PC centric developers are quickly becoming a thing of the past, because they've lost touch with what players want. Though it's easier to blame potential customers/pirates for a failure/loss if they represent a large portion of players that don't think the product is worth their money.

 

[nELsOn]

Really? And the proof is where?
I always hear about all of these people playing pirated copies and wonder where these numbers are gathered from.

Until I see definitive proof and not speculation I'm calling BS on piracy claims.

you will not accept this as proof and that's okay but i can see proof all around in people that don't download demos to try out a game and later buy the full version if they like it but instead download the full version right away instead.
it's really sad imo. i don't even want to argue whether or not piracy really is a problem because i do understand both points of view but it's just really sad that it's come to this situation in general

 

[elmuerte]

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20513
see point #6

 

[MonsOlympus]

I am not in public relations.

While I'm not giving away information that can't be found online, my statements could be taken as official responses. I've seen people on this forum make larger logical leaps than that.

Fair enough but excuse me if I dont trust you then! Its not like we know who you are anyway, for all I know you could be a random 360 fanboi trying to make a point thats a much smaller leap than me taking what you said as official without any numbers to back it up.

Infact alot of developers keep saying 5x this, 5x that but I have not once seen a developer quote the hard numbers. Now that is not a leap, the leap is taking what developers say as 100% pure truth official or not.

So I guess it doesnt matter who you work for, you (and your fellow developers) still havent proven a thing to the consumers.

 

[i_hax]

...and at least on Xbox Live can be detected and your account suspended. The barrier to entry to console piracy requires a technical sophistication that PC piracy really doesn't.

This I don't understand.

Simply suspend the pirated copies from play. Obviously once in a wile a CD key generator could produce a legit key, but for the most part I don't see the issue.

AFAIK Blizzard has no issue with this, with games such as Warcraft 3 I never once knew of a pirated copy playing online.

 

[Wowbagger]

Copy the MMO:s (NOT the monthly fee tho ) or use Steam, simple.

 

[badvermin]

Infact alot of developers keep saying 5x this, 5x that but I have not once seen a developer quote the hard numbers.

I call that willful ignorance.

How many developers have to say it?

Plus I've provided you with real hard numbers several times in various threads. I've posted the NPD, showing how an identical game will sell 5-10 times better on consoles compared to PC. I've provided links with other companies giving their numbers in this very thread.

Even if I sent you our actual reports, I'm certain you wouldn't be satisfied since it doesn't contain the numbers for the entire industry.

 

[MonsOlympus]

How many developers have to say it?

In the last 24hrs on this forum including your quote that makes 3!~ There has been more.

Plus I've provided you with real hard numbers several times in various threads. I've posted the NPD, showing how an identical game will sell 5-10 times better on consoles compared to PC. I've provided links with other companies giving their numbers in this very thread.

Yes and I looked at those NPD numbers but we know how limited the scope is for those, Im talking about the numbers givin by say the publisher. Anyways WarTourist said earlier thats the numbers he could get but also provided no indication of PC vs PS3 sales in hard numbers.

Even if I sent you our actual reports, I'm certain you wouldn't be satisfied since it doesn't contain the numbers for the entire industry.

Its not willful ignorance if you have to badger the facts out of people, I consider it being an informed consumer but Im starting to get the impression developers want us in the dark. I would be well satified with global sales numbers for 1 title from a developer that indications this 4-5x sales number difference. Judging by the NPD numbers I could assume you are correct but I cant state it for a fact!

 

[-=WolverinE=-]

summary: Pirates are not your customers. Make games your customers want, how they want, and they will happily pay for them.

Indeed. That's what I do even if I am not fully satisfied with a product (for example Mass Effect). If game devs make games like The Witcher, they will get a lot of sales. I actually pirated it when I wanted to check it out and now I have a legal copy of it. The forum on the site I got it from was full of comments to buy the game and a lot of people did. And if you know what the average salary here is, you'll wonder how we even buy games.

Piracy is everywhere so getting paranoid is not helping your business. The bottomline is that good games will always sell.

 

[UnixPimp]

Indeed. That's what I do even if I am not fully satisfied with a product (for example Mass Effect). If game devs make games like The Witcher, they will get a lot of sales. I actually pirated it when I wanted to check it out and now I have a legal copy of it. The forum on the site I got it from was full of comments to buy the game and a lot of people did. And if you know what the average salary here is, you'll wonder how we even buy games.

Piracy is everywhere so getting paranoid is not helping your business. The bottomline is that good games will always sell.

You pirated the game first to "check it out" then you paid for it?

That still makes you a pirate.

Ever hear of game demos? You should be able to determine if you like a game or if your PC can play the game via a demo version of the game.

Steal the game and if you like it pay for a legit copy? These games are not shareware. You either pay for it or do not have a copy of the game. Anything else is piracy, and piracy is ruining PC gaming.

 

[-=WolverinE=-]

You pirated the game first to "check it out" then you paid for it?

That still makes you a pirate.

Ever hear of game demos? You should be able to determine if you like a game or if your PC can play the game via a demo version of the game.

Steal the game and if you like it pay for a legit copy? These games are not shareware. You either pay for it or do not have a copy of the game. Anything else is piracy, and piracy is ruining PC gaming.

I haven't denied the fact that I am a pirate, but the thing is that there are a lot of people, who buy games after they pirate them (like I did). And yes, I've heard of small, crappy demos that don't reveal sh1t of the game. I was hoping that the UT3 demo would be what the title says - BETA! I am not satisfied with the end product, even though I got the Special Edition, which means I haven't pirated it.

So what I can't understand here is what are you complaining about? I still payed for what I played so bite me!