Gaming PC game developer has radical message: ignore the pirates

The Helper

The Helper

Necromancy Power over 9000
Staff member
Reaction score
1,701
One of the popular reasons given for sometimes-sluggish game sales on the PC is piracy. If people can get the game for free, why would they pay for it? Go to any popular torrent site and it will likely have many more games than your local gaming store. The situation led the community manager for Infinity Ward to recently complain about the number of people playing Call of Duty 4 online versus the number of copies the game has sold for the PC. Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock, has a much different point of view: the pirates don't matter.

"So here is the deal: When you develop for a market, you don't go by the user base. You go by the potential customer base. That's what most software companies do. They base what they want to create on the size of the market they're developing for," Wardell writes on his blog. "But not PC game developers."

His approach is not to think only about the "cool" games, but to make sure what the company does create can be profitable. What good is spending years on a top-tier game that gets all the buzz, is on all the magazine covers, but that very few people have the hardware to run? Furthermore, the people who have spent that much on their PCs know where to find the game for free if they like. It's a small user base, with a smaller customer base.

arstechnica.com

PC game developer has radical message: ignore the pirates

When trying to make a living creating PC games, ignoring the pirates might be …
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
 
Last edited:
R

Rad

...
Reaction score
228
Finally they starting to realize you can not stop piracy? It's going on with software and music too.

Gaming is the only industry where you can actually see how many people are doing it. For music and movies, the companies can just see the lower sales.

But one things surprising when they are comparing the number of players online compared to paying customers, usually pirating a game is one thing - but playing it online is totally different.

You need to bypass a whole new wave of security. CD-Keys, patches that disable cracks, and lets not forget all the copy protection.
 
Varine

Varine

And as the moon rises, we shall prepare for war
Reaction score
808
Rad said:
Finally they starting to realize you can not stop piracy? It's going on with software and music too.

Gaming is the only industry where you can actually see how many people are doing it. For music and movies, the companies can just see the lower sales.

But one things surprising when they are comparing the number of players online compared to paying customers, usually pirating a game is one thing - but playing it online is totally different.

You need to bypass a whole new wave of security. CD-Keys, patches that disable cracks, and lets not forget all the copy protection.
Click to expand...

A REAL pirate would know about KeyGens and the ever-popular opening the box in the bathroom and stealing the keys from there.
 
DuckieKing

DuckieKing

Elitist Through and Through
Reaction score
51
I get bootleg copies. If I like the game, I buy it.

I call it an "enhanced trial version".

edit: pic barely related, but funny
"Pirate of the Oregon Trail"
 

Attachments

  • oregon trail.gif
    oregon trail.gif
    71.3 KB · Views: 271
MeRcChRiS

MeRcChRiS

.
Reaction score
125
fyi, you cant play online with an illegal version of almost every game. Unless its like 8923742908347 years old or something and there are no such thing as patches and cd keys.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
  • Ghan Ghan:
    Still lurking
     +3
  • The Helper The Helper:
    I am great and it is fantastic to see you my friend!
     +1
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Here is a great appetizer recipe Texas style! https://www.thehelper.net/threads/recipe-chicken-stuffed-poblano-peppers.194086/
  • The Helper The Helper:
    If you are new to the site please check out the Recipe and Food Forum https://www.thehelper.net/forums/recipes-and-food.220/
  • Monovertex Monovertex:
    How come you're so into recipes lately? Never saw this much interest in this topic in the old days of TH.net
  • Monovertex Monovertex:
    Hmm, how do I change my signature?
  • tom_mai78101 tom_mai78101:
    Signatures can be edit in your account profile. As for the old stuffs, I'm thinking it's because Blizzard is now under Microsoft, and because of Microsoft Xbox going the way it is, it's dreadful.
  • The Helper The Helper:
    I am not big on the recipes I am just promoting them - I use the site as a practice place promoting stuff
     +2
  • Monovertex Monovertex:
    @tom_mai78101 I must be blind. If I go on my profile I don't see any area to edit the signature; If I go to account details (settings) I don't see any signature area either.
  • The Helper The Helper:
    You can get there if you click the bell icon (alerts) and choose preferences from the bottom, signature will be in the menu on the left there https://www.thehelper.net/account/preferences
  • The Helper The Helper:
    I think I need to split the Sci/Tech news forum into 2 one for Science and one for Tech but I am hating all the moving of posts I would have to do
  • The Helper The Helper:
    New dessert for Summer - https://www.thehelper.net/threads/recipe-lemon-blueberry-layer-cheesecake.194113/
  • The Helper The Helper:
    What is up Old Mountain Shadow?
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Happy Thursday!
     +1
  • Varine Varine:
    Crazy how much 3d printing has come in the last few years. Sad that it's not as easily modifiable though
  • Varine Varine:
    I bought an Ender 3 during the pandemic and tinkered with it all the time. Just bought a Sovol, not as easy. I'm trying to make it use a different nozzle because I have a fuck ton of Volcanos, and they use what is basically a modified volcano that is just a smidge longer, and almost every part on this thing needs to be redone to make it work
  • Varine Varine:
    Luckily I have a 3d printer for that, I guess. But it's ridiculous. The regular volcanos are 21mm, these Sovol versions are about 23.5mm
  • Varine Varine:
    So, 2.5mm longer. But the thing that measures the bed is about 1.5mm above the nozzle, so if I swap it with a volcano then I'm 1mm behind it. So cool, new bracket to swap that, but THEN the fan shroud to direct air at the part is ALSO going to be .5mm to low, and so I need to redo that, but by doing that it is a little bit off where it should be blowing and it's throwing it at the heating block instead of the part, and fuck man
  • Varine Varine:
    I didn't realize they designed this entire thing to NOT be modded. I would have just got a fucking Bambu if I knew that, the whole point was I could fuck with this. And no one else makes shit for Sovol so I have to go through them, and they have... interesting pricing models. So I have a new extruder altogether that I'm taking apart and going to just design a whole new one to use my nozzles. Dumb design.
  • Varine Varine:
    Can't just buy a new heatblock, you need to get a whole hotend - so block, heater cartridge, thermistor, heatbreak, and nozzle. And they put this fucking paste in there so I can't take the thermistor or cartridge out with any ease, that's 30 dollars. Or you can get the whole extrudor with the direct driver AND that heatblock for like 50, but you still can't get any of it to come apart
  • Varine Varine:
    Partsbuilt has individual parts I found but they're expensive. I think I can get bits swapped around and make this work with generic shit though
  • Ghan Ghan:
    Heard Houston got hit pretty bad by storms last night. Hope all is well with TH.
  • The Helper The Helper:
    Power back on finally - all is good here no damage
     +2
  • V-SNES V-SNES:
    Happy Friday!
     +1
  • The Helper The Helper:
    New recipe is another summer dessert Berry and Peach Cheesecake - https://www.thehelper.net/threads/recipe-berry-and-peach-cheesecake.194169/

      The Helper Discord

      Members online

      No members online now.
      Online now:
      85 (members: 2, guests: 83)

      Share this page

      Affiliates

      Hive Workshop NUON Dome World Editor Tutorials

      Network Sponsors

      Apex Steel Pipe - Buys and sells Steel Pipe.
      Top