Hey I have been a pirate since the days of soldering the jumpers in C64 drives to copy drive to drive, and I have ran a warez forum for years: I am very familiar with that community, from top to bottom. Outside of that perspective, I am also a consumer that buys Xbox games and PC Games, both for myself and my kids that each have their own PC Gaming Platform and Xbox 360. Although I certainly could spend my time and efforts to play with the keygens and hacked servers to play PC multi-player games?I just don?t, and I don?t know a lot of pirates that do. It?s generally just accepted that you try to warez version of a new FPS in Single-Player, sort of an unlimited trial, and if you like it and would want to play the multiplayer?then you buy it. I didn?t buy Cryisis, but I bought Orange Box, COD4, and I have bought a dozen copies of BF2, BF2142, and all the mods for myself, the kids and etc. Although I have virtually unlimited access to almost everything ever recorded in any form of electronic media?I BUY Multi-Player PC Games.
My very professional opinion, and an open letter game developing companies:
You can give up on copy protection, quit giving a dime to Safedisk, SecureROM, LaserLock or any of those companies?.they are a joke at best. Just spend some time to make it at least inconvenient to play your games online without a legit copy and your target demographic, the 20 to 40 males with some money, will spend their money to buy your games, to play them online.
And don?t split your profits with a publisher either, do online distribution, it works. Sure there are bandwidth and network issues, but there is no shortage of companies to handle those issues. Spend your money promoting the game online and wherever you have to, but me personally?I have NEVER gone to Wal-Mart or Game Stop and browsed the game shelves looking for a new game. If I ever leave the PC and go to a physical store it?s to buy a damn game that I can only get at a store, and I can?t tell you how many times I would have bought a damn new release, but the damn Game Stop was sold out (and it?s never fun to deal with those retards). So in fact, it was EASIER and MORE CONVENIENT for me to download the warez copy, than it was to buy it?even though the money wasn?t an issue to begin with.
The point is teenagers with the wherewithal to use the Internet, that do not have money, will always steal your games. But those same kids will eventually have a job, responsibilities, and in most cases will reach a point when it will be more convenient for them to buy your PC Games, versus wasting hours with trial and error and keygens to play online: especially if you make it possible to do so online. Once again, people with no money, can?t give you any money, they will steal your games?that can?t be fixed. Don?t try to fix it. Look at that demographic as your customers in 5 years? make great single-player experiences for them?just like COD4?perfect, a fantastic experience?but short, and ultimately just a promotion for the multi-player experience.
I?d bet a substantial portion of my net worth that if Infinity Ward took the profit they shared with the publisher, and the money the publisher blew on worthless copy protection back in their pocket, that would be a great deal more money than you would have lost with NO COPY PROTECTION and Online Distribution: money that could go back into developing better games. Seriously guys, I see your games hit zero day distro dumps long before they hit the shelves at Best Buy, just keep your money. I had beaten the single-player of C0D4 before it hit the shelves, and when it did show up at Game Spot I bought 3 copies to play online and to share with others: for me, the warez copy sold your game, not the demo. You should send Razor1911 a commission check.
And another thing, I love my Xbox, but I CoD4 looks a lot better on my PC with my GeForce 8800 GTX, and to me FPS are just made to play with a mouse and keyboard, call me old fashioned. I work in technology, and everyone I know, even outside of this industry has a PC and is a potential online gamer. Sure the cheap ass boxes in the sub-$1000 category aren?t going to play C0D4 at the same experience level, but people will upgrade their machines if they have a reason to, and good games are a good reason. Have you checked NewEgg lately, they are doing quite well. We all spent a ton of money upgrading to play Crysis, they should have released that for free and bought stock in ATI and nVidia. Granted that?s probably not a realistic model, but either is abandoning PC game development, or trying to make money selling uncrackable physical game copies.
Just my 2-cents, and a bit of insight from a lifetime pirate and gamer in your target demographic.
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