Anyone involved in PC gaming knows that piracy of games is rampant, and this has developers running scared. Ubisoft recently said that they wouldn’t release the PC version of Tom Clancy’s EndWar at the same time as the console versions as they feared that piracy of the PC version would hurt sales of its console counterparts. Not a good sign, folks.
Randy Stude, president of the PC Gaming Alliance, does not seem to share the bleak outlook of PC gaming that others have. In an interview with Gamasutra, Stude talks about the changes that need to be made to combat piracy, and many of them have to do with developer’s views on the issue.
Pointing toward China and Korea’s online distribution models as examples, Stude says, “the revenues being generated just blow the mind. You’re talking almost 5 billion dollars,” says Stude. “Almost half the world’s PC software revenues are coming from marketplaces that have almost no retail at all.”
Stude also believes that disc-based distribution is still viable: “You look at a game like Spore… despite the fact it’s pirated out there on torrent networks, its selling great by any standard… it sort of bucks the notion that all games are going to be destroyed because of piracy. That’s not the case.”
He’s not saying that the industry should just accept piracy.
“I’m saying that if there’s nothing that can be done [about piracy], the assumption that gaming will die on a platform is ridiculous,” says Stude. “If there are alternative means to get that content, piracy or legit, consumers are going go find it. They have broadband, they have PC — but perhaps they can’t buy a $70 game every month like the console ecosystem relies on.”
