Avalanche Studios Boss Reveals Secret Plan to Stop Piracy

[OtherSideofSky]

Well, this makes me at least more likely to spend money on one of their games. I'm saving my PC gaming for next year when I'll be in another country without my consoles and TV, but it's gratifying to know someone is taking this approach. I only play games without DRM after it screwed up my last computer, so this kind of thing makes me especially happy.

 

[Blueruler182]

Amazing... We must make sure the pirates never hear of it. Oh shit, it's on the internet!

Any plan that says "Make better games" I'm behind.

 

[Echo136]

Someone in the gaming industry who actually gets our frustration. Awesome. Like Andy said though, Its pretty pointless.

 

[NicoDK]

I came in here ready to rage but this guy actualy got it right.
Just too bad that all the big names in the industry is all about consoles and fucking up PC gamers computers with their absolute horrendous DRM.
Not to mention they all act like theres no piracy going on in the console world.

 

[Jaeger_CDN]

I heartily agree with this guy. JC2 may not be the most story driven game, physically accurate or the best vehicle/driving sim game but it's damn fun. They even released a demo that was 100% accurate to what the full game was like (which is a common complaint IMHO as to why people pirate games).

 

[ImprovizoR]

This man is my hero. Just Cause 1 and 2 are amazing games. I've invested so much time in Just Cause 2 I would buy it if it was $200. That's how you make a PC game. Controls work flawlessly, graphics are amazing, the game is optimized, not a single freeze, crash or hick-up in more than 150 hours of playing. And the DLC's were so cheap yet so much fun. They also support modding and they actually released an awesome demo for the game that got people really hyped for Just Cause 2. I don't think a lot of people pirated that game. This guy knows what he's talking about so listen to THE MAN!

They've also made that free PC game The Hunter which is, in my opinion the best hunting simulation out there. Completely free, on Just Cause 2 engine so it looks beautiful. Check it out.

 

[Woodsey]

Someone outside of Valve and CD Projekt gets it, hurrah!

I don't blame companies for putting DRM on their games (except that bullshit Ubisoft came out with), but I wish they wouldn't act as if its the only way, or even the best way.

 

[EllEzDee]

You know, i was expecting another of those "with this simple procedure of having all legal players regularly sending stamped envelopes with the time they'll be playing the game for, i can guarantee to stamp out piracy for all games".

Nice approach there...

And for the record, Just Cause 2 was the pinnacle of "fucking awesome".

not a single freeze, crash or hick-up in more than 150 hours of playing.

Hmm...my framerate crawls when i'm in those biochamber things, but still, the game is near-perfect!

 

[Deshin]

This is nothing but PR. If a Publisher believes it can protect its investments by straping draconian DRM to its product you can bet it won't let a little thing like Developer input stop them from doing so.

 

[Jaeger_CDN]

Someone outside of Valve and CD Projekt gets it, hurrah!

I don't blame companies for putting DRM on their games (except that bullshit Ubisoft came out with), but I wish they wouldn't act as if its the only way, or even the best way.

Bethesda was also good in the DRM department with just putting simple disk checks in their games and none of the overly hamfisted DRM EA/Activision and others have attempted.

I'm also getting the Witcher 2 game directly from GoG instead of Steam simply because of the lack of DRM

 

[Booze Zombie]

I feel the author for this piece is a bit negative, "it's never going to happen".
I mean, really, is Michael Patcher on the damn team now?

 

[jonyboy13]

DRM: worse product with price.

 

[ultratog1028]

Haven't gamers already been saying this for years? I know I have. DRM actually ENCOURAGES Piracy in a "Challenge Accepted" kind of way.

 

[mrdude2010]

Is it just me or is the war on video game piracy starting to look like the U.S War on Drugs where countermeasures just fuck things up even worse...?
Or has it always looked like that and i just didn't care enough to notice?

basically it started getting really bad about the same time the current gen consoles came out... you could relatively easily find a cracked version of any decent game before around 2006ish, now it's a lot harder

that or game developers could just start pricing DLC reasonably

HAHAHAHA that was a joke they would never do that

 

[GonzoGamer]

Is it just me or is the war on video game piracy starting to look like the U.S War on Drugs where countermeasures just fuck things up even worse...?
Or has it always looked like that and i just didn't care enough to notice?

Good point, let?s see.
Often victimless (I know many say that the publishers lose money but how many of these pirates would buy it if they couldn?t hack it, really?) - Check
Expensive measures that are futile and punish the legit users more than those violating the law? Check
Money that?s allocated could be used to help users rather than punish them ? Check.
A lot of blame put on ?foreigners? - Check.


All you?re missing is the cia involvement in the trafficking.

It?s amazing to see a studio that can make great games AND have a sound business strategy.

 

[w00tage]

I came in here ready to rage but this guy actualy got it right.
Just too bad that all the big names in the industry is all about consoles and fucking up PC gamers computers with their absolute horrendous DRM.
Not to mention they all act like theres no piracy going on in the console world.

....omg, you've discovered their master plan! If they screw PC gaming hard enough, eventually anyone who wants to play a game will have to buy a console from them. And hideously expensive peripherals and components. And internet access for gaming.

And then we'll be enslaved forever.

Disclaimer - I do not know for certain that this is an actual master plan in existence somewhere. But I have known enough people in management positions to be completely certain that were such a plan presented to them, many would steal it, present it as their own, and try to be put in charge of implementing it for the sake of a bonus and a promotion.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

damn now I want to go buy just cause solely for this interview, and the demo i played on ps3 was kickass, and yahtzee's recommendation

just the game looks much more fun for console than pc

drm is pointless, it is a vicious cycle as piracy justifies DRM which justifies piracy (penny arcade had a good strip on it)

--------

main thing is pc ports can work fine but damn INTERFACES need to be changed, we are sitting 18 inches from the screen, we can handle more than 3 lines of text on a page FALLOUT. And the borderlands interface was an abomination.

So developers need to intelligently overhaul the interfaces for pc, not just ship the code to some eastern european digital sweatshop for recompiling

 

[Irridium]

Nothing they do will stop piracy, seriously, nothing

Your right. So why are they making it worse for paying customers?

DRM won't stop pirates. No DRM won't stop pirates. But the latter has the benefit of being cheaper to implement, and you don't piss off your paying customers.