Epic President: "The Money's On Console"
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Funny how everybody who bitches about piracy and leaves to consumer slave land tends to make shitty games and how the only company that doesn't ***** about piracy is the most profitable one in the world and has been making PC games exclusively since 1994.
Where are all the people who are so willing to defend piracy? Is there nothing to say, when an industry leader comes outright and says the damage it has done to gaming?
You mean Blizzard?Asehujiko said:
It's kinda hard to pirate an MMO - it's certainly possible, but most people won't bother like they would with a single player game. Blizzard also have the casual crowd playing WoW - they aren't going to start pirating. If Blizzard - like a lot of smaller companies -were in trouble due to the rampant piracy that occurs on PC; I'm sure they would be complaining too.
Your point is completely invalid.
So Epic, if PC Gaming is dying out due to piracy and whatnot. I suppose Valve and Blizzard are running in the red then? No? Massively profitable you say? And Steam offers a good sales avenue for independent studios? Interesting. What about Stardock who barely put any sort of DRM on their games? Oh they're doing well too? Well I guess that means that Mike Capps really doesn't know what he's talking about.
in 2 to 3 generations i predict consoles will be dying. graphics power is getting much much stronger, games graphics, while slowly increasing, is near its finishing point; computers are getting cheaper and more powerful, and are much more prevalant in households, some having 4 or more. if the next 3 generations take as long as this generation did, pc gaming will be simplified. there will be easier installations, everything will be downloadable, and most importantly you will be able to multitask in ways impossible on consoles.
not to mention the fact that consoles are on track to getting very annoying drm. such as the key code for online use and such.
not to mention the fact that consoles are on track to getting very annoying drm. such as the key code for online use and such.
Why so? He most likely correct, I mean Farmville apparently has an average of 30 million people playing it daily. Wow, arguably the most successful game in the world, wishes it could have those numbers with a total subscriber-ship of around 12 million.Woodsey said:
To those saying that piracy isn't a problem it most certainly is. Even ignoring the numbers that D_987, because the developers and publishers believe it to be a problem and as such we get ever more draconian DRM, more people leaving and/or simply putting out half assed ports, later releases usually arriving 3-6 months after their console cousins to offer a few of the troubles. Ironically many of those simply cause people to go out and pirate more leading to an ever spiraling cycle.
As to Epic saying there in it for the money..... well yeah, why that was a surprise to any one I don't understand.
No, I'm sorry, you can't expect to get away with an argument from authority logical fallacy. That's the silliest thing I've heard - so because he makes games that sell well to only a certain small portion of the console population who like third person over the shoulder cover based shooters, he obviously knows about ALL parts of the gaming market better than ALL of us at the Escapist? I don't see how you can possibly justify that.D_987 said:
That's what happens when anything becomes mainstream. People with passion turn into businesmen and everything turns to shit. Stories become dull and uninteresting as in blockbusters, difficulty level goes down so a game can accomodate as many players as possible (achievments like "installing the game" make me want to cry).Furburt said:
I believe it's not only nostalgia speaking through me. Games used to be about doing something innovative, diffrent. Nowadays games are huge investments so noone wants to take the risk. Devs just copy each other taking baby steps (always proclaimed to be "revolution") to improve the game. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude is what is a problem. Creativity is dead.
Blizzard also makes other games and yes, mmo's are piratable, it's called private servers. There have been 2 diablos, a starcraft, 3 warcrafts and 6 expansion packs between them. None of them are mmos, all are pirated to various degrees and Blizzard never threw a hissy fit about how much they are hurt by "lost sales", which if the popularity of the PC versions of ubishit's games are anything to go by, are actually a negative number due to the (lack of) word of mouth advertising.D_987 said:
And unless they are sued by their publisher for not having enough security, they won't get in trouble by something which has no proven effect beyond viral marketing.
And of course in magical XBox 360 land all of the independent developers make lots of money working without creative limits and there is free cotton candy for everyone.
Brown, grey, and on ALOT steroids?Andy Chalk said:
Though I will admit to still liking it, what I wouldn't give for a nice brightly coloured room...other than the...'red level' in Gears of War 2 (if you've played it, you should be able to guess which one I mean).
But yeah, I have to admit, the PC as a platform has lost alot to 'piracy', or as I like to call it, "we can spend less money on development as they have standardised hardware and pay alittle more regardless"
BC2?uppitycracker said:
Oh, and you forgot Demigod, Galactic Civilizations 1/2, Sins of a Solar Empire, and everything else made by Stardock.
Interesting - looks like piracy is going to be eventually as big of a 'problem' on consoles as it is on the PC.Delusibeta said:Relevent:
Source [http://kotaku.com/5500495/kotaku-census-2010-the-results-in-full]
Ugh, I might as well reply to this post - seeing as how this same stupid point has been made so many times over the course of this thread...AceDiamond said:
First and foremost Valve and Blizzard are highly profitable, yes. But you have to look at the reasons why they're highly profitable - and why the reasons for their success couldn't be emulated by other developers struggling with piracy.
Blizzard main cash cow is World of Warcraft - yes they have the successful Starcraft franchise too, but for the most part their financial success is based around World of Warcraft. WoW is an MMO - as I stated earlier MMO's are played, as a whole, by a large degree of more casual gamers - the type of people who won't pirate a game. Besides which, WoW; being an MMO, will be much more difficult to pirate - the constant updates, the expansions, the different servers - it would be easier to just pay for the game - and if you're going to do that what's the point pirating in the first place; they get their money from the monthly subscription fee - not the retail sales.
The thing is, MMO developers aren't the developers complaining about piracy - because their genre is pretty immune to it compared to the single-player experiences people will pirate in larger numbers. They also have a constant stream of income - rather than relying on a single week to make the majority of their profit. Bringing Blizzard into this argument is foolish because EPIC and Blizzard are not the same type of developers.
As for Valve - Valve basically own the PC's digital distribution at the moment - and it's why they are so highly successful - not due to their games - but due to their highly successful DRM; Steam. By controlling the competition, forcing developers to give them money to place their games on Steam, and offering a variety of sales, Valve have the market cornered - and that's something no other PC-only developer will be able to do. So, again, bringing Valve into this isn't valid because they aren't like EPIC in that they don't reply on purely games for their income. Sure having Half-Life 2 as a Steam Exclusive was a smart thing to do (so their games directly gave them control) but Valve are unique in the market.
Neither of these developers success prove anything is wrong with the original statement...
I dont mind, hell the pc market would probably be alot better if some companys leave, sure you gave us Unreal and other clasics but youve been milking of that for years and now your whinning about the LACK OF SALES, look you can try and put your lack of sales down to piracy but to be honest its really not... piracy has been there since the dawn of the internet and games were selling just fine, therefore the only conclusion i can come up with is that there doing something wrong and trying to pin it on piracy.
Sure i dont mind if you go be a console only company, that is a valid business desision, but hiding behind crap like that fecks me off.
Also might i just add, do they really think that the future of gaming would be facebook... Even if all gaming companys decided to jump ship and say skrew the pc, there will still be free games being made out there, hell there might actaully be alot more of them if they do.
Sure i dont mind if you go be a console only company, that is a valid business desision, but hiding behind crap like that fecks me off.
Also might i just add, do they really think that the future of gaming would be facebook... Even if all gaming companys decided to jump ship and say skrew the pc, there will still be free games being made out there, hell there might actaully be alot more of them if they do.