Kitsuna10060 said:
not angry, but still calling BS. mostly cause EVERYTHING seems to be the fault of pirates anymore, its getting pretty pathetic in all honesty.
I do agree that it is an overused excuse that quite a few people use to manipulate opinions to try getting their own way. But that doesn't mean that it isn't an issue. Does piracy warrent the intense lockdown/stupidity of things like SOPA or the draconian DRM such as the 'always-on' DRM? No, it doesn't.
Does that mean it's something that developers/publishers shouldn't worry about and actively combat? Again, no. What Frazier seems to be suggesting is more that it's a fear of piracy that helps keeping PC exclusive games from being developed. He doesn't seem to be saying that piracy is a huge thing that destroys every company that fails, just that it's an issue which many consider strongly enough where it's not worth risking a PC exclusive release.
Mind you, I don't understand the point of exclusive releases for anything really. The only reason I can think of is Sony developing games for the PS3 only, which makes sense. Microsoft should make
good PC versions of their games too, since that way they can make it so it would be played on the Windows OS, which would make it more appealing for Mac/Linux users who want to game more. Though there are, of course, ways around everything.
ph0b0s123 said:
The question is how many sales. Just saying it cost them sales does not help much as it could be an extra 50% sales, which is worth jumping up and down about, or 1% sales which is not. Saying piracy costs sales, just does not cut it anymore as people are now more cynical.
And as someone else has said, it looks like it was the DRM that did not work in the pirated copies that screwed things up. So the inclusion of faulty DRM causing the loss of sales is just as logical an argument as piracy did it.
Was there a demo released for this game anywhere near release? A demo would have proved the game was working OK.
That's the problem. There's no way of knowing how many sales are lost. Some people say it's the vast majority, which I don't agree with. Some people say it's only a very small number of people who would have bought it without piracy. I don't think that's true either. Neither side can really claim the high ground because neither side knows exactly how many would be lost. I consider that more of a pointless argument then an actual point for either side.
As a general rule of thumb, I think the number is around 15-30% depending on the game (higher for AAA games and lower for indie). That doesn't seem like a lot, but considering how many people pirate games, it could add up to a lot. Of course, that's entirely guesswork and it could easily be higher or lower.
I do agree that faulty DRM and many kinds are foolish things that don't prevent much piracy; at least not as much as it hurts the users who actually legally acquired the game. But I don't think bad DRM is a good reason to pirate. It's a reason not to play the game at all.
The demo argument isn't neccessarily a good one either. Which are you going to trust more? A demo, or someone who's actually played the whole game? Demos are generally controlled experiences meant to convince people to buy a game. They could polish the demo up before releasing it then release a faulty full product. Meanwhile, if someone has played the full game, then they normally have a better idea of it's content and what to expect.
