Valve's Gabe Newell Says Piracy Is a Service Problem

[The Bucket]

[

Take Limbo, for example, which was going to be xBox only . . . Somehow Steam conviced them to port the title for PC and sell it through their service; the devs made more money within it's first week on Steam then they did during the whole 6mths-year that it was only available via XBL.

Im pretty sure that was Cthulu Saves The world (which was on the indie marketplace, not the XBLA). Limbo was a smash hit on Xbox, selling about a half a million copies on it, out of the million or so sales across the three platforms (according to Wikipedia).

 

[fix-the-spade]

Limbo was a smash hit on Xbox, selling about a half a million copies on it, out of the million or so sales across the three platforms (according to Wikipedia).

Playdead did make more money from the Steam release than a whole year's worth of XBL sales, the barriers to entry (and percentage cut from sales) are much smaller on Steam than they are on XBL.

 

[brenz]

its nice to see someone in the industry looking at it from the customers point of view, and not through bank balance goggles.
DRM is the main cause imo, but I will also admit that the prices of games is a bit silly too, for once off purchase with no value of investment other than replaying yourself, which i never do, just my preference.
Oh, and fuck steam.

 

[Dr. Crawver]

this isn't really news, he's said this a number of times, but he's still right about it

 

[mjc0961]

Valve needs to release a new game just so I can give them more of my money.

Amen.

I wish we could sit some people from EA, Ubisoft, and any other company who likes intrusive, draconian DRM down with Gabe Newell and make them listen to his words of wisdom and see the proof that he's right (that whole Russia thing being a great example) and hope that they will learn and stop putting DRM everywhere.

I wonder if we can get him to talk about online passes and how you don't need those either.

 

[evilneko]

This man speaks the fucking truth!

Maybe this is why, when a Valve game shows up on a pirate site, so many of the comments amount to "lol already bought this game you should too."

 

[Kathinka]

big words from the founder of the DRM that prevents me from playing many of my legaly bought games whenever i travel 100 miles west to germany.

fuck steam, seriously.

 

[3AM]

Valve needs to release a new game just so I can give them more of my money.

This is why people love Valve, they're all gamers just like us and they don't let business and profits get in the way of what they believe in.

And they said it couldn't be done. How many senior executives or companies are beloved by their customer base? Imagine a company being able to treat their customers like valued partners and still make a ton of money. Not only do I wish other game publishers would take note, but other companies and people in MBA classes. WE'RE NOT THE ENEMY - WE PAY YOUR BILLS FOR YOU. BE NICE TO US AND WE'LL BE NICE TO YOU!!!

 

[Jaeger_CDN]

Also, I hope HL3 comes out soon just so people stop bitching about it.

I'd bet you, 30 minutes after Ep3 is released people would be moaning about when either Ep4 or HL3 is released.

 

[XDravond]

I agree with the service problem.. Of course people who can will always pirate stuff. But when they make it easier to buy and use games more people would be inclined to pay up some to not go through the hassle (and risk) of pirating... Steam is not perfect but many steps in the right direction... Unlike Ubisoft....


And I think we missed the big point here:
He does not know when half life 3 comes out, witch can not mean anything else (somewhat sarcastic...) than it is at least in the works! Yey Half life 3 will come out! At some point in the future this or some alternate but still... This is good... So Ep 3 is also coming then... Many good news here//

 

[Wintermoot]

no shit with some games I,m forced to pirate (IE TouHou and stuff like Kanon) if only more companies used Steam.....
PS
I,m really happy at least one dev sees pirates as a potential consumer base instead of crooks.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Oh, and Gabe? When is Half-Life 3 coming out?

"I don't know," he said.

Don't ever change, Gabe.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Well, tell that to Bethesda. All their games are not available for purchase on Russian Steam. Now guess, which games are the most pirated ones there?

 

[Irridium]

"We think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem," he said. "If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable."

A-Fucking-Men.

Second. Someone should probably tell Ubisoft this.

What's that Ubisoft? You release a shitty, poorly optimized PC port MONTHS after the original game, saddle it with insane DRM, insult your PC customers, and wonder why your PC games don't sell well and get pirated?

Gee, I fucking wonder why.

 

[Zach Smith]

Well done Gabe. You just earned my respect as one of the few people to speak the truth in an industry filled with gluttons and buffoons. There's a reason why I won't play games with always-on drm or online passes (new or used).

 

[Something Amyss]

Fascinating.

A shame he's lying. It's fascinating, the way guys like Newell and Notch can be fellated for borderline anything they say, but it doesn't make his XBox restrictions line any more true.

 

[Ewyx]

Now if only they'd take a firm stance against DRM... Oh wait, GOG is now going to sell new releases too, nevermind.

 

[fenrizz]

Fascinating.

A shame he's lying. It's fascinating, the way guys like Newell and Notch can be fellated for borderline anything they say, but it doesn't make his XBox restrictions line any more true.

Care to elsborate?

Anyway, I love Steam.
I've never before bought as many games as I do now, and I can thank Steam for that.