What can Developers & Publishers do to combat Piracy?

[Gmans uncle]

Face it, the game could be the best game ever created. An absolute pinnacle in the creative interactive medium, something that would reduce even the most hardened soul to tears and even the most bitter anti-games critic to break down and confess their love for the medium... and it would probably be the most pirated game ever made. Some people genuinely don't care, they really and truly don't and the only way to stop them from pirating a game is not to give them that option.

Weirdly enough, I pretty much agree with you.

That's kind of what I was trying to say, it's a losing battle, you can never stop piracy, but you CAN make an attempt to make the concept of buying your game more enticing, like the ways I mentioned.

But I do agree that some people will pirate no matter what, and thinking you can stop it entirely is just not happening. Piracy will never stop, it's a pit the industry is never getting out of, I guess we just need to live with it.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

Lower. The. Price.

Honestly, having to pay 50 bucks for a game, THEN add 25 bucks for the DLCs that pop up over the following year simply is too much. Why on Earth would anyone want to pay that much money for a game they don't even know whether they'll like? Of course that ends up with them not paying at all - if possible.

ninja'd

Damn.


But yeah, this will cut a huge chunk out of the piracy market. Why pay for expensive console mods that could result in it breaking or bing disabled, or why torrent files that take ages that may infect your computer when the games are cheap in the first place?

Yeah, it would be a cut in profits initially, but you'd make a killing in the long run because you'll sell more new copies.

The people that are going to pirate the games then are gonna pirate them no matter what, and DRM doesn't have any effect on the pirate after a week.

 

[Tenky]

How to make more money, combat piracy and such?

Stop caring for pirates, use that DRM butget for marketing and increase awareness... and profits!

Pirates are not your consumers, they will not sudenly pay for it... so wasting less money to "fix the unfixable" is pointless... increase revenue and stop punishing the legit consumers!

 

[Rems]

I don't get people who justify piracy by saying the games are too expensive. If you can afford a rig to play the latest triple A games on then you can afford the games too.

It's a different matter though if it's an old vapour ware game that can't be purchased by any available means (n64 roms or very, very old games for example that gog doesn't have).

 

[Cr33dl0rd]

You´d think they could just add more security measures to their games, but anyone who ever tried to correctly install and register Spore knows that that won´t work either...

 

[MikeFrost]

The answer is simple: Services.

Gaming more and more is becoming a continuous endeavour. Games with persistent support and free add-ons will likely draw people to buy the thing so that they get the service and don't have to care about pirating the latest version of said thing continuously.

Case in point: Steam and Valve's games. I know they still get pirated (piracy isn't 100% avoidable, just reduceable) but they've been getting more and more customers with everything that they did with TF2, for example.

Free to play model is also a good way to ensure that you don't get pirated. Afterall, you only buy small ingame content, which is alot harder to pirate because of it's nature.

 

[Slayer_2]

Drastic stuff: Reduce prices, remove DRM (it's like building a sand wall to stop the tide).

Less-drastic stuff: Release demos (so we can try before buying)

 

[Simeon Ivanov]

As mentioned above, lower the price. A game in Steam costs 50 euro! Why do I have to pay MORE for a DIGITAL copy of the game? Wouldn't it make more sense to cost less, since it doesn't have to ship and have a deal with the store?

And stop it with the DRM (Uplay, Origins, Steamworks). It's not fun for anyone!

 

[Phoenixlight]

Incorporate a deadly virus into every game through DRM and make it so that if any of the DRM files are changed/deleted/by-passed the virus is released onto the computer/console which will cause it to cause irreversible system damage. Of course the virus would need to be undetectable to modern anti-virus software.

 

[Racecarlock]

I know of no convenient or realistic solution to combat piracy from a Developer and Publisher standpoint. Barring them actively hiring teams that continually sue every person who file shares to the point where the average person fears taking the chance.

All companies can do is provide incentive to buy new at the cost of their own profits in hope that they'll gain the lost revenue back from pirates. Some general ideas for this could be:
- lower the cost of the video game
- provide a coupon that grants a percentage discount on future products of that developer/publisher with purchase
- give free non-game additives with all purchases at no extra cost. In other words, make all games like collector editions providing physical objects that someone who pirates would not obtain otherwise.
- Provide free DLC and patches to the game frequently to purchasers throughout the games lifespan. A pirate would constantly have to look for the newest and best version of the game, thus putting more effort into the act itself and possibly justifying a purchase for convenience.

This would be a good place to start.

Another idea would be to provide 50 cent (or 40 microsoft points) 7 day downloadable rentals. This would not only combat the "Piracy for demonstrational purposes" crowd, but as a bonus people would also be more willing to try out titles they're not sure about, and while bad innovations still won't make money, innovations we do like will rise to the top, thus circumventing sturgeon's law (90% of everything is crap). This would lead to a rise in quality and innovation while also combating piracy. Nobody would lose here.

Beyond all of that? Nothing. You can't stop pirates. If people want a game for free and are willing to pirate it, there's nothing you can do, and everything that the game publishers and developers have tried has not only failed, but pushed people towards cracks and piracy because the DRM is so intrusive. Piracy is just something they're going to have to live with, no matter how much we and they hate it. It's not going away, and the only thing the industry can do to fight it is make things in general more easy and convenient for the consumer and provide more bonuses to the consumer so that pirating is no longer worth the trouble.

 

[saucecode]

Accept piracy. It will just happen. Publishers will need to think up ways to get the game out to more people. Mainly by making cheaper games. As in, it won't cost $120 (NZD) for every new release title. Another thing that I think is contributing to pircay (but that publishers can't do anything about) is the age restrictions. I still go to high school, Almost everyone I know has a xbox, playstation or high powered PC, and it is very difficult to get hands on killer titles. I know this personally, but this simply won't sit well with the rating boards, who are afraid of little todlers double air assassinating eachother.

Really, developers are missing out on a huge market. It just so happens to consist of teenagers and 10 year olds.

 

[EHKOS]

How about lowering their prices and making free demos?

 

[Khada]

Make their games good and charge a fair price for them. Anything else is a wasted effort, the pirates will always find a way.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Provide bonuses to players who buy the CD new, and more bonuses for the limited edition. Even a laminated or cloth map of the world for an RPG is better than nothing...or a concept art folder, or a soundtrack CD, or...something like that.

Also, maybe charging less might be a good idea.

 

[Jayben Tibbles]

Seeing as punishing people who pirate games clearly isn't working, focus instead on rewarding those who do the right thing, live events and exclusive dlc with physical copies perhaps.

And accept that just because someone downloads your product doesn't mean they would have bought it, especially at a high price.

 

[sinterklaas]

Lower prices. Accept that pirates are never going to buy your game and therefore are not lost sales. Make demos. Stop 'licensing' games to people. I bought the game, I own it. Period. Get lost with your ridiculous 'always online' bullcrap.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Don't force the users to install spyware on to their machines (looking at you EA, yeah your ToS are changed, but there is enough ambiguity there to allow you to do it anyway). The pirates bypass this crap and all it says is you don't trust the ones who bought it legally.

The best way I have seen is by implementing the faulty code that restricts what you can do inagme, like Arkham Asylum where you can't glide properly.