- Creative Britain: New Talents for a New Economy. The British culture secretary Andy Burnham thinks that computer games are a good thing. Unfortunately his boss, Gordon Brown, thinks that they cause knife crime (without any evidence whatsoever to support this view). By the time they realise how important we are we will all be in Canada.
- Video and music come to Steam. There is no stopping the guys at Valve. They could well become the number one portal in the whole of gaming. Every time you hear news from them they are getting it right.
- Phil Harrison leaves Sony. You have to think this is a bit careless of Sony. Phil is one of those thinkers who shape the industry and there aren`t that many around. Their loss is going to be someone`s gain.
- Executives of Game, the UK retailer sell shares. And you can`t blame them. High street retail is ultimately a broken business model for video games. They have got out of these shares pretty near the top. Well done.
- Secure PC gaming could lead to cheaper game prices. Obviously if the overwhelming majority of gamers who now steal their PC games actually contributed towards their development the economics would change radically.
- Jagex launch casual gaming site. Makes perfect sense. If you look at the trends in gaming and look at Jagex´s skill with browser games then this should be a license to print money.
- More facts and figures on PC game piracy. You have to be an ostrich not to take this on board and understand the consequences. If people can steal games then they will.
- Xbox live to focus on family. Looks like Nintendo with the Wii and DS have changed the industry forever. The real annoying thing is that we could have done this a long long time ago. It is amazing that the industry has taken so long to realise that the vast majority of the population do not want to shoot aliens.
Permalink
I might be an ostrich then, but piracy is mainly the dev’s and distributors fault: DRM, lack of originality, loads of bugs, plus inflated prices on Europe (have they noticed that 1€ > 1.5$?).
Sorry, no cookie.
Also, if the game is good and the price is not outrageus, everybody buys it. Did Stardock get money despite their games not being protected?. Yes, they did. Because their games are GREAT.
So, stop blaming piracy, stop putting in useless protections and start making good games at decent prices. Piracy will go down.
Permalink
Why pay for something when you can get it for free regardless of how good or cheap the game is rckt42. Piracy is mostly to blame.
Permalink
Blaming the developers for piracy is like blaming a rape victim for the rape. Piracy is stealing, plain and simple. If you don’t like the game, don’t buy it and don’t steal it. If you don’t like the laws surrounding game distribution, then work to change them. But for goodness sake, don’t turn yourself into a thief just to get a free video game.
Permalink
Well, to be fair – how much of Stardock’s money has to do with the fact that SC2 was recently announced, getting people to think about both Sci-Fi and real-time strategy, again?
I LOVE Sins of a Solar Empire, but I’ve played better. The fact that it was the only game in town at a time when I went, “Totally! I’d love to play a sci-fi RTS!” was the deciding factor on whether I’d buy it or not. I didn’t buy GalCiv and I’m *sure* I wasn’t in the minority, on that front.
You can blame the devs all you want, but that can just as easily turned around – there are a billion devs out there who want to make new, original games, but the reality is you won’t buy them. The industry is in it to make money – they sell you what you’ll buy, and, barring the rare inexplicable exception, /nothing/ else.
IF you really want more original games, then piracy isn’t the way to tell that to the industry. The only thing that tells the industry is that you’re not above stealing their work. If you think their work sucks – don’t consume it, at all. The message is significantly more clear, that way.