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CaptainCox
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Posts: 6823
Location: A Swede in Germany (FaM)
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Posted: Thu, 20th Mar 2008 16:29 Post subject: Indie publisher: Piracy isn't to blame for bad PC game sales |
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Quote: | Nowadays, hearing big PC game development houses blame piracy for both poor game sales and their increased focus on consoles is a common occurrence. We've heard high-profile staffers from id Software, Epic Games, and Infinity Ward do it, and countless others have chimed in. Meanwhile, console games continue to significantly outsell most PC games.
But is piracy really the underlying cause? Brad Wardell, CEO of software maker and indie game publisher Stardock, doesn't think so. In a recent blog entry, Wardell has spelled out his view of why makers of AAA titles are failing to get as much traction as they'd like in the PC market. The problem isn't so much piracy, he says, as the fact that "game developers want to be like rock stars more than businessmen."
According to Wardell, PC game developers are banking too much on the "cool" factor and failing to actually design games for people likely to buy them. High-profile titles like Crysis may get glowing reviews and appear on game magazine covers, but the hardcore PC gamer market at which they're aimed is both swarming with pirates and too small in size. "Anyone who keeps track of how many PCs the 'Gamer PC' vendors sell each year could tell you that it's insane to develop a game explicitly for hard core gamers," Wardell says. "I think people would be shocked to find out how few hard core gamers there really are out there. . . . The number of high end graphics cards sold each year isn't a trade secret."
As evidence that more accessible titles do better, Wardell points to not only the success of games like The Sims, but also of Sins of a Solar Empire—a low-budget, real-time strategy game published by Stardock that's reportedly sold 200,000 copies in its first month already. To put things in perspective, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare sold 383,000 units within its first couple of months of release. Unlike COD4, Sins of a Solar Empire didn't benefit from huge media coverage, and it doesn't even have copy protection—something Wardell says Stardock chose not to include because "the people who actually buy games don't like to mess with it." He adds, "Our customers make the rules, not the pirates."
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At least a sound attitude compared to the current stance in the gaming industry
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Ankh
Posts: 23266
Location: Trelleborg
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Posted: Thu, 20th Mar 2008 16:37 Post subject: |
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He does have a point.
shitloads of new stuff in my pc. Cant keep track of it all.
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Phluxed
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Posts: 4911
Location: Oakville, Ontario, Canada
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Posted: Thu, 20th Mar 2008 16:42 Post subject: |
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Maybe I'm just jaded, but doesn't that seem like a sales pitch?
Quote: | He adds, "Our customers make the rules, not the pirates." |
Yea guys, we're on YOUR side, buy the game! Support proper developers!
*shrug* I guess I AM just really jaded, lol.

Last edited by Phluxed on Thu, 20th Mar 2008 16:53; edited 1 time in total
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Posted: Thu, 20th Mar 2008 16:44 Post subject: |
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yeap. he sure does have a real good point. well, at least we know there's someone out there who really knows why PC games sales are dropping .... the real thing i mean.
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Posted: Thu, 20th Mar 2008 17:49 Post subject: |
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Good to see not all of them are stupid.
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Tit@n
Posts: 100
Location: NYC
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Posted: Thu, 20th Mar 2008 18:30 Post subject: |
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I found his response interesting actually, He is stating that these games are not selling because allot of them are aimed at "hard core gamers". On one point he state's this term means "players who have high end machines". At the same time I think there are two kinds of hardcore gamers, the one's with machines and the ones who play games like his company offers. A game like the Sim's in my personal opinion is much easier to jump into then a game of GalCiv2 or Sins, and its geared to a wider audience.
I also think we are missing one of the main points of the gaming industry which is when it first started it more like a fun way to make money and let your creative juices flow. I think the decline of PC games came with company's started to become huge global corporations instead of 3 Joe's in their garage.
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Sin317
Banned
Posts: 24322
Location: Geneva
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Posted: Thu, 20th Mar 2008 18:47 Post subject: |
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games like the sims are for casual gamers, not hardcore gamers. Hardcore gamers usually have high end machines aswell or at least try to keep up to date with their pc's.
The casual players do not and dont want to have to take care of pc upgraded every few months.
Me for example, i cancelled my 8800GT, since i realized there isn't anything i want to play anyway. And for irc and forums my 8600gt is quite enough ....
not to mention that i still can play every game there is ... but still.
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Posted: Thu, 20th Mar 2008 19:00 Post subject: |
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Quote: | I also think we are missing one of the main points of the gaming industry which is when it first started it more like a fun way to make money and let your creative juices flow. I think the decline of PC games came with company's started to become huge global corporations instead of 3 Joe's in their garage. |
So totally true, this fact along with the extreme focus on graphics is what has killed much of the actual fun and creativity in PC gaming. In a perfect world gameplay and innovation would be easier to market than graphics, alas that isn't the case. Most AAA titles don't get me interested at all nowadays, smaller indie and semi indie games which isn't far removed from "3 joes in a garage" are where it's at for me. I think we need a paradigm shift that makes graphics cheaper (procedural art, versatile model and animation libraries, etc) to get to the fun core of gaming again. Until that happens I'm pretty much sticking with the indies.
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Posted: Thu, 20th Mar 2008 19:06 Post subject: |
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you'll probably find more hardcore gamers these days have consoles, alot of people i know dont upgrade there computers very often like they used to whats the point when only a handful of quality pc games are released each year.
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Posted: Thu, 20th Mar 2008 23:34 Post subject: |
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I totally agree with this guy. So true. He didn't mention the Witcher either, I think it did pretty well.
If they design nice, innovative games and not re-heated microwave food, I reckon lots of peeps will go out and buy them.
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crossmr
Posts: 2965
Location: South Korea
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Posted: Fri, 21st Mar 2008 02:20 Post subject: |
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Sin317 wrote: | games like the sims are for casual gamers, not hardcore gamers. Hardcore gamers usually have high end machines aswell or at least try to keep up to date with their pc's.. |
Unfortunately the sims requires the machine of a hardcore gamer to max its potential. large lots will cripple most middle of the road machines.
The difference is there seems to be a lot of people who will settle for low-end performance (small lots, small amount of sims on a lot, etc) to play it.
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-=Cartoon=-
VIP Member
Posts: 8823
Location: South Pacific Ocean
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Posted: Fri, 21st Mar 2008 03:30 Post subject: |
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finally someone that gets it (the dev)
woop woop
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