PC makers see piracy as "hidden benefit"

[dafloppyone]

Id Software's CEO Todd Hollenshead has stated that he believes PC manufacturers' acceptance of piracy is the PC hardware industry's "dirty little secret", GamesIndustry.biz reports.
According to Hollenshead, manufacturers are secretly happy with levels of piracy in the industry as it helps to sell hardware.
"I think that there's been this dirty little secret among hardware manufacturers, which is that the perception of free content - even if you're supposed to pay for it on PCs - is some sort hidden benefit that you get when you buy a PC, like a right to download music for free or a right to download pirated movies and games," said Hollenshead in an exclusive interview published today.
"I think that if you went in and could see what's going on in their minds, though they may never say that stuff and I'm not saying there's some conspiracy or something like that - but I think the thing is they realise that trading content, copyrighted or not, is an expected benefit of owning a computer."
Hollenshead - famed for PC titles Doom, Quake and the forthcoming Rage - believes that PC manufacturers will obviously speak out against piracy in public, but the enormity of the problem is evidence that it's being largely ignored by hardware companies.
"I think that just based on their actions...what they say is one thing, but what they do is another.
"When it comes into debates about whether peer-to-peer file-sharing networks that by-and-large have the vast majority, I'm talking 99 per cent of the content is elicitly trading copyrighted property, they'll come out on the side of the 1 per cent of the user doing it for legitimate benefit.
"You can make philosophical arguments that are difficult to debate, but at the same time you're just sort of ignoring the enormity of the problem," he said.
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=219824

 

[platypus]

Why would hardware makers have anything to do with piracy? They don't need to accept nor deny it.

 

[.:MBK:.]

just sounds like another firm blaming someone else for their problems

hardware firms are not obligated nor do they need to concern themselves with piracy or aid in preventing it, if software firms paid hardware firms to develop hardware level anti piracy measures, then it might be a different story

 

[MooMoo444]

I think the %age of people who actually pirate games is significantly lower than the amount developers claim, though I don't see how pirating will make their games more popular.

Unless someone downloads a game and says "Hey this game is good, you might like it too".. but wouldnt they just tell them to download it also?

 

[decmatt]

The way I read it is that their saying the money saved on not buying games is being diverted to people buying more expensive hardware components as they just buy the hardware and get free games.

 

[agnes]

i think what the man was trying to get at, is in the long term scheme of things, if piracy wasnt around, then no where near as many people would play the games, lets face it... a lot of people download games and movies and what knot, and most of those people will upgrade their computers to play the games just like us legit people. so hes trying to make the point that hardware companies dont mind piracy because it still gets their figures up no matter how many people download or buy legit... see what i mean?

ags

 

[Sleepery]

I'd say it's more that he's having a dig at hardware makers for not trying to implement some type of hardware based piracy control. Let's face it, there's not a software based one around that hasn't been cracked within days of release, whereas you have to mod-chip most consoles to get around the hardwired copy protection.

 

[bledd]

this is how they should deal with piracy..

use exe's that look for the cd, and keep updating the exe with each patch
patch very often and add loads of extras with each patch

if it's a pain in the butt for people using pirated copies it'd help far more, instead of putting starforce on legitimate copies only for someone to strip it out for the pirates to use (making it easier for them!)

i wish all my games were on steam

 

[Tefal]

patch very often and add loads of extras with each patch

So break/remove large portions of the game deliberately for release, then slowly fix it over time?

besides it takes about 20 mins for the ExE, to be cracked.

Or you know we could just use a Iso. image so we actually do have a disk :/

Or a mini image just containing the cd check portion of the disk..

 

[agnes]

this is how they should deal with piracy..

use exe's that look for the cd, and keep updating the exe with each patch
patch very often and add loads of extras with each patch

if it's a pain in the butt for people using pirated copies it'd help far more, instead of putting starforce on legitimate copies only for someone to strip it out for the pirates to use (making it easier for them!)

i wish all my games were on steam

thats what exe's do, they look for cd's already, each time a patch is released the exe is updates as well, but each time the exe just gets cracked so it thinks it sees the disk...

so i think your 10 years behind there chap

ags

 

[Sleepery]

thats what exe's do, they look for cd's already, each time a patch is released the exe is updates as well, but each time the exe just gets cracked so it thinks it sees the disk...

so i think your 10 years behind there chap

ags

Agreed, if you actually go looking for cracked .exe's, you'll find that there's generally one for each version of the game, even for the less popular games.

 

[Margaret]

Hardware based anti-piracy will not work, simply because people on older hardware won't upgrade to a special motherboard or card that features it.

As for software based, it'll be cracked in hours.

 

[Amnesia]

what are they expecting pc manufacturers to do ?
putting in some kind of protection would be cutting their own throats.

 

[agnes]

the only thing i can see making people buy games is making good multiplayer sides to it, a lot of my mates download, i always convince them to buy games after i buy it and play the MP side of them which they can, but on cracked and buggy servers. this pretty much convinces them to buy it so they can play legit.

for example, clive bakers jericho, my mate downloaded it, i bought it, it had no MP side to it what so ever, so i took it back, my mate laughed at me saying that is why i should download games, next day, i had supcom, played multiplayer and he then wanted to play but couldnt because his downloaded version was pants online, so he then bought it...

ags

 

[Jabbs]

Am sure the card makers are more than happy with pirated games, more people playing the games because they can download them means more people wanting to buy high/mid range cards win win for them.

 

[bledd]

thats what exe's do, they look for cd's already, each time a patch is released the exe is updates as well, but each time the exe just gets cracked so it thinks it sees the disk...

so i think your 10 years behind there chap

ags

well i know they do it already, i was stressing more that they should stick to this, and release patches more often

ie, do that, instead of using crud like starforce

 

[Margaret]

well i know they do it already, i was stressing more that they should stick to this, and release patches more often

ie, do that, instead of using crud like starforce

You can't just release patches for the sake of it, why the hell would you upgrade if it was just an anti-piracy patch?!

Only an idiot would do that, sure if the patch has substantial fixes or new additions to the game just wait for it to be cracked, if it's just a patch bringing nothing to the table nobody will bother downloading it, legit users included.

Edit: and they can't make people download the patches by using a launcher, as that'll probably have been bypassed in the first place!

 

[Snakedoctor]

I cant see a hardware manufacturer being bothered by piracy, it's not like you can download a GPU. Although I do see the OP's point but would not the same be said for Xbox and Playstation? Them being the hardware makers and they also get a cut of the game sales, they would be down on piracy.

 

[AWPC]

Hardware manufacturers should be bothered by piracy as no games = high end hardware not worth buying. They should work closely together to ensure better PC game sales as they need each other. Otherwise no point making expensive gfx cards if very few games are being developed for them.

Its obvious PC piracy has been out of control for ages so the games companies should take maximum steps to protect their games & slowdown the problem by using online activation on all games & or going download only with callhome features to stop copying.

Konami are going download only for Silent Hill5 in the US next month 3 months before the console & worlwide PC release dates.

You only need to browse a few PC game forums on the web to see that the attitude of many is that it is their birthright to pirate games as they paid £££ for their SLI/Xfire supercomputer.

 

[Jono]

What about the "Designed for nVidia" logos in many games (or insert other hardware manufacturers here, e.g. intel..) ?

I'm sure the software guys don't put those logos and tailor the software to run better on that hardware for free.....