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Game Developers Should Ignore Software Pirates

Posted by Soulskill on from the please-insert-the-play-disc-to-continue-reading dept.

wraith808 points out a story about remarks made by the CEO of software and game development company Stardock about sales in the PC game industry. His suggestion to other developers is simple: ignore the software pirates. From Ars Technica: "'So here is the deal: When you develop for a market, you don't go by the user base. You go by the potential customer base. That's what most software companies do. They base what they want to create on the size of the market they're developing for,' Wardell writes on his blog. 'But not PC game developers.' Don't let people who aren't your audience control the titles you make, and ignore piracy. This is much like Trent Reznor's strategy, although the execution is different. Instead of worrying about pirates, just leave the content out in the open. The market Reznor plays to will still buy the music; he's simply stopped worrying about the pirates. He came to the same conclusion: they weren't customers, they might never be customers, so spending money to try to stop them serves no purpose."

4 of 458 comments (clear)

  1. If only it were that simple... by dpx420 · · Score: 4, Funny

    For a moment I read the title of this article as "Game Developers Should Ignore Software Patents"

  2. I knew I had heard it before ... by xkr · · Score: 3, Funny

    Whining about pirates is like complaining about all the girls you could have dated. But didn't.

    --
    I will create a sig when innovation restarts in the U.S.
  3. Re:They May Become Customers by Protonk · · Score: 2, Funny

    Those are bad examples. Why don't you pick id software or some other game company. Adobe and Microsoft are some of the strongest anti-piracy developers in the business. Adobe throws LOTS of money down the hole trying to stop piracy and turn in distributors. Microsoft went through the WGA debacle to get people to buy windows software. neither of them can be rightly accused of deliberately fomenting piracy in order to generate sales if you are going to also accuse them of acting rationally. Also, a huge percentage of the clients for both microsoft and adobe are firms whose liability is too large to choose to pirate software all the time, so they are likely to strongly prefer to buy software, even expensive software.

    Both adobe and microsoft are where they are for many reasons. Aiding piracy is not among them.

  4. Re:That actually makes sence... by laejoh · · Score: 1, Funny

    Cracking the copy protection is actually the most fun and the reason why I buy games in the first place!