Game Developers Should Ignore Software Pirates

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."

Comments

Re:Hmm,,,

[FlyingGuy]

Also, I have a friend who was a furniture designer/maker, on a low level. As he had been talking about it, I grabbed him something like Autocad (can't remember now) as a favour. He now runs a business where I figure they have half a dozen licensed versions. He'd still be in his shed knocking up one chair at a time if it wasn't for 'Piracy'.

Does he, or is he simply installing the copy you stole from AutoCad on his new computers?

Thats the problem with thieves like you. You just don't care, to you its "Ohh I am just taking care of a buddy, how nice of me..". Let us presume he now has 5 new workstations and he installed the cracked AutoCad on each one. Autocad sells for about what $700.00 per copy, so thats about 3500.00 in revenue that Autocad cant use to pay its bills, fund further development, etc. etc. the whole litany of why what you are doing is just plain theft. How much more money is this guy making because of your theft? Lets say he quadrupled his income? So now he is making 4x more based on theft. If he has purchased licenses than he is an honest person, and god on him, but if he has not, then you are both guilty of theft. This is why they go after you for more then just the cost of the software, because your theft of property is now translated into profits that would have not been realized without theft, and therefor should be forfeit . It is called "Ill Gotten Gains" .