Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Valve's Gabe Newell On Piracy: It's Not a Pricing Problem

Posted by Soulskill on from the not-in-fact-all-about-the-benjamins dept.

New submitter silentbrad writes with a followup to our discussion this morning about Ubisoft's claims of overwhelming game piracy. An article at IGN quotes a different point of view from Gabe Newell, CEO of Valve: "In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the U.S. release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty." The quote was taken from an interview at The Cambridge Student Online, in which Newell speaks to a few other subjects, such as creating games for multiple platforms and e-sports.

10 of 466 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmm by hedwards · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And yet Steam has that USD=Euro conversion and region locked pricing.

    1. Re:Hmmm by bignetbuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And they continue to screw the Aussies on game prices with most games costing TWICE as much as their U.S. versions.

    2. Re:Hmmm by gman003 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If they tried to block "games aren't allowed to be unlocked at different times in different regions", all the publishers have to do is consider Steam the "last region" - not putting their games on Steam until it's made its worldwide launch. It's too simple to get around in a way that's bad for Steam.

      And Valve isn't responsible for enforcing their ethical practices on others. I'm sure they're happy to take a cut of anyone's money.

    3. Re:Hmmm by grim4593 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the other hand I almost exclusively purchase games through Steam and a few of my friends are the same way. If a publisher such as EA pulls their games from Steam they are potentially removing a large part of their market. Steam has a lot of momentum with their large gaming library, constant game sales, and community. Systems like Origin, Impulse, etc, don't have the same draw.

    4. Re:Hmmm by Omestes · · Score: 5, Insightful

      now we have origin. which sucks, but we can't play BF3 without it... Steam is losing customers at a slow trickle.

      I doubt they are too worried. I generally won't use a game if it uses a different store than Steam anymore, it isn't worth the hassle or bloat. 90% of the games on my computer are on/through Steam, so convenience takes a large dip when I have to install another full store/distribution service just to play a single game. I'm guessing I'm not alone in this, there has to be a demographic separate from the "gotta have it now" crowd. I had a couple games through Impulse (pre-Gamestop, now I wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole), and I found myself ignoring them completely since they weren't as available as Steam.

      I also stick with Steam for their insane and frequent sales, and their growing support for games in the various Humble Bundles. Its shocking the amount of cash I've split on random Steam impulse buys.

      As for EA, I can live without them, though I find it sad what they've done to places like Bioware (used to be one of my favorite studios, but Dragon Age 2 pretty much killed that).

      I know someone here is going to yell at me for supporting DRM... I can live with it. Gabe has a point, the value added bit that Steam has keeps me from caring too much. Steam actually manages to add value to my purchases, while keeping publishers happy with control. No, Steam isn't perfect, and yes, Steam annoys the hell out of me from time to time. But the future is DRM (love it or hate it) and digital distribution, and I'd rather have Steam leading the pack than EA, or Microsoft, Valve at least compromises between DRM and their users wants/needs/happiness, as opposed to the others who would love to eat your rights for dinner, with your enjoyment and experience as a nice after-dinner mint.

      --
      A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
    5. Re:Hmmm by Gaygirlie · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I used to play lots of pirated games, and I mean LOTS of them, but.. a few years back I got introduced to Steam. I don't remember anymore what exactly drove me to try it, but I did. And suddenly I noticed using less and less pirated games to the point that I haven't had a single pirated game on any of my computers for a few years now. Steam just happens to be so extraordinarily convenient, not to mention two things they provide me with that pirated games don't: always up-to-date installations, and I don't have to bother with backups of my own or trying to keep the original discs safe. And again, the constant sales thing is also great; if I can just stay patient and wait for the game I like to come on this or that seasonal sale I'll be able to safe quite a bit, but I also can just rush out and buy it the moment it's available if I just can't stay patient.

      My roomie has a very similar story in fact, we're both old "pirates"; we never produced any pirated copies ourselves nor did we spread them around, but we did use them ourselves a lot. And when we learned of Steam we both started using pirated games less and less until we eventually stopped altogether. In other words, whatever Steam is doing, it seems to be working.

      Now, as for the "competing" services, like e.g. the one you're required to sign to when you buy BF3... well, we both view them as an inconvenience, not a convenience. They do not offer anything that Steam already doesn't, plus they're handicapped in several ways, like only offering games from one, single publisher. I understand that they want a piece of the Steam-cake, but the way they're going about it is simply not working all that well.

  2. Re:I for one... by zcomuto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'd say DRM encourages piracy more than anything. I'd rather a game just work, than having to jump through hoops to make it work. If a game has something like Securom, frankly I'd rather pirate than have to deal with it. DRM never works, it will always be cracked. There's no getting around that fact.

    In truth I never like pirating, if a company makes a good game I'm of the opinion that they deserve my money, but sometimes they don't make it easy to take. Dreamfall is a noticeable game I remember, I have the boxed copy which uses a disk check, but thankfully there are loads of DRM-free .exe's the pirates have provided.

  3. Multifaceted by king+neckbeard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Having a service problem doesn't mean there isn't a pircing problem as well. The three biggest issues IMO are pricing, service, and respect, although I'm sure other issues play a role as well. However, the respect problem isn't the 'pirates don't respect intellectual property' garbage, but rather, the lack of respect for customers from copyright holders. The FBI warnings on DVDs being a good example of disrespect that only affects those that actually BUY the product.

    --
    This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
  4. Re:I for one... by Em+Adespoton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let me translate that:
    Locks on homes prevent people you don't want from coming in
    DRM prevents people from accessing the content

    Only problem is... the content providers WANT people accessing the content. Locks on homes are like having a firewall, patched software and some sort of AV software on your computer... the house would work just well without the security add-ons, and so would your computer. The add-ons make it more secure.

    With DRM, the entire idea is to prevent access.

    Now, a real counter argument is that if people are grabbing pirated copies of the content, there is nothing to prove that the content is still secure and hasn't been monkeyed with by the pirates, to, say, add botnet software, a keylogger, or something else nefarious.
    Then again, some of the DRM software includes keylogger and/or botnet-like hooks that the Bad Guys can leverage, so it's probably a wash.

    If your home security system only worked when you didn't have a cold, and only worked for some members of your household, or otherwise prevented people with the right to access the home from doing so in an accustomed manner, you'd find that security feature hobbled in some manner pretty quickly. Then you get the appearance of security without the benefit... just like with DRM.

  5. Re:Too true by sonicmerlin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is why I think Good Old Games is the true hero in all of this. They have a no compromise policy- if you want to sell games on their site, you have to sell it 100% DRM free (Steam is DRM btw), with a lot of additional free content (like PDF manuals, soundtracks, codes, etc.). You can re download your game as many times as you want, copy it to wherever you want, give it to whomever you want. And with the success of the Witcher and its sequel, they're attracting interest and acquiring more publisher agreements. GoG is the real future, not Steam.