With Nintendo's new ability to brick consoles, Sony casting out PS3 hackers and Geohot taking a timely 'vacation', video game piracy is very much back in the news.
But is there a better way to tackle those gleefully infringing on publishers' copyright than simply wielding the ban hammer?
Sundberg is a long-term opponent of 'always online' DRM measures, and is keen for the video games industry to look at other ways of curbing piracy - including the rarely-discussed possibility of job interviews.
"Piracy is always worrying," he told CVG. "It's never been a helpful thing. We'll let our publishers fight that battle. But I mean, 50 percent of the people that work for me come from a hacker background - that's true."
When asked whether approaching leading hackers and asking them to put their programming skills to good use was a wise idea, Sundberg added:
"Oh yeah. I absolutely think that's a fair approach, to think about how these people can fit on the right side of the law. It's one way, at least. Perhaps the truest pirates are too much down the road of anarchy to ever work with you in a proper way; these are the guys who see us as evil!
"But in Sweden the [hacking] scene was huge... As a studio, we've found that there's definitely a lot of talent [in that community]."
Sundberg once again labelled DRM measures as "stupid".
"The DRM does not stop piracy," he said, "it just punishes the people who have actually paid for the game. It's completely useless. Forcing people to be online all the time and so on doesn't show respect to the people who actually buy PC games."
Sundberg's solution to denting video game piracy doesn't stop at cherry picking the brightest sparks from the hacking community, however.
He also believes that better, exclusive PC games - powered by constant updates - would reduce illegal software sharing.
"We've always made PC games, but we actually don't like [porting games from console to PC]," said Sundberg, whose Just Cause games have been hugely popular on the format.
"You end up just doing a port, so there's not a lot of time, budget or creative thinking going into using the PC. I think that's quite sad. We [as an industry] should take the PC platform more seriously. Everyone is just complaining about piracy on the PC, but when it comes to in-game DLC or social connectivity, the options on PC compared to console are endless. I would like at some point to do a really good PC game designed specifically for PC players."
He added: "I think piracy wouldn't be as much of an issue if there were better PC games out there. We could just scrap the whole concept of stupid DRM."
Strong stuff. What are your thoughts, readers?
Comments
28 comments so far...
gilly83 on 25 Mar '11 said:
absolutely hit the nail on the hit with his comments there..the only sufferers of DRM is the paying customer, look at Ubi for instance with their constant connection crap, which has ultimatley hurt their pc sales and seen them drop it from their big titles recently. The comments of dlc getting rid of pirates is interesting and one i also agree with.
Drusus on 25 Mar '11 said:
Well he has a good few points but then again he isn't doing much about it. He'd like to make a pc specific game, what's stopping him?
eastldn on 25 Mar '11 said:
YES finally someone with a brain!
infernoxXx on 25 Mar '11 said:
he speaks the truth.
Deanways on 25 Mar '11 said:
This happens in other areas of cyberindustry so why not games?
unacomn on 25 Mar '11 said:
I'm gonna buy Just Cause 2 again just for that statement.
Big hugs all round.
PS360MAN on 25 Mar '11 said:
What a f**ing legend.
VampiricPadraig on 25 Mar '11 said:
I had a idea.
Why don't small game companies teach students how to make games (And I don't mean using RPG Maker or Game Maker
)
And then hire them as a junior game developer.
Game companies win, Gamers win. EVERYBODY WINS!!!!!
johnafirth on 25 Mar '11 said:
Funding probably? Games aren't cheap to make, and they'd have to use a publisher willing to fork out for a PC-exclusive title.
Sleepaphobic on 25 Mar '11 said:
That made too much sense.
corkscru74 on 25 Mar '11 said:
Err...because it costs a lot of money?!?! With the amount of talent out there making maps and mods and entire games off their own backs for little or no profit why spend time trying to teach some lazy students who can't be arsed to get out of bed?!
But back to the point of the article: This guy talks a lot of sense. I refuse to pirate games but it sure gets tempting when the DRM is so in your face. It's like those "Piracy is a crime" ads at the start of DVDs (brilliantly spoofed by The I.T. Crowd) - you only have to watch that if you've actually paid for the movie WTF!
Jensonjet on 25 Mar '11 said:
That makes no sense at all.
Stop piracy by employing hackers!?!?
Hackers and pirates can be two completely different people, with two very different attitudes. A pirate – someone who plays illegally procured games – isn't necessarily into hacking or has any knowledge about how to hack. And a hacker isn't necessarily into piracy!
The argument is like suggesting the way to eradicate drug use is by banning tobacco. While a person may be a smoker and into drugs, the two are not inextricably tied.
So ignoring the glaringly obvious, and somewhat strange opinion, would this guy suggest a movie pirate should be hired by a Hollywood studio? Or perhaps a joyrider should be hired by, what? A car manufacturer? A raceteam?
Sorry, but as wrong as it is to pirate games, it's the responsiblility of the games industry to ensure it's not possible. People will always cheat or break the rules. That's why we have police, tax inspectors, alarms, locks, etc. People need rules and guidelines, and they need people to enforce them. It's a sad admission but a percentage of the human race, regardless of wealth, social upbringing or education will always break the rules. In the videogame industry, like any other, it's their responsibility to ensure they do their best to eradicate it.
Unfortunately for the games industry the law does not care about this issue. If a member of a law enforcement agency knew of a kid pirating a game and one stealing a car, or breaking into a house, or walking out of a shop with unpaid goods, etc, etc, the piracy crime is considered the least important. Digital technology has created an industry and massed much wealth. Sadly piracy is the downside. As soon as man collected possessions he inadvertently invented stealing!
And the attitude extends further than the law. I doubt a single parent would be horrified if their child downloaded a song, a film or a game. But they would certainly be shocked to hear that their child had stolen from a shop or broken into a house. And this attitude extends across the whole population.
The industry's toughest battle is to convince the law. The movie and music industries have both failed. As I understand it only the music industry has proactively attempted to solve the issue. The games industry will have to try and solve this problem themselves. And their current efforts which only affect genuine paying customers is not the answer. Seriously, how dumb has the games industry proved itself to be by hurting the people it profits from?
runadumb on 25 Mar '11 said:
I shed a tear reading that. Please return too us PC gaming, please. These FPS games made for consoles just don't feel right. They are held back and it's so annoying as mouse and keyboard rules the joypads.
Imaduck on 25 Mar '11 said:
Smart guy
The_KFD_Case on 25 Mar '11 said:
I've been saying this stuff for years, and he's right: DRM is stupid. It's managed to push me to the brink of abandoning a hobby of 26+ years wholesale. Well done publisher numpties! That lot should have been the first round of casualties in the global employment lay-offs IMO.
Anarion on 25 Mar '11 said:
Respect.
Noobsaibot on 26 Mar '11 said:
Codswallop. While I don't agree with needing 24/7 online access, I don't think being required to do a quick online validation every few days would be too bad an idea. Assuming it was through some sort of client like steam. In fact, this would work quite well with consoles - Every game having a CD key and requiring validation every week or so. I mean, who doesn't have access to the net these days? Hiring hackers is simply a dumb idea - for every hacker they hired, they'd have two replacing them.
And this sends out a bad message too: "Attempt to hack our console and we will have no choice but to offer you a permanent, high paying job"
Imaduck on 26 Mar '11 said:
Noob, how would you feel if the interwebs in your area got boloxed for say 3 weeks right, someone cut the wrong wire or something. Imagine if due to not having a connection, you couldn't play a game that you bought with no online feature whatsoever other than login, at all ?
Online is an option and always should be.
The_KFD_Case on 26 Mar '11 said:
Approximately half the global human population hasn't used a phone. Now how many of the people on Earth do you think have daily constant access to reliable internet service? Hint: It's not a majority, and it's not just in developing countries neither.
The_KFD_Case on 26 Mar '11 said:
Precisely!
NakedFaerie on 26 Mar '11 said:
wow, a smart dev.
I agree 100% with this guy.
DRM is the stupidest thing they've ever done for games. All they are doing is punishing the buyer, the pirate will always get around protection so its useless.
If the game was worth it then people would buy it. If there was no crappy copy protection in it then it will also sell more.
Think about it, what was the most pirated PC game? Spore. Why? DRM.
What was the 2nd most pirated game? Sims 3. Why? DRM.
remove DRM and there will be more buyers as they will no longer be punished for buying a game.
Make better LONGER games and there is more reasons to buy the game. These days games that take 3 hours to finish is not worth buying. I'm taking about Kilzone 3, Homefront, Bulletstorm, COD Black Ops and Medal Of Honor.
Make LONGER games like GTA, Just Cause, Dragon Age, Assassins Creed, Hitman, Fallout and God Of War.
Small, expensive games are stupid. Would you go to the cinema and pay $100 to watch a movie? NO, then why charge us that much for a game that lasts about the same time?
From a gamer to a dev, drop the price, make the game longer and worth buying then you will see a decline in piracy and more sales.
monkeyoverlord on 26 Mar '11 said:
I've gotta say i'm fed up of the whole "make better games and pirating will stop" Give me a break if the games were so bad no-one would download them. People always want things for free just using btjunkie shows that these games are so "bad" that people are begging for cracks and keys and wasting hours trying to get these "awful " games to work.
paketep on 26 Mar '11 said:
Glad to see someone in the industry who knows how to use his brain.
A lot of idiots at Ubi & EA should read this interview and learn something.
Yellow6 on 27 Mar '11 said:
I agree with some of this interviewee's points.
Also, I agree with most of JensonJets points.
What we need is for people to realise "piracy" is theft.
Stop glamourising it by calling it anything other than theft.
Stop imagining it as cool super intelligent hackers "fighting the man" because most thieves (pirates) are not hackers.
If I stole (pirated) 100 games at £50 each thats £5,000 of theft (only 8.5 games a month).
And that is personal use only, not selling copies onwards.
As JensonJet says, the police don't care but if I nick a rubbish old car worth £1,000 I'll do serious time.
Whether this is anyone's hobby or not, it's just that, a pleasure and leisure activity.
This is not a necessity like food or water.
So if you don't like it just do something else, I boycotted UBI coz of the always on DRM and have still not gone back to them.
Money talks.
I actually like to buy games in shops and sniff the manual (if there is one) when I get home and am not a fan of online registration, DRM or DLC.
However, it's the games companies that have to make a decision,
do they want to lose customers who are not on line but cut out thieves/pirates?
This is their decision to make, not ours.
Our decision is whether to buy their goods/services or not.
If we want to stop DRM measures and keep "shop" sales that don't require online connections then WE have to make a stand for our hobby against thieves.
1 - Without us to pay for the industry it would not exist.
2 - Prices incorporate a percentage to cover stolen sales so WE are paying for the theives to game for free.
The last points 1+2 mean we are paying twice for thieves.
Think about it the next time a "mate" sniggers about the stolen games he's playing.
nitrofurano on 27 Mar '11 said:
this article used two words wrongly: Hacker and PC - http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to- ... tml#Hacker - http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#PC
wasted-again on 27 Mar '11 said:
How about just stop making games for PC? They can't pirate what doesn't exist.
Noobsaibot on 27 Mar '11 said:
You could argue the same for the electricity to your house, couldn't you?
I wont argue that there are a surprisingly high amount of people who haven't jumped into the 21st century but this number is dwindling all the time (especially in the developing world - Africa in particular). For a moment, lets consider if Xbox had a system like the one I described. Do you think the system I proposed would greatly affect the number of current Xbox gamers they could reach in the big Xbox territories (and Japan)?
Also, they could even use 3G a la Zeebo for updates. Either way, I can see something like that happening in the future and, from the publishers perspective, it would stave off things like pre owned and piracy (to some extent at least). And i'm not saying i'd be particularly happy about it either.
Imaduck on 28 Mar '11 said:
Yes you could say the same thing about electricity if it floats yar boat. However we're dealing with DRM here, piracy and registration codes not power cuts. Why should you have to be online to play a game with no online features which you bought? Let's compare!
If you pirate it - you can play it any time anywhere ....
O let me splash out the bloated price so I can be limited plox! How dare I expect a little bit of space to breathe!
I'm anti-piracy, but I see why it exists, and something needs to change because that's where it stands. It's like building a multi-story carpark which costs £10 per hour and requires them to take your car to pieces and throw up in your glove compartment in a free parking area. Which one does ye reckons your average Joe will go with?