Shiny mastermind David Perry says free PC game releases will help stamp out PC game piracy in the US and Europe.
In case you've forgotten him already, Perry founded Shiny Entertainment in 1993, which is best known for gaming classics Earthworm Jim, MDK, Messiah and erm, Enter The Matrix. He left the company in 2006.
"The next big thing will be free games," said Perry, speaking in Belfast after being awarded an honorary doctorate by Queen's University.
"[Asia] had so much piracy that they decided to stop charging for the games. Instead, there'll be a charge for things you might want to use in the game," he continued.
"Your character might have a plain white T-shirt. If you wanted a nicer one you could have it for a dollar. Or perhaps you could buy a magic sword for a knight for a dollar."
Perry's idea is already in the beginning stages of appearing in the West; EA's Battlefield Heroes is set to release as a totally free download, and id is currently beta testing Quake Live, which is fully funded by in-game advertising.
"It's going to turn our industry on its head," he said. "I want to see the same thing happening in the USA and Europe."
Perry is currently working on ambitious, community-created MMO Top Secret with Acclaim.
Stick your microtransactions up your bottom Perry. No one wants to pay for skins for the characters that an artist spend 10 minutes knocking up in photoshop.
An ok idea in theory but if someone offers me a free game playing as someone in a white shirt...i'm not going to pay for another shirt. Unless you decide to pay for things like multiplayer, different and extra levels (online and off) and guns then it is pointless. And then you can imagine developers getting carried away.
Cool. That way those of us with loads of money to spend could totally pwn all the cash-poor people, who, obviously through their own slack idleness and consequent lack of disposable income IRL, are unable to afford Armour+1 and extra health kits.
Finally gaming could eventually become a haven for the wealthy Elite. Mind you though, maybe someone would invent a sort of Virtual NHS to distribute Health Kits.
Or perhaps we could have servers set aside for those on a low income, a bit like sink council estates. Maybe they could have low-res polygons rendered in a fetching Burberry or something, with cans of Special Brew hidden throughout the level.
This just sounds like another excuse for giving the well-off more advantages over the skint. My salary's pretty damned good, but I don't see why one's progress and experience of a GAME for (crying out loud) should be dependent on one's bank balance. Shurely it should reflect one's playing instead?
Sure, some of us have bought Ninja gfx cards with DX10 capability and watercooled our bits, but regardless of the outlay on your PC, you have as much chance of finding the Daedric Kill-O-Zap Sword of Tharg as someone on a crap PC.
Seriously, mixing Real-Life money up with virtual worlds is asking for trouble. I know our money is no longer 'real' in any meaningful sense, but this is getting silly.
Alternatively, if companies want to beat piracy, why not just make it worthwhile to buy the bl@@dy games rather than rip them?
Free online games only survive on imbalance. You make it so that you simply aren't competitive unless you pay for some premium content, forcing people to pay up. It's like virtual ransom
Right now it's working because there's not that many games using that system, so they have control over people. If and when more games start using the Pay as you Play content (or PAP as I like to call it), people will flit from game to game, making no real commitment to any and only moving on when they get frustrated by these imbalances.
Stick your microtransactions up your bottom Perry. No one wants to pay for skins for the characters that an artist spend 10 minutes knocking up in photoshop.
It would be cool if we could cook up our own skins though, and sell them to the publishers...
Or even better, create content and upload it in order to 'earn' the game... Sh1t, now there's an idea... It's got rough edges, but it could work if handled properly. Well, maybe. If anyone does this: remember you heard it here first...
Yeah, and legalising drugs will stop the illegal use of drugs!
That kinda doesn't make sense. If the games are free to download and play, why would anyone illegally download a game?!
That's the point. If it is not illegal to download games, you can't download them illegally*.
If using drugs was legal, you can't use them illegally*.
Abolishing speed limits reduces the number of people who break the speed limit each day to 0.
Get the gist?
* Ignoring any lighter restrictions which maybe appear in their place But lets not get technical
Please check the dutch crime statistics related to soft-drugs and try and say that again. Since those are legal over there.
Because they aren't unrestricted... there are still laws governing them... if there weren't there wouldn't be any crime related to soft drug use Except crime while said user was high
No, no, no, no and again no. Microtransactions like this will kill the games industry, not save it. A dollar for a fancy t-shirt here, a dollar for a sword there... Where will it all end?
Paying to keep each Pokemon you catch? Paying for every single golf club and hole in the latest Tiger Woods? Paying for EVERY car in GT?
**Press Start To Play (click here to buy start button functionality)**
Mr Perry, accept that you are a one-hit wonder has-been. You are as relevant to todays games industry as Chesney Hawkes is to todays popular music industry.
This COULD work. But won't. After all if I'm playing a free game and I have to buy a set of missions for Ł1 but need to buy 50 missions to complete the game them i'm paying more than I would normally. And I don't pay for clothes etc or skins (thats why Home ain't going to appeal to me)
Personally the only real way to stop piracy across the board is a new style DRM mechanic. But they can always be cracked so you'd need it to be based on a mutating algorithm that syncs with a server (requires internet) and if it can't connect to that server the algorithm shuts down several core files that alerts another server and places several other mutating algorithm's that requires a uh...Ah fudge I've lost my train of thought lol
You are as relevant to todays games industry as Chesney Hawkes is to todays popular music industry.
my god man are you insane. if chesney sees this post we are all in for another rendition of I am the one and only.....and trust me chesney, you are a one and only thank f**k in fact, lets send Ches round to Daves house. i bet they would get on like a house on fire.
Years ago I had car racing game for the Amiga, the game was free, and you got a few tracks with it, but had to pay for a disc with extra tracks on. Not sure if it made any money though. As for micro-transactions, why not use them as promotions on products like cereals, soft drinks and crisps? ie buy a multi-pack of coke/pepsi and get a code to unlock something in-game, like a t-shirt, hat or car.
This COULD work. But won't. After all if I'm playing a free game and I have to buy a set of missions for Ł1 but need to buy 50 missions to complete the game them i'm paying more than I would normally. And I don't pay for clothes etc or skins (thats why Home ain't going to appeal to me)
Personally the only real way to stop piracy across the board is a new style DRM mechanic. But they can always be cracked so you'd need it to be based on a mutating algorithm that syncs with a server (requires internet) and if it can't connect to that server the algorithm shuts down several core files that alerts another server and places several other mutating algorithm's that requires a uh...Ah fudge I've lost my train of thought lol
Well, there's always the idea of making it worthwhile to buy the physical copies. I'm a strong supporter of maps, novellas, proper boxes and other stuff that make people feel as if they've actually bought something rather than just rented a piece of code until the server goes kaput.
I mean, let's face it: would anyone want a pirated copy of Civ IV without a manual? And does anyone remember the gorgeous Psygnosis boxes?
If they wanted to stop piracy, just don't make an in-game tutorial and have really really complicated controls. But make sure the game has stunning graphics or a revolutionary gameplay system as well otherwise no-one would buy it.
If they wanted to stop piracy, just don't make an in-game tutorial and have really really complicated controls. But make sure the game has stunning graphics or a revolutionary gameplay system as well otherwise no-one would buy it.
Aw man - I can see it now:
W - Forward E - Forward if an enemy is somewhere towards the left of you R - Select point to move to that is in front of you, move to that point using CTRL-Shift + right mouse button, but only if you wish to fire at the same time F - Build garage f4 - Backwards
Alt-h - Map mode, where you can plot your course using in-game programming language based on INTERCAL
How about accepting that there will always be some level of piracy, stop p!ssing on your paying customers, make games that will run on realistic spec computers(without looking nothing like the version advertised running on twenty super-computers, that only NASA can afford), in fact make sure your game actually works/installs in the first place and stop blaming everything on pirates when you don't sell as many copies as you had hoped/predicted(it was all just a guess anyway).
Being an asian, I know some of the reasons people don't get original games. There's the problem of the price. Many people can't afford games that cost $30. Even I think that's bloody expensive. Good thing my father could afford it, orelse I would've never gotten even one game.
There's also a lack of original games in the market. Whenever I go to the stores, there are only a handful of original PS3 games, the rest are all pirated, so many people don't have a choice. Personally, I get my relatives to get it from the UK or via mail thru the US or thru steam, but that isn't as cool as having a box which feels like an awesome present.
Lastly, there's the lack of incentive of online play. Many people do not even consider going online. Online multiplayer gaming is actually the main reason I purchase original games. The internet connections are so bad, that on a good day, I get a latency of 200 from a few Euro servers, and all other above 350. The lag is horrible and mostly it's difficult to connect to servers, and I get kicked constantly for "High ping!" "Stop downloading porn!" etc...
Would the devs be making free single player games? Because I can't see how they're going to cover their costs, much less make a profit. But, without the availability of a good internet connection to download them, piracy will remain rampant. And also, without a good internet connection, people will not even get free multiplayer games, because it's more frustrating than enjoyable.
On a side note, I got an xbox so from now on 360 pwns ps3 any time of the day.
In my opinion, I think that the advertising model is the best way to go. Reduce the price of the games to the bare minimum (covers cost of materials and shipping not development) and have in game advertising from various companies. But it shouldn't include this current trend of targeted advertising based on the webbies you look at (RB6: Vegas2 springs to mind). However this use of adverts would work in present day & future set games. Not sure how they'd crowbar a McDonalds ad into Empire: Total War though; maybe Napolean could wear a party hat with the golden archs!
Has anyone actually seen working PS3 copied games? I havent, and hackers have had since the back end of 2005 to get them working. Yes the ISO's are on bit torrent but im sure there is no way of getting them working.
Ok this is only one console, but it is the latest console, so maybe Sony has found a method that will take hackers too long to hack to dent software sales.
If they find a way to hack firmware 2.0 it'll probably be too late as most users will be on 2.41 at least and most users wont want to roll back their firmware.
Free gaming may help developers produce software thats not as heavily pirated and recoup more costs through micro transactions, advertising etc, but it would be immensly harmfull to the hardcore gamer.
We'd be limited to the simple games currently viewed as browser/wii style as no one would attempt to make anything epic.
To address a couple of the other points raised, pirates do not pirate solely on the quality of the game, they pirate cos it's free and they're theaving gypsies.
Regarding pc developers producing graphics intensive games which only run at max on uber rigs, there's just no pleasing people is there. You look on various forums and critisim is leveled at ugly games, while great looking games are vilified for their requirements, FFS people, great graphics require some processing power. Besides, Crysis is often targeted as an example, despite its poor optimisation which lef even powerfull rigs struggling, I played the demo on my old rig at low detail perfecly smoothly. It looked ok and ran great on a athelon 3500/geforce 6800.
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That way those of us with loads of money to spend could totally pwn all the cash-poor people, who, obviously through their own slack idleness and consequent lack of disposable income IRL, are unable to afford Armour+1 and extra health kits.
But lets not get technical 
