Beautiful Game Studios general manager Roy Meredith has told CVG that there's a 90 percent piracy rate for the developer's Championship Manager series.
"That's not just a number in the air, we can measure it and we know that there are a huge amount of pirated copies," he said during a recent trip to our offices.
"There's a real issue around DRM ... I'd love to defeat pirates, but actually, with all this mess on Spore and Football Manager, which I haven't been able to play this year... I spent about three hours trying to go through this registration process and I really want to play it but I've got other things to do with my life.
"There are actually other ways of dealing with piracy too," Meredith added. "One is to compete price-wise. We haven't got to pay royalties to Sony or Microsoft, so we can go into territories and price compete."
Check out our just published Championship Manager 2009 preview here.
Is that the sound of common sense and the basic foundations of sound business/customer models I hear? Let's hope so because there seems to be few ways better at stirring up the PC gaming communities than bundling a game with DRM. That bile can't die soon enough!
I was expecting a bucket kicking crying fest like crytek did, but hang in wait ! He is being reasonable and talking about how to beat priacy without DRM?? I may need a lie down.....
That's a smart way of thinking, sad thing is there will always be those that want something for nothing, I doubt it's price that enters the pirates mind.
That's a smart way of thinking, sad thing is there will always be those that want something for nothing, I doubt it's price that enters the pirates mind.
That as it may be the real focus for the game companies - as many gamers have been saying for quite some time now - ought to be the paying customers. It is generally not a good thing to put artificial hurdles between the end product experience and the customer. Think of it this way: A great many people get frustrated and disheartened by the run-around that public bureaucracy is notorious for. It's no different with DRM, online activations, etc. which have been demonstrated not to stop piracy. That being the case why even bother using it? Worse: The DRM implemented not only fails at stopping pirates but it does manage to stop legitimate paying customers from enjoying the legal product they purchased to full effect. This can not in any way be good for a long-term sustainable business model as it alienates the customer base from the company and it's product(s). It shouldn't be difficult for the powers that be to realise this, and maybe they do, but if so it still seems to be filtering down.
There are times where a company will hope that if they keep going with a concept long enough the public will eventually tire of resisting and give in. Perhaps that is the case with DRM, and if so I dearly hope that there are many, many others whom like myself are prepared to resist and spend their money elsewhere until the companies guilty of this lame duck DRM usage desist. It's been said that the one who is most committed wins. This time, for all our sakes, let's hope that the customer base is the most committed.
They will never stop people pirating games even if no game came with DRM, I am sure there would still be many many Gamers out there who would play it ilegally no matter what. Which is pretty sad.
They will never stop people pirating games even if no game came with DRM, I am sure there would still be many many Gamers out there who would play it ilegally no matter what. Which is pretty sad.
Yep, that's the truth of it!
No matter what type of protection system they do or do not use, the scumbag pirates will still obtain the game illegally. And I'm also not sure that a significant percentage of that 90% would do the decent thing.
I think one of the best way to stop pirates and appeal to their better side. Show that developers arent all rock star wannabes like cliffy b but just normal guys that love games trying to earn a crust.
I used to bootleg music for a while until I realised part of the reason was I hated the artist and didnt want them to have my money.
Deep down everybody understands the value of hard work so maybe dev diarys and showing the hard work thats goes in will help the cause.
I think one of the best way to stop pirates and appeal to their better side. Show that developers arent all rock star wannabes like cliffy b but just normal guys that love games trying to earn a crust.
I used to bootleg music for a while until I realised part of the reason was I hated the artist and didnt want them to have my money.
Deep down everybody understands the value of hard work so maybe dev diarys and showing the hard work thats goes in will help the cause.
I totally disagree with you that "everybody understands the value of hard work" and infact I think the pirating majority couldn't give a s**t about how much blood & sweat has gone into producing a game as long as they can play it for nothing.
Unfortunately, if it's a choice between paying £30 - £40 for a game or downloading it for nothing or 3 quid off a market stall, I know which choice many will make...the problem is no matter what protection system they bring out, someone will always crack it so this issue just goes around and around.
If they are able to say that their figure of 90% is accurate then a good way to test this reasonable price theory, would be to see what a reduction in price does for the next version.
Personally I buy every other version of football manager and just play the old one for the year i don't buy it.
People pirate because they can't afford the stupid prices of games these days. Students for example...they are one of the biggest gaming groups and can't afford to pay these prices. So...it's pirate them (which is way to easy) or do without.
People pirate because they can't afford the stupid prices of games these days. Students for example...they are one of the biggest gaming groups and can't afford to pay these prices. So...it's pirate them (which is way to easy) or do without.
If they can't afford to pay £30 odd for a title what in the hell are they doing getting into PC or console gaming in the first place?
All this 'games are too expensive' talk is bollock. Piracy is sheer opportunism.
People pirate because they can't afford the stupid prices of games these days. Students for example...they are one of the biggest gaming groups and can't afford to pay these prices. So...it's pirate them (which is way to easy) or do without.
People pirate because they want things for FREE.
PC games are a lot cheaper than console games. Are you saying that students playing on consoles can afford the consoles' expensive games but not the cheaper PC games??
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