TIGA survey suggests 50 per cent of UK developers are looking to new practices, but only 10 per cent view actual threat to their businesses as high.
60 per cent of respondents, each a member of the UK trade association, see piracy as a problem for their businesses, and 90 per cent see it as a rising issue. But 60 per cent regard the actual threat of piracy - in the form of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing - to their businesses as low, with just 20 per cent assessing it as medium and 10 per cent as high.
Still, 50 per cent of the developers are considering different ways of doing business as a result of P2P piracy, with 75 per cent of these considering either digital distribution, subscription-based services and ad-supported free games, and 25 per cent considering working with publishers to address the issue.
The reaction spurred TIGA CEO Richard Wilson to state that it shows how pragmatic the UK industry is proving in the face of piracy: "The results of the TIGA piracy survey clearly demonstrate that UK developers are taking the initiative when dealing with the issue of piracy and looking for new ways of delivering content and communicating directly with their consumers. Developers are not complacent in dealing with this problem and are mostly seeking to find solutions for themselves rather than simply relying on the Government to solve the problem of piracy."
DRM, however, proves a contentious issue, with 50 per cent of respondents regarding it an irrelevance, 30 per cent as the solution and 20 per cent as the problem. And so does government intervention by slowing or cutting off broadband of P2P pirates - respondents were split equally down the middle in agreeing and disagreeing that it was a good idea.
Well, at least it seems that there is still some sanity left in the UK developer boat. DRM is not the answer as has been demonstrated time and again. Subscription based needs to be cheaper if someone is going to keep paying year in and year out (i.e. rental prices for rental services).
I had the pleasure in reporting a bombastic US gamer on Live who told us all about how he'd flashed his 360 and was downloading games. Fool. I think Ł40 is an absolute bargain for the amount of entertainment I get from these things. Alton Towers costs a damn side more than Ł1 an hour and isn't even as exciting! Funny thing though, if a ner'do'well gamer can find these games online, why don't they employ some layabout to find them so they can get them removed? Same with these big movie companies. Bittorrenting stays alive and games don't get pirated. Everyone's happy.
On the flip side, I hope I can always torrent, because I use it like a HDD recorder; downloading programs rather than videotaping them.
How is this not piracy? Your are still robbing a company of possible earnings from the sale of the DVD or box set you should have bought to watch these shows, If your to lazy to tape them.
It's skewed views like this that cause the rest of us all the **** we have to go through.
Maybe they should take note of the supermarkets pricing of mw2 and sell games at that sweet spot of Ł25,I know i would buy more games at that price and be more willing to jump straight in on release day.
simple... whatever sony are doing it's the way forward. 3 years on and as far as im aware there is no hacked ps3 for playing burned games.
i softmodded my wii in under an hour using a guid i found on the internet with no previous experience.. before i knew it i was downloading reems of wii and gamecube games with my 50 mbit connection.
xbox.. again its been cracked and its quite straight forward to do apparently.
On the flip side, I hope I can always torrent, because I use it like a HDD recorder; downloading programs rather than videotaping them.
How is this not piracy? Your are still robbing a company of possible earnings from the sale of the DVD or box set you should have bought to watch these shows, If your to lazy to tape them.
It's skewed views like this that cause the rest of us all the **** we have to go through.
what a load of b******s. what the hell are the likes of iplayer and that there for? torrents and rapidshare etc offer the advantage of being able to download and watch at your convenience rather than within 7 days etc. no everyone has a method of recording.. i neither have a video recorder, a HDD PVR, or dvd recorder.. i do have a pc with 50mbit internet, 9tb of storage space and a worldwide library.
It's nice to see a refreshing amount of negative piracy comments, I had expected to scoll down an find lots of sarcy remarks and C@ck swinging about how individuals screw the system. I absolutely hate these cheap @ss'd pond scum that are too skint/chavvy/unemployed/ignorant/self-centred ( delete as appropriate) who only serve to keep the prices of games high, and make things difficult for the rest of us legitimate consumers.
I heard from my mrs that a guy at her work just got a life time xbl ban for playing copied disks...laughed my ass off so hard, as about 2 months ago he slagged me for paying full whack for odst, ha-ha c@ck knocker, and just to re-enforce his ignorance, he has informed me that he is going to buy a new xbox and rejoin on different name, I have no desire to point out the flaws in his plan ha-ha
If the Manufacturers charged a normal price for games Ł10-25, that would be the best way to combat piracy especially during a recession.
But no they just want to milk everyone like the sheep they are ewko117 falls into this catagory.
The games industry as a whole is making more money than the movie and music industries yet the prices are so high they get on there high horses and moan about piracy, when someone in a low paid job just cannot afford the disgracfull prices these companies charge (Ł10 price hike on modern warfare 2 proves how GREEDY they are).
Nice to see the sheep are happy atm, but like the greedy music and movie industries buisness models are falling to bits - i can see a time not far off in the future (possibly next gen) where the games industry is going the same way.
Then you will end up with a few companies (monopoly anyone) charging whatever they want.
There arent many games companies/Publishers making lots of money right now, look at EA's results yesterday!!
the publisher probably makes about Ł15-20 out of the Ł40-50 game from what I understand from someone who works for a Publisher, the rest is the retail profit. This is also why they can discount games to Ł20-30. The publisher gives the RRP, but sells to retail for a lot less.
This is why retail is so against digital distribution and Publisher so interested in it,as it would be huge profit loss for retail and gain for Publishers.
Its the same reason we see more and more DLC.
How many full price games dont have DLC these days?
I thought the supermarkets admitted to selling games at a loss only the other month?Just to get you through the door,some employ the buy Ł25 worth of other groceries get the game for Ł25,others just take the hit because it gets new customers through the door gives people the mind set of "where do i buy games?oh i know sainsburys are always cheap".
If they were that bothered by piracy, they would only release for the platforms that had none.
Currently that's the PS3 as far as I know, the Wii and Xbox are chipped big time, PSP and DS are just as bad as is the iPhone (apparently 90% according to developers) and the PC is generally rife with piracy.
Without getting into fanboyism, how have Sony ensured that the PS3 has remained hack free while the Wii and Xbox are ruined??
If they were that bothered by piracy, they would only release for the platforms that had none.
Currently that's the PS3 as far as I know, the Wii and Xbox are chipped big time, PSP and DS are just as bad as is the iPhone (apparently 90% according to developers) and the PC is generally rife with piracy.
Without getting into fanboyism, how have Sony ensured that the PS3 has remained hack free while the Wii and Xbox are ruined??
why would you release your game on one console when you can release it on 2/3 and make more money ???
It's nice to see a refreshing amount of negative piracy comments, I had expected to scoll down an find lots of sarcy remarks and C@ck swinging about how individuals screw the system. I absolutely hate these cheap @ss'd pond scum that are too skint/chavvy/unemployed/ignorant/self-centred ( delete as appropriate) who only serve to keep the prices of games high, and make things difficult for the rest of us legitimate consumers.
I heard from my mrs that a guy at her work just got a life time xbl ban for playing copied disks...laughed my ass off so hard, as about 2 months ago he slagged me for paying full whack for odst, ha-ha c@ck knocker, and just to re-enforce his ignorance, he has informed me that he is going to buy a new xbox and rejoin on different name, I have no desire to point out the flaws in his plan ha-ha
There are loads of people on the forums I'm on who pirate games. One guy in particular, was DLing MW2 the other day for 360, but note not for PS3. Microsoft really need to change their storage format for their Xbox, it's far too easy to pirate.
I won't ever pirate games, I don't see the point in it. It'll probably be faulty, and if you get caught, then you'll either be disconnected from the net, if you've done it often enough, fined, or put on some list. The best way for free stuff is getting prizes for points from websites like Lockerz. Totally legitimate, and no risk whatsoever.
@ spamtin I suppose your way to justify the reasoning behind you pirating games is to sum me up as a sheep, as opposed to an astute, smart, "Im gonna beat the system" type character which you obliviously see yourself, paying for the product legitimately does not make me a sheep, it just makes me consumer, but I do agree with your point that games should be in the region of Ł25.
@ eastldn Im pretty sure that when they ban you, to stop accounts just being remade they place the ban on the IP address/tel number,that's how it works for proper life time bans anyway, so it would make no difference what machine or gamertag was used, I may be wrong but as far as Im aware that's how it works mate.
There was me thinking from the headline that they were not making enough money from piracy so had to go legit.
Piracy is crime full stop there is no justification behind it. Yes games should be cheaper but it's supply and demand the thing that makes the money world go round. If 90% of all gamers stopped paying Ł35-50 then they would have to drop the price.
and the other reason they have decided to try to find new ways to deal with piracy instead of DRM...
<drumroll>
the slowly growing Piracy on consoles...
If the PC really does ever stop being a gaming system, who else really doesn't think that this multi BILLION dollar illegal industry won't find a way to allow people to play hacked/pirated games via unchipped and unmodified consoles?
Answer: DAMN HIGH CHANCE
I was shocked by the figures published over the pirated copies of GTA IV and bloody GOW2 on the Xbox... and those are the copies they KNOW about because the user foolishly made them aware they used it.
<sighs>
the only way, ONLY WAY to stop piracy on the PC AND consoles is to offer more than the pirates... offer something you can only get with the legal game.
I mean, jesus, why not offer... I know, 2x free cinema tickets with the game. orrr... a limited edition thing that doesn't put the price up, just a thankyou for being a legit buyer.
It's not hard...
I mean, I went to see Batman: The Dark Knight on the first night it was out, and I got a poster as a thanks for coming.
So, I will ALWAYS pay for a movie in this series, I will buy the official DVD.
Again, when I purchased Starcraft, they sent me a little gift, a keyring. Didn't put the price up, probably cost 5 pence to make, but I was chuffed.. it sits with my keys and is cool.
hence, I will always buy Blizzard games... I will not pirate them.
It's called customer loyalty, and game companies need to learn it.
@ spamtin I suppose your way to justify the reasoning behind you pirating games is to sum me up as a sheep, as opposed to an astute, smart, "Im gonna beat the system" type character which you obliviously see yourself, paying for the product legitimately does not make me a sheep, it just makes me consumer, but I do agree with your point that games should be in the region of Ł25.
@ eastldn Im pretty sure that when they ban you, to stop accounts just being remade they place the ban on the IP address/tel number,that's how it works for proper life time bans anyway, so it would make no difference what machine or gamertag was used, I may be wrong but as far as Im aware that's how it works mate.
im sure they just ban the console not the gamertag/i.p
i.e you can remove your hard drive put it in a new xbox 360 and recover your gamer tag... but you can not access your saves...
If they were that bothered by piracy, they would only release for the platforms that had none.
Currently that's the PS3 as far as I know, the Wii and Xbox are chipped big time, PSP and DS are just as bad as is the iPhone (apparently 90% according to developers) and the PC is generally rife with piracy.
Without getting into fanboyism, how have Sony ensured that the PS3 has remained hack free while the Wii and Xbox are ruined??
same way they did at the beginning of the PS2's life. Put the games on a format that was expensive to pirate on. Blu ray recorders will cost you Ł200 at best and the discs themselves are Ł10 a pop. Its just not cost effective.
Although there were rumblings of it being done via running games off an external HDD, or some loop using its ability to install other OSs. Which might explain why the option to was taken out of the slim.
i'm sure if you give it a couple of years, it'll be just as bad as the rest of them.
Good. A lot of piracy is either because the game's too expensive, there's no decent demo or because of intrusive DRM. Developers looking at new business models sounds good to me, especially if it results in more of them going independant.
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