Piracy Pushed Us to Consoles: id and Epic

March 12th, 2007 Posted in Articles, Business, FPS, PC

pirates.jpgAcross two separate lectures, two of the industry’s biggest PC-heavyweights expressed their concern at piracy, stating that it has pushed them to release their games on consoles. Id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead gave a lecture on the problems of piracy on the Internet at GDC, disclosing that, though they will still develop for the PC, they have begun to look to consoles as it is harder to pirate on consoles. The company’s upcoming game – Enemy Territory: Quake Wars – will be making its way to the PS3 and Xbox 360, besides the PC version.

Hollenshead’s sentiment was reflected by Epic Games’ president Capps. “PC gaming is really failing apart,” he said. “It killed us to make Unreal Tournament 3 cross-platform, but Epic had to do it.” He also added that the market “that would buy a $600 video card knows how Bittorrent works.”

It seems that fewer and fewer triple-A PC titles are being released everyday, and that the consoles are getting all the attention. What’s your opinion on the topic? Is piracy really killing PC gaming?

9 Responses to “Piracy Pushed Us to Consoles: id and Epic”

  1. The Wicker Man Says:

    Im one of the persons that did to gaming :( …but if i like a game i go out and buy it. Theyre barely any games out now that I care for. With the next gen coming its gonna rock hard. I dont blame this on piracy, I blame the companies for not writing good code to make it alot harder.

    I would make it like EA did where u register ur game and that cd key is locked. Nobody can use it. Thats what i would do.



  2. jazz Says:

    thats bs. its not our fault they have lazy developers. I mean think about it. Look at bf2 & bf2142 then there is WOW and other games like that. I wonder why can’t we play them online by just downloading. Blaming piracy for their lazyness….thats bs.



  3. Zac Says:

    There’s Steam. Which is probably quite hard to crack, but then again, I don’t know. I just know it’s a LOT easier to copy and paste a serial in while installing a game.



  4. Janek Says:

    “It killed us to make Unreal Tournament 3 cross-platform, but Epic had to do it.”

    What a load of crap. How was it hard for them to cross platform the game because of piracy… I think the real problem is that they just like flinging excuses around. Their remark about cross platforming doesnt even relate to piracy. If anything it relates to their (lack of)ability to code for all platforms. If they are refering to a financial loss because of the PC, I think they are incorrect. Any hardcore FPS gamer is going to choose to buy/pirate an FPS like UT on PC, not a console, its a fact that FPS is better on PC… so they arent really losing money, because if they didnt release it onto the PC I doubt the hardcore FPS gamers would migrate to the consoles just to play UT, since UT has always been one of those games that we love to play wih a mouse and keyboard.

    Bah. I might just be venting here, but that statement of theirs seemed way out of place.



  5. Zac Says:

    Yeah it didn’t really make sense to me either.



  6. The Wicker Man Says:

    Well it somewhat the truth guys, the piracy is killing the gaming market. How many games actually will go online thats anygood? Quake Wars,Battlefield3-there has to be one coming with the bcompany engine(frost Bite),star wars battlefront 3,halo2,call of duty 4(3 wasnt made by the ppl that made 1/2,universe of starcraft,c&c3,ut3.

    Boom, those are my games that ill only pay to go online for man. If i know im only gonna get games for single wtf am i paying 50 bucks for 8 hrs of gameplay? The single players games that are coming out.

    medal of honor Airborne
    alone in the dark
    jade empire
    teenage muntant ninja turtles the movies
    gears of war
    castle wolfenstein
    heaven vs hell
    war dogs
    stalker
    halo 2
    silent hunter 4
    ghost recon aw2
    bia hh
    alone in the dark near death investigation
    frontlines fuel of war
    fall of liberty-makers of call of duty where nazi won ww2 and came to america to fight us.
    half life ep 2
    indiana jones 07
    the wall
    dark sector
    eye of the storm
    project offset
    the settlers vI
    crossfire
    rogue warrior
    possession
    bioshock
    timeshift
    prey2
    kane & lynch : dead men
    far cry 2
    prince of persia 4
    blacksite : area 51
    left 4 dead
    project IM

    current good online games…. wow,coh/cov,= gay cuz u have to pay for them. cod,cod2,css,dods,bf2,bf1942,bf2142,cs1.6,cz, basically for fps its cod,bf,and cs/steam games that are only good and ut04.Then u have some others like age of empires and warcraft and starcraft. I personally feel more games should come out that will have great multiplayer as. Cuz if u have a great multiplayer with ur gamez and do something like steam to register ur game itll be so hard to crack.



  7. The Wicker Man Says:

    I’m just tired of buying 600 video cards when developers are pussing out on us. Its pissing me off, theres only 1 good fps exe good for the pc. And thats crysis coming out :\



  8. Zac Says:

    Yeah it’s lame how graphics take over actual gameplay and the more important elements of a game.



  9. greenthumb Says:

    damn I thought devs made more money by makin games go multi platform ?. Am I lol losin my mind or what ? lmfao this is gettin like gang warfare. PC devs dont wanna go on the Crips Turf (Ps3) , the Bloods turf (360) ,or the Hells angels turf (Wii). Is that what it is ,hell I wouldnt give a damn if pirates force me to that. I’d thank for wakin me up, so I can make more money!



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