id: Piracy is a "Hidden Benefit"

Epic and Crytek may not be happy about widespread piracy of computer games, but id Software sees piracy as a benefit for consumers. Studio CEO Todd Hollenshead has accused PC makers of viewing piracy as a “hidden benefit” for consumers.

“I think they are [secretly happy about PC piracy],” he said. “The size of the [PC game] pirate market actually is larger than the legitimate-goods market in many cases.”

“I think that there’s been this dirty little secret among hardware manufacturers, which is that the perception of free content–even if you’re supposed to pay for it on PCs–is some sort hidden benefit that you get when you buy a PC, like a right to download music for free or a right to download pirated movies and games.”

id Software is currently working on Quake Live and Rage, the latter coming out on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.