People have been pirating movies and music since the advent of the Internet. Pirating, for those who are unfamiliar, is the process of downloading a music, movie or video game file for free. It is essentially digital theft and treated the same way in courts. Video game publishers have tried their damndest to quell piracy. They add online passes that you have to buy to play certain modes in games and Digital-Rights Management (DRM), which also must be bought, requires a constant Internet connection to play the games even if it is a single-player game. Publishers usually blame PC gamers for this piracy problem due to the higher probability of console owners who do not pirate video games than PC gamers.
Stanislas Mettra, creative director for the download-only title I Am Alive, stated through Joystiq that, “if 50,000 PC players buy the game, it's not worth the cost of putting a team of 12 on the project for three months.’ He continued, ‘It's hard because there's so much piracy and so few people are paying for PC games that we have to precisely weigh it up against the cost of making it.’” Mettra’s comment was an explanation to why I Am Alive was only planned for Xbox 360 and PS3. This statement was later retracted by Mettra three days later and cited the English language for the miscommunication. He declared that, “Honestly, which game maker would not love his game to be playable on as many platforms and by as many people as possible?” Whether this was a corporate response to a large number of PC gamers upset over his first comment or an honest mend is up to discussion.
The developers of an independent video game Super Meat Boy have given their opinions on piracy and have acknowledged that their game has been pirated and will probably continue to be pirated. “Our game was hugely pirated – we don’t f**king care. If there are let’s say 200,000 copies of Super Meat Boy that are getting passed around for free, that’s 200,000 people who are playing the game. If they like this game there’s a really high probability of their friends coming around and seeing it or them posting about it on their blogs.”
My opinions on piracy are mostly indifferent. I don’t hate it or people that do it. I give my money to companies and artists that I feel deserve it.
Sound off below with your thoughts on piracy in video games and piracy in general.
