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Epic Blames PC Piracy for Its Focus on Consoles
- Thread starter mindcycle
- Start date
VashHT
Diamond Member
What games have they released recently anyway? GoW came out long after the console version and UT3 was hated by much of the UT community (and I don't think it even sold well on consoles anyway), so I don't see how they can blame piracy in this. Release mediocre titles or console ports years after they actually release and you're going to see poor sales. What annoys me the most about articles like this is that they can't admit they made poor decisions or made a poor game, they just go straight out and blame piracy for their own failures.
EvilComputer92
Golden Member
hahaha these threads are so typical. We've had one for Crytek and id software.
Company X is traditional PC company.
Company X whines about piracy as reason for moving to consoles after making console ports.
Everybody says Company X games suck because they are bitter.
Company X doesn't care because they are making millions on the 360 and PS3.
You guys have no idea how much money Epic is making simply from Unreal Engine licenses. They could stop game development and still make tremendous profit just by selling their engine and getting royalties. The money speaks louder than the voice of gamers.
I think the last major PC exclusive released was Crysis. It was the only game I think that can really be called a PC game in every sense of the word. Too bad so many people pirated it and Crytek realized they could make a crappier version on consoles and make more money anyway.
Company X is traditional PC company.
Company X whines about piracy as reason for moving to consoles after making console ports.
Everybody says Company X games suck because they are bitter.
Company X doesn't care because they are making millions on the 360 and PS3.
You guys have no idea how much money Epic is making simply from Unreal Engine licenses. They could stop game development and still make tremendous profit just by selling their engine and getting royalties. The money speaks louder than the voice of gamers.
I think the last major PC exclusive released was Crysis. It was the only game I think that can really be called a PC game in every sense of the word. Too bad so many people pirated it and Crytek realized they could make a crappier version on consoles and make more money anyway.
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I wonder how valid this argument is? Nowdays you can Mod A Wii without taking it apart, there are $50 USB thingys that will let you play anything. About the only slowing down Wii piracy is the "slightly" hard time to copy a Disc. But you can download them anywhere ready to burn. The 360 is slighlty harder to mod and the fear of a banned console slows it some, but they are plentifull. Right now the only "percived" piracy free console is the PS3 (its been broke, its only a matter of time). I know the PC is probebly the very easiest of them all to pirate stuff on, but many "good" titles have no DRM and do just fine on PC.
If any of the piracy stuff was actualy true nobody would (right now) would develop for anything but the PS3.
The facts are right now your biggest sell through are consoles, so your best bet is consoles from a pure money standpoint. Nothing wrong with that, after all that iw waht companies are in business to do, make money. But offloading the "we dont make money" on PC's is silly (but probebly true). Why dont they just say what the truth is.
We make much more money on Console games, and taking time to port our console game to the PC means the team will not be working on the next Console game. Which in turn means less money for us.
Its simple math, not piracy, though I'm sure some bean counters use the piracy thing in final numbers. Piracy is a nice scape goat... "it ruins the world!!" bah... Better to tell people who buy your stuff that they cant have it becuase of the Big Bad Pirates, then because there is no money in it.
If any of the piracy stuff was actualy true nobody would (right now) would develop for anything but the PS3.
The facts are right now your biggest sell through are consoles, so your best bet is consoles from a pure money standpoint. Nothing wrong with that, after all that iw waht companies are in business to do, make money. But offloading the "we dont make money" on PC's is silly (but probebly true). Why dont they just say what the truth is.
We make much more money on Console games, and taking time to port our console game to the PC means the team will not be working on the next Console game. Which in turn means less money for us.
Its simple math, not piracy, though I'm sure some bean counters use the piracy thing in final numbers. Piracy is a nice scape goat... "it ruins the world!!" bah... Better to tell people who buy your stuff that they cant have it becuase of the Big Bad Pirates, then because there is no money in it.
BladeVenom
Lifer
True. They're Microsoft's bitch now, and they say what MS tells them to say.
EvilComputer92
Golden Member
Yeah and they make hundreds of millions doing it. $2600 for engine license and 25% royalties.
Lazlo Panaflex
Platinum Member
booooo hoooo...whiny bitches. They can stay on consoles for all I care.
I'm sure they've made plenty of money off Steam for Unreal Gold, UT99, etc.
I'm sure they've made plenty of money off Steam for Unreal Gold, UT99, etc.
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Skurge
Diamond Member
I used to be a pirate, before we got broadband in my country and I discovered steam and D2D
I pirated UT3, it was crap, i wouldn't buy it even if it was $1.99 on a steam sale.
If you add piracy to lost sales, then you can add the number of people who wont buy it to that number as well. and say you game was crap and that why you didn't make money.
I pirated UT3, it was crap, i wouldn't buy it even if it was $1.99 on a steam sale.
If you add piracy to lost sales, then you can add the number of people who wont buy it to that number as well. and say you game was crap and that why you didn't make money.
simonizor
Golden Member
Seriously? All of Epic's games except Gears of War have been pretty much multiplayer only games.. Playing a pirated game online is hardly as good of an experience as playing the retail version. You only get to play on hacked servers that are usually full of exploiters. The general rule of thumb for pirates is if you want to play it online, you're probably going to have to buy it.
The whole blaming piracy for poor game sales has got to go. If your game is good, people will buy it. If you're putting out a shit game, people are going to pirate it first to see if they even like it, and then when they don't, they probably stop playing it anyways. Not everyone has money to spend on every PC game that comes out, and demos rarely show what the final product plays like. So, sure, a lot of people may have pirated the game, but did it hurt their sales? Perhaps a little bit.. maybe some people that would have just bought it on impulsive didn't because they pirated it first and tried it. The main thing that hurt their sales was putting out a half assed console port.
I think that every game should have a 7 day-ish full trial of the game so people can see if they like it. The only reason that I pirate games is to see how good they are. If I like the game I'll buy it; if not, I'll delete it. If I could play the full version for 7 days to see if I like it, I wouldn't have a need to pirate games. Infinity Ward has been doing this lately with MW2 by letting people play the full multiplayer game for a weekend (they've had two weekends now).
The whole blaming piracy for poor game sales has got to go. If your game is good, people will buy it. If you're putting out a shit game, people are going to pirate it first to see if they even like it, and then when they don't, they probably stop playing it anyways. Not everyone has money to spend on every PC game that comes out, and demos rarely show what the final product plays like. So, sure, a lot of people may have pirated the game, but did it hurt their sales? Perhaps a little bit.. maybe some people that would have just bought it on impulsive didn't because they pirated it first and tried it. The main thing that hurt their sales was putting out a half assed console port.
I think that every game should have a 7 day-ish full trial of the game so people can see if they like it. The only reason that I pirate games is to see how good they are. If I like the game I'll buy it; if not, I'll delete it. If I could play the full version for 7 days to see if I like it, I wouldn't have a need to pirate games. Infinity Ward has been doing this lately with MW2 by letting people play the full multiplayer game for a weekend (they've had two weekends now).
That statement says it all. He's basically saying "Guess what? We don't give a fuck about what you think all we want is money." After reading that, it's going to take a hell of a lot to get me to buy an Epic game ever again.
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It's like hearing your favorite metal band has decided to switch to pop and sing children's television songs... because that's where the money is. Sure, it is logically correct, but it still makes them appear like little bitches. But really, if that's what you need to do to feed your family, then at the end of the day you adapt and survive. Just stop trying to impress the metal fans because you lost them when you sold out.
mindcycle
Golden Member
That's a really good analogy man.
And to take that a step further, they are also justifying the switch because of all the people sneaking into their shows without paying. Whether that's real or imagined..
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WhipperSnapper
Lifer
Epic might also put some of the blame for UT3 on Midway. We don't know what went on behind the scenes, but my guess is that Midway put heavy pressure on them to get the game out in time for Christmas 2007. UT3 needed another 6 months worth of polishing and the retail release felt like a buggy beta that still needed lots of work. The end result was that UT3 was an abortion.
Another huge problem with UT3 was that the influence of consolization may have caused them to get in bed with Gamespy, which was detrimental to some of the online multiplayer aspects of this game (and UT is all about online multiplayer).
It's a shame because this more or less killed the franchise and the original UT (1999) was perhaps the greatest online multiplayer arena-style FPS of all time. UT 2004 was also a great game in its own right but in different ways. Today, both UT99 and UT 2004 have higher online player counts, individually, than UT3 does.
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WhipperSnapper
Lifer
Most UT fans figured this out for themselves and amongst themselves a long time ago, but it's nice to see someone from Epic finally come out and admit it. Once they got a taste of teeny-bopper console money with the release of Gears of War, they weren't going back.
Regarding piracy, it seems that, if anything, an online multiplayer game like UT would be able to circumvent it by properly designing CD keys--no legitimate CD key, no online play.
I wish Epic would come out and publicly admit that UT3 was a huge failure and tell us why they released it in the condition they did. Were they planning to make it a legitimate, polished PC title if they had had enough time? Did Midway pressure them into releasing it 6 months before it was ready? Perhaps one day the behind-the-scenes full story will come out.
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paperfist
Diamond Member
Wasn't that what the 'black' patch/edition was all about?
WhipperSnapper
Lifer
It may have made some small improvements, but the user interface and server browser still feel very consolized and the game still lacks user interface and server browser features its predecessors had. Also, it's still tied to Gamespy.
However, it doesn't really matter. The PC release needed to feel like a polished PC game upon release--not a year or two later. UT3 lost its potential player base early on.
There was actually a group of pro UT99 clanners who liked the game play of the Beta Demo back in October 2007. They didn't think it was as good as UT99 but they thought it was acceptable and had actually anticipated purchasing and moving on to UT3. However, when they learned that the retail release was going to be almost exactly like the Beta Demo and that it wasn't going to be polished for release, they lost interest completely. They're still playing UT99 capture-the-flag PUG (clan match style like spontaneously organized (on IRC) pickup games) to this day.
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zerocool84
Lifer
I like UT3 *shrug*
It wasn't as awesome as it's predecessors but it was still fun.
It wasn't as awesome as it's predecessors but it was still fun.
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BladeVenom
Lifer
But what did you think of its server browser?
Sureshot324
Diamond Member
Don't blame piracy. Blame wow.
Redshirt 24
Member
I'm so very not happy with Epic right now, but I will at least give them credit for coming out and saying "Yeah, we followed the money." Even if they had to try to spin it. At this point I'd rather more devs just owned up to their pursuit of the green and got it over with...
MagickMan
Diamond Member
Epic = Metallica?
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