Less and less PC version of games

[Vault101]

I feel like we see less and less PC versions of games. Red Dead Rdemption doesn't look like it's getting a PC port, Fable skipped the 2nd one for some reason, and now LA Noire is console only.

Actually let's focus on LA Noire. Why do you think it's not getting a PC version? Are PC games really not that profitable anymore? Can we blame the people who pirate games for it? Does Rockstar not wanna give a cut of the profit to Steam, which looks like the best way to sell on PC nowadays? Or something else?

PS: why yes, I am considering getting a PS3 so I can play LA Noire...

keep in mind however botht hose games are from rockstar...and fable 2? are oyu really missing that much?

my point is those exapmples arnt hard evidence of suggesting some kind of trend

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

No pirates are not to blame lower profit margins are. People need to stop treating pirates as a lost sale as they aren't. They wouldn't of bought the game anyway. This does not make it right by any stretch of the imagination but people who pirate tend to be quite cheap/tight even though they bought a ?200+ system. Pirating is just as prevalent on consoles you just have less tangible figures to deal with.

Seriously people piracy is not the reason it is the excuse the reason is simple but unfortunate economics.

I don't know about the assertion that piracy is "just as prevalent on consoles". It's certainly not true worldwide, and I doubt it's even true in developed nations. Console piracy requires a good deal more technical expertise than PC piracy. This is, of course, except on the Wii, because Nintendo has no ability to punish pirates. "You'll ban me from online play? Oh no!" The only reason it's less ubiquitous is because most of the Wii's target demo isn't tech savvy enough to pull it off.

As for the claim that "They wouldn't of bought the game anyway" because they're "cheap/tight". That's debatable, but I think it's incorrect. If it was actually impossible to pirate I think some of these people would turn into sales. Some people do it because of frugality, but I think a lot of other people do it because of a combination of ease of commission and lack of morals. If it wasn't so easy, they might never have done it, in other words.

It doesn't require more technical expertise. In all cases of console piracy I know it requite none as every single case of someone pirating on consoles I know about they go to a shop get it chipped then BUY the pirated games from that shop/guy. That is how console pirating works. So a lot of those 1 downloads can easily turn into a reality of 100+ copies pirated. The only reason people think it is less as you never see the anywhere close to the true units for console piracy. I cannot say how mnay of those downloads do spawn spin off piracy but that they do and is something rarely considered by many people when talking about console piracy levels.

Now in PC piracy everyone I have ever known to do it actually did it themselves and found a torrent. Thus helping to create a lot more solid and accurate picture for PC piracy. Do you not remember when MS banned a million consoles off XBL? You are telling me console pircay is not as prevalent.

It is not a debateable point that they are cheap and woudln't of bought it anyway. Plenty of people are like this. What is debateable is the scale of how many are like this. Also do you even know how many some is? Is it 1% or 60%? You do not know no one can ever know. I can't say how many people do it due to being cheap but a lot do. Nor can say how many would be actual says either. Talking about pircay figures even the downloads is airy fairy guess work at best. Some people also use pirated copies as demos but how many? This is another thing to consider but just as hard to quantify.

You were implying all pirates did so because of frugality. I'm saying you don't know that. You're saying I can't prove that you don't know. But you're admitting that no one knows. So,... what's your point?

Also, I'd bet my life savings that one torrent user can reach more potential pirates than one modder in a brick and mortar building. You can argue against that point, but pretty much every internet business model in the world would stand against your argument.

And... one million? Yes. I'm going to say that there are more than one million PC pirates. I'm pretty comfortable with stating that confidently.

No I was implying that basically all pirates wouldn't of bought the game. As the only solid evidence we have of this is a 1000:1 and that was on an indie game. So for every 1000 pirates you stop you get 1 purchase. I think that is fair to say most pirates wouldn't of the game for whatever reason they want to fabricate.

Yes a torrent does have the potential to reach more pirates but you are not taking into consideration that fact that PC piracy has more or less nil spin off piracy while spin off piracy on consoles is although mildly less so due to PS3 still quite rampant.

Also you are still ignoring the fact that is just 1 case of a mass banning this does not take into account any other consoles banned due to pirating at other times. Also do you really think those pirates stopped because they were banned? A mil banned is also quite a worrying figure given that the general consensus is that most console pirates don't use the online portion of the their console. So if 1 mil of 1 mass banning isn't even considered the majority of pirates on 1 console yes console piracy is just as bad as PC piracy.

 

[PhiMed]

No pirates are not to blame lower profit margins are. People need to stop treating pirates as a lost sale as they aren't. They wouldn't of bought the game anyway. This does not make it right by any stretch of the imagination but people who pirate tend to be quite cheap/tight even though they bought a ?200+ system. Pirating is just as prevalent on consoles you just have less tangible figures to deal with.

Seriously people piracy is not the reason it is the excuse the reason is simple but unfortunate economics.

I don't know about the assertion that piracy is "just as prevalent on consoles". It's certainly not true worldwide, and I doubt it's even true in developed nations. Console piracy requires a good deal more technical expertise than PC piracy. This is, of course, except on the Wii, because Nintendo has no ability to punish pirates. "You'll ban me from online play? Oh no!" The only reason it's less ubiquitous is because most of the Wii's target demo isn't tech savvy enough to pull it off.

As for the claim that "They wouldn't of bought the game anyway" because they're "cheap/tight". That's debatable, but I think it's incorrect. If it was actually impossible to pirate I think some of these people would turn into sales. Some people do it because of frugality, but I think a lot of other people do it because of a combination of ease of commission and lack of morals. If it wasn't so easy, they might never have done it, in other words.

It doesn't require more technical expertise. In all cases of console piracy I know it requite none as every single case of someone pirating on consoles I know about they go to a shop get it chipped then BUY the pirated games from that shop/guy. That is how console pirating works. So a lot of those 1 downloads can easily turn into a reality of 100+ copies pirated. The only reason people think it is less as you never see the anywhere close to the true units for console piracy. I cannot say how mnay of those downloads do spawn spin off piracy but that they do and is something rarely considered by many people when talking about console piracy levels.

Now in PC piracy everyone I have ever known to do it actually did it themselves and found a torrent. Thus helping to create a lot more solid and accurate picture for PC piracy. Do you not remember when MS banned a million consoles off XBL? You are telling me console pircay is not as prevalent.

It is not a debateable point that they are cheap and woudln't of bought it anyway. Plenty of people are like this. What is debateable is the scale of how many are like this. Also do you even know how many some is? Is it 1% or 60%? You do not know no one can ever know. I can't say how many people do it due to being cheap but a lot do. Nor can say how many would be actual says either. Talking about pircay figures even the downloads is airy fairy guess work at best. Some people also use pirated copies as demos but how many? This is another thing to consider but just as hard to quantify.

You were implying all pirates did so because of frugality. I'm saying you don't know that. You're saying I can't prove that you don't know. But you're admitting that no one knows. So,... what's your point?

Also, I'd bet my life savings that one torrent user can reach more potential pirates than one modder in a brick and mortar building. You can argue against that point, but pretty much every internet business model in the world would stand against your argument.

And... one million? Yes. I'm going to say that there are more than one million PC pirates. I'm pretty comfortable with stating that confidently.

No I was implying that basically all pirates wouldn't of bought the game. As the only solid evidence we have of this is a 1000:1 and that was on an indie game. So for every 1000 pirates you stop you get 1 purchase. I think that is fair to say most pirates wouldn't of the game for whatever reason they want to fabricate.

Yes a torrent does have the potential to reach more pirates but you are not taking into consideration that fact that PC piracy has more or less nil spin off piracy while spin off piracy on consoles is although mildly less so due to PS3 still quite rampant.

Also you are still ignoring the fact that is just 1 case of a mass banning this does not take into account any other consoles banned due to pirating at other times. Also do you really think those pirates stopped because they were banned? A mil banned is also quite a worrying figure given that the general consensus is that most console pirates don't use the online portion of the their console. So if 1 mil of 1 mass banning isn't even considered the majority of pirates on 1 console yes console piracy is just as bad as PC piracy.

Not the majority? I don't care if it's a tenth. There are more than 100 million PC pirates. There are more PC pirates than there are total functional xbox 360s. Console piracy may be rampant, but PC piracy is ubiquitous.

You can't say, "We don't have data that stopping piracy will result in sales." And then say, "I know for a fact that stopping piracy would not result in sales." We don't have definitive data either way. I'm gonna go ahead and assume that people like to play games. If they can't get free ones, they'll at least buy cheap ones. We'll never know, because piracy will always exist, but I'm gonna go ahead and fall on the side of "people who pirate probably enjoy playing games." I think that's a pretty safe statement.

You're talking about spin-off piracy? What do you call a person who starts a torrent? Are they not a pirate? Are all the people who download from that torrent not "spin-offs?" One person cracking a game and uploading to a torrent can reach more people in a month than 10 console crackers could ever possibly reach, even if they serviced one xbox 360 every minute of every hour of every day for the rest of their lives, without sleep, and they all lived to be 150.

I can't believe you're arguing this.

 

[Delusibeta]

If 100 million people pirated a game, then I would estimate that the developer has lost approximately 100,000 sales. However, if you've got 100 million people pirating your game, you can sure as hell get 100,000 people to pay for it.

 

[MasterV]

Piracy is only a small part of a much larger, more complex problem.

Another might be that the quality of games, code-wise is lacking sometimes. Games requiring lots and lots of patching once its out.. is lost money. (hence why we see lots of sequels to games; re-using a new engine for 2-3 games saves a lot on the production cost)

Or that the games are expensive and the quality/quantity doesnt always justify the price tag.

Maybe Demos are less common than they used to?

There we go. A man who makes sense. Piracy always existed, but suddenly it is such a big problem. Why? Because so much money is being thrown out the window making half-finished games, not to mention that rampant, crippling DRM punishing legal customers. Or even the fact that for every new game you need a new component for your PC.

All these hoops you need to go through, justo play a simple game. There are solutions (some might say Steam, or GoG), but really. Those are bandaids that can't solve the problem. Why? It's digital distribution. Not many people have the bandwidth or the patience to wait for a whole game to download.