This is a lengthy but extremely well written and fact filled article about PC gaming and piracy, it should be a must read for any PC gamer. PC Game Piracy Examined [http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_1.html]. If you want to skip to the real meat, it starts about here. [http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_4.html]
Basically, as best as can be determined, there's as approximately as many if not more gaming capable PCs out there than current gen consoles put together, and yet cross platform games sell like utter shit on the PC compared to consoles; it's as bad as approximately a fivefold margin. So do PC exclusives compared to console exclusives. This is despite the fact that the PC version is usually cheaper, comes with more mod support, comes with M&K and console controller support, is capable of better graphics and so on and so forth. And at the same time, the PC version is more pirated than sold, and in particular is pirated ten times more frequently than the console version.
And publishers and developers are keenly aware of this sad fact, and with PC gaming in it's current state, you'd have to be mad to develop PC exlusives instead of targeting the consoles. Which means PC gamers will have to 6 month late ports of console games.
PCs have a flexible, complex and precise user interface in the mouse and keyboard, one that's uniquely different to what console controllers can do. PCs are also uniquely suited for modding. If PC exclusives die and are replaced by console ports because of the current state of the industry, then the gaming industry will have become a worse and shallower industry. There's so much potential to have different styles of games that suit consoles or PCs because of what the different hardware can do, but if it's all just consoles and console ports, then gaming has become a much poorer experience.
Personally, I'm hoping for a successful DRM scheme, because I don't want that to happen.
Basically, as best as can be determined, there's as approximately as many if not more gaming capable PCs out there than current gen consoles put together, and yet cross platform games sell like utter shit on the PC compared to consoles; it's as bad as approximately a fivefold margin. So do PC exclusives compared to console exclusives. This is despite the fact that the PC version is usually cheaper, comes with more mod support, comes with M&K and console controller support, is capable of better graphics and so on and so forth. And at the same time, the PC version is more pirated than sold, and in particular is pirated ten times more frequently than the console version.
And publishers and developers are keenly aware of this sad fact, and with PC gaming in it's current state, you'd have to be mad to develop PC exlusives instead of targeting the consoles. Which means PC gamers will have to 6 month late ports of console games.
PCs have a flexible, complex and precise user interface in the mouse and keyboard, one that's uniquely different to what console controllers can do. PCs are also uniquely suited for modding. If PC exclusives die and are replaced by console ports because of the current state of the industry, then the gaming industry will have become a worse and shallower industry. There's so much potential to have different styles of games that suit consoles or PCs because of what the different hardware can do, but if it's all just consoles and console ports, then gaming has become a much poorer experience.
Personally, I'm hoping for a successful DRM scheme, because I don't want that to happen.
