It seems like every other gaming-related post that zips by in my RSS reader is related to piracy in the PC games marketplace. First it was Crysis and Call of Duty 4, now Devil May Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed. Some publishers approach the problem with a proverbial shotgun, blasting out all sorts of insane possible solutions to the problem to see what sticks: intentionally gimping leaked versions, or ridiculous copy protection. Companies like Valve and Stardock, on the other hand, recognize that this problem is not going away, so they’ve come up with alternative solutions to allow them to continue developing for the PC without breaking the bank.
For years, pirates within each branch of media; games, movies, TV, music, have preached the same gospel. “I wouldn’t have bought it anyways.” “They should make better products if they don’t want them pirated.” Et cetera, et cetera. It’s almost laughable that someone could think these are real justifications. “Yeah, I stole all these electronics from Wal-Mart, they have plenty of money already.” As if the pirate gets to decide which companies or products are deserving of revenue. And I’m not saying I’ve never pirated anything, either. I’ve been just as guilty in the past as the next guy, but I wouldn’t try to justify my actions as reasonable.
While I would never defend the pirate’s point of view, it is true that in the age of the internet and infinite hard disk space, media vendors do not offer enough options for purchasing their products. Too many game publishers, record companies, and film studios are still afflicted with the DRM disease. DRM, at best, confuses technology-ignorant customers and drives others too look for alternate routes, like renting games and movies or borrowing and ripping a friend’s CD. At worst, DRM screws over legitimate customers that did pay for the products. Imagine the number of folks that have purchased a whole record store’s worth of music on iTunes, only to buy another MP3 player when their iPod breaks and discover that all that music is useless. Or the folks that bought BioShock only to discover they couldn’t activate their copy. It’s nonsense, I say. Nonsense.
There will always be a large contingent of people in any market that are going to steal anything they can get their mitts on, at any cost. Hackers spend countless hours coming up with ways to bypass copy protection or crack DRM encryption. There’s no way to stop a lot of these people. But I say, who cares? Why not make it easier for the “casual pirate” to pay for the product instead of stealing it? It sounds shitty to have to capitulate to the thieves, but is there really another way?
Steam is the most obvious example of anti-piracy done well. Valve launched it primarily as a channel for digitally distributing their titles, avoiding publishers in the process, and creating a “locked-down” environment in which Steam resellers can spread their titles with less fear of piracy. Steam isn’t the only solution, either. Others are pumpin’ up the digital distribution, too. There’s GameTap, Good Old Games, Blizzard, Stardock. Hell, even Amazon would be a perfect vendor to create a distribution platform.
As painful as it is, software piracy has always been a problem, and cannot be exterminated. The best option publishers have right now is to come up with clever ways to avoid it, instead of whining about it.
