Games industry ignores piracy
p2pnet.net News:- Blindsided by the web, the music and movie industries have been, "swimming upstream against the digital revolution, suing college students for illegal downloads and fighting tech companies all the way to the Supreme Court, because they believe their business has been hurt by it," says Forbes.
"But the videogame industry, whose intellectual property is just as valuable, has been comparatively complacent in fighting piracy, despite an estimated $3.5 billion in annual losses worldwide.”
Why, then, aren’t games makers screaming and shouting like their opposite numbers in the music, movie and software cartels?
“It could be because the videogame industry is still robust," says the story. "Leading videogame publishers Activision, THQ Interactive and Electronic Arts reported sales gains of 48%, 18% and 8%, respectively, for the fiscal year ended in March.”
Take-Two Interactive, “reported a 37% jump in sales for the six months ended in April. Sony’s PlayStation Portable, which hit the market in late March, generated more than $150 million in sales in the U.S. in its first week. Last week SG Cowen reiterated its bullish stance on Microsoft, based on the upcoming Xbox 360; demand for the new console, which hits the market in November, is expected to reach 14 million units next year in the U.S. alone.”
Forbes has Take-Two spokesman Jim Ankner saying his company relies on proprietary technology in the consoles to beat piracy. And, “Two people close to the industry, who declined to be identified, said publishers might be complacent because business is good and because piracy is far more prevalent in PC-based games, a declining business, than with consoles,” says the story. “That’s because of the difficulty in hacking consoles and the ease of circumventing copy protection on PC games.”
Concern for customers is another reason – but not because games makers are worried that DRM might stop buyers from making back-up copies.
Rather, publishers might be hesitant to include too much copy protection in games because adding more code can slow down and affect game play.
id Software is trying to find ways to introduce "nonintrusive means of copyright protection" into its games, because “legitimate users complain about the installation and performance hassles of protected games,” adds Forbes.
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See:-
Forbes – Do Game Publishers Ignore Piracy? , July 18, 2005
July 18th, 2005 at 5:09 pm
IT’s easy to download an ISO of a console game. I don’t bother because I’m not much of a gamer.. but it can be done.. and one of my friends used to do it as a hobby.
As far as hacking game consoles being “hard”… oh please! I knew nothing of the innards of an xbox, but wanted a media center, so i typed “xbox mod tutorial” into google and retrieved a step by step guide off the net.
2 weeks and $70 later I had converted my xbox into a media center… the chip also allows me to boot in a “mod disabled” mode allowing me to play console games without problems.
July 18th, 2005 at 6:42 pm
You know, this is a positive story. Its saying that even though piracy is running rampant, the game companies dont care that much. What a jerk. You should now go and die.
July 18th, 2005 at 6:50 pm
Actually, no it’s not a positive story.
What it is is pro-drm spin disguised as a positive story.
Read closely enough and forbes faithfully totes the line by explaining that console game developers are being “protected” by stricter DRM in console games.
They are falsely implying that:
A. Game Console Lockdown is working
B. Console games are somehow not proliferated throughout the filesharing networks (a search for XBOX on torrentspy should dispell that one)
C. Computer manufacturers should work harder to lock down their systems with restrictive DRM to help the poor poor pc game developers.
July 18th, 2005 at 7:54 pm
Try using a different torrent site or two.
Console games are rampant on torrent sites.
The console MODding businesses are thriving.
Some people will mod their consoles but most people never will.
It Doesnt matter how strict the DRM is on a console, somebody will break it eventually and some people will mod.
You’re an idiot.
July 18th, 2005 at 7:55 pm
Try using a different torrent site or two.
Console games are rampant on torrent sites.
The console MODding businesses are thriving.
Some people will mod their consoles but most people never will.
It Doesnt matter how strict the DRM is on a console, somebody will break it eventually and some people will mod.
You’re an idiot.
July 18th, 2005 at 9:44 pm
What we have here isn’t that DRM isn’t cracked. As a previous poster made mention it is a slick request to “help us” without taking it out on the customer in the wording.
All the content folks want their content locked up so you gotta pay for it. The internet opened the way up for people to discuss and discover what others know about the security and hacks that make it a self defeating practice with the DRM.
Personally, I don’t care about the game consoles, don’t own one, don’t want one. I do care about the pc though. The future at present looks no brighter for the pc than what they are attempting to do with consoles. The cartels won’t be happy till the box is locked and in such a manner it will be worthless to the average user. It is already a nightmare to use a pc on the net and expect any sort of privacy. This part will get no better as time goes by. Simply all the content cartels are in it for the money. Nothing else. Whatever brings a dollar will be the ruling factor in it. If they can make a few extra bucks by selling your info, they will.
It is one of the reasons I am so teed at the whole idea of this consumerism and what the cartels want to do to entice you to be a good little consumer. Call me a drop out because more and more I grow less and less fond of microsucks and the rest of them.
July 18th, 2005 at 11:54 pm
The reason the Game industry is doing so well is not DRM and not because they are not sueing. the reason is simple. something the music and movie industry cannot grasp…
The Game industry are inovators. they come out with new ideas, new systems constantly. yes they have much of the same ol scripted stamped out, mass produced clones too but there are also plenty of viriety and origional games as well. that’s the difference.