Developer: Pirates plundering PC games industry
On an individual basis, software pirates are about as intimidating as your average History undergrad or IT professional. But according to Epic Games President Mike Capps, they're a multi-million-strong raiding party that is pillaging the PC gaming industry.
This, in turn, is forcing traditional PC game developers to shift their efforts away form the PC and toward the relatively piracy free PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii, says Capps, whose company was known as a PC developer through the late 1990s and early 2000s. "If you walked into this place six years ago, Epic was a PC company and always had been," Capps recently pointed out to Edge Magazine. "We did one PS2 launch title, which was a port of Unreal Tournament, and everything else was PC."
In 2007, Epic Games released mega-hit Gears of War on both the PC and the Xbox 360. But after the PC version was massively pirated, the company released their 2009 follow-up, Gears of War 2, for the Xbox 360 alone. They're taking the same approach with next year's Gears of War 3, much to the chagrin of the company's PC-owning fans.
"If you read our forums, people are saying: 'Why do you hate the PC? You're a console-only company,'" said Capps. "We still do PC, we love the PC, but we already saw the impact of piracy -- it killed a lot of great independent developers and completely changed our business model."
Capps' observations are just the latest in a string of lamentations from former PC developers, including id Entertainment, Crytek, and Infinity Ward. All of these companies have refocused their efforts toward the console side of the industry, and away from pirate-infested PC waters.
But as Capps notes, there is hope for the PC gaming industry. He believes the micro-transaction model made popular by social networking games could lure developers back to the derelict platform.
"Maybe Facebook will save PC gaming," he said, "but it's not going to look like Gears Of War."
Instead, it will probably look a lot like Farmville. So the next time your Facebook news feed is bombarded by invitations to plant apple trees or visit your friend's tiny ranch, don't blame Facebook, your friend, or the game. Blame pirates.
On an individual basis, software pirates are about as intimidating as your average History undergrad or IT professional. But according to Epic Games President Mike Capps, they're a multi-million-strong raiding party that is pillaging the PC gaming industry.
This, in turn, is forcing traditional PC game developers to shift their efforts away form the PC and toward the relatively piracy free PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii, says Capps, whose company was known as a PC developer through the late 1990s and early 2000s. "If you walked into this place six years ago, Epic was a PC company and always had been," Capps recently pointed out to Edge Magazine. "We did one PS2 launch title, which was a port of Unreal Tournament, and everything else was PC."
In 2007, Epic Games released mega-hit Gears of War on both the PC and the Xbox 360. But after the PC version was massively pirated, the company released their 2009 follow-up, Gears of War 2, for the Xbox 360 alone. They're taking the same approach with next year's Gears of War 3, much to the chagrin of the company's PC-owning fans.
"If you read our forums, people are saying: 'Why do you hate the PC? You're a console-only company,'" said Capps. "We still do PC, we love the PC, but we already saw the impact of piracy -- it killed a lot of great independent developers and completely changed our business model."
Capps' observations are just the latest in a string of lamentations from former PC developers, including id Entertainment, Crytek, and Infinity Ward. All of these companies have refocused their efforts toward the console side of the industry, and away from pirate-infested PC waters.
But as Capps notes, there is hope for the PC gaming industry. He believes the micro-transaction model made popular by social networking games could lure developers back to the derelict platform.
"Maybe Facebook will save PC gaming," he said, "but it's not going to look like Gears Of War."
Instead, it will probably look a lot like Farmville. So the next time your Facebook news feed is bombarded by invitations to plant apple trees or visit your friend's tiny ranch, don't blame Facebook, your friend, or the game. Blame pirates.
