14 DAY TRIAL // Cliff Bleszinski, the creator of the Gears of War saga and the former creative director of Epic Games, has talked about piracy both in terms of games and of TV shows, emphasizing that, if less people pay for content, that content will no longer be made.
Piracy is a crucial issue for the gaming industry, particularly on the PC platform where, despite the fact that digital distribution services like Steam have gotten PC gamers used to paying for their content, lots of people still resort to pirating certain games.
Cliff Bleszinski, the former creative director of Epic Games, has talked about piracy and emphasized just how much he had to interact with it during his career.
"As someone who worked in software for 20+ years (and maybe I’ll return someday) I have often had a lot to say about piracy. There are many different arguments that have been bandied about over the years."
"The suits claim that it’s straight up theft. The users say it doesn’t impact sales, and, in fact, can help increase mindshare for a product. Then there’s those folks in the middle who, for some reason, buy the product and pirate it," he wrote on his blog.
Bleszinski then mentioned a recent meeting he had with the executive of a large games publisher, who shared with him some shocking details about a recent game.
"He told me he had the numbers of their recent release – a great game that got very good reviews and was enjoyed by many. He said they had stats on the PC version sales versus piracy and the numbers were staggering. It was something around 4-1 in regards to purchased copies versus torrented ones. And we wonder why Blizzard, who often can Do No Wrong, forced us to be online for Diablo 3."
The games designer then exemplifies piracy in another entertainment industry – the TV one – where HBO's Game of Thrones series is pirated via torrent websites by many people.
"Ultimately what gets me about all of this, and the point that I’m getting at, is that while I know we can’t educate people about piracy, I can’t help but think that, as a paying HBO subscriber, I’m paying for the show that other people are illegally acquiring. Just like with used games, if everyone torrented all quality entertainment then it would, in fact, go away."
Piracy, unfortunately, is here to stay and will continue to persist despite every counter-measure deployed by content creators.