14 DAY TRIAL // Steam is the biggest player in the digital distribution market on the PC and it seems that the quality of service that has brought it to the fore of the pack also allows it to dismiss any real threat from the piracy phenomenon.
Speaking to The Cambridge Student, Gabe Newell, who is the leader of Valve, stated, “If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24/7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable.”
He added, “Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customer’s use or by creating uncertainty. Our goal is to create greater service value than pirates, and this has been successful enough for us that piracy is basically a non-issue for our company.”
Newell once again said that piracy on the PC is mostly about the quality of the experience that the gamer gets and not about pricing, something that Valve has always maintained.
The company believes that players are ready to pay for their content as long as they get an experience that is clearly better than that offered by pirates.
A number of publishers, among them prominently Ubisoft, have chosen not to launch high profile video games on the PC at the same time as on home consoles because of the impact that piracy has.
Others have elected to implement always-stricter Digital Rights Management measures that often adversely affect legitimate players.
Valve says that the success of the Steam service is built around ease of use and the sense of community that it delivers, something that pirated games cannot offer.