3 ms·

> I also don't condone piracy, but to imply that we should feel sorry for these companies who are barely scraping by is blatantly dishonest. As someone who spe

> I also don't condone piracy, but to imply that we should feel sorry for these companies who are barely scraping by is blatantly dishonest. As someone who spent a fair part of my career in gamedev, yes the publishers are taking a large share but the companies that are building the games are barely scraping by. Most gamedev companies are 2-3 milestone payments away from bankrupcy, which is partially why the publishers have such leverage. Implicitly condoning piracy by saying the publishers make a ton of money still ends up hurting the studios in the process.

falcolas 9y ago
That's not what I said - that's not even what I implied. My not "feeling sorry" for publishers or game developers is not the same as condoning piracy implicitly or explicitly. But since you brought it up, let's go there. The primary effect of piracy is the loss of sales, which if big enough would naturally lead to the loss of funding for future projects, leading to a studio being closed down. However, very few studios that make big budget games are closing down because of good games failing to become profitable - they're closing down because of politics or they made a game that people don't like. Even Bioware Montreal, one of the bigger studios attached to a "flop" this past year wasn't closed down because the game resulted in a loss for EA; "Mass Effect: Andromeda" was, per EA, still quite profitable. Instead, Bioware Montreal was closed due to situations largely caused by mis-management (at least, based on what information we have available to us). Most of the developers were even retained. Smaller, self-published studios would, of course, feel the pinch of piracy more than larger publisher-backed studios. That said, they're also playing in a very crowded pond, and differentiating between a failure caused by piracy and a failure due to an over-saturated market are going to look ridiculously similar. It would take a crystal ball to tell the difference. Finally, let's be frank: all game developers big and small are affected by piracy, so it's a mostly even playing field on which they are competing. A studio that fails and blames it on piracy is not looking hard enough. Sorry, there are some rough words there, but I stand by them. I don't condone piracy, but I also accept that it's simply part of the world in which all game developers exist. Reality is not always nice.
- vvanders 9y ago
  > Finally, let's be frank: all game developers big and small are affected by piracy, so it's a mostly even playing field on which they are competing. A studio that fails and blames it on piracy is not looking hard enough. Except the piracy rates for PC is vastly higher than consoles(by nature of barrier of entry to break modern consoles if nothing else). Since the majority of Indies publish on PC(or publish there first) it is not a level playing field by any means.
  - falcolas 9y ago
    There are few console exclusives these days; most games that come out on the consoles also come out on the PC. A not-insignificant number of these games are even sold on GoG, a place where no DRM is allowed. The most notable exception to this is the Switch, a platform which has close to 10x the independent content than first party content. I stand by the "level playing field" comment.
    - vvanders 9y ago
      I guess you didn't understand what I meant when I said indie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTL:_Faster_Than_Light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTL:_Faster_Than_Light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen_I/O https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen_I/O https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banner_Saga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banner_Saga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_of_the_Endless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_of_the_Endless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Throne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Throne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_Simulator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_Simulator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardew_Valley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardew_Valley All games that were out on the PC 1-2+ years before they made it over to consoles(and only when they became widely successful). For indies piracy is very much a real problem and one that isn't nearly as level of a playing field.

falcolas 9y ago

That's not what I said - that's not even what I implied. My not "feeling sorry" for publishers or game developers is not the same as condoning piracy implicitly or explicitly. But since you brought it up, let's go there. The primary effect of piracy is the loss of sales, which if big enough would naturally lead to the loss of funding for future projects, leading to a studio being closed down. However, very few studios that make big budget games are closing down because of good games failing to become profitable - they're closing down because of politics or they made a game that people don't like. Even Bioware Montreal, one of the bigger studios attached to a "flop" this past year wasn't closed down because the game resulted in a loss for EA; "Mass Effect: Andromeda" was, per EA, still quite profitable. Instead, Bioware Montreal was closed due to situations largely caused by mis-management (at least, based on what information we have available to us). Most of the developers were even retained. Smaller, self-published studios would, of course, feel the pinch of piracy more than larger publisher-backed studios. That said, they're also playing in a very crowded pond, and differentiating between a failure caused by piracy and a failure due to an over-saturated market are going to look ridiculously similar. It would take a crystal ball to tell the difference. Finally, let's be frank: all game developers big and small are affected by piracy, so it's a mostly even playing field on which they are competing. A studio that fails and blames it on piracy is not looking hard enough. Sorry, there are some rough words there, but I stand by them. I don't condone piracy, but I also accept that it's simply part of the world in which all game developers exist. Reality is not always nice.

vvanders 9y ago
> Finally, let's be frank: all game developers big and small are affected by piracy, so it's a mostly even playing field on which they are competing. A studio that fails and blames it on piracy is not looking hard enough. Except the piracy rates for PC is vastly higher than consoles(by nature of barrier of entry to break modern consoles if nothing else). Since the majority of Indies publish on PC(or publish there first) it is not a level playing field by any means.
- falcolas 9y ago
  There are few console exclusives these days; most games that come out on the consoles also come out on the PC. A not-insignificant number of these games are even sold on GoG, a place where no DRM is allowed. The most notable exception to this is the Switch, a platform which has close to 10x the independent content than first party content. I stand by the "level playing field" comment.
  - vvanders 9y ago
    I guess you didn't understand what I meant when I said indie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTL:_Faster_Than_Light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTL:_Faster_Than_Light https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen_I/O https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenzhen_I/O https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banner_Saga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banner_Saga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_of_the_Endless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_of_the_Endless https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Throne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Throne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_Simulator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_Simulator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardew_Valley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardew_Valley All games that were out on the PC 1-2+ years before they made it over to consoles(and only when they became widely successful). For indies piracy is very much a real problem and one that isn't nearly as level of a playing field.