Gears of War 2 Designer: Savvy Gamers Know How to Pirate
Gears of War was a monster hit on the Xbox 360, which eventually made it to the PC after a considerable wait. The game’s sequel, however, will be a console-only title.
Speaking to IGN in an interview from late August, Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski said, “Gears of War is a great franchise first and foremost for Xbox 360, and therefore we’re focusing on that platform for Gears of War 2. We’ve decided we’re not going to do a PC version this time around.”
The decision not to make a PC version of Gear of War 2 is particularly significant for Epic Games’ who has deep roots and history on the PC platform. Due to changing environmental conditions, however, the developer felt it best to divert resources to the more profitable avenue.
Namely, Bleszinski points to how easy it is for “savvy” gamers to acquire illegal versions of games.
“The PC right now is a fair amount different to what it was back in the day, with all the badly integrated video chips,” said Bleszinski to TVG. “Here’s the problem right now ; the person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know bit torrent to know all the elements so they can pirate software.”
Essentially, Bleszinski is saying that Epic Games’ target market isn’t exactly the ones who tend to purchase their software. “Therefore, high-end videogames are suffering very much on the PC,” he added.
- Windows Campaign Violating Trademark?
- Samsung makes industries smallest DDR chips
- Microsoft Bringing Tellme to the iPhone
- Apple Flogs Unlocked iPhone 3G in Hong Kong
- Report: New Nintendo DS to Feature Camera and Music Playback
- Motorola Going Android, Nokia Rumored to Follow Suit
- Apple Offers Assistance to Visually Impaired iTunes Customers
- MSI's X58 Motherboard To Have Quad-SLI
- SpaceX Falcon 1: Fourth Time's a Charm
- Gamer Grub: Performance Snack Food?
- Report: Cell/B.E. to be Used in PlayStation 4
- Norway Increases Pressure on Apple to Loosen Up iTunes DRM
- California Representatives Put Pressure on DOJ over Google/Yahoo! Deal
- Apple, Google and Microsoft Stocks Plummet
- Private Company Sends Rocket Into Space
- Computer Makers, Cell Carriers Band Together for Mobile Broadband
- AMD's 'Shanghai' CPU Enters Production
- RealNetworks Hit With Legal Action for DVD Copying Software
I actually agree with Cliff Bleszinski. I'm no tech-head by any means but I do understand the field. The Pc-platform is difficult to work with for obvious reasons. I'm not saying the Pc-platform is dying or suffering by any means, its actually evolving into something else. Spore/WOW and others like them are the new mainstream. Tech heavy games like Crysis/Gears of War will always have a Niche; however developers are less and less keen on going the Crysis(cost a lot to develop and had high expectations that were unfullfilled) route and have learned that the hard way. Unless they offer some incentive to have a legit version, ala Spore's online database or WOW online world, basically some registering system, there’s little inventive for some, not all to get a legit version. Games where graphics are the main emersion factor and need a tech heavy machine is what i'm talking about here. Upcoming games such as Starcraft,Diablo,C&C, will see great sucess for the reasons of not going that route.
The person with enough money to own the latest gfx card also has enough money to buy the latest game , having a capable brain and cash for upgrade's does not mean you are more prone to criminal activities , this reasoning is very flawed.
Heres the thing hes got wrong.... and why i d say most use bit torrent and this is the way Technology is going and so for only Valve have relised this. Why would you go out to a shop and buy Half-Life 2 for £40 (UK price) when u can go on the net download Steam and buy it for like £20 and download it in like 40 minutes !
thats how i feel the Game Industry needs to relise most people prefer this now a days due to the speed of broadband.
Since the consoles use much PC related technology now, porting a game to the PC is not very expensive (especially if you don't upgrade the graphics etc...) therefore a little cost in conversion & marketing would easily be paid back by the real sales of the game - and then they would make a profit as well - it is not like they are developing the game from scratch on the PC. If a game is good enough then it will sell.
How about developers make and release half-decent games worth paying for and charge a reasonable price for them? Has anybody stopped to think that maybe game piracy is rife because very few PC games are worth the extortionate amount they're charged for?
Point in case:
My Orange Box was £25. I only wanted Ep2 and Portal as I already have HL2 and Ep1 and have no interest in TF2. That means I'm paying £12.50 for each game I want - what an absolute bargain and cheaper than getting the two individually on Steam.
However I paid £35 for Doom 3 (and £400 for my GeForce 6800 Ultra purely for that game) back in the day and what a waste it was.
Stop charging stupid money for games, actually make games for a change instead of overzealous tech demos and then MAYBE people will start paying again, reducing the need for stupid DRM (although I have no problem at all with registering and activating my Valve games over Steam - takes a few minutes true but it's unobtrusive and only needed once).
What kind of stupid reasoning is that, I can build a PC so I'm obviously a criminal. Does it mean all mechanics are car thief's?
Its not brain surgery to fit a modchip to an xbox 360, maybe they shouldn't publish anything to protect there game from the evil public.
I'm going to half agree with this one. For people to want to pay £35-£40 for a game its going to have to be excellent and have some longevity. Call Of Duty 4 for example... 7 hours to complete was a disappointment. If i'd have paid £20 for it, then i'd have been happy because it was a technically a good game.
If you are half decent with a PC now-adays then the use of eMule, bit-torrent or whatever you fancy means it is fairly simple to get music, movies and games.
to entice people to buy games you've got to drop prices, especially as everyone in the UK is being told they're going to be very poor for the forseeable future.
The ease of piracy should be seen as a way of removing the monopoly from companies charging rediculous amounts of money for consumables. There is a point at which it becomes worth not doing something illegally.
Games - £20
CDs - £5
DVDs / Blue Ray - £10
Think of the poor people, the parents with nagging kids, give everyone the chance to play some of the great games that are out there...
make all games £20 and so many more sales will happen.