Digital Piracy is killing the PC gaming industry. Most gamers who pirate software are either unaware or uncaring to the repercussions of their actions. Unfortunately, if it isn’t stopped, the PC platform as we know it may be doomed.

Let me describe a great deal of gamers I know: Core gamers who play 10+ hours/week, primarily multiplayer (Counter-Strike, Starcraft, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, World of Warcraft) and rarely buy new games. That’s not to say that they don’t play new games. They just pirate them.

To a game developer, a core gamer playing 10 hours a week (often 20 or 30) might sound like a dream. These are perfect targets for new game sales. However, for most single-player only titles, these are the types of people who will say “there was no point to buy it since it was such a short game.” and, “maybe game companies shouldn’t come out with [expletive removed] games.” Others complain about DRM issues: “if I buy a game, I should be allowed to install it on as many computers as I want.” And lastly, some just blame the developers for letting it happen: “Why bother paying [non-multiplayer games]? I understand that companies might [lose sales], but come on… they know their market, they’re choosing to release their games via PC and without any kind of REAL security or reason to make us buy it, it’s their fault.”*
*Quotes taken from core gamers posting on an internet forum

So what are the repercussions? The core game Demigod saw over 80% of their player base (over 100,000 users) playing the game illegally. And an estimated 92% of casual game Ricochet Infinity players were pirates. Additionally, many developers are turning to other platforms like the Xbox 360, and some of the PC’s biggest developers (Valve, Crytek) are no longer developing on the PC exclusively. Peter Molyneux said that PC games are “in tatters” and Cervat Yerli of Crytek noted that “PC Gamers that pirate games inherently destroy the platform”, and “similar games on consoles sell factors of 4-5 more.”

There are still a number of AAA PC titles (most of which are FPS or MMO titles), and the platform still has far greater revenues than any other platform. Will PC gaming be gone tomorrow? No. But there are a number of signs that the day is coming.

Gaming isn’t like music where there are thousands of artists, many of whom are able to create albums in a few weeks in a studio. Development teams for top-tier titles often have tens or hundreds of employed staff and work for months or even years to create a new title. If core gamers don’t support the PC games that are released, we can look forward to a) decreased quality as dev teams downsize and b) decreased quantity of quality titles on the PC.

Technorati Tags: pc gaming, piracy, digital piracy