Strategies against PC Piracy!

So … if Piracy is such a huge problem, then why are there still publishers that are PC only or heavily dependent on the success of PC games? Wouldn’t these publishers be crawling to stay alive just like the recording industry?

For the most part, Yes, some publishers are having a huge amount of trouble with pirated games. Even though various technologies have been introduce to prevent pirating, for the most part these strategies are failures.

Then what is a successful strategy against pirates?

Here is where the real post begins. There is no successful strategy against pirates, unless the revenue comes from a service. Video games are essentially a manufactured product. Once the game has been created, it is copied to various discs and sold in retail stores/online. Because it is a product, it can be pirated. But the industry is transforming itself into a service, a service of connecting people. Something that is extremely difficult to pirate.

Over the past several year, the industry has been quite successful in transforming itself from a “product” to a “service”. With the advent of the internet, the change was inevitable. People want to enjoy and play games with other people. Instead of providing game aka product for people to play, the industry started to provide a interactive environment aka service where people interact with others. This transformation for the most was difficult to notice because most games are still bought upfront. People generally don’t consider something a service unless there is a recurring cost or direct interaction with other people. But in reality, video games had transformed into a service with an upfront fee of $50. The best example is StarCraft. Once the game has been bought, customers can go online and play against a variety of opponents for “free”.

This flat fee, unlimited play for the same game model is currently the most prevalent business model within the industry. But this is also slowly changing, to one where it is video games become a continuously evolving world with a subscription aka World of WarCraft.

This is one way of combating piracy, by providing a service instead of a product.