PC Game Piracy Examined

What do you mean by paying them for the listing? Paying them to be on Steam? Valve gets the other 40%.

I wonder myself whether Valve or the dev/publisher sets pricing, I've seen people talk in such a way that they think Valve does it, but I don't see why the devs wouldn't have a say.
 
Well, Ron Carmel, World of Goo dev, tuned in at the GDC about Steam saying that it took them about a week to get the paper work done to get their game listed and sold on Steam, where it took them 4 months to accomplish the same thing for LIVE. They also said Steam throws a lifeline to indie developers because of how they increase awareness of indie games to such a big audience of gamers so fast and because of the significantly smaller profit margins Steam makes, passing on much more money to the developers than normal publisher/distribution agreements (which force even big dev studios to "survive" project to project).

Tripwire Interactive also said in response to Gearboxes' Steam bashing last year that, "Without pulling any punches, I can say with certainty that if it weren't for Steam, there would be no Tripwire Interactive right now". "Ask Garry Newman, creator of Garry's Mod, or Dylan Fitterer, creator of Audiosurf if they feel exploited. Ask the Tripwire Interactive employees if they feel exploited, as they move into their new offices paid for by the money the company has made on Steam," Gibson asserted. "Or me, as I drive away from the company that was built from the royalties we made on Steam, in my sports car paid for by the royalties we make on Steam, to the home that I pay for with the royalties we make on Steam."
 
Ja I remember reading that, it made me think there is probably a bit of bad blood between Gearbox and Valve. Maybe Gearbox didn't feel that they got paid well enough for Opposing Force and Blue Shift?
 
After reading the article and all the posts here, I am shocked at some of the responses. Pirating games is illegal whether you can afford it or not! Saying that people pirate games because they can't afford them and condoning it is worse than condoning the guy for robs and kills a loved one because they need money to feed their kids.

I saw this with MW2, people complained about the price and lack of dedicated servers so they refused to buy the game. A few days later those same people were playing pirate versions a few days later.

The bottom line is, someone invested time, money and skill into a product of some sort and they deserve to be rewarded for it. If you feel they don't deserve it then don't use that product!
 
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Bigupme said:
What do you mean by paying them for the listing? Paying them to be on Steam? Valve gets the other 40%.

I wonder myself whether Valve or the dev/publisher sets pricing, I've seen people talk in such a way that they think Valve does it, but I don't see why the devs wouldn't have a say.
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Sorry my wording was quite incoherent. What I meant was: Do the developers have a say in how much the game costs when sold off Steam? Because in the article posted by the OP, it makes reference to Fallout 3 costing twice as much in Australia than in other countries (when bought off Steam). Surely that wouldn't be the developers choice ...
 
Ja I don't know there is much confusion over that.

I think they (everyone involved) are forced to set pricing higher sometimes to "protect" the retail industry, from what I've gathered.
 
But, of course you get Modern Warfare 2 which is just way overpriced for a PC game, and its due to pure greed. Activision said that they know people will pay that much for it, and so will not reduce the price.
 
I think the movement towards Massive Multiplayer Online in all aspect of the gaming industry will curb piracy better than DRM. EA has already committed to moving most of their franchise towards the cloud, with the latest victim - C&C:4. Anyway, Pirates will never die but there really is no incentive to play MMOs offline.
 
Vixe said:
Sorry my wording was quite incoherent. What I meant was: Do the developers have a say in how much the game costs when sold off Steam? Because in the article posted by the OP, it makes reference to Fallout 3 costing twice as much in Australia than in other countries (when bought off Steam). Surely that wouldn't be the developers choice ...
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Well AFAIK, the problem there is exchange rates, since they rip us off on games imported to SA, it works out cheaper to buy games with steam, but in Aus they have a more developed market, so boxed games work out cheaper
 
I honestly feel C&C:4 hasnt had as much marketing and exposure as previous C&C games, so if the game doesnt do well, its not necessarily because DRM killed it. If the game does well, the same goes, its not because DRM saved it, its because maybe the game was that good. Anyway from the review on ars, i doubt the game is going to do very well.
 
tpex said:
Well AFAIK, the problem there is exchange rates, since they rip us off on games imported to SA, it works out cheaper to buy games with steam, but in Aus they have a more developed market, so boxed games work out cheaper
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How do you know we get ripped off?

Plenty of current games are more expensive on Steam than retail. I'm sure I read that there was some pressure on the Steam from the retail sellers to up their pricing at one point.
 
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