Why do publishers delay the PC version of their games? - Sensationalist Headlines

[quote]The problem is simple. The publishers and the managers at the company he works for are terrified of piracy. They delay the PC version of their game because there is a section of the gaming audience that would prefer to download the game for free rather than buy it. If the PC version is available,[/quote] So when they eventually do release the PC version, Piracy is suddenly non existent because they held onto it. Good job! Digital Content gets copied. The End. It's how it works, it's how it will work. Instead of giving a third or more of your customers the middle finger, use it to your advantage instead. EVERYONE is connected. No better form of advertisement exists today than word of mouth, and the best part about it is you get it for free. Keep the millions you spend in advertising, stop alienating your legitimate customers, and make the disadvantage work for you. It isn't something you can stop, it's just the nature of the medium. So utilize it, rather than put restrictive measures that only hinder your legitimate customers and fans and don't dwindle piracy rates, but increase them Why can't Ubisoft, or EA, or Nintendo or someone huge just make a game and be like, Fuck it. Let's ignore piracy altogether and just see what happens. Maybe then they'll realize there's no difference

I wouldn't mind if they at least used said time to FUCKING POLISH THE DARN PORTS.

I don't think pirating a game justifies itself anymore. There is soooo much gameplay and word about games now on sites like Youtube that you can visually see... hours and hours of content. Sure, you may want to get the feel of the game, but you can at least see the product for what it is with just a little internet research. If it's something that looks horribly broken or uninteresting then you can completely avoid it... that type of thing. I'm not trying to rag on people who pirate games... it's just that we have many more content and options out there now than years before.

[QUOTE=JohnnyOnFlame;42468919]I wouldn't mind if they at least used said time to FUCKING POLISH THE DARN PORTS.[/QUOTE]If console sales meet their expectations they don't care any more.

And people still earnestly believe piracy is a non issue and has no effect on the industry.

[QUOTE=Live2becool;42469059]I don't think pirating a game justifies itself anymore. There is soooo much gameplay and word about games now on sites like Youtube that you can visually see... hours and hours of content. Sure, you may want to get the feel of the game, but you can at least see the product for what it is with just a little internet research. If it's something that looks horribly broken or uninteresting then you can completely avoid it... that type of thing. I'm not trying to rag on people who pirate games... it's just that we have many more content and options out there now than years before.[/QUOTE] In the end you are the best judge though. No internet personality or gameplay video can tell if I'll like the game for sure or not. Take COD for example. There's plenty of videos saying it's bad but as much saying it's good. From gameplay videos it looks okay. Seems like a good buy. But the actual game when I played it was not worth a buy at all. There's only so much a video can tell you. If there's no official demo I will demo it myself through means unsupported by developer.

[QUOTE=Live2becool;42469059]I don't think pirating a game justifies itself anymore. There is soooo much gameplay and word about games now on sites like Youtube that you can visually see... hours and hours of content. Sure, you may want to get the feel of the game, but you can at least see the product for what it is with just a little internet research. If it's something that looks horribly broken or uninteresting then you can completely avoid it... that type of thing. I'm not trying to rag on people who pirate games... it's just that we have many more content and options out there now than years before.[/QUOTE] I agree, the whole justification of "if people like the game after pirating it, they'll definitely buy it, fo sure!" has grown old. You can get a feel for the game without pirating it, which is really just a lame excuse for yourself in most cases. If they don't need to buy it for multiplayer or something, they most likely will [B]never[/B] buy it.

[QUOTE=TheTalon;42468838]So when they eventually do release the PC version, Piracy is suddenly non existent because they held onto it. Good job! Digital Content gets copied. The End. It's how it works, it's how it will work. Instead of giving a third or more of your customers the middle finger, use it to your advantage instead. EVERYONE is connected. No better form of advertisement exists today than word of mouth, and the best part about it is you get it for free. Keep the millions you spend in advertising, stop alienating your legitimate customers, and make the disadvantage work for you. It isn't something you can stop, it's just the nature of the medium. So utilize it, rather than put restrictive measures that only hinder your legitimate customers and fans and don't dwindle piracy rates, but increase them Why can't Ubisoft, or EA, or Nintendo or someone huge just make a game and be like, Fuck it. Let's ignore piracy altogether and just see what happens. Maybe then they'll realize there's no difference[/QUOTE] It's not like the strategy isn't working at all tho - there's quite a few people that bought GTAV on console precisely because they didn't want to wait for a PC release. With the impact of fanbases and how easily spoilers diffuse throughout the internet, many active/hardcore fans will want to get their hands on a hot title even faster. Heck, some of them even plan on re-buying those kinda games on PC for moar grafix. Like the author of the article says, we don't have exact numbers, we don't know just how effective the strategy is, if there's some mixup of correlation and causation. But we do know the strategy works to *some extent*. And we know that PC piracy tends to be bigger than console piracy. So I wouldn't be crazy dismissive about this tactic. I'd call it plausible, but withhold speculation on how (in)effective it may be. Not 'nuff numbers to speculate on. [QUOTE=Billy2600;42468460]Apparently up to half of a games sales happen within the first two months it's first launched. This is the reason Spyro 3 had such [url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3030/keeping_the_pirates_at_bay.php]extensive copy protection[/url]. Not sure what that means in this case, but take of that what you will.[/QUOTE] Yeah, most publishers seem to focus on how much they can sell in the first few weeks. They don't pay that much attention to people buying the game months after, despite services like Steam suggesting your game can keep making quite a few bucks even years after publication if maintained properly and boosted with regular sales. That narrow time window of attention seems to be why many AAA games are focusing everything on the release date: Tons of marketing/advertising, tons of different preorder "exclusivities" and Day-1-DLC, season passes, all that stuff that could boost initial income. EA and Squeenix are known for putting huge emphasis on how few million copies their games sell initially. So taking that into consideration, maybe they don't even need PC piracy to disappear, just delay it with maximum effectiveness. Thinking about it, it's the opposite of how Valve operates, isn't it? Many of their games are built for "stamina", offering more and more content as time goes on either because of first party content patches, Workshop content or simply the modding community in general.

And it doesn't matter whether piracy does affect sales or not. What truly matters is what publishers and managers believe, since they're the ones that publish the games. Your reason means jack shit since you're still adding to the piracy statistic, and only further justifying the publisher's decisions.

As much as I love PC I would delay it as well if I was in their position, I know tons of people that just pirate games because they feel like they can just spend there money elsewhere even though they have the means of paying for the game. Much fewer people pirate games on consoles and I know tons of people bought GTA 5 for example on consoles because they didn't feel like waiting. These same people may buy the game twice when it comes out on PC and many people that would pirate on PC if it was easy to do would just buy it on a console because it is easier then modifying a console if the PC release is delayed.

it seems less like a complaint about piracy but rather a complaint about the self-righteous attitude that some people have over something that is very obviously morally wrong [editline]9th October 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=TestECull;42468307]And for good reason. Saying that is saying you think we're all selfish criminals. Saying that is insulting your customer base, and they are rightfully pissed off at you for saying it. The publishers deserve every bit of ire they receive because of this mentality. ...Not the death threats, of course, but the ire? Yeah. They deserve all of that. And rightfully so. We're fucking tired of being treated as guilty until proven innocent and we're more than willing to rip publishers a new one every time they try. How about doing what Valve and Bethesda do instead? Make good games, leave DRM out, put them on the market at the same time for all consoles, and rake in the dosh. That is how you appease PC gamers. It isn't a difficult thing to do, it just takes some damn intelligence on the part of the publishers. [editline]9th October 2013[/editline] Of course. It's inevitable. You release something it will be pirated. This is just as true on consoles as it is for music, movies, books, anything. Even physical things get pirated, go down to Beijing or Taiwan and you'll be hard pressed to find a genuine item. The publishers need to look at piracy not as something to combat, but as an operating cost. IT's a fact of life in the media industry and crying about it only makes it worse. Just shrug, ignore the piracy entirely, and focus on making the paying customer happy.[/QUOTE] hhh

We PC gamers are mistreated constantly, and piracy is just an easy scapegoat excuse. Piracy happens on consoles constantly, and LEAKS which is something even worse because it might not even represent the final game in a good light and I would argue loses more sales than piracy due to pre release hype, they happen way more often on consoles. How often do you hear the leak of the next flavor of the month console game. Piracy doesn't equal lost sales, you can't prove those people would have bought anyway. Point is, treat us fucking better and not like children, we buy your shit. Don't pay attention to pirates, there will always be children that want something for nothing, don't consider them part of your customer base, or a lost part, they never were to begin with. Give us good games and we buy them, put effort into making the PC version the definitive version like it should be, with proper fit for purpose support for the platform. Yeah, it's extra work, and we are willing to wait through delays to get a final product when we know it will be the superior one. Crying piracy is getting very very old and is just plain close minded and stupid, don't be so acidic and draconian just because we aren't your average console gamer that accepts whatever you shove in their face without question.

[QUOTE=Xion21;42472798]We PC gamers are mistreated constantly, and piracy is just an easy scapegoat excuse. Piracy happens on consoles constantly, and LEAKS which is something even worse because it might not even represent the final game in a good light and I would argue loses more sales than piracy due to pre release hype, they happen way more often on consoles. How often do you hear the leak of the next flavor of the month console game. Piracy doesn't equal lost sales, you can't prove those people would have bought anyway. Point is, treat us fucking better and not like children, we buy your shit. Don't pay attention to pirates, there will always be children that want something for nothing, don't consider them part of your customer base, or a lost part, they never were to begin with. Give us good games and we buy them, put effort into making the PC version the definitive version like it should be, with proper fit for purpose support for the platform. Yeah, it's extra work, and we are willing to wait through delays to get a final product when we know it will be the superior one. Crying piracy is getting very very old and is just plain close minded and stupid, don't be so acidic and draconian just because we aren't your average console gamer that accepts whatever you shove in their face without question.[/QUOTE] B-but, PC gamers aren't mistreated! We just have all of our games delayed, with horrible support, no graphics options coupled with terrible optimization, or with horrible DRM and anti-cheat software that makes the game laggy or unplayable, probably both! Stop being so entitled you elitist!

[QUOTE=JCDentonUNATCO;42473072]B-but, PC gamers aren't mistreated! We just have all of our games delayed, with horrible support, no graphics options coupled with terrible optimization, or with horrible DRM and anti-cheat software that makes the game laggy or unplayable, probably both! Stop being so entitled you elitist![/QUOTE] I know it's incredibly entitled of me to expect such special treatment as usable m + kb controls, proper graphics options, a resolution and framerate not stuck in 2007, and maybe even that we get the games in a reasonable timeframe and not 2 years later at full price, but I am just that elitist and terrible a person as to dare to ask for such unfairly opulent treatment. I know, it's disgustingly entitled.

Because you touch yourself at night Tim Edwards. That's right, we all know.

I guess its true for some part that obtaining a pirated copy of a pc game that works takes far less effort then getting ine for the xbox and playstation. But still if they opened up their games to modders and let the community get involved like what valve has done im sure it would financially benefit them in the long run

piracy is going to happen no matter what, the reason it affects PC the most is probably because of just what they say, however if they developed a game without having bad drm such as limited installation, always online requirement, or anything that blocks the user from playing the game, they going to suffer a backlash because nobody perfers that drm, the only drm that is mildly acceptable is steam drm or none at all. The PC community is different and so is piracy, the internet is powerful like your game is being represented to a huge theater-like audition for seats up to 1 billion people or more, all with common loves and hates of certain things, and the community can be somewhat just like American democrats and republics fighting each other over certain issues (drm, PR on certain companies, lack of innovations on certain games, metacritic debates, etc). The different on piracy is the reason why they pirate your software... your game got awful DRM, that will explain why people WANTED to pirate your game, your game is too expansive (an 8 hour game that you can beat in a day with a price tag of 60 bucks), and the user be unable to pay for the price, and people tend to judge the game for the right price (like most call of duty games should be no less then 10 bucks due to how atrocious the game is). Some people pirate the game because they want to judge if it's worthy to purchase the game (old pirate saying "judge by your wallet, you like the game? BUY IT! Support the Devs"). There going to be risk and everything, people these days are very judgmental like your on court, and you will be judged good and bad by everyone who played your game, judge by their experience (fun to play, bugged filled terror, crashes non-stop, very hooked onto the game from the beginning, etc), you just got to have some faith, severely beta test the game itself, don't lie, don't do lazy work, develop some innovative things that most of us would like, keep on touch with us on certain things rather it's issues, technical difficulties and questions from the community, and answer them with honesty and seriousness and don't lie right out of our ass as people will catch that and drag you into the streets and beat you over it (causing bad PR and such). Do not be like what EA has became in the past that causes so much bad PR that the CEO was forced to leave by the higher ups, and don't be that asshole who don't even like games but rather sale the game to appease the shareholders and such (Activision). It's not that hard to get along with us, it just you developers and publishers need to take a good read among the community of various of forums and places to see what they wanted, what they don't want, and make it happened, then you be all cosy with ya and will buy your game with pride and happiness and little PR backlash.

[QUOTE=darkedone02;42473802][b]It's not that hard to get along with us[/b], it just you developers and publishers need to take a good read among the community of various of forums and places to see what they wanted, what they don't want, and make it happened, then you be all cosy with ya and will buy your game with pride and happiness and little PR backlash.[/QUOTE] No, it's almost impossible for developers to get along with their customers. Look at literally every game, and the community will be lambasting the developers for anything they do. Everything a developer says or does can, and will be, used against them.

Another reason for the PC delay is that in the game industry, they "cook" the game for consoles first, then PC. Half out of tradition in build process and half because normally they can start optimization and locked down playtesting better on a console. [editline]10th October 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=cra0kalo;42473353] But still if they opened up their games to modders and let the community get involved like what valve has done im sure it would financially benefit them in the long run[/QUOTE] From a commercial perspective unfortunately the face value risk of opening your IP to modding is just disastrous. As long as people make games commercially in mind, this probably wont change. We need more game companies making games to make games, not to build a cash cow on top of one, to fix this problem.

Makes sense. It's 100 times easier to pirate a PC game than go through the effort of modifying your console to do it. Push the game back, people who really want to play right now will buy the console version, and thats less to worry about pirating it.

I wish they would stop with the piracy and the "but so much people would've bought our game!!" excuses. Nope, if someone doesn't want to spend money on a thing, he won't.

[QUOTE=KillerJaguar;42473847]No, it's almost impossible for developers to get along with their customers. Look at literally every game, and the community will be lambasting the developers for anything they do. Everything a developer says or does can, and will be, used against them.[/QUOTE] What you see on forums and the like is a vocal minority and doesn't represent the vast majority of people that are too busy playing the game. Go on any MMO forum, tens of thousands of whiners, but hundreds of thousands to millions of players. Plus, most devs in the limelight are large and have pretty strong bullshit filters.

I don't know about the rest of you, but when companies start pushing their PC releases back for no forseeable reason it just makes me less likely to buy them, I'm hoping Ubisoft doesn't try anything like it with Watch Dogs because I honestly want to throw money at them.