wraggster
July 22nd, 2009, 00:33
Though piracy -- the hearty, swashbuckling kind -- is currently running rampant on Steam, Valve boss Gabe Newell is unconcerned by the contemptible scourge of the C:\. "We don't really worry about piracy," he told Good Game in a lengthy E3 interview.
Newell pointed to "misconceptions in the industry about what piracy is," drawing attention to the curious paradox that lies in people spending $2000 on a computer, only to resort to theft when they want to play a game on it. The real cause of the problem, according to Newell? "Bad service on the part of game companies."
Newell used Russia as an example -- a place that everybody knows is a haven for piracy, right? Why even bother with localizations for that market? Here's why: pirates were doing a better job of localizing content for players, and once Valve offered a timely and accommodating service, its piracy issues in Russia "disappeared." Though the company's service-trumps-scallywags approach is unlikely to defeat hardened code kleptomaniacs, it's certainly preferable to the digital ball and chain of overly restrictive DRM.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/21/valve-we-dont-really-worry-about-piracy/
Newell pointed to "misconceptions in the industry about what piracy is," drawing attention to the curious paradox that lies in people spending $2000 on a computer, only to resort to theft when they want to play a game on it. The real cause of the problem, according to Newell? "Bad service on the part of game companies."
Newell used Russia as an example -- a place that everybody knows is a haven for piracy, right? Why even bother with localizations for that market? Here's why: pirates were doing a better job of localizing content for players, and once Valve offered a timely and accommodating service, its piracy issues in Russia "disappeared." Though the company's service-trumps-scallywags approach is unlikely to defeat hardened code kleptomaniacs, it's certainly preferable to the digital ball and chain of overly restrictive DRM.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/07/21/valve-we-dont-really-worry-about-piracy/