[v-i-c-]

Originally Posted by Oleander

Part of it has to do with pressure from Financiers, that's usually the case with EA and Ubisoft. Ubisoft claims that they are losing 95% of their revenue due to piracy, how they come up with these numbers is anyone's guess.

I have no idea how Ubisoft "measures" piracy. But I know from other mobile indie developers that 95% is the usual rate of piracy for their games. They can measure it via Game Center. When you've sold just 5000 copies but you have 100000 users on Game Center then it's pretty clear that 95% of the players use illegal copies.

But the point is how many of those 95% would have bought it if it would have been impossible to copy it? That's something you can't answer unless you have a perfect copy protection.

Originally Posted by Oleander

So let's look at the other side of the coin. Why do people pirate games? Sometimes it has to do with gamers just being flat out broke or unwilling to pay $60 for a game.

Because a lot of people want everything for free and they just don't realize that what they are doing is nothing else but a kind of slavery (using the work of other but not willing to pay). Even my 99 cent titles all got pirated within 3 days - so it clearly is not about the poor "broke people" or overpricing.

Originally Posted by Oleander

Which speaking of, when Super Mario Brothers came out it sold at $60 a lot of that price came from the cartridge manufacture. Today most games are released from cloud storage which is significantly cheaper in bulk, and I believe most people are catching on to that fact. That's how Steam is able to sell games at a cheaper price than anyone else and the do so in large numbers.

A DVD Package with nice art is not that expensive it costs just a few dollars per unit. Getting rid of that would not even result in a price drop from $60 to $50.
I think the 24/7 instant availability of downloads is one of the reason why they go with cheaper prices. More people buy because they are just in the mood to play something like that and they can get it NOW within some minutes. Another reason is the competition on those platforms, price changes can be done within minutes and you don't need to produce boxes and hold them on stock which can be a risk. The usual 30% the platform earns is the same margin that the retailer got before.

Originally Posted by Oleander

The big companies are starting to loose their edge and its giving rise to a load of indie developers which is really good news for us as long as we can keep them out of the hands of the publishers.

The big companies are still winning on the totally overcrowded mobile platforms where usually hundreds of game come out every day. It's harder than ever before for indies today. 3-5 years ago it was a completely different situation and indies had their best days at that time. Just go on an indie-developer forum and ask…

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

Power to the people

Whenever we hear the words 'new DRM' or 'new copy protection scheme' or 'can't use unless ____' it's a call to arms...And we have much bigger and better weapons than the developers. Even if we don't we will make better ones (this is usually a multi-national effort)

Nothing like the international fame for being the first one to prove they broke/cracked it.

Why don't you use your "arms" to create something? Instead you are attacking the financial base of the life of others who actually created something.

The "multi-national effort" you are talking about are modders and not pirates.

I've worked 5 years on my sim so far because I am developing it as a one man show - during this time I've invested all my money into it and this made me a really poor person, I am happy that I have something to eat which is basically my only luxury in life since I'm developing this title (I've left the house exactly 5 times this year because I don't have the time and money to do something outside at all) - I'm not nuts, I will use a copy protection - so the first thing you will do is crack it? For the fame? I would not call this fame but a shame.

Seriously I hope persons like you will someday work months just to find out that they finally won't get paid. (and even this would be nothing compared to 5 years) - how much is 5 years of your lifetime worth for you? Do you ever got pirated? Do you have the slightest idea how that feels? I really hope you will feel that feeling one day to learn something and to stop ripping off other people.

Even behind giant companies like Ubisoft there are people and jobs. And they have all rights to decide how much money they want for their work and how their product works (DRM, features etc.). If you don't like it then just don't buy it, no one forces you to buy it, but it does not give you the slightest (morale) right to crack it.