PC Piracy: Discussion Continues

Chris Kruger

The last few days has seen the video game piracy "discussions" light on several Game's related sites. Rob Fahey from GameIndustry.biz wrote a newsletter piece titled 'Beat the Pirates at Your Own Game' that was republished on Eurogamer.

In the piece he states his belief that piracy is holding the PC platform back from wider spread commercial success. He then goes on to suggest that current anti-piracy techniques have done more harm than good for the PC market, largely due to their negative effect on the overall user experience. Fahey later proffers several solutions, mostly involving online technologies.

Piracy is obviously still a hot topic as Eurogamer's comment's board came alive with posts. As is commonplace with discussions on piracy, arguments soon came to the sticking point of whether Piracy can be considered theft. Veteran games journalist Stuart Campbell, having had his patience exhausted with the topic, resorted to playing hardball by posting a link to his website outlining his thoughts on the topic once and for all.

Meanwhile on Shacknews discussions of a similar nature have been taking place.

While there might be debate on where exactly piracy is on the moral and legal spectrum it's clear that many game developers would like it to stop. Most commentators advocate new business models and sources of revenue to sidestep the problem. Some developers are attempting to do exactly that, but until these practices mature, piracy will remain a problem.