PC piracy levels are "astounding" says Call of Duty 4 Developer

[Exp44]

Yeah I don't think piracy is really "killing" Pc gaming. Almost everyone I know who has CoD4 bought it, the only (few) people who pirated it were nerds who knew what they were doing. I'll buy games when they're new, and if I have a computer that can run it, which I don't have at the moment. As for now, I satisfy myself with games I downloaded (can't find em in stores nowadays anyway) that are 5-10 years old which no one really cares about any more (for making money off of them).

[GodPigeon]

a "Decent" computer cant run anything the way a 360/PS3 can.

 

Yes it can, almost every game will run perfectly on a PC with 3Ghz of CPU with a 2GB and an Nvidia reference Geforce 8800 GTX overclocked to match the Ultra speed. What I meant by "decent" was "high-end" and a quality brand name!

Those parts you mentioned are another story tho.

Decent and High are are two different things. Those parts are High end, VERY far from decent. To me, a decent computer is 2.2Ghz single core, 1GB Nvidia 7800GT. THats a decent computer.

[Lucandrake]

You have some of those numbers wrong lol.

 

A "good" not "perfect" or "decent" computer to run "good" games on at least Med setting is a lot more costly then a "perfect" console and a "perfect" tv (with a couple of games added in the mix).

[BlackKnight]

True ^.

 

My decision a few months back was to either upgrade a comp to the medium sweet spot value level, or get a 360. The 360 was cheaper by far.

[Gryph]

I'd like to discuss this tomorrow after my test so keep this thread alive.

[Exp44]

Will do, sir! As far as consoles go, I agree with Davis, although I won't be getting any HD game console any time soon.

[Fatal Rose]

Gaming PCs cost too much. Its that simple. Take whatever you'd shell out for the hardware to play CoD4, and then factor the cost of the game itself... I think with PCs people are trying to cut costs wherever they can- the software side being the easiest to.

 

Another thing for me is this: I could pay the same $99AUD and buy a game, say Gears of War (bad example- old game, but whatever), for my Xbox 360 or for my PC. If I buy it for my Xbox, I know I'm getting the exact same game as everyone else gets. If I get it for the PC though, I know Im going to get dodgier graphics and sh!ttier framerates, and overall more sluggishness than all the guys out there with better computers than I have. In terms of value, I wouldn't get the sense that I'm getting the game as it was meant to be played, even if it has the potential to run better and at higher resolutions on the PC, simply because I won't get that kind of performance on my machine. I think this is an issue in the back of the minds of everyone who doesn't have the latest hardware.

 

Quote FTW!

 

Ok a little off topic here, is piracy what killed the DC?

[fumanchu]

Well PC Gaming is more expensive than console gaming on a small TV and I can agree to that, HD console gaming is only worth playing if you got a 42" TV with HDMI which totals roughly £1,300 (including the Xbox 360 ) and that amount can get a decent graphics card (~£250, OEM), a decent motherboard (~£80) with a couple of ram (~£30 2GB), a decent hard drive (~£60, 500GB), a decent DVD-RW drive (~£50), a decent CPU (~£100) with a decent cooler (~£10), keyboard & mouse (~£10), 22" monitor (~£200), a decent case (~£40) and a decent power supply (~£50) which totals at (~£880). The PC games are a lot cheaper than the console games.

 

Anyway I don't think it is piracy that killing PC Games, I think it's all down to lack of motivation and innovation!

a phillips 32" hdlcd=£400

360 premium=£250

hdmi cable=£12

flashing drive=nothing

total=£662.

id take the 360 option anyday.

 

 

 

edit/i think it was lack of sells and piracy and quite simply the ps2,that killed the dc fatal.

Edited January 21, 2008 by fumanchu

[Lucandrake]

I didn't really have internet during the dc era but I didn't begin hearing that cd's can run on dc till after the discontinue.

 

I know that the people around my area that wanted a dc couldn't get it because they were dishing out money for a PS2.

[OverlordMondo]

I'm personally going to upgrade my computer to "decent" levels in the next couple of months in preparation for Warhammer Online. It's not going to run things on high settings or anything, though, like a console would, it's going to run things at medium, maybe even low settings, because running it on high is going to cost you about $1K a part.

[ken_cinder]

All these ever so intrusive game protections are a HUGE turn-off to me. I read alot on just what protections are in use these days, and I will outright refuse to pay money for any game with an intrusive protection; ie Starforce.

 

I do pirate, and I often do not purchase. But you know what? The gaming market as a whole, not just PC has become so watered down with absolute CRAP that you have to. You can't trust reviewers anymore, you can't walk into a store and look at the package for a game and think "'I'll like this at least" because what's shown is highly misrepresentative of the content as a whole (See - Blacksite: Area 51 please).

 

It's come down to these days, me pirating EVERYTHING I want to play, and only buying what isn't garbage (Which is very little).

 

And as for the excuse of pirating because gaming PCs cost too much. If you can afford to buy some ridiculously priced system rather than use your damn brain and build it yourself, you can afford to pay for games you like. That, or don't be a PC Gamer at all. If you can't afford bullets.....don't buy a damn gun!