EA Admits Pirated Copies Do Not Equal Lost Sales

[dangel]

In the casual pirate's mind, certainly. They don't see the connection between their actions and the possible resulting consequences such as limited AAA games on PC or increased DRM. People in business won't lose out in the long run because they're savvy enough to move out of a bad market opportunity and into a better one. It's only the consumer who might.

Who do I blame for DRM? The pirates? Not really. AAA titles without DRM still sell - and that's only a good thing because it proves one thing: we're not all that bad after all.

[kalniel]

Who do I blame for DRM? The pirates? Not really. AAA titles without DRM still sell - and that's only a good thing because it proves one thing: we're not all that bad after all.

But do they sell enough to make back the costs? Some argue not.

Currently (and purely in my own opinion) the way to sell a PC game is either to have it be online server based (good DRM), have mediocre graphics, low system requirements and light/no DRM (SoaSE), be a casual game (peggle, bejewelled etc.) or a combination of the above (WoW etc.)

None of those really count as a AAA game in my opinion - at least I'm not sure we've seen a AAA game without DRM be successful.

[Stoo]

I just don't buy anything from EA, if everyone did the same, they'd soon change their ways.

[kalniel]

I just don't buy anything from EA, if everyone did the same, they'd soon change their ways.

Well console users don't see any need to boycott, and recent EA titles are selling very well indeed. So if PC users boycott then we're back to the situation where they can't be bothered with the PC market anymore.

[Marenghi]

Meh, I get 'punished' for buying the original game - that's how I feel about DRM. You might think that unreasonable, but it does absolutely nothing to stop the pirates (who'll probably play and finish the game before I even get it through the door in most case).

very true

[Tr0gdor]

It's about time they realise DRM is only hurting people who buy it, downloaders don't have any cd checks, online checks or any hoops they have to jump through. Cd checks and limited installs should be gotten rid of and only have an online cd key check like sacred 2.

[kalniel]

Cd checks and limited installs should be gotten rid of and only have an online cd key check like sacred 2.

What if you don't have the internet on you gaming machine?

[Marenghi]

What if you don't have the internet on you gaming machine?

i think that would be a very small minority who would fall into that bracket. yeah there are times when we either lose internet for a bit or just don't have access to it but for the majority of gamers, that wouldn't present a problem. steam being the perfect example of that and the way DRM is being received by gamers at the moment seems to suggest that companies will follow the trend of joining steam or creating their own platform to launch their games. i honestly think that publishers will eventually see the errors of their ways in terms of current DRM and go for more online activation methods rather than the more traditional dvd/emulation software checks

[alsenior]

i think he means checking the key to play online

[Tr0gdor]

What if you don't have the internet on you gaming machine?

Then you could use phone activation like photoshop. The people without access to the internet is very small, steam proves it's not really a problem.