Do Game Publishers Ignore Piracy?

[saraphen]

The music and movie industries, blindsided by the Web, have been swimming upstream against the digital revolution, suing college students for illegal downloads and fighting tech companies all the way to the Supreme Court, because they believe their business has been hurt by it. But the videogame industry, whose intellectual property is just as valuable, has been comparatively complacent in fighting piracy, despite an estimated $3.5 billion in annual losses worldwide.

Like most content distributed on CDs or online, videogames, particularly games for PCs, are vulnerable to piracy. Copyright protection on the CD itself can easily be overridden by hackers, sometimes in a matter of days, says Ric Hirsch, senior vice president of intellectual property enforcement at the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a Washington lobbying group. These unprotected discs are then sold to underground groups who make copies to sell worldwide.

Todd Hollenshead, chief executive of id Software, developer of the Doom series of games, recalls a trip to Hong Kong last August to promote the upcoming release of Doom 3. He says an associate ran across copies of the game, complete with its packaging and copyright notice, for sale before it even hit store shelves. "These organizations are so sophisticated and professional that they can often beat our own distribution," says Hollenshead. "There is a lot of competition in the videogame market, but nothing like competing against someone selling the exact same product but who has no investment in creating and marketing the game."

http://www.forbes.com/2005/07/18/vid...dia_newsletter

So why are they ignoring piracy? Could be that they're making money hand over fist in spite of piracy.

Microsoft and Sony videogame consoles have built-in piracy prevention technology, which is tough but not impossible to crack. Hirsch says the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox were hacked within six months of hitting the market.

[DBlack]

As an avid Gamer, i knew first hand the challenges of getting games without paying. Virtually all decent pc games have some sort of copy protection or anti-piracy security built in.

The problem is that these security schemes can be easily crack, and often are as soon as the code is made available.

IDSoftware has long been considered the pinnacle of game video engine development, but they, like many other developers simply cannot stop the onslaught. Instead what they do is impelement measure that make piracy as inconvenient as possible.

Microsoft and Sony videogames consoles can be cracked more easily via hacking of the consoles themselves.

Bottom line is that companies realize it's a losing battle.

[Gorilla]

There are so many methods of getting copies of games out there but I think the incentives that come along with having a legit copy are what seem to make sure the industry stays safe from too much piracy. For example, Blizzard Entertainment's Battle Network requires a legitimate key for internet play on their servers. I've noticed a lot of games out there for PC do similar things.

As for consoles....lol I love mod chips.

[Lonewolf]

I have a modded XBox.

I think that the people who make the chips and design the technology for the hacks end up paying something up to the big boys. They have to be. These guys have websites and everything and they never get shut down. I can't believe that Microsoft or Sony could be that complacent unless they're getting some under the table dollars.

Either way, I'll take it. I have a kazillion X Box games so as long as they keep ignoring it, I'll keep playing.