Why do developers make games if they are worried about piracy?

Foreword: I do not condone piracy.

Ubisoft has been making the news lately over their use of horrible DRM in their ports of console games. Assassin's Creed and several others have had always on DRM for even the single-player portions of the games. Lose your internet connection for any reason, and your game kicks you out. A developer of a Ubisoft published game recently said that they aren't making a PC version of the game because it won't sell. They assume it is because the game gets pirated, but it is more than likely that it is because they have some of the worst DRM in the world. He later back tracked saying that it was a translation error, but who honestly believes that. Every time an always on DRM, or SECUROM, with its install limits, is used in a PC game, it is basically spitting in the face of anyone that actually buys the game. But this brings me to my main point, if piracy is really the reason why developers and publishers don't make games for the PC, then why do they make games at all.

Gamestop is legal piracy.

The defenders of pirating a game say that, "Downloading a game isn't stealing, because it is not guaranteed that the downloader would have bought the game." or "It isn't stealing, it is copyright infringement." Buying a used game isn't copyright infringement, but it is as close to stealing money from a publish as you can get without actually stealing from them. One game DVD is one sale, but that one game can be sold multiple times through Gamestop all while they are making a profit off of them. More times than I can remember, I have gone to buy a game from Gamestop a week or so after release, and they already have used copies up for $54.99. They would have bought the game back for $25 to $35, so they are making about 50% profit from that game while denying the publisher another sale. I am sure that publisher work with Gamestop. Pre-order bonuses, those stupid DLC season pass things, and what not, but why don't they do the same with PC games but not have the shitty DRM attached to it.

Steam is a form of DRM that a lot of people are perfectly willing to deal with. There are steam haters out there, but I would guess that more people like or tolerate it than hate it. 5 million users online at peak times and 2.3 million online right now. Skyrim has 170,000 people today concurrently, and they had 250,000 playing at the same time on launch day. Steam provides a platform for all the games you own while using it as DRM. Steam sales provide sales of the games that would have no otherwise happened. Publishers work with Gamespot, who actively steals sales from them, but they tack on additional DRM to games that already appear on steam anyway causing people to not want to buy them legitimately.

Foreword: I do not condone piracy.

Ubisoft has been making the news lately over their use of horrible DRM in their ports of console games. Assassin's Creed and several others have had always on DRM for even the single-player portions of the games. Lose your internet connection for any reason, and your game kicks you out. A developer of a Ubisoft published game recently said that they aren't making a PC version of the game because it won't sell. They assume it is because the game gets pirated, but it is more than likely that it is because they have some of the worst DRM in the world. He later back tracked saying that it was a translation error, but who honestly believes that. Every time an always on DRM, or SECUROM, with its install limits, is used in a PC game, it is basically spitting in the face of anyone that actually buys the game. But this brings me to my main point, if piracy is really the reason why developers and publishers don't make games for the PC, then why do they make games at all.

Gamestop is legal piracy.

The defenders of pirating a game say that, "Downloading a game isn't stealing, because it is not guaranteed that the downloader would have bought the game." or "It isn't stealing, it is copyright infringement." Buying a used game isn't copyright infringement, but it is as close to stealing money from a publish as you can get without actually stealing from them. One game DVD is one sale, but that one game can be sold multiple times through Gamestop all while they are making a profit off of them. More times than I can remember, I have gone to buy a game from Gamestop a week or so after release, and they already have used copies up for $54.99. They would have bought the game back for $25 to $35, so they are making about 50% profit from that game while denying the publisher another sale. I am sure that publisher work with Gamestop. Pre-order bonuses, those stupid DLC season pass things, and what not, but why don't they do the same with PC games but not have the shitty DRM attached to it.

Steam is a form of DRM that a lot of people are perfectly willing to deal with. There are steam haters out there, but I would guess that more people like or tolerate it than hate it. 5 million users online at peak times and 2.3 million online right now. Skyrim has 170,000 people today concurrently, and they had 250,000 playing at the same time on launch day. Steam provides a platform for all the games you own while using it as DRM. Steam sales provide sales of the games that would have no otherwise happened. Publishers work with Gamespot, who actively steals sales from them, but they tack on additional DRM to games that already appear on steam anyway causing people to not want to buy them legitimately.

Are you actually asking the question posed in the thread title? Because it doesn't seem to be reflected in your post. In fact you didn't pose a single question, not even a rhetorical one.

I will answer the thread title question though.

Why do developers make games if they are worried about piracy?

Because developers and publishers are in the product industry. You need to produce or supply products to make money. Money can be used in exchange for good and services.

And now for a less sarcastic reply. :P

UbiSoft, sorry, a few individuals at UbiSoft are talking about something they have no real understanding of and no stake in and if their absence as if it even matters.

The PC games industry is fine, it has however changed and UbiSoft doesn't seem to grasp how it needs to adapt to survive.

Piracy is a red herring that publishers fall back on when sales are crap. Piracy is every bit as easy as it's made out to be, so why do games like Skyrim and CoD still sell a bajillion copies? The answer is because the overwhelming majority of gamers buy the games they want to play. A small minority of people steal games they would otherwise buy. The rest of the people that pirate games are idgits who download every game leak that pops up on Usenet whether they were interested in it or not.

In other words, most publishers aren't legitimately worried about Piracy. They just use it as an excuse for horrible policies and practices.

If you ask me, piracy can only be reduced by:

1. Giving a game people feel as a good investment. Be it CoD, Skyrim or Minecraft, give something people find it's actually worth paying for.

2. Supporting your product before and after launch. If the game is unplayable or people think it lacks content, they won't give you their money anymore.

3. Offer a fair price. Don't overcharge your product, and try to boost your numbers with good sales from time to time.

Basically, don't be a greedy dick. Other than that, no matter what shit you come up with, you'll never stop piracy. You'll just be able to get more people to buy your game if they don't feel their being fucked in the ass.

Thread title answer: Because if you wanna survive with a family and a house and a car you have to earn money? I'm just guessing since that seems to be what everyone else is doing so it kinda makes sense to me. I could be wrong though, what do I know. 
 
The DRM for Ubisoft games seems stupid but I've never had a problem with it. myself, my internet never cuts out or anything like that (I wouldn't pay for it if it did, that's just retarded) so I've played the PC version of the AC games and their "Always" online thing seems to work fine.  
People are blowing Ubisofts statements way out of proportion and Ubisoft is blowing the whole "piracy" thing out of proportion too, so what else is new? 

No DRM, i.e. no barrier for pirates, is often used as an advertisement. And it works! Why? Because the pirate won't be affected, only the guy sitting in a dark room and getting a kick out of breaking it is affected positively and the legit customers are affected negatively. Remember that DRM is by definition an anti feature. It's a deliberate attempt from the publisher to make the program cease to function and it is frankly a completely unnecessary pain in the ass, nothing more to say. The Witcher 2 sold several million copies and there is no DRM on it.

Because consoles are not suffering from piracy at all and everything gets pirated 99999 times to one sale on the PC
- Several publishers

its the same with shops.

why do they make stuff like that gets stolen. now i don't condone shoplifting at all. but come on

i mean this fucking stores with the store detectives and cameras and stuff that make me feel like a criminal when i go shopping. its just stupid.

treating real customers like shoplifters is just a slap in the face to real customers spending real money on real stuff like cheese and batteries

and then they try to put stuff like security tags on stuff, the asda near where i live has the worst security tags in the world. sometimes they beep when i leave the stop even if they have de-tagged it.

this may read like utter drivel to you guys but it really bothers me

The thread title is like saying why go buy a TV when somebody could come and steal it. I am sorry but piracy is stealing because you are taking something that doesn't belong to you. I also can't stand the used game comparison because your argument for it is that you don't know that somebody who stole it didn't buy it new also. Yeah because just yesterday I went and stole a TV and liked it so much I decided to go buy one just like it. I bet 80%+ of the games pirated were never purchased new or used by the person that pirated it and it is probably closer to 95-99%.

The thread title is like saying why go buy a TV when somebody could come and steal it. I am sorry but piracy is stealing because you are taking something that doesn't belong to you. I also can't stand the used game comparison because your argument for it is that you don't know that somebody who stole it didn't buy it new also. Yeah because just yesterday I went and stole a TV and liked it so much I decided to go buy one just like it. I bet 80%+ of the games pirated were never purchased new or used by the person that pirated it and it is probably closer to 95-99%.

If you ask me, piracy can only be reduced by:

1. Giving a game people feel as a good investment. Be it CoD, Skyrim or Minecraft, give something people find it's actually worth paying for.

2. Supporting your product before and after launch. If the game is unplayable or people think it lacks content, they won't give you their money anymore.

3. Offer a fair price. Don't overcharge your product, and try to boost your numbers with good sales from time to time.

Basically, don't be a greedy dick. Other than that, no matter what shit you come up with, you'll never stop piracy. You'll just be able to get more people to buy your game if they don't feel their being fucked in the ass.

Because people buy games. (Response to thread title).

@Cataphract1014 said:

Publishers work with Gamespot

lol

@SomeJerk said:

Because consoles are not suffering from piracy at all and everything gets pirated 99999 times to one sale on the PC - Several publishers

PS3 and XBOX360 gets pirated all the time.

Re-selling a copy of a game that you paid full price for is not the same as distributing thousands of copies freely online. Let's just get that straightened up first. Once you own a physical product, be it a game, car, house or a taco, it is yours to sell as you see fit. Therein lies the problem with digital distribution. There is no physical product to own, or re-sell, hence the consumer has no proprietary rights over it. That's what leads to increased piracy on the PC imho, is people feeling that since they aren't really buying anything, they aren't really stealing anything either, and that mentality has to stop.

Gamestop is legal piracy? What?

@yorro said:

@SomeJerk said:

Because consoles are not suffering from piracy at all and everything gets pirated 99999 times to one sale on the PC - Several publishers

PS3 and XBOX360 gets pirated all the time.

*slow clap*

AAAAAWWWWWW... not another thread about used games. Look, I'm not going to get into an argument about used games because it's pointless. Even if you happen to get rid of the giant that is Gamestop, you will still not get rid of used games. There are other giants out there, like eBay, Craigslist, and Amazon. So, I never thought I would say this, but shut the fuck up about Gamestop.

Now onto the other problem you were talking about. Ubiosost's online DRM. For Ubisoft, there are 2 things that they need to do to go about gaining the trust of PC players.

• Get rid of all of their DRM and put everything on Steam
• Make a game exclusively for the PC

What I mean by put everything they have on the PC, I mean put everything they've ever made on Steam. They're still missing Heroes of Might and Magic I-IV and any of the other Might and Magic games. Maybe also take some console games and put them on the PC. They need to also make a game that is exclusive to the PC market. They've done it before with World in Conflict and that game was pretty damn good. So they need to do that again.

@MonstroUK said:

Are you actually asking the question posed in the thread title? Because it doesn't seem to be reflected in your post. In fact you didn't pose a single question, not even a rhetorical one.

My original title was too long =\

But I was trying to say that piracy is a poor reason to slap archaic DRM on a PC game because a) Gamestop is piracy and b) Console games get pirated. I just want PC games to be good again Q_Q

@gladspooky said:

@Cataphract1014 said:

Publishers work with Gamespot

lol

While I don't know for sure, I would think they have too. Why would publishers continue to do business with a company that is actively taking sales from them without getting something in return.

@laserbolts said:

Gamestop is legal piracy? What?

Piracy is basically playing something you didn't pay for. Buying a used game from Gamestop is playing a game you paid the wrong people for.