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 Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 01:36 Post subject: Bethesda Is Tired Of Spending Money Supporting PC Pirates |
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Piracy remains one of the biggest issues facing PC gaming these days.
Last week, “Fallout 3″product manager Pete Hines told me that some development studios now calculate that up to half of their customer support calls involve dealing with people who have pirated copies of the game.
That’s bad.
Hines discussed the problem of piracy with MTV Multiplayer just days before, ironically, the Xbox 360 version of “Fallout 3″ leaked. Piracy is still far more prevalent on the PC side, which has serious implications for studios like Bethesda Softworks, whose development bread-and-butter has been PCs.
“It is probably the most…[long pause]…probably the most difficult issue specifically facing PC gaming right now,” said somberly-toned “Fallout 3″product manager Pete Hines to me after playing four hours of his new game a few weeks ago. “How are we gonna walk that line?”
With this kind of concern at Bethesda, you’d never guess what kind of copy-protection they’re putting on “Fallout 3“…
Since our talk, circumstances have changed. “Fallout 3″ has leaked. But the problems remain the same. The biggest obstacle, explained Hines, is figuring out who actually is a pirate.
There will be no “Spore”-like digital rights management (DRM) in “Fallout 3.” There wasn’t in “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” and Bethesda has seen no reason to make sweeping changes to their approach with “Fallout 3.”
“The amount of money we spend supporting people who didn’t pay us for the game in the first place…it’s f–ing ludicrous”
“It’s pretty mild,” said Hines of the DRM. “Much like ‘Oblivion,’ we want there to be some level of protection there so people aren’t just randomly pirating games and passing it around, but we’re very sensitive to the end-user experience, particularly for the person who has bought a legitimate copy and not doing something that is too intrusive, invasive. You bought your game, you put it in your PC, you start playing it.”
Hines is sympathetic to the complaints of legitimate gamers. That’s why there isn’t anything particularly intrusive in Bethesda’s PC products.
“You know, I saw the Penny Arcade guys did a number of guest editorials from guys like [Kotaku's Brian] Crecente and [Gamasutra's] Chris Remo,” said Hines. “It’s not easy. Being a consumer, I totally see it from the consumer side. You know, get out of my way and let me play the game, right? I paid you money for this, I deserve to play the game with no barriers to entry and no frustrations.”
Attempting to treat their players as legitimate consumers as widely as possible has its drawbacks, however. It becomes difficult for Bethesda to determine who is and isn’t someone who paid for their game. This becomes especially distressing for the studio’s customer support division.
“The amount of times we see stuff coming through where it’s like, the resolution to the problem was [the] guy had a pirated copy of the game…” said a visibly frustrated Hines. “The amount of money we spend supporting people who didn’t pay us for the game in the first place…it’s f–ing ludicrous. We talk to other developers, guys who are [like] ‘Yeah, it’s a third, it’s 50% of our [customer] support.’”
But there’s a careful line for all parties. If someone calls in for support and seems to be experiencing a problem isolated to an illegitimate copy of the game, it’s not in Bethesda’s best interest to take a gamble and call them out.
“The worst possible thing you can do…is put them in a position where you’re making them feeling like they better prove they have a legitimate copy”
“The worst possible thing you can do when someone calls and they’re having a problem with the game is put them in a position where you’re making them feeling like they better prove they have a legitimate copy,” said Hines. “Really bad response.”
That doesn’t mean they won’t call someone out, thought.
“You have to try and resolve their problem,” he explained. “If, in the course of doing that, you can determine that there’s something else going on there, then clearly you could call a spade a spade. But…you gotta be really sure before you imply that because people, rightfully so, get really pissed.”
Readers, can you see both sides to this complicated issue? As gamers yourselves, what recommendations do you have for Bethesda’s next game?
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http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/10/13/bethesda-deals-with-pirates/
If this is old news i am sorry.
Last edited by streetunder on Wed, 15th Oct 2008 01:42; edited 2 times in total
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 01:38 Post subject: |
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For once they can see that the xbox is just as good for piracy as the pc, wait till the ps3 is cracked open and then we will see. For once I am glad this is not a PC story.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 01:41 Post subject: |
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| Mode667 wrote: | | For once they can see that the xbox is just as good for piracy as the pc, wait till the ps3 is cracked open and then we will see. For once I am glad this is not a PC story. |
what? the main theme is pc piracy, did you read the title? lol
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tonizito
Posts: 51168
Location: Portugal, the shithole of Europe.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 01:45 Post subject: |
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People who have illegal copies of a game actually call for support?
| boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote: | | i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then |
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LeoNatan
Banned
Posts: 73193
Location: Ramat Gan, Israel 🇮🇱
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 01:46 Post subject: |
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This is really funny coming from a company who just got it's main product pirated on the damn consoles
I guess that's the PC's fault as well... 
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 01:50 Post subject: |
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 01:52 Post subject: |
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LeoNatan
Banned
Posts: 73193
Location: Ramat Gan, Israel 🇮🇱
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 02:30 Post subject: |
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Well who made the internets? US Army! I say blame them fool Yankees!
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 02:36 Post subject: |
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So why not use a simple check (product number etc.) to verify that the callers have a legit copy?
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 02:41 Post subject: |
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They know their games don't cut it for people with actual good taste in games.
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MannyK
Posts: 1405
Location: Brazil
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 02:45 Post subject: |
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oh man
JUST DO WHAT YOU WANT CAUSE A PIRATE IS FREE
YOU ARE A PIRATE
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 03:12 Post subject: |
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And I'm tired of them making crappy games. We can't all get what we want.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 04:02 Post subject: |
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| LeoNatan wrote: | | Well who made the internets? US Army! I say blame them fool Yankees! |
TERRORIST. GET 'IM BOYS!!!!!!
Oh and I would love to see the look on their faces when they saw the 360 leak. But whatever, convenient excuses ftw.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 04:03 Post subject: |
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ha, an american made it easy for all you pervs to get your naughty needs.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 05:01 Post subject: |
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And they have to blame us for pirating games on xbox360? Now any thing, the guilt is for us?
The fault is theirs to make a system of shit, 5 years of development to come 3 Fools and in 1 day they take out a "modded" chip
We have no guilt, that people risking what they are paying $1000 , to put a chip knowing "that you can break it"
or they decide to put a pirate dvd
What you do with your console is the problem of the bearer.
As they do not want to tell us the truth, that it can not standardize the pc, and can not ensure the stability of a title under different combinations of hardware, because if they do this BIG monsters like nvidia and ati will die for sure
Because Tell me
How often will you change your video card? How often are getting a new video card?
Remember how long u keep your video card before? How long now?
Im not sure they if die, but they SIGNIFICANTLY lower sales that is for sure.
They say these excuses "for they do not know how to say anything else"
But they can kiss my white and shiny ass.
pd:forgot my english
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 07:47 Post subject: |
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apparently piracy is one of the core issues destroying PC gaming market, maybe someday we should have at least one console to just play the game.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 08:00 Post subject: |
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If a building full of new-born babies explodes tomorrow, who's fault is then?!
 Spoiler: | Yeah, you got that right. PC Piracy! |
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 08:04 Post subject: |
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| kerrang wrote: | | apparently piracy is one of the core issues destroying PC gaming market, maybe someday we should have at least one console to just play the game. |
3 word
U ARE CRAZY
¿For what do u need that? ¿To evade "PROBLEMS OF"?
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 08:25 Post subject: |
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| kerrang wrote: | | apparently piracy is one of the core issues destroying PC gaming market |
It's not the piracy's fault. This is a well-known strategy for making the PC platform suffer greater than the console one. Constant delays, shitty protection making you not install some game limited times or using your net to activate it every time in specific number of days, mostly of nowadays games are fucking ports (some games are even crappy ps2 ports).
Why don't pubs use some elementary protection? Just a DVD check and that's it. If a game's good, people will buy it. I buy PC games frequently and most people around the globe do so.
This is an efficiently working system for buying consoles no matter what they do with them - if they want to stick it up in their ass, as long it's a console and not a pc, that is normal...
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 08:30 Post subject: |
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| kerrang wrote: | | apparently piracy is one of the core issues destroying PC gaming market, maybe someday we should have at least one console to just play the game. |
DUDE you are stupid or what , tell me what version is pirated to HELL AND BACK NOW , XBOX360 and ..... WAIT they blame IT on the PC HAHAHAHAH idiots
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 08:43 Post subject: |
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Let's be honest here - 2 facts:
1) Piracy does affect the overall fiscal margins, due to a) design costs and b) customer support.
2) Developers (and their producers) blame all their problems on piracy all the time.
Even if the game gets an average rating of 4.2/10 - the company will say the game is
great and it's all the fault of piracy.
If their sales decline, yup, the evil fault of piracy.
If company A makes an incredible game and rakes in huge profit, all competitors announce
piracy is the reason for their own companies reduced margins.
The truth lies somewhere in between.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 08:48 Post subject: |
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Maybe if Bethesda didn't make such shit games, people would actually buy them.
I hope Oblivion with guns gets pirated so much they have to file for bankruptcy.
I also think fisk should be unbanned.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 08:52 Post subject: |
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+1 tardissun
well, you can't blame them for taking for granted the easiest reason why they don't have the profit they want
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 09:21 Post subject: |
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well, I'm not crazy. thats my point of view and I said piracy is "one" of the important issues, not all. for example, recentely Crytech said sales volume vs piracy of Crysis is around 1:100 and they are reconsiering their current policy supporting only PC flatform due to piracy.
of course, console users do piracy but their numbers are minor compared to PC because of everyone has PC.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 09:25 Post subject: |
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Cevat Yerli is a bitch. Having sold over 3 mln copies of crysis and he's still unsatisfied? Bullshit, that's pretty enough. He's just making a reason to switch to making games for consoles as well.
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| Posted: Wed, 15th Oct 2008 09:30 Post subject: |
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| human_steel wrote: | | kerrang wrote: | | apparently piracy is one of the core issues destroying PC gaming market |
It's not the piracy's fault. This is a well-known strategy for making the PC platform suffer greater than the console one. Constant delays, shitty protection making you not install some game limited times or using your net to activate it every time in specific number of days, mostly of nowadays games are fucking ports (some games are even crappy ps2 ports).
Why don't pubs use some elementary protection? Just a DVD check and that's it. If a game's good, people will buy it. I buy PC games frequently and most people around the globe do so.
This is an efficiently working system for buying consoles no matter what they do with them - if they want to stick it up in their ass, as long it's a console and not a pc, that is normal... |
100% agree
Anyway ¿what bathesda do for us?
Fallout 1&2 and now the shit of fallout 3 (by the way the game has been canceled one time already, and now they take it back again..) Look like they are running out of ideas.
And oblivion? yep was cool nothing more.
If u say companies like Rockstar games, or i dont know emmmmmm or Ea (lol) ok but tiny companies are complain about the piracy like atari, and others
The same companies who dev shity games like, fuck i forgot the name of the famous tennis game from atari, well i mean the one u need xbox360 pad to play it because on keyboard was IMPOSIBLE, and the las title was Alone in the dark and look tons of bugs and without support.
For me the only company for i stand up and i applaud it is Capcom and SNK, who complained of piracy for DMC4 is a very good game, and the truth that is worth every penny that the company is worth at least for now, and was the first company to say "the exclusivity for consoles is end"
And now they fucked up, delayin the sfiv for pc, look like they have a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigg breafcase full of money on top of the desk, to change his mind, coincidence they only delayed the SFIV for PC and not from console, i am prity sure will go the same with the KOF
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