Sins of a Stolen Empire
From Greg:
You probably haven't heard of Brad Wardell or his company Stardock. And it's my fault. At least partially.
Brad's company developed and publishes the popular Galactic Civilizations series, just published the best-selling Sins of a Solar Empire, and also develops and publishes a robust suite of popular Windows desktop enhancement software.
Brad’s products are always PC-based, always critically acclaimed, and always profitable.
But when I ran PC Gamer magazine, I rarely gave Brad’s games as much coverage as I did other “higher-profile” AAA games – games that didn’t always score as high as Brad’s games, games that didn’t always sell as well as Brad’s games, games that I didn’t always like as much as Brad’s games.
The reason is simple but a little counterintuitive: An Editor’s job is to sell magazines, but unfortunately, games that sell magazines don’t always sell. Sometimes gamers can’t afford a new game, especially when faced with myriad options during the Holiday season. Sometimes a game doesn’t turn out the way they’d hoped. Sometimes it’s easier to pirate.
That last one is a doozy. As Michael Fitch from THQ recently said publicly in reaction to PC game developer Iron Lore’s closure, PC game piracy is so pervasive that if we could simply turn a small percentage of pirates, say 10%, into paying customers, some game companies could double their profits: www.quartertothree.com
Michael makes some excellent points, but Brad Wardell sees things a little differently: Piracy PC Gaming
Read what both men have to say on the subject of software piracy and the current state of PC game development and let me know what you think.
Brad's company developed and publishes the popular Galactic Civilizations series, just published the best-selling Sins of a Solar Empire, and also develops and publishes a robust suite of popular Windows desktop enhancement software.
Brad’s products are always PC-based, always critically acclaimed, and always profitable.
But when I ran PC Gamer magazine, I rarely gave Brad’s games as much coverage as I did other “higher-profile” AAA games – games that didn’t always score as high as Brad’s games, games that didn’t always sell as well as Brad’s games, games that I didn’t always like as much as Brad’s games.
The reason is simple but a little counterintuitive: An Editor’s job is to sell magazines, but unfortunately, games that sell magazines don’t always sell. Sometimes gamers can’t afford a new game, especially when faced with myriad options during the Holiday season. Sometimes a game doesn’t turn out the way they’d hoped. Sometimes it’s easier to pirate.
That last one is a doozy. As Michael Fitch from THQ recently said publicly in reaction to PC game developer Iron Lore’s closure, PC game piracy is so pervasive that if we could simply turn a small percentage of pirates, say 10%, into paying customers, some game companies could double their profits: www.quartertothree.com
Michael makes some excellent points, but Brad Wardell sees things a little differently: Piracy PC Gaming
Read what both men have to say on the subject of software piracy and the current state of PC game development and let me know what you think.
Greg Vederman
1 comments:
Gotta hand it to Wardell... his points verify many points that I've made on this very blog. It takes a diversity of game genres to have a healthy gaming eco-system but most game development companies would rather sink major dollars into major releases and bet the farm rather than properly diversify. In financial markets, wealth is maintained by intelligently diversifying but gaming companies refuse to understand that the same premise is necessary to be profitable.
Stardocks is filling a niche that major game developers have ignored. How smart is it to develop games for a tiny fraction called "hard core" gamers when the market is far greater for people who simply want interesting and fun game play?
But I think the problem extends to hardware as well and that's why consoles are ascending as the gaming platform of choice. When "good enough" equals "pretty damn good" then price becomes a determining factor. As much as I respect Voodoo, its influence on the industry is shrinking, along with the other high-end PC builders. Raw horsepower is no longer the driving factor that it once was. It'll take innovations in the consumer experience to drive PC gaming forward.
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