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
