Oh, I'm not saying they couldn't survive without consoles. That wouldn't be truthful at all. But I am saying that even the big PC players have a keen eye on the console market and that's telling, IMO. Once you've tasted a piracy free environment with a black box approach to hardware (everyone has the exact same machine), it's hard to forget that rush as a game developer. 

Is it really that big of a problem? I mean do sales numbers decrease?
Or is it just the usual "OH MY GOD 1000000 PEOPLE DOWNLOADED OUR STUFF WE LOST A GAZILLION FANTASYDOLLARS"? 

ThePirateBay just entered the top 100 sites on the Alexa list. It's a real problem. It joins it's good friend RapidShare which was already there. 

That is exactly not what I asked for. Exactly what the industry wants you to believe (tinfoil ahead!). Surely more people are pirating but also more people are buying as the market grows wider. Just like music, the industry whines crododile's tears yet their profits increase from year to year. Movies, same, records are broken.

When I had my first PC I only had copies. My first original was , I don't even remember, but it took years until I bought my first full-priced game (bought a couple of games on garage sales earlier) and until today I haven't bought more than maybe 4 fullpriced games. One of them was STALKER (radiation pack even) because I had good expectations and wanted to support the developers, I sold it 2 weeks later as it felt like wasted money to me.
I've grown up with copies, let it be games or music, later movies. In school one person bought or downloaded something and then it spread.
My dad's Apple ][ had nothing but copied games, same for all later PCs. And whereever I looked it was the same (the exception being stupid educational games that friends got as gifts from their parents and some mainstream music maybe).

You cannot blame piracy if people are not buying your stuff. You can only blame yourself for creating something the market does not want. For bad sales I think the review magazines and websites are much more to blame if they falsely underrate your work. I guess most people use those to decide what they get (apart from your marketing of course). 

with a 9800GTx, looking forward to actually playing some games I've had for ages on max. 

what is your OS? Crysis is meant to look fantastic on Vista under DX10 - i recon there will be some difference between the DX9 "very high hack" and true DX10 - benchmarks for Crysis on your card = "Really fucking good!"

It chugs a bit with any more than 2xAA on tho ;-)

ANY OTHER GAME = MAX :-) 

"You cannot blame piracy if people are not buying your stuff. You can only blame yourself for creating something the market does not want. "

True for some cases. However, I have observed that games released on console make way more money than games released on PC. That's my experience, in real life. You can write that off as crocodile tears or what-have-you, but that's reality. 

And by that example, I mean the same game released on both platforms. Apples to apples. 

Console market = Different market = Not copying to blame if PC sells less. I doubt that console games would sell much less if they were easier to copy. 

eliminate the piracy completely (how about using the latest starforce, wich is virtually uncrackable? and online activation and what-not) and your PC games still wont sell in USA

And Im back with my UT3 example - which is primary a multiplayer game and has to be used with a legitimate cd-key to be played online. Didnt help either.

Sins of Solar Empire - top 10 pirated game on the same piratebay and mininova - still sells great (been in top 10, bight below the Sims, WoWs and Cod4)

console is not piracy-free btw (see the torrents of x360 games)

Everyone blaming piracy as the main reason for low sales of the PC games is wrong. It is just a part of the problem. I read some research that claimed when counting all who buy after pirating (if they like it) and those who`d never buy it leaves about 20% real loss. (Cant find the source now sry) 

I dont have most the newer stuff, I meant some of the older stuff on max which I couldnt do before. 

To argue that piracy isn't a problem in any way means we can't have a meaningful discussion about this. Seriously, guys, come on. I'm done with this thread. 

im sure you could fine Crysis on Piratebay or something!!! ;-P 

You misunderstand every now and then, I think you should read more carefully. Spede said piracy is a partly explaining factor but not all of it.

In my view it's just that people don't want the hassle of pc gaming. 

Willem just look at the facts. Thats all. 

~ridicule Willem
:P 

I thought you guys said ricky's thread was pointless because this conversaion was "over." 

Sorry about that, when I posted the link to the valve article I should have posted it in that thread (or not posted it at all maybe -___-) 

I just noticed quite a few of my old cd-rs (5+ years old) became unreadable/very hard to read.

What's the best solution, what do you guys use ? 

They are almost as cheap as DVDs really, and last longer, just keep them safe somewhere.

Paper is good too. =) 

for backup, since the data layer is not as susceptible to scratching as cds. 

I use numerically named gmail accounts tbh... 

GnuPG is nice for encrypting backups before storing online (which I do too).

DVDs have the same dataloss by "age" as CDs do. Best thing probably is using a HDD and change to a new one every couple of years. Or USB-Sticks. 

8GB stick = 29.99 GBP
250GB external HD = 39.99 GBP

Uses 2 USB ports - 5400RPM

Buy one ;p 

Thanks for the tips; a friend suggested today to buy an usb frame for hdd's and just regularly changing the hdd.

But I'm somewhat paranoid about hdd's as well, had a fatal crash a few months ago, it was a 3 months old Maxtor...and loss of a hdd is gonna be really hard, in the case of a dvd I'd lose only 4 gig.

This really sux as there were many rare maps/mods/mp3s on those cd's, which were always kept in their cases. Some of them I've used only 3-4 times, no scratches at all.