Q1: How many PC games do you know of that are on DVD?
Q2: How many people do you know with a DVD burner on their PC?
If your answer shows that Q2 > Q1 then what incentive do publishers have to make games on DVD? What is a company to do when the 'means to copy' has already been inserted into the market? Why would a publisher take the risk of selling to a market where the 'Pirates' have such a huge head start?
Remember 'Myst' the all-time greatest seiing PC game ever in the history of PC games? Can you tell me why it sold so well?.. When it came out on the market there were virtually no other 'made for CD' games out there. Sure there were many 'floppy games' that were transfered onto CD. But myst was the first to take full advantage of the CD. Also, CDRW's were virtually non existant. So everyone with a shiny new CD-Rom wanted something to show it off. What did they do? they bought Myst.
That kind of success will never hapen again, it can't, simply because the 'novelty' and 'close to pirate-free' enviroment will never happen again. Why? because (as we see whith the DVD situation) the means to pirate have won the battle and now precede the game market.
A few more questions..
Q3: How many people do you know with a game console?
Q4: How many of these do you know have pirate copies of console games?
If Q3 > Q4 then there is (in the eyes of publishers) a better chance of making money (profit) in the game console market. Why then would they turn away from this potential cash cow?
What the PC market needs is a 'TRUE' way to curb piracy. Whether it needs to be 'physical' or 'soft' in nature I don't know, but something needs to be done, or the PC game market will be left to the indipendant development companies. (not to say this is a bad thing but without the 'Big-Guns' in the PC game development market, things will just never meet their potential.)
Nuf said.
Cheers!
[ November 08, 2003, 11:28: Message edited by: David E. Gervais ]