Game developer says: Sometimes it's OK to steal my games

[marharth]

Anyone could pirate if they wanted to right now...

 

Its fine how it is now really, people buy games and the companies move on. Some people pirate but that's the internet for you.

[Trandoshan]

He sounds like he cares... Which is a good quality in a man.

 

 

Of course he does admit, 'It’s about the times when not only is it OK to steal my games, but, in fact, I get something out of it'.

 

Our good friend Jeff Vogel sees the bigger picture. He sees pirated games as an opportunity to create interest in his game, but in a risky way

 

profitable way if it works in his favor!

 

You see, advertising games on the T.V. screen is costly. In fact, if you look at the cost of advertising, you'll see that for every commercial (30 seconds long) you will have to pay 400,000$ usd for that commercial. 400,000 / 50 = 8,000 games down the drain in advertisement. You most certainly have to play that commercial more than once too! (All of this is for high end spots on good T.V. programs that may cater to your customer.)

 

Source: http://www.gaebler.com/National-TV-Spot-Ad-Costs.htm

 

Knowing this, there are probably more than 8,000 pirates. However, you can assume that those pirates may end up buying the game. Just because someone pirates a game doesn't mean he/she does not feel guilty for pirating said game.

 

Stay with me my conservative friends.... Vogel is basically using pirating as a form of essentially 'free AD space' if his games aren't total crap. It's a form of capitalism that uses the buyer's feelings in order to sell the game to him. Sort of like a morally leased game of some sort, or as a friend once told me, 'Demos with benefits' :laugh:...

 

You know Bethesda did something similar yet legal. They released TES Daggerfall for free. I'm sure they hooked a few new buyers to their series with this. I'm sure they suffered from all the lost profit too!

 

 

 

at any rate I'm sure a pirate reading Vogel's statements will feel a sudden wave of guilt and buy the game they pirated...!

Edited December 31, 2010 by Trandoshan