THQ blames Pirates for studio closure
Smack 'em!
THQ’s Michael Fitch places the blame for the closure of Titan Quest developer
Iron Lore Entertainment, squarely on the shoulders of game pirates, though he
does suggest that they may have had a bit of help from dumb players, hardware
vendors, and one particularly stupid
reviewer…
“If even a tiny fraction of the people who pirated the game had actually spent some god-damn money for their 40+ hours of entertainment, things could have been very different today. You can bitch all you want about how piracy is your god-given right, and none of it matters anyway because you can’t change how people behave… whatever. Some really good people made a seriously good game, and they might still be in business if piracy weren’t so rampant on the PC. That’s a fact…”
Fitch is clearly very frustrated — and rightly so — by the obstacles and difficulties inherent in making PC games, but it’s difficult to see Titan Quest’s problem as unique. Given that game piracy and configuration difficulties seem to be particularly problematic for the PC gaming world, we have to wonder, would Iron Lore have survived if Titan Quest had been a console game?
Is this a market event that signals killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
“If even a tiny fraction of the people who pirated the game had actually spent some god-damn money for their 40+ hours of entertainment, things could have been very different today. You can bitch all you want about how piracy is your god-given right, and none of it matters anyway because you can’t change how people behave… whatever. Some really good people made a seriously good game, and they might still be in business if piracy weren’t so rampant on the PC. That’s a fact…”
Fitch is clearly very frustrated — and rightly so — by the obstacles and difficulties inherent in making PC games, but it’s difficult to see Titan Quest’s problem as unique. Given that game piracy and configuration difficulties seem to be particularly problematic for the PC gaming world, we have to wonder, would Iron Lore have survived if Titan Quest had been a console game?
Is this a market event that signals killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Posted: Tue - March 4, 2008 at 10:58 AM