Iron Lore Developer on PC Gaming Market

[GameBanshee News]

Probably due to frustrations over Iron Lore shutting down, an Iron Lore employee put up a pretty interesting rant about working in the PC Gaming Market on QTT.

So, ILE shut down. This is tangentially related to that, not why they shut down, but part of why it was such a difficult freaking slog trying not to. It's a rough, rough world out there for independent studios who want to make big games, even worse if you're single-team and don't have a successful franchise to ride or a wealthy benefactor. Trying to make it on PC product is even tougher, and here's why.

Piracy. Yeah, that's right, I said it. No, I don't want to re-hash the endless "piracy spreads awareness", "I only pirate because there's no demo", "people who pirate wouldn't buy the game anyway" round-robin. Been there, done that. I do want to point to a couple of things, though.

One, there are other costs to piracy than just lost sales. For example, with TQ, the game was pirated and released on the nets before it hit stores. It was a fairly quick-and-dirty crack job, and in fact, it missed a lot of the copy-protection that was in the game. One of the copy-protection routines was keyed off the quest system, for example. You could start the game just fine, but when the quest triggered, it would do a security check, and dump you out if you had a pirated copy. There was another one in the streaming routine. So, it's a couple of days before release, and I start seeing people on the forums complaining about how buggy the game is, how it crashes all the time. A lot of people are talking about how it crashes right when you come out of the first cave. Yeah, that's right. There was a security check there.

So, before the game even comes out, we've got people bad-mouthing it because their pirated copies crash, even though a legitimate copy won't. We took a lot of **** on this, completely undeserved mind you. How many people decided to pick up the pirated version because it had this reputation and they didn't want to risk buying something that didn't work? Talk about your self-fulfilling prophecy.

One guy went so far as to say he'd bought the retail game and it was having the exact same crashes, so it must be the game itself. This was one of the most vocal detractors, and we got into it a little bit. He swore up and down that he'd done everything above-board, installed it on a clean machine, updated everything, still getting the same crashes. It was our fault, we were stupid, our programmers didn't know how to make games - some other guy asked "do they code with their feet?". About a week later, he realized that he'd forgotten to re-install his BIOS update after he wiped the machine. He fixed that, all his crashes went away. At least he was man enough to admit it.

So, for a game that doesn't have a Madden-sized advertising budget, word of mouth is your biggest hope, and here we are, before the game even releases, getting bashed to hell and gone by people who can't even be bothered to actually pay for the game. What was the ultimate impact of that? Hard to measure, but it did get mentioned in several reviews. Think about that the next time you read "we didn't have any problems running the game, but there are reports on the internet that people are having crashes."

Two, the numbers on piracy are really astonishing. The research I've seen pegs the piracy rate at between 70-85% on PC in the US, 90%+ in Europe, off the charts in Asia. I didn't believe it at first. It seemed way too high. Then I saw that Bioshock was selling 5 to 1 on console vs. PC. And Call of Duty 4 was selling 10 to 1. These are hardcore games, shooters, classic PC audience stuff. Given the difference in install base, I can't believe that there's that big of a difference in who played these games, but I guess there can be in who actually payed for them.

Let's dig a little deeper there. So, if 90% of your audience is stealing your game, even if you got a little bit more, say 10% of that audience to change their ways and pony up, what's the difference in income? Just about double. That's right, double. That's easily the difference between commercial failure and success. That's definitely the difference between doing okay and founding a lasting franchise. Even if you cut that down to 1% - 1 out of every hundred people who are pirating the game - who would actually buy the game, that's still a 10% increase in revenue. Again, that's big enough to make the difference between breaking even and making a profit.

Titan Quest did okay. We didn't lose money on it. But 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.

[Uller]

I have to admit I agree with this guy 100%.

What happened to the good old days where people recognised a good game and saved to purchase it knowing that it was a great thing to own and keep.

I also put the rate at which PC game players are changing their attitudes and loyalty towards certain games as an outcome of piracy. Players are now just playing and beating a game as quickly as possible and then just quite literally "chuck it away" (delete it off their system) and get another game (download it illegally).

There is no pride anymore in actually owning a product. It saddens me.

So for those of you out there that "rip off" a computer company by downloading it illegally think before you go ahead and do this. You are directly contributing towards the actual game's (and game makers) downfall by not purchasing a legitimate product.

Also you are forcing the gaming industry into "pay as you play" industry instead of a "pay for the game that you play" industry.

...and I hate to say it this is gonna cost the average player a lot more in the long run when you have to pay $50 a month to play a game as opposed to paying $50 up front to buy a game and play it as much as you want....

[Brother None]

I agree and disagree.

First: this rant is very understandable giving his situation.

But what I don't get is why - considering he notes Titan Quest "did ok" and made a profit (however small) - he isn't ranting against publishing models that actually caused the collapse. As much as I loathe piracy, all they did was turn TQ from a world-class hit into an ok profitable game. They didn't kill Iron Lore, the publishers did.

Blaming the little people or, worse yet, blaming "everyone else" doesn't seem like a constructive approach

[Uller]

I have to disagree.

If you don't look at the "little guy" who can you look to?

Us as the consumers are the ones who judge to be the "make or break" of a game's success we are also the "make or break" of whether or not they make any money by purchasing the game. And who do the publishers respond to? Yes, thats right us the consumer.

I think if you don't appeal to the "little guy" then you have another "inconvenient truth" on your hands? Sure everyone can turn a blind eye to those who feel its "their right" to own a certain product - of course its beside the point that another group of people have spent a good chunk of their life developing and creating the product....but then again isn't this the same as someone walking into a store and grabing something that is within "your right" to own and not paying for it then leaving? Same principle.

If I was the developers of this game I would feel pretty pissed...effectively they have just had mas-theft (on the largest scale) of thousands of copies of their game.

The really sad thing is is that this is occurring across all the entertainment industry so even though it is sad to see this happen within the PC gaming industry it is rampant across film and music industries also.

So I think ignoring the problem or not passing a lot of the blame onto the people that are "ripping" off the industry is a mistake and a bit ignorant of the fact of the matter.

But then again the fact of the matter is beyond all of us that purchase games, music and films anyways...well beyond.

[Brother None]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uller Us as the consumers are the ones who judge to be the "make or break" of a game's success we are also the "make or break" of whether or not they make any money by purchasing the game. And who do the publishers respond to? Yes, thats right us the consumer.

True, but you're skipping over the fact that game did make money.

All the pirates did was turn it from a world-class hit into a game that did ok and turned a profit. The publishers then decided that wasn't enough and killed it. Now you tell me, who's to blame?

[Crenshinibon]

Yes, this rant is understandable, I'd be upset too if I was in such a situation.

It is possible that the company would have been alive if the "profitable" status has been reached. There is a significant difference between the profit gained and the possible profit gained. The team deserves to be rewarded. Making games is a difficult task and game programming is probably the most difficult type. After having toiled on a product for so long, it can be infuriating to see people steal it from you. You work on it for enjoyment and for the purpose of making money, which you need to pay for your life's expenses. Piracy denies the team of this. It's a bit sad how this effort is mostly unappreciated, but, unfortunately, I think that the piracy issue will never go away.

[Uller]

Yes Brother None,

You are correct it did make "money" but enough for the game publishers to continue to back it obviously not.

Yes they did make a profit, but anything above breaking even is considered a profit....which leads me back to the fact that the games that seem to making the only "real" profit are the ones that are pay as you play - whereas there is a constant flow of income on a monthly basis rather than up front.

Yes, maybe us as the consumer of the product weren't totally to blame for the downfall however you can't look past the fact that if most people actually purchased the game Iron Lore wouldn't have been forced to close shop and would be still operating and backed by their publishing company today...

[Claudius]

I think of two things

1) stealing is wrong. You harm someone when you steal. Do you want to live in a world where people are harming each other? I don't. I hate that about this world and I don't steal because it is an example of what I can control to make a good world.

2) everything has multiple causes. the less than success wasn't only because of the piracy. some games are successful despite piracy. that point can be misleading don't get me wrong I think the world would be better games cheaper companies with more budget to do cool things without pirates. And the pirates would be better off because they are harming others which is not good for them - bad karma (I believe). But I think people are recognizing something real one they honestly see that there is more than one cause for every effect. One example of a hidden cause of piracy and games success (so one of the other causes than piracy itself) is economic scarcity and lack of education to value the publisher and the negative effects of stealing.

[DesR85]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uller Yes, maybe us as the consumer of the product weren't totally to blame for the downfall however you can't look past the fact that if most people actually purchased the game Iron Lore wouldn't have been forced to close shop and would be still operating and backed by their publishing company today...

You can't blame consumers for low sales. There are other factors that contributed to the low sales volume such as being overshadowed by other hit titles during it's release or the weak PR surrounding this game to name a few. Piracy could have a hand in this, but as what Claudius had mentioned, hit titles still manage to sell well even though this threat exists, making this impact very minimal at best.

[Xandax]

Well, I can surely understand with where this guy is coming from, seeing as I work as a software developer myself.

Piracy is an issue in PC gaming, a huge issue. And if I see one threat to PC gaming it is piracy. Piracy was for example the prime mentioned reason why FunCom didn't want to developer "single player"/normal games anymore as well, because it takes many resources to simply try and protect your software and the cost/benefit is dwindling fast. This requires a mentality shift in a lot of people, and we all know how likely that is to happen. (Not very, in case people where wondering) There are too many people out there who'd rather break the law then pay for a product, and unfortunately Piracy is still somewhat acceptable within societies.(hence the mentality change needed).

Secondly, people have a tendency to forget how complex these things are, so when a "game" crash, they automatically blame the game (or Windows ) instead of trying to deduct the other reasons for it. Bad hardware, faulty installation, problems with the disc, problems with drivers or third part software. Something this rant also brings up. It is one of the "pleasures" of gaming on a PC; that there are more technical issues to deal with,

[DaveO]

Let's face facts here. No software developer is going to release a game without much chance for a Return On Investment. Single player RPGs have been mostly dead as a genre for a long time, so there was significant risk in making a profit. Without the 'pay to play' Ponzi scheme of MMORPGs this title had to rely on actual sales and it did make a profit despite the challenges.

Blaming the public for failure is a cop-out when the real cause is likely the products themselves. Another unpleasant problem lately from various studios has been to release unfinished titles and let the public play beta-tester or even worse fix the game! Until real QA is put into titles, don't expect people to trust this to change.

[Brother None]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveO Single player RPGs have been mostly dead as a genre for a long time.

Huh? Oblivion? The Witcher? Mass Effect? How the hell is the genre dead when there's at least one major AA or AAA single player RPG a year?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uller Yes, maybe us as the consumer of the product weren't totally to blame for the downfall however you can't look past the fact that if most people actually purchased the game Iron Lore wouldn't have been forced to close shop and would be still operating and backed by their publishing company today...

That's like blaming the sea for making your ship sink when you have a hull breach. It doesn't work that way

[Faust]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GameBanshee News Two, the numbers on piracy are really astonishing. The research I've seen pegs the piracy rate at between 70-85% on PC in the US, 90%+ in Europe, off the charts in Asia. I didn't believe it at first. It seemed way too high. Then I saw that Bioshock was selling 5 to 1 on console vs. PC. And Call of Duty 4 was selling 10 to 1. These are hardcore games, shooters, classic PC audience stuff. Given the difference in install base, I can't believe that there's that big of a difference in who played these games, but I guess there can be in who actually payed for them.

Not to be naive, but are the number of users pirating games (particularly new games) really that high? Quite frankly, 90% in Europe and 85% in the U.S. seem like insane statistics. Certainly, I have no trouble believing people are pirating games. However, I do struggle to believe that all but a small number of consumes are pirating. He doesn't really any solid evidence to backup his claim. In my mind, I would imagine that part of the reason that console games outsell PC is because of the guaranteed compatibility issues. If you've got a 360 or PS, you know that any game you'll buy on it will work. With a PC, you might have to make upgrades or get a new one to play a given game.

And, to put it in perspective, I don't know anyone who actually bought or played Titan's Quest. It wasn't because they were looking for a cheaper or free way to acquire it, it was simply because the game didn't look all that appealing.

[Brother None]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faust Not to be naive, but are the number of users pirating games (particularly new games) really that high? Quite frankly, 90% in Europe and 85% in the U.S. seem like insane statistics.

They are probably incorrect. But no accurate, reliable studies on piracy exist, these kind of numbers come from half-baked studies and are popular amongst game developers and publishers because it makes it easier to find excuses for annoying copy protection and makes it easier to put all the blame for failure on other people.

[Xandax]

It is not a far stretch to consider that if piracy was at a low level, the game would have sold more.
However it might also be that the game was bad enough that sales figures are justified.
It is one of those things which are difficult to predict; Are the actual sales/response a direct following of quality or because of external features. It is like that in any market or even any computer game genre. Similar with MMOs. Are the bad sales of other MMOs a result of the games being "poor" or because of for example WoW taking "all" accounts,
Haven't played nor concerned myself with the games from Iron Lore, I can't produce a qualified guess.

However, piracy most certainly is a factor, there is no denying it and it does have an effect. How big it is however, that is the question. The numbers expressed in the original piece is no doubt fictive and just a "rant" number.