PC Gaming Alliance on PC Piracy

Gamasutra has a piece up that includes thoughts from the PC Gaming Alliance (the cooperation between several PC-related industry big 'uns) on piracy.
"If there are alternative means to get that content, piracy or legit, consumers are going go find it. They have broadband, they have PC -- but perhaps they can't buy a $70 game every month like the console ecosystem relies on."

Consumers who are seeing their disposable income diminish will be drawn to alternative business models on PC, Stude says, citing Nexon's free-to-play FPS Combat Arms as an example.

"I think there's things that we can do better," Stude adds. "There may be so much gravity involved in a certain behavior -- that it's being socially acceptable despite its illegality -- that there may be nothing you can do about it. But I think WoW proves there's something you can do about it. Nexon and Shanda and K2 and all the other microtransactions-driven, free to play-style business models can continue to thrive."
(...)
"Spending for marketing draws attention toward the console purchase," Stude says, noting Call of Duty 4 as an example. "But certainly, a lot more people are sticking with the PC SKU and playing it longer, "whereas console users "tend to look for that next fix every month."