Fri, Feb 13, 2009 | 12:17 GMT

PCGA boss: Start-ups can benefit from “widespread piracy”

halflife2a2

PCGA head Randy Stude – don’t forget the “e”, for God’s sake – has told BigDownload that PC game piracy has benefitted companies like Stardock, Valve and id by simply allowing users to play their games for free.

The full quote:

The PC Gaming Industry’s history is littered with examples of start-ups (including Stardock and Valve) that actually benefitted from widespread piracy to grow a market for their future titles. Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating piracy… However, how would Quake, Doom, StarCraft, Counter-Strike, or Half-Life have been able to grow widespread brand recognition without a widespread network of gamers openly sharing these games. These titles (and many more) defined the industry. Personally, my first experience with a first person shooter was with Doom (back in the day) and I did not pay for it. Id Software turned the corner and has a very successful business built on the back of the early free/open source exchange of their games…

Randy’s a pirate! Thanks, Blue.

9 comments

Blerk
13/02/09, 12:04 pm

Randy Stude! glol!

Retroid
13/02/09, 12:05 pm

Now if only some companies would have the idea of giving away, say, the first chapter of their games away for free, so people could play those bits as much as they wanted. Then, once they’d finished that bit, there could be a screen telling the player how to buy the rest of the game!

ChrisPilote
13/02/09, 12:13 pm

That was called a shareware back in the days, Retroid.

Shatner
13/02/09, 12:17 pm

sarcasmfaillol

SticKboy
13/02/09, 12:38 pm

What a load of apologist twaddle! The fact is, how long ago did those series he mentioned see their first release? We’re talking in the region of ten years now!

IMHO, the fact that no series of equal significance have arisen on the PC since about 2002 (when high-speed home internet access became increasingly available) is no coincidence.

Johnny Cullen
13/02/09, 1:25 pm

That pic of Half Life 2 reminds me of something.

WHERE THE FUCK IS EPISODE THREE?

Len
13/02/09, 2:07 pm

Here it is!