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Pardo - Piracy "hurting" single-player games

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Blizzard boss Rob Pardo's claimed in a PC Gamer interview that single-player-heavy games are the most susceptible to piracy.

"For many companies, the most compelling part of their product is the single player, or the only part of the product is the single player," he said.

"At that point, they’re forced to use some sort of heavy-handed DRM solution. It’s difficult right now for them."

Compelling multiplayer features were instrumental in keeping Blizzard products relatively pirate-free, said the exec.

"The reason we’ve been successful on PC is because we offer extremely compelling multiplayer elements to our games, WoW being the most obvious, of course," he said.

"But all of our games, a lot of the longevity in the games are the compelling multiplayer, and if you want to play on Battle.net - which I think is one of, if not the best gaming service on the planet - then you have to have a legitimate CD key, so that just cuts out all the piracy right there. That’s what’s unfortunate about the PC business."

So there you go, game-makers. Stop making single-player games and you'll make more money.

Thanks, Evil Avatar.

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Patrick Garratt

Founder & Publisher (Former)

Patrick Garratt is a games media legend - and not just by reputation. He was named as such in the UK's 'Games Media Awards', the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award. After garnering experience on countless gaming magazines, he joined Eurogamer and later split from that brand to create VG247, putting the site on the map with fast, 24-hour a day coverage, and assembling the site's earliest editorial teams. He retired from VG247, and the games industry, in 2017.
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