| Umm... It was $20 for what was essentially a cell phone game. Once it got lowered to a few bucks and was sold during the steam sales/humble bundles, it did quite well. As a counter example, what about super meatboy? It did extremely well IIRC. There are several issues in the entertainment industry and they all result in decreased sales(which is the real issue, right? I mean, should anyone really care about piracy as long as sales are good?) 1. Price point. Video games shouldn't be $60, movies shouldn't be $30, and music shouldn't be >$1 per song. As a consumer, this is just too much for the value I get out of these things. Sorry, that's just the way it is and yes, the internet is a big reason for this b/c there's tons of free stuff on the net that provide as good or better value for the money. This was the problem with WoG btw. 2. Barrier to entry. Simply having to drive to a store to buy a movie is too much effort these days. This is why steam and netflix are doing so well. Make it dead simple for me to get access to the content and sales will increase. 3. DRM. This breaks games. I think twice about buying any game with DRM, because I'm afraid it won't work when I upgrade my pc or the host company shuts down servers. I have NES games that still work from my childhood. It sucks when new games don't get the same level of treatment. If I didn't have principles, I could see myself pirating these games so that I can have a non-broken copy, but I don't pirate. 4. Publishing companies. Lately, these guys seem hell bent on ruining franchises. As an example, I bought battlefield 3. It had origin, the colors were terrible, and it was unclear exactly how much had improved from BF2(there was certainly a lot that was missing), but I still bought it, because I've always been a huge fan of the franchise(desert combat was the greatest mod ever). And.... it is terrible in comparison. I won't be buying battlefield 4. Now, I've been a fan of dice since the first battlefield came out. I watch their dev videos and follow their work. I was ecstatic when they picked up the DC team. These are a great group of guys. But this is not dice's game, it's EA's. They ruined that franchise. Maybe bf4 will sell well, who knows, but it will die just like call of duty has and it's not because of piracy. The same thing applies to movies, tv shows, and popular music these days. The people running the show don't care about the content. I'm sorry, but piracy doesn't cause lost sales. The above does. The issue is industry wide and the cracks are showing. There's been plenty of indie games that have sold very well recently and have no drm. Piracy isn't the issue, the internet is. People are more informed now and expect better value for their money. Everyone just needs to accept that and move on(and stop scapegoating piracy as the root cause). |