GameBizBlog Interview with Brad Wardell

from JoeUser Forums

GameBizBlog has an interview with Brad Wardell.  This interview covers a variety of topics, but the main focus is game piracy.  A definite read.

Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock: We know that piracy exists in massive levels. We don't put any copy protection on our retail CDs. We do know, because our games connect to our servers, how many people are playing the pirated version. It's huge. I mean HUGE.

Demigod may be the most popular game in a very long time based on the numbers we're seeing. That said, our position has been that 98 percent of those people would never have bought the game. I don't want to do anything that inconveniences our legitimate customers because even if I stop all piracy, I don't agree that it would noticably increase our sales. 

Read the full interview at GameBizBlog.

70,251 views 13 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Elemental: War of Magic at $5... :omg: :drool: Give me 10!!!

*cough**cough*

Sorry.

I consider interesting prices those who are at 20€ or less. Those under 30€ can be considered and those above 30E only if they are truly special (at least aparently) or I have personal motives. We have here in Spain distributors like FX Interactive or Codegame who sell games quite cheap, no one over the 20€ mark. Which is great. And yet, people pirate them. Even those at 10€. But I want to suppose that at least they sell a lot more than the other too priced games. In any case, it's always nice to find games like Sacred (1 & 2), Heroes V and expansions, Runaway (1 & 2), The Settlers (different parts) and a lot more to such interesting prices that makes them a must buy for people like me. A pity some disk checks here and there but better than other alternatives.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

very good interview. Mr. Wardell has a great sense of the gamer world by mentioning different places to store your games if 1 were to go under. IMO he looks at the situations from both (bussiness/customer) perspectives which is great. Its a shame that pirates are so selfish and force bussiness's to create DRm.  Im glad your down to earth and I purchased 2 copys of Demi-God 1 for me and 1 for my son. 

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

A commentary from Techdirt.com :

Lots of folks have been submitting variations on the story about how Stardock's new game, Demigod, has been widely pirated, and that's resulted in server troubles for the company, as many of these unauthorized users try to connect to Stardock servers. Many are claiming that this shows that Stardock's customer friendly approach to video games fails. But, that's not true or accurate at all. It's just an issue of properly lining up the incentives and the infinite goods vs. the scarcities. In this case, one of the key scarcities was server access -- but Stardock set things up such that unauthorized copies could drag that down. The good thing, though, is that the company quickly got on top of the problem and has been implementing a technological fix rather than screaming and complaining about pirates. Meanwhile, some others have sent in links to the Demigod forums, where people recognize that many of the unauthorized users got the game to test it out, and are encouraging people to buy it to support Stardock and its fan-friendly attitude.

In the end, though, it does seem like Stardock has set this up a bit as a "give it away and pray" setup, which we tend not to agree with as a good business model. Since a big part of the game is the mutliplayer aspect, where you have to connect to a server and play against other players, why not give away the software itself (many people are getting it this way already) and charge a nominal fee for access to the server. That access is a scarcity -- and then you can scale based on users, since more users means more money. It seems like that's a reasonable business model that aligns everything much more nicely.
End of quote

As for me, I've played DOTA a bit as Warcraft3 mod, but it doesn't appeal to me in the long run. So I'm not even going to pirate Demigod. My primary interest and a reason to hang around here is Elemental.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

I hate those stupid fucking "pirates". They should be arrested. They claim they are all about freedom of information and such, yet they are stealing from someone who puts thier soul into something, trying to make a living. It goes against freedom and capititalism... piraters, are lazy, selfish, dumb, and absolutely immoral idiots, who deserve to be shot. Get a fucking job, and quit being the pieces of shit that you are.

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Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't pirate or use pirate copies but there's the down side: I don't buy a game which can't offer a demo first, or else I wait until people on forums tell how it's great and already patched. At that time, the price could well have already dropped; not my objective, but the producer/retailer 's loss anyway.

Give us demos! B)

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Protocept00, reply 4
I hate those stupid fucking "pirates". They should be arrested. They claim they are all about freedom of information and such, yet they are stealing from someone who puts thier soul into something, trying to make a living. It goes against freedom and capititalism... piraters, are lazy, selfish, dumb, and absolutely immoral idiots, who deserve to be shot. Get a fucking job, and quit being the pieces of shit that you are.
End of Protocept00's quote

 

QFT.

I'm one of those 13 years old that actually saves money so I can buy my favorite game instead of instant gratification.

Pirates make all kinds of excuses for stealing someones elses work. Oh no its not stealing its only copying; I wouldnt have bought it anyway, etc.   This is BS, you would have bought it if it wasent free but you hadent bought every game that caught your eye. Just save money or get a job.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Protocept00, reply 4
I hate those stupid fucking "pirates". They should be arrested. They claim they are all about freedom of information and such, yet they are stealing from someone who puts thier soul into something, trying to make a living. It goes against freedom and capititalism... piraters, are lazy, selfish, dumb, and absolutely immoral idiots, who deserve to be shot. Get a fucking job, and quit being the pieces of shit that you are.
End of Protocept00's quote

Just don't forget the other side too. No one is truly innocent in this game called capitalism.

Reply #8 from Demigod Forums Top

"We did lose about 300 pre-orders because of that. At $40 bucks a pop, that's [$12,000]. "

 

I think most of that 300 pre-order canceled and bought it at Gamestop instead.  I don't know how much retailers/gamestop makes but lets say half $20.  You still get $20 if they purchase it gamestop.  So I think $6,000 lost to gamestop is more accurate.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Blitz64, reply 8
"We did lose about 300 pre-orders because of that. At $40 bucks a pop, that's [$12,000]. "

 

I think most of that 300 pre-order canceled and bought it at Gamestop instead.  I don't know how much retailers/gamestop makes but lets say half $20.  You still get $20 if they purchase it gamestop.  So I think $6,000 lost to gamestop is more accurate.
End of Blitz64's quote

thats still money stardock lost that was then put into gamestop's pocket.   It wasn't all 12,000 dollars, but it was some of it.   And that doesn't count the people who ran out and bought it because they didn't have a pre-order so it was just like "ill go get the game right now rather than wait until monday" (I know at least 1 person who did that)

Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting Wintersong, reply 7

Quoting Protocept00, reply 4I hate those stupid fucking "pirates". They should be arrested. They claim they are all about freedom of information and such, yet they are stealing from someone who puts thier soul into something, trying to make a living. It goes against freedom and capititalism... piraters, are lazy, selfish, dumb, and absolutely immoral idiots, who deserve to be shot. Get a fucking job, and quit being the pieces of shit that you are.

Just don't forget the other side too. No one is truly innocent in this game called capitalism.
End of Wintersong's quote

Believe me I know. I'm not exactly fond of CEO's and higher echelons of capitalism either. In a there own way, they are also pirates of a sort. Except they target small businesses and individual creativity, which is in a way worse. As pirates normally target big corporations.

Pirates are not some mystical Robin Hood bastion of hope and freedom.

Granted, not all "pirates" are the same, some truly do just "pirate" to demo a game, and buy it later. But regardless, they should not be doing it.

Believe me, I am huge supporter of freedom of information and open source, but piraters do it for the wrong reasons, and contrary to what they say, they are nothing more than thieves. They are not giving back to the poor. They are not spreading creativity. They are hampering someone elses ability to survive and make money, whether it be a giant corporation (in which I don't really care if they suffer) or a common man selling his wares or playing his music as an entrepreneur.

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Wintersong, reply 1
Elemental: War of Magic at $5... Give me 10!!!

*cough**cough*

Sorry.
End of Wintersong's quote


If Elemental was indeed $5, I wouldn't just buy it, I woud preorder it, even risking that it won't run in wine. I would easily be able to sell it to somebody if I couldn't manage to run it on Linux.

Reply #12 from Demigod Forums Top


GameBizBlog has an interview with Brad Wardell.  This interview covers a variety of topics, but the main focus is game piracy.  A definite read.
Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock: We know that piracy exists in massive levels. We don't put any copy protection on our retail CDs. We do know, because our games connect to our servers, how many people are playing the pirated version. It's huge. I mean HUGE.
Demigod may be the most popular game in a very long time based on the numbers we're seeing. That said, our position has been that 98 percent of those people would never have bought the game. I don't want to do anything that inconveniences our legitimate customers because even if I stop all piracy, I don't agree that it would noticably increase our sales. 
Read the full interview at GameBizBlog.

End of quote

There are multiple sides to piracy. I do pirate stuff, like music. I used to pirate games when I was a teenager. I pirated cuz I geniunely had no fucking money and no means of obtaining the materials otherwise (strict parents, no means of transportation, no job or ways to get money, and I'm not even kidding). I still remember when I was 16 and used to have to wait till my parents went to sleep and sneak on the pc at 12 am to play some old ass Sega games lol..

But now that I'm on my own and have a steady job and a steady paycheck, I pay for everything I have. I still pirate music simply cuz it's not worth it to me to pay for an album just to have one song that I like. And I fucking hate itunes.

I agree that the majority of pirates out there are just greedy bastards who are looking for ways to make or save a quick buck.. but don't forget the people out there who really doesn't have the money to afford these lavishes. And yes, it's easy to say to save.. but if you have to save $40 to buy a game.. it's pretty easy to see that the $40 doesn't come easy, and if you do have it, chances are you're gonna need it to pay for something more necessary.

So my stance is, piracy is wrong when the people pirating it can afford to pay for it but just doesn't want to, but for the ones that have no other ways.. be glad that they want and can enjoy your creation as well.. cuz that's what putting a game out there is for right? People's enjoyment?

 

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

b0rsuk,

But would a $5 Elemental sell enough to offset the expense of making it? Would at least 10x as many people purchase the game as they would a $50 version? And then there's the packaging cost for physical copies.

I don't know - I'd definitely prefer a pricing system that worked like that for what amounts to downloading data. It seems to strike me as a way to stimulate more interest in some games, but at the same time, it needs to be profitable.