id and Epic: Multiplatform because of piracy

March 10, 2007 9:17 AM

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Across two separate lectures at this week's Game Developers Conference, id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead and Epic Games president Michael Capps both admitted that piracy of PC games caused their companies to pursue developing beyond the PC platform. "Piracy has pushed id as being multiplatform," stated Hollenshead, whose company contracted Z-Axis to handle the PlayStation 3 version and Nerve Software the Xbox 360 edition of Splash Damage's forthcoming Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC).

Comments made by Epic's Capps carried a similar tone. "PC gaming is really falling apart," he revealed. "It killed us to make Unreal Tournament 3 cross-platform, but Epic had to do it," adding "the market that would buy a $600 video card knows how Bittorrent works." Epic is currently developing Unreal Tournament 3 for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in-house.

Meanwhile, Firaxis designer and programmer Soren Johnson remained confident in PC development. He suggested that "game design on the PC is going to bend toward persistence," noting Blizzard's World of Warcraft is "successful because you can't pirate WoW. You cannot pirate an MMO. Period."

Chris Faylor

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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Rageaholic

 reply
March 10, 2007 9:22 AM

The sims sells well, and its not a mmorph, plus Im pretty sure it gets pirated like crazy.
- xsoulbrothax
  
   reply
  March 10, 2007 9:26 AM
  
  I think that's because TS2 sells to casual gamers.. the same people that don't even know $600 video cards exist, so to speak.
  
  IMO, what those speeches said are 100% sad, but true.
  - Rageaholic
    
     reply
    March 10, 2007 9:41 AM
    
    honestly there is nothing wrong with the sims, its just another game in the pool
- Horn
  
   reply
  March 10, 2007 9:26 AM
  
  I'd wager that a good portion of its target audience doesn't know how bit torrent works. Its meant for a more casual audience where as UT would be sought after by 13 year olds everywhere increasing the piracy rate.