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Since the inception of computer gaming, piracy has been a great headache. Access to the web and the downloading of pirate copies has exacerbated the problem beyond all proportions. As most titles are released in autumn for the Christmas party buildup, January is a good time to look back and judge the sales results. There are voices of concern about the future of PC gaming, despite recent efforts to promote the PC as a great gaming platform. The word “great” of course is for gamers that use pirated titles in large numbers and not for the developers and distributors that see a huge piece of revenue from their work not coming in at all…

During the last year or so several critical parameters have changed. Windows Vista and DirectX 10 have unavoidably brought confusion to the PC gaming community. Most games play under both DirectX 9 and 10 but it is certain that a lot of gamers do not want to deal with such issues, they just want to play! Vista represents a fraction of XP’s installed base, while the advertised superiority of DirectX 10 is not so obvious with medium price range graphics cards. After all the gameplay -what matters most- remains the same.

PC titles still have a substantial price advantage over their console counterparts but despite this game prices have gone up considerably in recent years. The fact however that PC games are more easy to download illegally makes them the perfect target for piracy. The larger studios have the financial means to not only develop but also successfully launch the same title in many platforms at the same time. So if the PC version does not sell much, console sales come to the rescue. In other words, developers that launch exclusively on the PC are more likely to fall victims of illegal copies.

However, in some cases I do not think that the explanation is very clear. For example, Crytek’s Crysis is a development marvel that boasts to squeeze every last bit of speed capability from even the fastest gaming PCs available today. Do you think this is good advertisement? For me it isn’t. And getting a new gaming PC equipped with a couple of 8800 series Nvidia graphics cards is not in the order of the day for most people. Simultaneously, many large and emerging PC markets have very elastic rules and customs against piracy. Developers these days count on a global market as their investment capital is simply too high. Unfortunately, the last reason is responsible for low risk strategies and the dwindling number of games released each year.

Although HD level resolutions are no more the exclusive area of PC gamers, once we get to the point where beautiful graphics are standard we will again come back to the search for creative stories and exciting gameplay. The Wii has not bitten the technical superiority bait and has very well demonstrated that gaming is about fun and novel ideas. And buyers reward Nintendo to the extend that demand regularly exceeds supply. So what can PC game developers do?

In my opinion they must take advantage of the PC’s internet connectivity, an area where still consoles fall behind. Like all software, games are destined to become downloadable pieces of code. At the same time, strict checking processes will check the validity of the copy and enable or disable the game. Does it sound a bit like Microsoft’s initial plan for Windows Vista? I am afraid yes, but it would work to a very large extend, while demos would promote games much like they do now. With time, most or all of the game’s code will be transferred to a central server and gameplay might well be charged by time units. Does it sound a bit like the arcade games of the past? Unfortunately, again yes. Of course, no measure can guarantee full success but bear in mind that the size of downloadable code will soon exceed the capacity of a DVD disc.

Like in software, music and films, PC games and all games in general are getting to the tip point where physical distribution media are becoming problematic. As blue laser discs are probably the last generation of mass distribution media to hit the market, the search is on for efficient ways to get games to customers. Microsoft’s and Sony’s consoles are already testing the waters, PCs are bound to seriously get in the game as they are more flexible in all respects. As things stand, large game companies will keep relying on the “same game for many platforms” concept, but as internet connection speeds increase we are bound to see some serious efforts in parallel with traditional distribution.