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[DarkShadow]

By Wil Harris: Friday 12 November 2004, 11:54
AS GAMERS all over the world wait eagerly for Half-Life 2 to hit both physical and electronic shelves, I've been quietly gathering info and evaluating Valve's plans to stop HL2 going the way of so many other new releases recently - sunk to the bottom of the sea by pirates.

Arrr, 'tis true, t' curse o' ye pirate has hit the two biggest blockbusters this month, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo 2. Both are console games that were on the net days before they were in the stores, and prompted a huge amount of download activity from popular sites. Companies were quick to wheel out standard PR quotes that piracy is bad for the industry, bad for gamers, blah blah blah...

And in truth, they're right, but probably not for the reasons they think. Piracy of big releases like the big three this month won't significantly impact on sales: we know that San Andreas shattered bean-counting records in the UK this month, and Halo 2 has done $125 million in its first day of release in the States. If anything, however, early piracy creates an undesirable lag between the haves and have-nots, which compounds the gap between disparate worldwide release dates.

The gap between those who have the game and those who don't have it yet is part of what drives people to pirate games. This week, Halo 2 was released two days earlier in the US than in the UK. With the worldwide community created by the net - indeed, by Microsoft's own Xbox Live - having a bunch of your friends play a game 2 days before you can is unacceptable to many. Companies don't appear to understand that staggered worldwide releases aren't conducive to their anti-piracy cause - either give gamers the game at the same time, or put up with the fact that people will get it elsewhere. Companies can't create the amount of hype that they do then expect gamers to sit back while other people play games they can't get their hands on yet.

Which is why Valve's anti-piracy plan is such genius. I mean, it's utter, simple, calculated, but undoubted genius. Valve decided that the best way to stop piracy was simply to give everyone in the world the game at the same time. Early code to journalists? Fat chance. If journalists wanted to play the game early for reviews, Valve flew them to their offices in Seattle so they didn't have to send out copies. Online media won't get copies until the day before release to prevent leakage. But - and this is the kicker - US, UK, Italy, China, France, Germany - they all get localised versions on the same day, Tuesday the 16th, next week.

Not only that, but to beat those tricksy retail staff that pinch from the stockroom when the game arrives, they have added in an online authorisation system which means that no-one can play the game until Valve has hit an online switch that says the time is right. Whilst reports have been showing up across the net of gamers having boxed copies in their hands, no-one can play them because Valve hasn't bodged the switch-on. Perfect.

If the games industry really wants to combat piracy, it should take a leaf out of Valve's book. Establish one worldwide release date, don't stagger for different territories. Keep a tight check on where you're sending code, and drop outdated CD copy protection technology as the only check on piracy - use an online 'switch' to activate copies of the game. Keep gamers happy by keeping them equal - isn't that just common sense?


I do definately agree with this bit of a post from inq... its good..