How to beat game piracy according to David Perry
by Matt Warner 
Jul 12th 2008 at 10:00PM
Filed under: Business models, MMO industry
David Perry, best known as the founder of Shiny Entertainment and Earthworm Jim, believes the way to beat game piracy is by distributing games for free. "The next big thing will be free games," said Perry, speaking in Belfast after being awarded an honorary doctorate by Queen's University. Perry goes on to explain the situation game developers in Asia encounter and how most games there have no entry cost but are supported by a micro-transaction model. A business model Perry believes that will change the industry in the USA and Europe. Creative big-wig at Acclaim, Perry has numerous MMOG projects in development. One was supposed to be a beast-racing MMOG that had a unique development process. The project dubbed Top Secret was a collaborative program for a small community of developers to design the game on paper. Acclaim originally intended to hire a development team to produce the final design document but the mesh of ideas became so uniquely twisted they felt it wouldn't work. Instead, five independent development teams are vying for a one million dollar contract but if no demos are up to the quality or meet Acclaim's standards, they will hire a professional studio instead.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Demeth said on 10:14PM 7-12-2008
I hate micro-transactions. This is because to be competitive, you have to engage in a spending war, causing the overall cost to exceed that of traditional one-time or monthly pay methods.
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zouve said on 10:39PM 7-12-2008
Why couldn't he wait a week? That would have been one E3 week bingo square covered.
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Ghen said on 7:51AM 7-13-2008
Free games isn't the answer. Creating games with online components that are integral to playing the game are.
Besides, I pirate games on my Wii and Xbox too. Its actually more fun because there's no licensing issues restricting online ;)
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Danny F. said on 4:39PM 7-18-2008
Sorry David Perry but you get an F for that one...
I dont feel like cashing out a lil here and there and then to find that in the end I spend 3x what the game was worth...
Just let us pay our $60 bucks and we'll be on our way.
You wanna fight piracy, offer better dl to disk services for consoles and assasinate mod chip makers.
The End...
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Aaron said on 4:55PM 7-18-2008
Here is a novel idea. How about making games worth paying money for? People need to feel like they are getting a good value. I'm tired of shooters and half-baked MMOs. I want something unique and interesting that's worth my time and money. The gaming industry and the music industry have a lot in common. There are a few people who really innovate and push the envelope, and then you have the rest of them who throw generic copycat crap out on the market and complain when it doesn't sell. Shooters are worn out. Fantasy MMOs are worn out. Give me more games like Mass Effect and Rock Band I'll give you my money.
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