Epic: hardware savvy PC gamers more likely to pirate

Epic! Epic? Shoot.. Epic hasn't been "Epic" since the first release of UT. UT2K4 was great game and i bought it and play it. even today. UT3, i dl'd the demo... wasn't impressed to say the most. So, i'm thinking... I helped make them "Epic" and this is the thanks i get? They haven't made a decent game since the year 2k4, (so i haven't bought one) who's fault is that?? maybe they need to hire better/newer, employees/devs/marketing. Nah, i got a better ideal!! Eff Epic!!! Good bye!! and so long to you too EA. I will no longer purchase Epic and EA titles. We aren't losing anything you guys... Some new and talented people will very soon see the answer that has been staring Epic and EA in the face and make a company and develop games that are REALLY good games, New and inventive, creative and greatly entertaining, and make a fortune!! I was depressed about this EA and DRM and future of PC gaming thing... But after thinking about it.. It's the best thing you guys. We need these "old" companies to get the Eff out the way and let the new guys in that Will solve the problems and make actual NEW games and not rehashed shite from 1999 or 2004.

Comment by code7master at 7:48pm 3rd October 2008

After all you are effectivly supporting the savvy pirates :) I agree with plenty of your comments here. My two penny worth = I bought GOW - but only so that I could annoy my xbox friends with stories of how good the pc 'extras' were :) Overall its directly linear nature, without even a hint that you could do anything but follow a single direction, didn't impress - being of 1st person shooter stock too, I didn't like the feel of how it played either, most of my gaming friends wouldn't make another mistake and buy GOW2, so we're glad you're keeping it off the platform. Human nature dictates that we are inquisitive and inventive, thus a web search for GOW shows, within two pages, a site where you can obtain 'cracked exe's' - after all no one wants to keep putting the dvd in eh! - but it's not then rocket science to see their use and then follow the breadcrumbs to downloading and using a copy. Personally I buy all my games but there have been many instances where I wish I'd got a copy to try first or at least had the paitence to wait for a decent review :) Epic may be out of business if it ever becomes a breadcrumb web search to find how to pirate the bigger console platform games, what then? stop making for that platform too!? If a big enough gap is created in the PC gaming market maybe we'll see smaller developers being a bit more inovative and successfull. As I feel that all of the inovations in games and gaming technologies have been a direct result of the platform that supports upgradable components...the PC :D That is all - good weekend everybody.

Comment by deadun at 3:52pm 3rd October 2008

tbh im going to join others in boycotting anything Epic release from this moment on. how dare he accuse millions of tech savvy gamers of all being theives.. i mean talk about slitting your own throat.. we are the people who buy your products and you insult us and call us all theives, he really knows how to make friends dont you think.. tbh from this point onward i AM going to start downloading Epic games from torrent sites, no longer will i pay to be insulted by this prick, so ill insult him back by not paying him a penny, but still enjoying his hard work.. screw him.. he thinks we are all theives, i guess ill have to become one then

Comment by dragonsrage99 at 3:42pm 3rd October 2008

tbh im going to join others in boycotting anything Epic release from this moment on. how dare he accuse millions of tech savvy gamers of all being theives.. i mean talk about slitting your own throat.. we are the people who buy your products and you insult us and call us all theives, he really knows how to make friends dont you think.. tbh from this point onward i AM going to start downloading Epic games from torrent sites, no longer will i pay to be insulted by this prick, so ill insult him back by not paying him a penny, but still enjoying his hard work.. screw him.. he thinks we are all theives, i guess ill have to become one then

Comment by dragonsrage99 at 3:23pm 3rd October 2008

If the game developers really got their act together maybe they would realise that online gaming is all about community. UT99 still thrives because of this. The profits (if that is all they care about) are to be made from community efforts like leagues and competition, server rentals for clans, organised LAN events and involving the paying customer in the development of the game. PC gamers can be very proud of their Rigs and the hardware is not cheap but as long as reasonably priced equipment can be efficient then more and more people can become involved in the PC gaming community. If the wealthy game developers can't cope then I hope that community efforts will continue to improve and prove that spending a lot of money on a game with lots of glitz may not be as much fun as playing a good competative game with decent folk who self regulate their online world. Maybe Epic should look to the future and think of new ways to profit that include improving the PC gaming experience rather than shunning it. Stop being just developers and take part.

Comment by Humwawa at 1:47pm 3rd October 2008

As an avid gamer with the usual self built hardcore gaming rig, overclocked & modded, bells & whistles... I have no need to pirate, why would the serious gamer that cliffyb alludes to, even bother with pirating a title? we the gaming community build these machines to play games at their best, not as a means to steal software (even the bad software that GOW is) whats a few quid for a game against the £1000's that we spend upgrading our machines to awesome specs. I, as of 15 Minutes ago bought a 24" LCD for my games at £300, am I going to bother about £20 for his crappy game? Well yes actually but only because it blows, rock on Crysis & COD2, I for one will never buy an Epic game again as I am not about to give my hard earned cash to a company that considers me to be a thief and of immoral character. Nuff said.

Comment by Hardwarefreek at 1:23pm 3rd October 2008

As an avid gamer with the usual self built hardcore gaming rig, overclocked & modded, bells & whistles... I have no need to pirate, why would the serious gamer that cliffyb alludes to, even bother with pirating a title? we the gaming community build these machines to play games at their best, not as a means to steal software (even the bad software that GOW is) whats a few quid for a game against the £1000's that we spend upgrading our machines to awesome specs. I, as of 15 Minutes ago bought a 24" LCD for my games at £300, am I going to bother about £20 for his crappy game? Well yes actually but only because it blows, rock on Crysis & COD2, I for one will never buy an Epic game again as I am not about to give my hard earned cash to a company that considers me to be a thief and of immoral character. Nuff said.

Comment by Hardwarefreek at 1:23pm 3rd October 2008

I will be one of the first and admit that i DO download games off USENET or P2P. But if a game comes out that is worth buying i will Buy it. take crysis for example i downloaded it the day of release to see if it was good. It was so i bought it so i could play online and so i could have an legal copy. Most ppl who have high end computers arent short on cash and are not botherd to pay £10- £15 for a game. Its when companys have the balls to charge £40 for a game that they lost out to pirates. If all game developers made games £10-£15 they would selll a lot more copies as it would appeal more the the casual gamer. + i dont see how they cant make a profit disks are like 8p each and they make say £10 on each disk sold. + Anyone who pirates the game and doesnt buy it. was probably not EVER going to buy it anyway so its not exactally them LOSING money. discuss

Comment by Devlin1991 at 12:44pm 3rd October 2008

I think pirate are killing the PC gaming industry. Its rife and if developers are struggling to turn a profit then you can see why they wont develop their game. Ok so some people dont like GoW anyway but that wont stop the pirates. In previous discussions on CPC some have openly admitted they download/pirate the games they're not sure about or might not like and maybe purchase them later. Its this kind of attitude which is spoiling it for the rest of us. I know console games get pirated too but revenue generated on console games far outweighs that of PC games (MMOs are probably the exception but in terms of subscription rather than off the shelf sales).

Comment by pveater at 5:34pm 2nd October 2008

Ok, earlier sarcasm aside, him saying things like that is bloody stupid. Epic started developing on the PC, the PC market made them the company they are today (ie, big & successful) to then turn around and imply that your previous customers are theives is just downright rude and arrogant. I mean, it's not suprising Gears didnt do so well on the PC, it was badly programmed, it came out alot later, so chances are, people would already have bought it on the 360, and above all, Gears was little more than a glorified shooter on rails, made artificially difficult by clunky controls, poor joypad aiming and utterly retarded squadmate AI that often meant 30 minutes of frustration repeating the same 2 minute stretch over and over because your mentally disabled squadmates took it upon themselves to walk right into the dark and get shredded by nasty flying things, causing a game over and foring you back to the last checkpoint, over and over and over again......(sorry for the rant, I shelled out for it on the 360 last year and was sorely dissapointed). The point is, they released a game like that, which was competing with games like Crysis, Stalker, the orange box.... of course it's going to look bad in comparison, and pc gamers don't want shooters on rails. Basically, if that's what Epic want to release, we don't need thier games. I don't have a problem with that. I do have a problem with some jumped up little tw@t implying that I'm a criminal, just because I know what a decent graphics card is

Comment by cyberspice1 at 2:39pm 2nd October 2008

are much harder to be pirated today? Whats he worried about anyway, you can easily mod a 360 and buy cheap knock off 360 discs? Lol. Movies and Music are the criminal fields, games arent even worth doing it these days... not even in the same league... :/

Comment by Lightning_Pete at 9:56am 2nd October 2008

This guy's as big a tool a john carmack, they could have just released it on 360 said "no pc version" and be done. Instead he decides to insult 10%ish of the gaming market by calling them criminals, and make a compete uneducated ass out of himself. Well done "Cliffy B" I hope EA buys your ass.

Comment by mr_nips at 2:30am 2nd October 2008

First off, this decision to keep GoW2 off of the PC is more MS's doing than Epic's. The title was exclusive the moment it was announced. EA, Epic, id software, Crytek, Infinty Ward and others have ALL called the PC's viabilty into question. With Epic and id software being the most vocal. They've been making some serious negative statements about the PC for over a year now. Only EA and Epic (so far) have dropped games from the platform, with Crytek threatening to go multi-platform. Yep! PC gaming IS plagued by piracy. Anyone who still clings to the notion thats it's not is utterly out of touch with reality! As far as it's viability for profitability, that is determined by the developer or publisher selling the game! Making games isn't "free", there are costs. Some have multi-million dollar budgets. So when you have high profile cross-platform PC titles like COD4 and UTIII being outsold by hundreds of thousands of copies by their console counterparts (this fact is indisputable), coupled with the fact that you have more "pirated" copies out there than "sold" copies, tends to eat heavily into your profit margins. This sends a clear message to any developer, thus calling into question the PC's viabilty for profitability. Earlier this year EA said they've dropped their sports games from the PC saying it's not viable for pretty much the same reasons Epic did. So do I support the move? No, it's sad. Do I understand it, ABSOLUTELY! It's business. EA responded to heavy piracy with heavy DRM, now they're in court. If they lose (which I doubt) then I hope PC gamers like the Sims because thats pretty much all you'll be seeing from them. I'm sure other PC game companies are watching that case closely as well. Valve has the same DRM policy as EA. Both Crysis Warhead and Stalker Clear Sky have the same 5 activation limit. So why is that excepted from Valve and not EA? Epic responded by boycotting. It's a really a shame that it's come to this.

Comment by Warrior24_7 at 11:11pm 1st October 2008

I AINT NO PIRATE !!! I BUY ALL MY GAME'S !! AT THE THE SHOP WITH CASH !!! He Can Stick His Game Where the Sun Dont Shine !

Comment by walkingdead at 11:11pm 1st October 2008

Any game/app can be pirated xbox 360 wii ps2 psp pc. There is no way to stop it. The ony way to get round it is to have all games multiplayer and have c/d key protection. I bought CoD 4 simply so I could play mp. It does not matter if I had a copy I still needed a c/d key to play online.

Comment by ParanoidKing at 7:02pm 1st October 2008

Look at Blizzard, look at Valve, look at a PopCap, look at EA: all of them have, with WoW, Steam, casual games and Battlefield Heroes, put some thought into their products and their business models. Epic clearly want to spend the rest of their lives churning out the same kind of games they've made for the last 10 years, but being prasied at the same time for being innovative. Not going to happen on the PC, so they decide insulting their potential customers is their best plan. Ludicrous.

Comment by Sifter3000 at 4:09pm 1st October 2008

so the PC gets killed off from being a gaming platform, which means the crackers turn full attention to consoles. which means that..... oh wait, the development costs are too high for games on consoles. you cant get bits anymore to keep your old games consoles running so we are running emulators on our PC'S developers see that theres a market for new games again as everyones using a PC......... and by now we just jack the back of our head into a fibre cable at home, which connects to remote datacentres anyhow.

Comment by the_jetsetwilly at 1:41pm 1st October 2008

They come out with some pretty dumb statements but I see what he's saying. PC users that know the difference between a good gfx card and a crap one are likley to know how to use Bitlord or one of it's variatons. Some of you here may buy all your games, but for every one of you there are 1000 that download them. Need better copying prevention- Steam got it right. No doubt a lot of you disagree.

Comment by sweedo at 1:09pm 1st October 2008

I have a high end pc, I buy all my games, I DON'T use bittorent, I DON'T download pirate software. I find his statement dam right insulting.

Comment by Dambuster101 at 12:46pm 1st October 2008

I agree with the concensus that the last truely good game EPIC made as far as the PC is concerned was UT or possibly UT 2004 (Not my own opinion, but the facts speak for themselves). Certainly, the reason GoW did so poorly on the PC was that it just wasn't that good! As much as I don't really care whether EPIC make their console ports for the pc or not, it worries me because they are a reasonbly loud voice! The simple fact is that the trend is to make games for console compatability, because that is where the market lies, and I cannot help but feel that this is really hurting the PC market. The PC is copable of much more technically speaking then a console. Or at least, games catered to PC specifically seem a completely different beast. As more developers concentrate on console gaming, I worry that the whole game design industry may end up stuck in reverse!

Comment by SanguineAngel at 10:24am 1st October 2008

I never suspected that PC fanboys could be worse than console fanboys ;) I have a decent gaming PC and an Xbox 360, so it's nto a problem for me. Some games I prefer to play on 360 (e.g. I ordered the 360 version of Fallout 3). Although I am playing Civ 4 on PC. I really enjoyed GoW1. And GoW2 looks awesome from what I've seen and read so far.

Comment by mindzai at 11:06am 1st October 2008

Basically, they just know that the PC Gamers have higher standards than their games, so they wanna just blame the poor sales on Piracy... but they never think about the consoles piracy... back when I was a consoler and had a PS1 I remeber that 6 out of 10 people in my street all bought pirated PS1 games, and everyone must have had about between 30-100 PS1 games Pirated - - - I think that the Consoles real names are as follows - - - PirateStation - - - XP box (for two reasons) - - - Nintendo Wii-on-devs. (DOWN WITH CONSOLES!!)

Comment by NikoBellic at 10:28am 1st October 2008

He doesn't want the bad press GoW was a bad game on the pc and GoW2 is not going to be any better. PC first person shooters have to be a clear step up form the the console rubbish who would pay £35 for a pc game with graphics from when the 7950gtx was the top card. As a Xbox game thought it was quite good i look forward to getting one from trade in some idiot always takes the game back after the first 2 weeks got to love the fools with to much money to wast. And i thought 360 games were as easy to pirate as PS2 games or even pc games? If you have not scrambled through a game the week before release with japan es instructions flashing at you you haven't lived.

Comment by Cool_CR at 7:31am 1st October 2008

I think this is just an excuse. They made a right mess of the first one, it stutters so badly on my pc i can hardly play it (wish i had taken it back). Their's been so many people on the forum calling epic everything under the sun. I'm glad their's no gears 2 for the pc, epic are rubbish i wouldn't buy ut3 after gears just out of principle because gears was so bad.

Comment by erratum1 at 7:17am 1st October 2008

ive been burnt before buy said hyped game only its pants try to get money back no chance they dont doit swap for another of the same valu or store credit and the chances r i prolly own most of the top games so will have to get a game i dont want or get stuck with said pile o shite game ive given away loads of games ive got stuck with cos they were crap

Comment by damafia at 3:29am 1st October 2008

if i don't like a game, I take it back to the shop and get a refund, so the developer still doesn't have my money (although after the re-stocking fee, the shop does :/) same as any other industry, people who make crap products make no money out of them (Lada), people who make good products do (Audi)

Comment by EdArch at 2:49am 1st October 2008

"Wii games 5 pound from any "knock off Nigel" down the pub...which is why i know more console pirates then pc pirates and the main reason there are so many wii and 360 owners" That's a nice statement there. Basically if you look at it with Brzynietski's point of view, then pirates are more tech-savvy (minority group in PC users), but any xbox/wii owner can own pirated titles for their console as they can just get them from....someone who's savvy enough to know where to get em from

Comment by EdArch at 2:43am 1st October 2008

This was covered weeks ago on this site, and the comments are roughly the same too. I'm quite happy this game isn't being released for PC. The last thing PC gamers need is lesser quality games flooding the market. Console only gamers are less fussy about the quality of their games because they've never played a true PC title start to finish, if they had they would'nt continue paying £50 for games. Let devs make their fortune with console games, perhaps then (yes im being naive)they can afford to take a risk and make a quality PC title now and then, and cleanse their soles in the process. Oh and downloading pirated games, and saying you buy the boxed version if you like it, isn't fine. What about the games you don't like, games that might not even be bad, is it alright that they get stolen? That the developer of the game you didn't like loses money, and therefore can't get a potential classic made in the future, because it is deemed "too risky" financially.

Comment by smiffy at 2:06am 1st October 2008

I think he's lumping everyone in the same pot which is a trifle unfair. People who use PC alot (for work, not necessarily games) are concious of hardware its and pieces. A graphics designer might be hardware concious or even hardware-savvy because of his line of work. It is true that people who are hardware-savvy are more likely to KNOW ABOUT torrents etc, that doesn't mean they are any more likely to pirate games than people who aren't, and to be quite frank I think all PC users are knowledgeable about some aspect of hardware (even if it is just how funky their keyb/mouse is). On the other end of the scale we have people who haven't a clue about hardware in general (the ones that go on about their pretty keyboards nd mice) who download torrents like its gonna get sucked into a black hole in Switzerland. Bleszinski isn't giving a great argument for his company to stop producing PC games and I think he's got a case of not-thinking-before-I-open-my-mouth-itis...and he thinks bees and spiders are evil...wierdo

Comment by EdArch at 2:29am 1st October 2008

Ya's right you can't get pirate console games can you....... ooops you tosser of course you can. Lazy fucks just can't be arsed coding the games properly

Comment by brave758 at 2:13am 1st October 2008

im offended by epic basicallt saying we are all pirates.Anyway unreal had gotten stale and gears of war was an akward and lazy port.So of you go epic to The land of consoles (where no one pirates ;o) ) i wont miss you.

Comment by yanis at 12:29am 1st October 2008

The point you make basically supports the notion that PC gaming is fundamenatlly plagued by piracy, therefore not a viable platform to profit from, therefore acceptable to use as an excuse to boycott the platform!! Your support for Epic's actions only serve to reinforce the FACT that Epic are simply exploiting the CHALLENGES of the current situation, that they've failed to best, and consequently chosen to GIVE UP on due to their business strategy. It has nothing to do with some insurmountable "piracy" issue and everything to do with the fact that they simply can't be arsed to, or able to deal with the challenges posed by current circumstances. Based on the fact there are solutions to piracy as proven time and time again by Valve, for example, there's only one logical conclusion which is that Epic aren't in any position to tackle such challenges. The reason why so many people are so pissed off with their response is that it smacks of arrogance, irresponsible, patronising and basically a load of b****cks! If you, as a company decide that you can no longer profit as you'd expect from a particular segment, then fine.... Leave!! Just don't go making stories that have no bearing in reality to cover your flawed business on your exit.

Comment by shammo at 12:07am 1st October 2008

i think that this statement would be more applicable to the 'n00bZ' out there, who know how to use a computer well, and partially overlap with the genuine pc-enthusiast community, but are not in tune enough to appreciate the negative effects pirating has on the consumers. i think most of the people on this forum would fit into my definition of 'genuine' pc-enthusiasts, people who don't stop at building the computer, but observe and theorize on the present, past and future of the technology/market. people who pay no mind to this do not realize that things like the DRM on Spore are THEIR OWN FAULT. i can appreciate the temptations of torrents, and their practical (and legal!) applications, but people need to know where to draw the line. pirating a 10 year old game or something like that is as different from pirating a new game as it is from pirating a multi-thousand dollar program in my eyes, but too few people are able to make that distinction.

Comment by yougotkicked at 11:42pm 30th September 2008

So I wasted money on GoW to not be able to play it for 6 months, untill they could be bothered to release a second patch, and now they're not even bothering with a second one. Fine then, screw them, I don't particulary want another useless, bug ridden excuse for a game, especially as it'll still probably use Windows Games Live rubbish.

Comment by Cerberus_xiii at 11:10pm 30th September 2008

out of all the pc an console owners i now it is the ones with consoles that have the most pirate copys.. the ones with pcs buy there games sum me included do dl a torrent copy but then buy it if its good all the torrented games i have r the ones i dont play

Comment by damafia at 10:33pm 30th September 2008

What a tosser! I have been gaming for over 20 years and not once pirated a game. I have a PC worth over 2 grand which I built myself. Where do these idiots get there info from? I personally reckon that the people who spend lots of money on their rigs also like to have the real game in their hands. I love my collection of games sat on my shelf. I don't know why these guys like burning bridges so much by insulting their customers, but fine, he wont see any of my money. Gears Of War wasn't my cup of tea anyway. No loss, and less competition for other more deserving developers on our platform.

Comment by KingDazza at 10:15pm 30th September 2008

epic make epicly fail games, they can take thier crappy games elsewhere like others have said. PC gamers dont need epic or any of thier rubbish games, similar for EA. As For the epic fan boys, i think its time you guys moved over to the equally crappy xbox 360.

Comment by dimasoft at 10:03pm 30th September 2008

Damn Firefox refreshed and I clicked resend without engaging brain. As an addendum to the previous post, I've just ordered Lego Batman from play.com as it's only £15, despite it's widespread availability on torrent sites.

Comment by steeli at 9:11pm 30th September 2008

Don't make shit games! I've spent a lot of money this year on games, via Steam and the likes of play.com and amazon. I've just bought the Witcher EE, Crysis: Warhead (Steam), XCOM pack (Steam) and Spore; all on release day. I have Fall Out 3 and FarCry 2 on pre order . Guess what? I haven't bought an Epic game since UT2K4. UT3 demo didn't cut the mustard for me what with the ugly unintuitive interface and GoW, played it on my mates 360 and wasn't impressed at all. That same friend was a HUGE UT2K4 fan and practically cried when his UT3 (Pc Version) pre order arrived. So overall Epic and CliffyB can go fuck themselves and take their shitty games elsewhere, otherwise if they want my money improve the games. I wouldn't buy them on a console never mind PC, and lets be honest it's not as if 360 games can't be pirated.

Comment by steeli at 9:08pm 30th September 2008

WTF, doesn't like the PS3 controller (when its got Dual Shock 3 inbuilt) it feels comfortable and it pretty much has the same features as the 360 pad, but I suspect that they just want to avoid developing games that support the 'SixAxis' feature, - - - - I don't think that they are really so Epic... and I also am one of those people that has only ever had one of their games and that was the first Unreal Tournament, and I didn't really like that, I only bought that because of the reviews. - - - I have never been a fan of games with aliens in them, I'd rarther a game where you feel as though you can do everything that you can in the real world, without the consiquencies!. If Epic don't like that, then they'll just have to put up with no PC gamers being weird enough to enjoy their games!!.

Comment by NikoBellic at 8:25pm 30th September 2008

Earth calling Epic.... Ever heard of Steam?

Comment by l3v1ck at 8:48pm 30th September 2008

Comment by Cogwulf at 5:27pm 30th September 2008

first the ridiculous comments about how he wont develop for ps3 because he dislikes the controller, even in the face of mouse and keyboard support on UT3 last year......now this bunch of crap where his company is effectively turning their back on the pc community that supported epic from day one and the only reason they are still in business today. well i got one word for you boyo : BOYCOTT

Comment by vulcanproject at 5:28pm 30th September 2008

This is old news. GoW2 was NEVER suppose to come to the PC!! They've made statements about that previously and anyone that was paying attention would've already known this. So no need for the phony outrage and sour grapes. But still, this news sends a clear message. The ONLY reason that they are not supporting the PC is because they don't want to! They are simply "boycotting" the PC in favor of the console! Remember, UTIII did poorly on the PC when compared to the console versions as well! So you really can't blame them. Poor sales, heavy pirating and badly integrated video chips that don’t offer enough power to play a high-end game seal the deal. EA and others will follow suit here and there by boycotting the PC with certain games too. In EA's case maybe altogether. It's really a shame whats happening on the PC right now. EA in a lawsuit, and a high profile game developer flat out "boycotting" the system...anybody who still thinks piracy is not a problem on this platform needs their heads examined! For people who think Steam is the answer, Crysis Warhead on Steam has a 5 activation limit and DRM. I'm just glad that I'm a multi-platform gamer as I won't miss anything.

Comment by Warrior24_7 at 5:27pm 30th September 2008

only one word for them Tw*ts

Comment by eddie543 at 5:00pm 30th September 2008

I have downloaded many games. If they are good, I buy them. If they are rubbish, I don't. The developers who make good games DESERVE the money they make - EPIC, for example, don't. Neither do EA, because of their DRM, for example. Now, Crytek, Valve, et cetera, buy their games.

Comment by jaguar515 at 4:45pm 30th September 2008

gavomatic57 your right i haven bought a epic game since the first unreal tournament it strange how pi**off i was about them when i don't even like any of there latest games

Comment by pcn00b at 4:44pm 30th September 2008

He's got my back up now. I'd consider myself reasonably hardware savvy, yet I managed to PAY for every game I have. I had no trouble buying Crysis Warhead and Clear Sky last month....because they were actually worth playing. Would I buy Gears of War 2? With money? Nope. Not a chance.

Comment by gavomatic57 at 4:41pm 30th September 2008

No more badly optimised "GRAW with Aliens", no more hugely unpopular updates to popular franchises like UT, what a shame. Does Cliffy really think we care??? People aren't "not buying" EPIC's games because we are all scummy pirates, its because they are complete sh**.

Comment by gavomatic57 at 4:35pm 30th September 2008

I hear your point NewParadigm, but it misses mine. What I'm basically arguing is that if a company decides for whatever reason it no longer wants to serve a particular sector, then just do so. If pressed for the truth then give it or deftly side-step responding; don't make up BS to cover reality. Put into context, they are ducking out, and it just bugs me when any company does so and tries to blame the sector they're leaving. It's no one's fault but their own. Piracy exists due to many factors, a couple of which he points out; that's life... things change... leading companies recognise these signs, adapt and continue to lead. Others don't and have no choice but to lower their standards and hope for the best. Our platform represents the bleeding edge of gaming and needs developers who can continue to deliver bleeding edge content even against the challenges it poses. They ought to simply say "we can't hack it any more, we admit we're better suited to the console market" and stop blaming silly factors like they are doing.

Comment by shammo at 4:24pm 30th September 2008

i have 200+ dvd so i swear im going to copy this game and give them away it will cost me 10 pound but will cost them alot more

Comment by pcn00b at 4:15pm 30th September 2008

my mom's not a pc enthusiast and she uses utorrent to watch heroes and lost and she could easily use the net to find out how to copy games my mother in law the same she is 60+ and she downloads ps2 games and burns to disk for her husband! it's not enthusiast it's information it's everywhere if you want it . xbox 360, Wii games 5 pound from any "knock off Nigel" down the pub. So yes i can see where he is coming from pc games are more difficult for the average user to copy which is why i know more console pirates then pc pirates and the main reason there are so many wii and 360 owners

Comment by pcn00b at 3:54pm 30th September 2008

GoW 1 is enough of an argument against releasing GoW 2.

Comment by Spiny at 4:05pm 30th September 2008

I have never stooped to the level of pirating anything. Movies? No. Music? No. games? Never. I am not cheap enough to have to steal something someone has devoted months to make. I agree with one of the opinions published in the mag (i think from James) That your just saying your poor if you can't afford the £20 for a game or tenner for an album. I have never played Gears of War. From What I've heard it wasn't very good. But attitudes like this from the likes of Epic and EA really damage the industry as a whole. I see his point that the tech savvy are more likely to pirate (its logical alright). But its not fair to brand an entire group with the same brush because a minority undertake an illegal act. We could sit here and say all game designers are brain dead idiots *cough* Is that fair? No. Is This Just? Absolutely Not.

Comment by andrew_girdler at 4:04pm 30th September 2008

I dont understand this do a search for xbox 360 torrent, why not use steam to roll the game out with no piracy?

Comment by toycityworld at 4:06pm 30th September 2008

Something else to think about. Around 7 years ago I was a manager of a 'Game' store in the UK. At this time the shops software was based around 50% PC and the other 50% split varyingly across the consoles market. We had massive wall drops of the latest PC titles and a huge back catalogue of previous titles. Go to a store near you now and see if you can see anything to do with a PC other than a small section dedicated to the PC top ten chart. This strategy means that at any one time, only 10 titles are available to buy from a retailer and some of these will be expantion packs for other titles... SIMS, WoW... If you look at it from a n00b's point of view, the PC is just not a viable option for gaming at this time. If numbers of PC gamers are going to stall or decrease in this manner then the developers will look else where to make their money.

Comment by PokerMuppet at 4:03pm 30th September 2008

Here's a good idea, why not just ban PC's altogether? No seriously, it would kill piracy, everyone who owns a PC, even if they ain't tech savvy enough NOW to learn how to pirate, they could LEARN. PC's are used to pirate any game, whether console or PC, that means EVERY PC OWNER IS A POTENTIAL CRIMINAL!!! OH NOEZ!!!!!!! CliffyB = EPIC FAIL

Comment by cyberspice1 at 3:46pm 30th September 2008

shame i was looking forward to pirating this game lol

Comment by Gz_odonnellrichb at 3:49pm 30th September 2008

Just a little comment... it depends on which angle you look at 'average'. If you mean the average PC bought by customers, then yes, you are right. They can not play the latest or even older games. This is because most customers ask for one thing... a cheap desktop. However, if you refer to average as a PC in the middle of PCW's range, then you are wrong as they will play the games albeit not at the highest settings or resolutions.

Comment by PokerMuppet at 3:55pm 30th September 2008

This is one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever heard. So PC Hardware savvy now = Pirate. Well, I've a decent PC with a GX2 and I can honestly say I have never downloaded or pirated a game, tune, video or anything. How sad that the collapse of the gaming PC will be brought about by the tech savvy....what a loada cobblers!

Comment by Clockedtohell at 3:03pm 30th September 2008

...but funny, they don't have much of it in Japan. Reason? because they get the games first and thus people pirate from them to get the games too. If Epic released Gears of War 2 at the same time for PC and 360 this would be much less of a problem. As it is, everyone wants to be first. Savvy people just know how.

Comment by Godkyra at 3:32pm 30th September 2008

* Hardware Savy PC Gamers = Pirate. Well it seems like everyone at EPIC are pirates then. sh*ttyB and his GoW team must have all the latest pirated software as well. Please tell me how you guys pirated the Unreal Engine, please...

Comment by modd3r at 3:31pm 30th September 2008

I dont think its fair to berate a company for taking the easy way out and doing whatever makes them the most money... thats what a company does, it has no requirement to innovate on our behalf. However I completely agree that its a good thing that companies who aren't interested in pc games stop making them. Lets just hope too many dont decide this is the way to go... and that some companies start seeing a gap in the market for decent pc games. HOWEVER epic has one good point... the average pc bought from your average pc world store cant play the average game brought out over the last couple of months... that is a major problem for any platform.

Comment by NewParadigm at 3:13pm 30th September 2008

I think the real reason GoW2 won't be coming to PC is that it can't cut it at this level any more. A high profile cutting edge game on the X360 will look like minced turds compared to the likes of Crysis:Warhead, Clear Sky or Left4Dead. The X360 is a very old piece of hardware now, two or three generations behind even a modest PC. They should be pitied not scorned. GoW was a big fish in the tiny pond of X360 titles, but when it came to the PC it was, despite being the same game, shown to be well below par for the format. I think it's probably best that Epic don't embarrass themselves.

Comment by Hovis at 3:21pm 30th September 2008

If you like being able to use Xbox Live it isn't easy Either way, if games get pirated this much games will only come out on consoles where they can protect their revenue more, simple matter that you don't stay in market where your sales are lost due to theft. and anyone that said PC Hardware savvy now = Pirate or similar should re-read the original article

Comment by finlay666uk at 3:20pm 30th September 2008

he is not stupid, he never said it wasn't just as easy, he said that pc owners are more likely to know how, or be used to doing it. He has a point, pirating software is solely a pc exercise, whatever the software is used for whether it be on a console or pc, you still have to download and burn the image using a pc... it is a PC only activity... and anyone who is an enthusiast enough to upgrade their g. card is likely to know how to do it. and @jaguar515... they charge a hell of a lot more for rubbish games on the console. £20 isnt much for a game, if your really worried about wasting your cash wait for reviews and do a bit of research before buying a game.

Comment by NewParadigm at 3:13pm 30th September 2008

This is all a pathetic smoke screen by Bleszinski to cover up the fact that they've simply chosen to take a lazy, and easy route to earning their money, while dressing up this easy-route-strategy in some bs about the PC platform being unprofitable. Instead of tackling the challenges faced by the issues he describes, such as Valve did with Steam, they simply cannot, or will not come up to scratch. Pathetic. If that's their stance, I really don't think we as PC gamers have actually lost anything of value. They go, someone else WITH the development savvy will just take their place. Probably a good thing as it'll likely rid us of the lacklustre offerings that are nothing more than rehashes of one-off hits of the past. Console gamers are less discerning, therefore less demanding, therefore an easy market where you can get away with doing a half-arsed job. Why would a confident and talented developer move in that direction?? The answer is they wouldn't. For exammple, the heroes at Crytek, true innovators in every respect, haven't given up the challenge, and made the sensible choice of using STEAM this time around. They haven't abandoned the PC as a platform. Comments like this from apparrent industry "leaders" are nothing more than irresponsible pathetic excuses for their own failings, and should never be taken seriously as an indicator of PC gaming credibility. What our platform needs is devs and publishers with talent, innovation, skill, and BALLS! Loser attitudes like Bleszinski's have no place and we should be celebrating their departure. Where would ANY industry be if all the players just ducked out at the first sign of changing times?! GOOD RIDDANCE!

Comment by shammo at 3:17pm 30th September 2008

Too right. The reason no-one bought GoW on PC is because it was a collossal pile of crap thanks to Games For Windows live. And even if you got GFW Live working, Gears itself simply isn't much cop.

Comment by Sifter3000 at 3:11pm 30th September 2008

Then stop charging £20 for a rubbish game.

Comment by jaguar515 at 3:02pm 30th September 2008

Its easy as hell to play coped games on a xbox360 its even easier then on a PC. Plus without any virus or spyware and i know i flash people's 360 for them and mod hdd to put the games on

Comment by pcn00b at 2:55pm 30th September 2008

I like paying money for games and supporting the industry that is the source of so much of my entertainment. I've never pirated a game and I have a serious go a my freinds who do. If pirating continues there soon won't be a games industry to priate from.

Comment by joeamnesiac at 2:54pm 30th September 2008

It's as simple as this ... did they make a decent profit from the PC sales? If they didn't then it's fair for them to not release the sequel on PC. If they did, well then they are shooting themselves in the foot. I wonder what their shareholders think.

Comment by gumpty at 2:58pm 30th September 2008