Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson has stated, categorically, that he does not consider piracy to be theft.
Speaking at GDC, Persson said: “If you steal a car, the original is lost. If you copy a game, there are simply more of them in the world.”
Persson also says he doesn’t buy the idea of a ‘lost sale’. “Is a bad review a lost sale? What about a missed ship date?” he asked.
Persson suggested that developers treat pirates not as bad people, but as potential customers that they have yet to win over. Games as services seems a good way to do this, he said. “Make a game last longer than a week. You can’t pirate an online account.”
(Cheers, Edge!)
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*Golf clap* I do not support piracy, but I have always considered the industry’s view that each pirated game was a lost sale as completely absurd. I agree, offer more value to the consumer and you will increase sales. Game developers seem keen on nipping hours from gameplay and charging for on disc DLC or dlc packs that should have been included on disc, and they will continue to see people turn to piracy.
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celentis (March 3rd, 2011)
Notch seems like a pretty cool guy.
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Faulty Wiring (March 4th, 2011)