Piracy has been a major problem in just about every major digital industry out there, but one industry that it impacts the most is gaming. Millions of video game files are illegally downloaded each year, costing the industry millions more in the process. While this might not have a massive impact on some of the bigger publishers like EA and Ubisoft, it becomes a much bigger issue when it comes to the independent gaming scene. These companies have very little money to work with and pour their hearts and souls into their games, and when the finished product ends up getting stolen from people around the world it doesn’t paint a good picture for the company’s future.
One such recent instance is Jonathan Blow and his recently-released The Witness. The ambitious and mind-twisting puzzle game had been years in the making after a series of delays that were a result of his vision for the game getting bigger and bigger. Even though the game is getting phenomenal reviews it is also the number one most pirated game “on a certain popular torrent site.” Jonathan Blow has spoken about the high amounts of piracy that The Witness has been a victim of, and what it means for the types of games he makes going forward. “Unfortunately this will not help us afford to make another game,” said Blow. “I’m glad that a lot more people will be experiencing the game, but I also want to be able to make another comparable game next.”
Blow then goes on to discuss the possibilities of DRM in future titles he develops, even with all of the controversy surrounding the practice. While DRM does remove full ownership from the gamer and their game, it does help when it comes to piracy and could help Blow to secure his games for a few months. There is also the new anti-tamper technology called Denuvo that is being used in more and more major games that is giving pirates a lot of trouble when they try to crack them. This is supposedly a pretty expensive technology at this point and it’s unknown if smaller companies like Blow’s Thekla, Inc. would be able to afford it, but if it allows them to release the game without worrying about losing lots of money to thieves then it could absolutely be worth it.
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