Valve Believes Only Superior Service Can Defeat Piracy
Video game developer and Steam creator Valve has again talked about piracy and how the only way to reduce its impact is to deliver an experience that the illegal copies of video games cannot match up to.
This means that digital distribution can reach and turn a profit even in those countries that are traditionally ignored by retail, like Russia, because the perception is that most if not all of the content is being pirated.
Gabe Newell, who is the leader of Valve and on of its co-founders, has told the audience at the North to Innovation conference in Seattle that, �Russia now outside of Germany is our largest continental European market�, adding �the people who are telling you that Russians pirate everything are the people who wait six months to localize their product into Russian.�
When it comes to how the big issues of piracy can be handled all over the world, Newell believes that, �The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It�s by giving those people a service that�s better than what they�re receiving from the pirates.�
The position is very similar to that adopted by the leader of Good Old Games, who has stated that tough DRM measures will not be able to eliminate piracy and might even drive some players to the illegal medium because of its simplicity.
Newell also talked about the move to free-to-play that Team Fortress 2 made earlier during the year, with the game getting an online user base that is five times bigger.
The company leader also says that between 20 and 30 percent of players also buy something from Valve, which is much more than normal conversion rates of about 1 to 3%.
The executive admitted that Valve has no clear explanation for this high number but is nevertheless pleased by it.
