Pirates as a Marketplace 214
John Riccitiello, the CEO of Electronic Arts, made some revealing comments in an interview with Kotaku about how the company's attitudes are shifting with regard to software piracy. Quoting:
"Some of the people buying this DLC are not people who bought the game in a new shrink-wrapped box. That could be seen as a dark cloud, a mass of gamers who play a game without contributing a penny to EA. But around that cloud Riccitiello identified a silver lining: 'There's a sizable pirate market and a sizable second sale market and we want to try to generate revenue in that marketplace,' he said, pointing to DLC as a way to do it. The EA boss would prefer people bought their games, of course. 'I don't think anybody should pirate anything,' he said. 'I believe in the artistry of the people who build [the games industry.] I profoundly believe that. And when you steal from us, you steal from them. Having said that, there's a lot of people who do.' So encourage those pirates to pay for something, he figures. Riccitiello explained that EA's download services aren't perfect at distinguishing between used copies of games and pirated copies. As a result, he suggested, EA sells DLC to both communities of gamers. And that's how a pirate can turn into a paying customer."
Re:Link? (Score:5, Funny)
It only links to part of the article, you have to purchase the rest as DLC
Re:Link? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Link? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Half a game? (Score:5, Funny)
>>>There is a class of pirate who isn't going to buy anything, no matter what. He can be ignored for the purposes of this conversation.
Awww.
(walks off)
Re:Half a game? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Half a game? (Score:3, Funny)
Anon. Coward wrote: ;-)
Take your pick... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLC - Hint: it's related to Computing and technology
Oh the Desktop Linux Consortium. Well then, that makes what EA is doing a-okay. I. Heart. Linux.
Re:WTF is DLC? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Half a game? (Score:2, Funny)
>N
Thank you for your purchase of Zork! If you wish to continue your adventure, please purchase and install our DLR content "Twisty Passages 2" $5.99!
>buy/install
Downloading.....................Complete.
Installing.....................Complete.
Thank you for your purchase of Zork and Twisty Passages 2! Enjoy your new and amazing Zork experience!
>N
You are in a maze of twisty passages, all alike.
>N
Thank you for your purchase of Zork and Twisty Passages 2! If you wish to continue your adventure, please purchase and install our DLR content "Twisty Passages 3", only $5.99!
>exit
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>uninstall
Thank you for your purchase of Zork and Twisty Passages 2! If you wish to uninstall the game, please purchase our brand new "Uninstall Pack" DLR, for just $2.99!
>shoot computer
I'm sorry, that is not recogSHOCNOCJAOAIJDHZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ