With all the piracy involved in the video game industry, developers and publishers of retail games always cry foul when they don’t register sales as expected. The folks over at Valve have a surefire way to combat this issue. They call it ‘Steam’, the online delivery system. But Valve’s Doug Lombardi though, has a simple solution to this persistent piracy and used games problem. Make better games, he says.
Lombardi tells Destructoid, “It’s probably true to say that gamers tend to have affinity for the games that they like, so if you’re doing your job and making a good game, and providing a high level of service for that game at the time of release and post-release, I’m guessing you’re probably less of a victim of piracy and trade, because people want to have the full copy, the legal copy, and have all the updates.â€
The marketing VP adds, “I think there are ways of curbing both piracy and used game sales by providing a higher level of service at the time of launch and post-launch. And I think what we’re seeing, as platforms become more and more connected, that this problem will become less and less an issue as the idea of offering a service post-launch becomes more and more en vogue.”
The man has a point. Gamers tend to hang on to the games they like. And if developers can deliver not only a good game, but follow through with content post-release, then there’s no reason why someone would trade in a copy of their game.