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Stardock: PC gaming's poor performance 'not Microsoft's fault'

Posted Jun 17, 2008 at 5:25PM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Opinions & Analysis Tags: Crysis, Crytek, Ironclad Games, Microsoft, piracy, Stardock

Independent developer and publisher Stardock (officially known as Stardock Systems among the corporates) believes that the poor performance of PC game sales and revenue can't be attributed to Microsoft. As Stardock's chief executive officer, Brad Wardell - a hardcore PC gamer himself - says that Microsoft cannot move in great strides in favor for the PC side without being sued left and right.

"We've seen what happens when Microsoft tries to implement useful things in their operating system. They get sued," Wardell opined. His remarks probably reflect a previous suit against the PC software giant, who at one time had been under siege from a legal standpoint in the European Union for allegedly monopolizing the media player market by bundling Windows Media Player with their operating systems.

The end result wasn't pretty. The class action suit was filed back in 2003, and Microsoft eventually had to settle over US$ 2 billion in fines (cumulative). That's two billion smackeroos for just for bundling software.

Now, says Wardell, the company is overly cautious about bundling options that could help against PC piracy, simply because they're in fear of being sued again.

Now we're starting to see why Games for Windows LIVE still doesn't have its own Games for Windows LIVE Marketplace - Wardell predicts that if Windows Vista ever came with a digital distribution software as well, it would allow new class action law suits to line up their "unfair competition" cross-hairs.

No, the big punches for PC gaming won't be coming from Microsoft. "It's really up to the third parties to come in," he said.

Valve Software's Doug Lombardi previously claimed that the PC gamer needed a single champion - an entity that PC gamers would look up to to advocate the PC game. Unlike the consoles, who could look up to their manufacturing companies, the PC has no one.

Even more so that Microsoft can't be depended on to help. If third-parties were to move in unison, then that could become an apt replacement - "if" being the operative term here, since some developers were convinced that piracy would ruin their chances of success.

Months earlier, a developer from Infinity Ward blogged how piracy was rampant with otherwise successful Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Crytek, creators of the most technically advanced game published, were not in good terms with the idea of PC exclusivity either.

Piracy, they say, forces developers to look to other platforms - Image 1

CEO Cevat Yerli said that Crysis' sales, though one of 2007's top selling PC games, was seriously hampered by piracy. Yerli's words soon signaled the beginning of the last days of Crysis' exclusivity to the PC. But Wardell isn't convinced with the piracy angle, again:

[Piracy] is not why [Crysis] didn't sell as many as [Crytek] wanted. Everybody knows why Crysis didn't sell more copies. I couldn't run Crysis. ... I have a $6,000 Alienware box that's obscene, the most powerful setup. And it doesn't run Crysis great. People say I can run it at a lower resolution, but I say look, I have a 24" monitor. I want to run it in its native resolution. If it runs chunky at that resolution, that's not a good experience.

Did he just say six thousand dollars? Anyways, Crysis still sold over a million copies despite Yerli's complaints. Sins of a Solar Empire, Stardock and Ironclad Games' latest 4X real-time strategy game, sold just a meager 300,000 copies to date.

Sins wasn't on the same marketing field as Crysis was, and it was never expected to be a blockbuster. "I've sold 300,000 copies of Sins of a Solar Empire with just tiny bits of marketing," he added.

Sins of a Solar Empire still managed to sell 300,000 copies despite piracy. - Image 1

But it still managed to pierce into the top ten best selling PC games, and somehow, it even managed to pay off the investment. Wardell mused,

Sure 300,000 isn't much when compared to a console title that's gone off and sold a million copies, but at the same time, we didn't spend $7 million or $10 million on Sins. It was more like $1 million to make.

And to think that SoSE wasn't even copy protected. More updates on PC gaming as we come by them. Keep your eyes glued to this space for more.

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