http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=33571

Old business models are dead, it's time to embrace the new, says GPG boss

Gas Powered Games' boss Chris Taylor believes that secure PC gaming will keep the format alive and relevant, while old PC gaming business models continue to die out.

While Epic's Cliffy B has said the current state of PC gaming is in "disarray" and Lionhead's Peter Molyneux sees it in a "tragic" state, Taylor says it's time to embrace new business models such as server-based and online-authenticated gaming.

"PC gaming isn't dead. PC gaming – the old model – probably is. Secure PC gaming is the future – it's going to thrive and we've all got to get on that," said Taylor during the Game Developers Conference last week.

While traditional PC gaming has been decimated by rampant online piracy, only a handful of titles such as World of Warcraft and The Sims are seen as successes in the PC market.

The casual market has grown rapidly over the past couple of years, with Flash-based games also threatening to catch up to standards set by traditional PC games – first-person shooters, real-time strategy titles and role-playing games.

But the Supreme Commander developer sees a future where the user understands the reasons behind secure gaming – titles accessed from a central server rather than a home PC – and once the content is secure, prices could be brought down to entice more players back to their PCs.

"It's all got to be secure, we can't afford to make this stuff and give it away for free," he said. "I don't think we should be sending the message to anybody that PC gaming is dead."

"We're going to secure it and our customers have to know why we are securing it. They have to appreciate why we're protecting it.

"It inconveniences a little but now they know why. And then we can get the economics back in line and maybe we can actually start offering it up at a lower price point in the future. So it will come around full circle," he said.

Expressing his passion for PC gaming, Taylor joked: "I'm a PC guy, I'm doing stuff on console, but I love what the PC can do. I'm super excited by quad core. I've got a quad core machine with a big 30 inch monitor, I got liquid cooling – Peggle is awesome on that!

"It's a wonderful thing, I don't want to see it go away," he said.

I agree in theory, but in practice.... It will take a hell of a lot more convincing to get me to be okay with many of these practices.

First, the notion of it being on a central server is great - I love digital distribution. However, unless there is a loophole for offline play (like Steam has) I am simply not interested. And as soon as you have that loophole that doesn't require authentication, you no longer have a secure system.

Second, any sort of protection that would protect them offline (DRM via encryption, etc) is sure to be broken at some point, and then it becomes an arms race between the crackers and the companies. In the end, the crackers *will* win, and the costs of developing the DRM will push prices even higher. They cannot do the Apple FairPlay route of making the DRM easily circumventable, either, because as soon as one copy is cracked, it'll be on torrent sites within minutes. Songs have had Digital DRM-free CDs available forever, so a single copy of a song getting its DRM stripped is no big deal.

Really, I say Steam is the ideal that can be shot for and still have people use it. It provides a simple portal to playing and buying games, while making it somewhat annoying to pirate games (but not impossible). You avoid the arms race, and you provide a platform where honest people can be honest.

So, basically DRM.

DRM always fails due to it being too restrictive and the companies always get it wrong. I think a free software client with subscription-based gameplay is the best method: you get more people trying out your program, there's no piracy issues, constant revenue (and you have incentive for extra features and fixes to be developed) and of course anyone is free to port it to whatever OS or platform they want.

 I keep hearing how companies are moving to console development because A) there are more sales and B) piracy is lower. If this is the case, then why do console games cost AU$10-$40 more than PC games?

 On the assumption that those who are pirating do start to buy games, what incentive do the companies have to drop prices? They've already got those who weren't buying them before to start buying them at their current prices.

 Just another false hope to get people to give up convenience and fair use in favour of DRM.

Excellent point. I didn't even consider that because there's no way they would ever reduce prices.

DRM sucks.

I honestly don't care about DRM with games. Yeah, Bioshock's system required that you inform the server or whatever of any uninstalling and whatnot or else your game breaks is a bit annoying...but once you go through all that, you play the game.

It's not like music where one of the main things is sharing music on a CD, PC, MP3 player...you want your music portable.

For a PC game, I really don't care...I go through the DRM or whatever process once, and then I play the game...what difference does it really make? I'm not going to share Bioshock with a friend, as that'd be illegal...and as long as it's not too much of a hassle to install/uninstall, I don't see the problem.

 So what happens when Steam is down? Shame that the store bought copy of Bioshock requires internet access to play offline.

 What happens if Valve disappears (for whatever reason) and so does the activation server? Shame if you want to play it again in 5-10 years time.

 What happens if Valve decides that you've violated their terms of agreement? Shame that you can't play ANY of your games anymore (even the single player ones). 

 What about the ability to resell games?

 You mention portability, what if I'm on the move and purchase a new game? I can't guarentee I'll have access to the internet. 

I rellay hope PC gaming doesnt die :(

It's not going to, its actually stronger than ever.  Steam has over 15 million users and Xfire has over 9.4 million users currently.  And still a large number of PC gamers do not have either service.