http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/156948/pc-piracy-levels-are-astounding-says-cod4-dev/

So in other words, CoD4 PC was highly pirated. Makes sense for the low sales it got.

And from the biggest PC graphics card manufacturer:

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52593

So the CoD4 publisher comes out and says it and nVidia who sell hardware used for sales (they are also jsut talking about the ETHICS f piiracy, not the numbers so this is not even a statistic). Definitely unbiased analysts! That's like asking Sony how they think the PS3 is doing.....

Funny, cause Valve is ALSO a developer, HIGHLY successful on the PC and they reasoned it very differently. Go head and read the summaries, also brace of pwning.

Edit: I forgot to say that the first link, not only is it from the publisher, but it also had no statistics whatsoever. In fact it sounds more like heresay "i heard it from the guy who heard it rom his mom's best friend's nephew!"

Typical PC gamer/pirate behavior.  Knock off any concerned party as just biased analytics or heresay.

Also, IW HAS released sales figures for CoD4 accross all platforms, and the PC version only accounted for 1-3 million of those sales.... then they also give this announcement about the high piracy rate of CoD4.  So it makes sense that the PC CoD4 only sold 1-3 million and all the rest were pirated.

And I already commented on your Vavle and Blizzard argument.  Valve thrives because it is predominantly DD via its own service and sells many games via its own service.  They aren't just a developer, they are a marketplace.

Blizzard games don't matter if they are pirated.  I believe I said this and you completely ignored it and repeated what I already knew, which was that WoW is easy to pirate.  Blizzard thrives by making games that need monthly subscription charges and there is no easy way around that.  Sure there are credit card generators, but those can lead to major issues.  Blizzard is very good at picking up people who are attempting to use their WoW servers without paying.  So, 2 devs are thriving because of their own marketplace, their console multiplats, and their dominant DD sales, and from the use of subscription requirements.  The PC market must be thriving!  I mean 2 devs are still doing good while all the others are moving to multiplatfrom with consoles or straight consoles!

Yes, because in the same way I can find statistics that are biased towards piracy that show that your claims are bullshit, but then you would whine and complain about the source, so either find me actual statistics (also the links you showed me are NOT statistics).

I also want to now how Valve thrived in between Half-Life and Half-Life 2 before Steam ever released.

Also lizzard has made ONE game which has monthly subscription, not games, and that was in 2004. I wonder how they managed to get : WC1, Wc2 and expansions, Diablo and expansion, Starcraft, Diablo 2 ad expansoin, Warcraft 3 and expansion out the door since the early 90s without WoW..... Also i laugh at you claiming Blizzard is a multiplatform company.

Also you must either lack serious reading comprehension or you didn't read what Valve said about piracy because they addressed why only 2 companies are thriving on the PC.

I'm still awaiting statistics with actual numbers in them, again, from a source which isnt pirate or publisher favoring.

I'm still waiting on these supposed statistics you can bring up that I can't explain away. 

You just lack the ability to realize the truth of the matter.  Every developer save for 2 are complaining about Piracy, and I already explained why those developers are somewhat immune.

Piracy will force all games to have to implement some advanced form of DRM that can't be cracked (expensive and likely impossible), or move to platforms where piracy is at least harder to do and sales will improve greatly.

Yes, I admit internet is faster now. Also games take up 15 GB of space while back then HOMM3 was about 300MB. So just as speed increased game sizes have too, same as before. So file size and speed have been more or less constant. So that's surely not it.

I also you to note how the companies who are complaining of piracy also make subpar games and don't cater to their audiences. Somehow that doesn't seem like a nice cause to you? Cause according to the free market economics that makes perfect sense. Again, read what Valve fucking wrote because they don't seem to talk about their Steam a whole lot and they talk a whole lot about how they make GOOD GAMES which people BUY. Or maybe you are just scared of intelligent discussion made by people who obviously know how to avoid it, cause that would explain a lot.

Again, I want to know HOW you know piracy is such an issue. Did your mommy tell you? Or maybe it was that big dark guy from the publishing company? Or maybe just your friend's mom's cousin's nephew's daughter? Show me the numbers or anythign that comes out of you is utterly insubstantial.

I don't need to defend myself against childish attacks.  Piracy is a very huge thing.  Maybe it's just a US thing?  All I know is that EVERYONE I know of with PC's have stolen at least one game via piracy.  And how can you just base it off a generic "the games aren't good" statement?  That's bullcrap and you know it.  Demigod, Sins of a Solar Empire, CoD4, Spore, all were great games with great reviews.... yet these were some of the most destroyed by piracy.  In fact, piracy affects the better games more than the crap games no one likes.... so that is very flawed logic.

You're the one who's making childish attacks, or shall I say trolling. You have yet to show a proper argument rather than just "PC has huge piracy! Games must sell bad!"

All reports and studies have shown that PC games have been selling better and better, more than ever before. What's impressive is that this is all happening in the middle of a transition from retail to digital distribution. Even right now, PC gaming is outgrowing Consoles.

As for the games you just mentioned:

Demigod, we don't know the sales so far, but GPG hopes to sell 500k, so no doubt they're on the good track.

Sins of a Solar Empire, an example of where a small, talented team of 4 people flies high into heavens, with their debut game selling over 1 million copies

COD4 was a huge success on PC, selling probably up to 10 millions on PC

Spore was the fastest selling PC game for EA ever (until Sims 3 came), and this proves alot. It is still selling, and will sell for years. it will likely sell over 5 millions.

Shio... give it a rest.  CoD4 developers IW released many statements giving the total sales of CoD4 across all platforms.  Of those, the PC only had 1-3 million tops.  The argument that CoD4 is highly pirated is supported by both the fact that it still has many many players online, and the own release from IW stating they were shocked at the number of people playing online with pirated copies.

Demigod reported piracy of 80%.  I don't care how many total they are selling, I care how many total is being pirated.  Which for CoD4, Spore, Demigod, and SoaSE is quite a large number.

I'd love to see all these supposed studies within the last 2 years that show PC games selling better and better, and PC gaming growing faster than console gaming.  Every bit of news I've seen seems to point opposite.  A shift of developers and gamers alike to consoles or both PC and console.

Why? Stardock themselves just care how many were sold.