Some companies don't seem to "get" piracy. Sure, it's never a good thing to wrongfully use a product or service for free, but at the same time some people seem to have created a situation in their heads where all pirates are inherently evil and should be treated in the same way as people who smash your windows, climb through the gap and take all your favourite stuff.
The difference being, of course, that actual burgarlars rarely leave the money for your stuff if they're impressed by your style.
Gabe Newell seems to "get" piracy and, as such, is constantly asked to air his views on the subject. This time he was speaking with The Cambridge Student Online and, in between questions about Half-Lifes episodic content and Team Fortress 2 going free to play, the question soon came up on how Valve have made so much money in the PC market, a place that some developers would have you believe is filled with absolutely nobody but pirates and freeloaders.
"In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy," Newell said. "Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty.
"Our goal is to create greater service value than pirates, and this has been successful enough for us that piracy is basically a non-issue for our company. For example, prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become our largest market in Europe."
And it can't be said any easier than that, put effort into making your product as good as it can possibly be for PC and not a cheap port, provide support and be fair about how and when the player can use it and you'll have less piracy than if you put an effort into fighting it directly. Which makes sense, it really does.
