Last week we published an editorial called “The Hypocracy of PC gamers“. We’ve received a ton of feedback and emails from readers, some good, some bad, but we also got emails from a few game developers as well. One developer wanted to share his story on how piracy affected his studio. These are his thoughts.

I run a small independent PC game studio (which will remain anonymous), and we have a slate of smaller puzzle and RPG games that we’ve made since 2009. We sell the games on Steam and other downloadable services, in addition to selling them on our own site, completely DRM-free. In 2011, we had 12 developers and artists working on new titles, and working on getting our games on the iOS platform. Sales were decent throughout the years, enough to support us and ensure that we could keep updating our games. Then our entire catalog of games was posted on The Pirate Bay and spread to other torrent sites.

“The “bundle” of games hit the torrent sites in January 2011, and by March, sales were down 50%. By May, they were down 80%”We didn’t think much of it at first, piracy affects everyone in this industry, and we believed that sales wouldn’t be affected too much and that gamers would appreciate supporting the devs and buying DRM free games. Then sales went down. A lot. The “bundle” of games hit the torrent sites in January 2011, and by March, sales were down 50%. By May, they were down 80%. We tried to respond to the piracy of our games in several ways. We lowered the price on Steam by 33%. Sales picked up a tiny bit, but it’s impossible because you’re competing with free. We had Steam sales, bundle packs, everything we could. It wasn’t enough, and by October of 2011, I had to let go half of my team — 6 people. We’ve restructured now to focus entirely on iOS games. I dunno how it’ll turn out, but developing on PC and supporting our PC games is not an option any longer. We just can’t afford it.

It’s easy for gamers and game journalists to get on their soapbox and proclaim they know how to fix the piracy issue, they always seem to “know” what developers should do (“Put it on Steam”. “Don’t use DRM”, “Use clever advertising” etc.). But you’re not the ones who have to manage a studio, you’re not the ones who have to make sure your developers get paid so they can feed their families. Our studio was doing just fine before our games hit the pirate channels. Then it all went downhill.

There are some claims that piracy causes millions of lost jobs in the US. I dunno about those numbers, maybe they’re true, maybe they’re much lower. But I know that piracy cost at least 6 jobs in 2011. Six people that I had to fire. Talented, hard-working folks with families.

So to all of you Pirate Bay supporters, all of you “experts” on Internet freedom who support “sharing” and who claim that “it’s not stealing”. From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of those 6 people: fuck you.

UPDATE: Our contributor emailed in this addition to the post: “For all those who ask: I won’t name my company nor the games we make. I’m fully aware that my statements go against most gamer’s beliefs on piracy and I have no intentions of drawing the wrath of the Internet to my company, which is already struggling. And this has nothing to do with quality — our games had a great fan base and we were doing just fine for two years before the games hit the torrent networks.”

Valve founder and all around holy man Gabe Newell recently did a brief interview with Develop where he gave some advice to developers and those looking to get into the gaming business. Here’s what Newell had to say:

Do not focus on anyone but your customers. Your reputation will follow you forever so always be fair to your customers, and certainly one thing you need to always remember is that your customers are not going to be fooled.

Some people think they can get away with something and just hope people won’t see through the bullshit. The internet is way smarter than any of us.

In terms of business, do not take out huge advances to fund projects, because they are only loans and have strings attached.

Great advice, Gabe! Now, where the hell is Half Life 3?

One of the most influential video game franchises of our generation is none other than Grand Theft Auto. While the game has been developed in glorious 3D since the days of GTA3, things weren’t always this way. In fact, prior to Grand Theft Auto 3, the game was played with a birds eye view but included all of the chaos we’ve come to know and love in later releases.

However, if things were just a bit differently, perhaps we wouldn’t know of Grand Theft Auto at all. The reason I say this is because Gary Penn, a developer who worked on the original GTA, has come forth to comment of the development.

“[The original GTA] was a real mess for years, it never moved on, it never went anywhere… It was almost canned, the publisher, BMG Interactive, wanted to can it, as it didn’t seem to be going anywhere.”

Luckily, Penn adds, they discovered that adding a bit of chaos to the game would significantly bump the replay factor:

“One day, I think it was a bug, the police suddenly became mental and aggressive. Their route finding was screwed I think and that was an awesome moment because suddenly the real drama where, ‘Oh my God, the police are psycho — they’re trying to ram me off the road.’ That was awesome, so that stayed in.”

And thus, Grand Theft Auto as we know it was created.

Pretty neat story if you ask me. Head over to Gamasutra to read more.

It’s becoming increasingly more often that you hear about independent game developers making it big but Minecraft really stands out above the rest. Time and time again this open-world title has made headlines not only for its innovative gameplay but also for its massive sales numbers. However, despite the fact that Minecraft has been immensely popular thus far, no one could have thought just how popular it would really be.

The game’s creator Notch has come forth to let us know that the game is nearing 1,000,000 units sold. As of this writing, it’s at about 950,000 units sold so it will be interesting to see how long it takes for the additional 50,000 units to make their way into the hands of consumers.

Better yet, Notch has said that Minecraft will be getting an update sometime this week that will add even more content to the already expansive game.

via cvg

Now here’s something pretty damn cool — Microsoft has just shown off at TechEd Middle East how simple it is to develop a game that will work with an Xbox 360, PC and a Windows Phone 7 Series powered device. This means you develop a game in Visual Studio and then you’ll be able to play it on a PC with a keyboard, an Xbox 360 with a controller and a Windows Phone 7 Series device with the touchscreen and accelerometer. The amazing part of this is that all 3 versions of the game share 90% of the code.

This is obviously Microsoft’s push to unify their product line and I’m sure we will be seeing some amazing games coming out utilizing this method.

via engadget

If you’re looking to get in on what is sure to be one of the hottest game releases of 2010, you should check this out — Microsoft has recently put up a web page letting us know that they are looking to bring 18 new developers on board to develop exclusively for their forthcoming motion controller codenamed Project Natal.

Of course, the jobs are all based out of Redmond, Washington where Microsoft Game Studios is headquarter so those not willing to relocate need not apply.

via joystiq

Despite being based on a movie of the same name, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is definitly shaping up to be a great game. Included above is a video walkthrough showcasing the multiplayer component featured in the game.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will apparently feature 5 different multiplayer modes: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Team Leader, Control Points and Battle for the Shards. Featured in the video is Control Points which looks to be a King of the Hill, Territories type game mode.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be out for the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, PC, Wii and Nintendo DS on June 23rd.

Yeah, the Halo Wars Strategic Options DLC pack wasn’t exactly a steal at 800 Microsoft Points (or $10) but what’s worse is the pack itself is only 2MB. This led gamers to believe that perhaps the content was already included on the original game disc which caused all sorts of an uproar.

Well, Dave Pottinger, lead game designer for Halo Wars, decided to sooth the anger and step in having been quoted the following on the official Halo Wars message boards:

None of the DLC was on the disc when it shipped. The game modes are a small download because they are rules. There is some new content, but it’s obviously a different type of content compared to a map. Also, the recent patch added a bunch of miss support/engine groundwork for both DLCs.

Yeah yeah, nice excuse Pottinger, but what about the price?

Now here’s a funny story — A World of Warcraft user by the name of KarateChop recently was found to have been blowing through some of the game’s hardest instances without even breaking a sweat, even one-shotting the boss of Ulduar. But how?

Well, as the story goes, KarateChop logged on one day only to find a peculiar item (pictured above) sitting in his mailbox. Low and behold, the item was the Martin Fury, a developer only item that was accidently mailed to KarateChop.

Once Blizzard got wind of this they quickly proceeded to ban the offender’s entire guild; even guildies who weren’t present during Mr. Chop’s escapades. So a word of wisdom, if you find an item in your mailbox that gives you the possibility to take over the World of Warcraft, contact a GM.

Read (WoWInsider)

Game developer/publish Atlus has recently announced that their website, Atlus.com, has been hacked by a “third-party entity” who also managed to embed a trojan within the website.

Atlus is saying that users who visited the website on April 25th should seriously consider running antivirus software because the trojan could have spread.

The company also issued an apology stating “The faith and trust of our fans is of the utmost importance to us, a responsibility we don’t take lightly.” Don’t worry Atlus, we won’t hold it against ya!

Read (Joystiq)