Why UT is cross Platform

[Diomedes]

According to them, rampant piracy:

Michael Capps (President of Epic Games) went so far as to state, "It killed us to make Unreal Tournament 3 cross-platform, but Epic had to do it." Revenues from a PC exclusive game could no longer support the development costs. Capps went on to say, "A person who buys a $400 video card also knows how to use Bit Torrent."

http://www.gamedaily.com/canvases/gd/_a/systemaddict-pirating-away-the-pcs/20070315165609990001?&ncid=AOLGAM000500000000016

Disturbing. I somehow always thought that UT checked your CD key etc online. I wonder if the cross platforming is the reason for the delays.

The article is a good read, especially:

We groan every time a StarForce screen pops up, and we hate the hassle of inputting a long stream of easily lost alphanumeric digits with every install, or the fact that the disc needs to be in the drive, despite the fact that the entire game copies to the hard drive. Seriously, EA... user authentication, alphanumeric registration AND disc checking for Battlefield? Although it might sound trite, legitimate users end up being the people who suffer most.

But I suppose if piracy is driving companies away from PC gaming, it'd be better to deal with the hassles.  I think I'd rather see a system where you have to register your product online with a footnote that after a year or two the company releases a patch that disables that feature (as almost all sales happen in the first year or two anyhow).

[Andrew (I2ed3ye)]

PR is so funny.. they'll give any excuse.  Instead of just saying, "We want more profits," they'll blame it on a semi-recent and tiring fad that producers like to throw out there.  What company spends more money in development than their projected profits?  Not any sane one.. and certainly not one that's been in the business for more than their fair share.  Like piracy on consoles is really difficult.  zOMG $50 hardware mod, pew-pew!  So now, anyone who buys a top performing (or 3D development) video card is now a pirate.  Since everyone who buys one can use BitTorrent.  Epic should strike a deal with nVidia to install spyware with their new video cards that fdisks on any Peer-to-Peer communications.  Obviously they're stealing.  But ignore someone who spent $700 for a console.  They're blatantly stupid and don't even know what BitTorrent is.. probably don't even have a computer.

What they need to do is stop spending four years in development for the same game they've been making for five generations to put whatever new graphic filters and techniques they feel will sell it again.  We don't need 50 different characters models, half of which are cheesy that only a couple people will use.  We don't need environments that show off glare effects and monochromatic glows.  We don't need highly-detailed weapons with 100 moving parts.  And those are just the small chunks of investments.

Shame on you, id and Epic.  Go play your dialy dose of Diakatana.