Software piracy is a huge deal to developers and publishers, with Ubisoft using abhorrent, anti-consumer methods to stop people pirating their games. Veteran developer Charles Cecil (who brought you the Broken Sword series) has told MCV that piracy is a natural reaction to the steep prices publishers demand.

‘œPersonally, I think that the level of piracy we have is nature’s way of turning around and saying games are too expensive and the way that they are distributed is not ideal,’ said Cecil. He then made the parallel to iTunes, which he thinks ‘œhas shown that if you make the means of distribution easy and the price compelling, you will build the respect of your audience.’

His argument is one of offering the carrot, rather than the stick, to videogame pirates and make it easier to buy the games than pirate them. He continued to say that while this won’t stop piracy completely, it just ‘œwon’t become such a serious issue anymore.’

A compelling argument, but one that directly goes against the aggressive policies of companies like Ubisoft and EA. Steam has come some way towards making purchases easier, but pirates are still going to download cracked versions of games. I would argue that piracy is always going to occur; look at every single content-based business, they almost all feature piracy.

The key, in my opinion, is embracing that and giving your users who do purchase a copy of your game the best possible experience, not requiring them to keep their internet connection active in order to play your mediocre assassin game.