ZDNet has an odd take and ECD Systems have an odd view on a study by the latter that found 28 percent of consumers avoid buying PC games that are copy protected. Both ZDNet and ECD Systems stress that only 28 percent avoid copy-protected games. Huh?
More than a quarter of consumers actively avoid buying a product crippled by copy protection and this is seen as validating copy protection? The last time I checked, the PC game market is rapidly shrinking and consolidating — maybe EA can afford to piss of 28 percent of potential PC gamers, but I doubt the rest of the industry can.
And the survey apparently didn’t bother to try to gauge gamer’s opinions on whether they would buy or pirate non-copy protected games. The real world evidence suggests that the lack of copy protection is not a sales killer. Stardock’s Galactic Civilizations II sold like crazy despite not having any copy protection. Why? Because the people who were going to pirate it were going to pirate it even if it had extensive copy protection, and those who were going to buy it went out and bought it anyway. (For the record, I went out and bought a copy, though I’ve never had a chance to play it much thanks to that other non-copy-protected game.)
Moreover, a significant portion of that 72 percent who don’t care about copy protection probably could care less because they know how easy it is to find programs and cracks on the Internet that will remove most copy protection schemes.
Sources:
Only 28% of US consumers avoid games with copy protection. ZDNet Research, October 6, 2006.
New Study from ECD Finds Only 28 Percent of Consumers Avoid Copy Protected Games. ECD Systems, September 28, 2006.