Cecil: Piracy is natures way of telling us games are too expensive

Revolution Software’s Charles Cecil has claimed that the rampant piracy currently testing the industry is the natural consequence of gaming’s current business and distribution model.

The legendary developer warned that prices are too high and distribution is still not accessible enough to prevent illegal downloads from being a threat to publishers.

Personally, 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,” Cecil told MCV.

Yes, we can pressure internet service providers and take any number of anti-piracy measures. But ultimately iTunes has shown that if you make the means of distribution easy and the price compelling, you will build the respect of your audience.

And while this won’t eradicate piracy completely, it won’t become such a serious issue anymore.”

Cecil is currently working with Sumo Digital on Doctor Who: The Adventure Games, a BBC project that will see retail quality games based on the popular sci-fi show distributed digitally for free via PC.

He believes that if this new model should prove to be successful, it will open new avenues for game-makers that could go some way to diminishing the effects of piracy in the industry.

What’s great about what we’re doing here is we’re creating games that are free for download and in doing so I hope we’re expanding the market,” said Cecil.

Hopefully, if we can prove that this model can work, that will create new opportunities for other people.

But it’s a challenge because until now a few companies have made a success of episodic gaming.”

The first episode of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games – City of the Daleks – will be released on June 6th as a digital download for PC.