id: Piracy 'hidden benefit' for PC manufacturers

Written by Joe Martin

August 22, 2008 | 11:44

Tags: #carmack #doom #hollenshead #id #quake

Companies: #id-software

Hardware manufacturers such as Intel, AMD and Nvidia are secretly enjoying the benefits of rampant game piracy on the PC platform, said id Software spokesperson Todd Hollenshead in a recent interview with GI.biz.

The id Software CEO spoke about how he thinks that hardware manufacturers are lining up on the wrong side of the piracy argument and are continuing to benefit from the very problem that is damaging software developers and publishers.

"They have lots of reasons as to why they do that," he said, "but I think that there's been this dirty little secret among hardware manufacturers, which is that the perception of free content - even if you're supposed to pay for it on PCs - is some sort hidden benefit that you get when you buy a PC, like a right to download music for free or a right to download pirated movies and games."

"I think that if you went in and could see what's going on in their minds, though they may never say that stuff and I'm not saying there's some conspiracy or something like that - but I think the thing is they realise that trading content, copyrighted or not, is an expected benefit of owning a computer."

Well, yeah, that and it's easier to read awesome sites like bit-tech.net on a PC.

Do you agree with Hollenshead, or do you think that the issue of piracy is blown way out of control? Let us know what you think in the forums.

Image courtesy of Fernando Estel.
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