The PC Gaming Alliance has said that piracy on the home computer platform is on the decrease, thanks to the introduction of free-to-play games and downloadable content.According to the president of the Alliance, Matt Ployhar - no doubt from a galaxy far, far away - the PC Piracy Empire has suffered a blow because it's simply not as fun to crack open games that are based on the free-to-play model.
"What's happening is game design is shifting and as a result of shifting game design, piracy, at least on the PC side, is actually declining as a result," he told
Gamasutra. "There are stats that do corroborate that," apparently.
"These retail games, your brick and mortars, are declining, and some of that forcing function was piracy. What's picking up the slack are your Steam accounts, your Wild Tangents, your Orbs, your EA Downloader, your Battle.net."
Ployhar added that he doesn't think piracy will go away any time soon, but that the emphasis on achievements and other incentives stored in the cloud are negating the "bragging rights" usually tied to playing pirated games. On the flipside, while piracy is in decline, identity theft is said to be on the increase as more value is placed on gaming accounts.