Comments on: Gaming In The Russian Cosmos, Part 1

By: hellofromrussia

hellofromrussia — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:22:52 +0000

It is not so rampant only regarding our own games and officially translated releases. So 1c releases really don’t suffer from piracy as much as they would in 90s.
In case of foreign games, it is getting better, but much much slower. A lot of shops still sell both legal and pirated copies. And this is just in Moscow, I`m sure pirates’ positions are much stronger elsewere in Russia, where average income is lower and 100-200 rur of difference really matter.
Also the decline in piracy levels in major cities is at least partly due to availabilty of cheap unlimited internet access. Not only because its free – it is also less ‘evil’ just to try a game than to sponsor some shady chain of people making money on other’s creations.

With Buka and 1c it is a bit like saying that Microsoft was always a major supporter of Linux after Microsoft buys RedHat (God forbid.. ). It is technically correct, just may tick some people off :) 1C always preferred RIAA-style methods with the arrests, scaremngering, ludicrious drm protections, publicity events like bulldozers trashing tonns of recently confiscated pirate cds. Buka was far from perfect either, but it was better, and healthy competition between the two only benefited the gamers. Now that 1c is THE main publisher and has no major opposition it can freely dictate game prices, and the only ones who win beside themselves are pirates – they hapily rise their prices to match 1c’s.

This whole situation is a bit more compilcated, than to say that they could rise their prices after their own shops became more popular than those that sold pirate games..

By: Jim Rossignol

Jim Rossignol — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:45:10 +0000

Hi Mr FromRussia, thanks for the clarifications there. I of course realise there are some torrent sites in Russia, and it’s interesting what you say about 1c’s torrents being moved to Piratebay. I’m also aware that there’s still some piracy, I saw pirate DVDs on sale in Moscow too. My intention was to suggest that piracy was not as rampant as it once was, that it continues to decline, at least at retail. I think that is true?

1c’s claim regarding shops is on a distribution basis, clearly. Most shops are privately owned, but 1c delivers their software, hence the “13 tonnes” thing.

Regarding Buka: 1c did credit them with this stuff, but since the two companies are now the same, I didn’t really see a distinction worthy of crediting a non-existent company? Perhaps I was remiss.

By: hellofromrussia

hellofromrussia — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:02:20 +0000

Sorry for tripple post, but theres another thing I missed :)
1C shops don’t matter. At ALL. I didn’t even know they exist, and I am an avid PC gamer since mid-90s. Games are still sold in small privately owned shops near subway stations, markets, on popular avenues etc. and in major music shops and malls, that have nothing to do with 1c. It is possible though that 1c bought out some of them or just made some kind of distribution deal, officially claiming that now they are ‘theirs’ or whatever.

By: hellofromrussia

hellofromrussia — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:49:55 +0000

Part about torrent sites being closed is also (kinda) wrong. We have a single major torrent site – torrents.ru, that has everything from movies, comics, magazines and pr0n to games and software. However they have one single rule – when 1c releases something, it gets moved to piratebay. This site is legal, but given the 1c`s resources they can cause a lot of unneeded trouble to anyone, even legal compnies.

By: hellofromrussia

hellofromrussia — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:43:47 +0000

While your article is mostly correct, parts about piracy are greatly exagarated or even completely wrong. It is as if you were talking only with 1c`s PR person :)
Yes, piracy is slowly declining, but pirated games are still more popular than legal ones. There is a rule – you generally don`t pirate games, that are published here legally, and you definitely don`t pirate Russian games. Everything else is ok – Microsofts software, EA/Ubisoft/TakeTwo`s games etc.
And 1C didn`t start lowering prices to fight piracy. It was Buka – the first publisher to accept realities of our market and try to work with it instead of using police to arrest individuals. They are also the ones that began to include English versions of the games along with Russian – accepting, that transaltion is crappy for the most part. They were also the first to strike a deal with EA – it was a boxed issue of wing commander, and they managed to persuade EA to sell it several times cheaper than it was in US.

1C is just a major software corporation, that saw the opportunities in game market, and began using proven Buka’s methods and its own huge budget to gain market share. After they became strong enough they just bought Buka.

By: TeeJay

TeeJay — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:55:25 +0000

Is this an annual show?

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:34:05 +0000

Irritatingly, they failed to note the time context of the piece, so you get a magazine in January looking forward to King’s Bounty and Stalker: Clear Sky, both of which have been out for months.

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:31:20 +0000

Published in PC Gamer UK in the May 08 issue, published in PC Gamer US in the February 09 issue. Timelag much? :p

By: rvm1975

rvm1975 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:59:29 +0000

In february 2009 Majesty 2 demo will be released. It’s 1C / Ino-Co project as well.

By: Larington

Larington — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:39:24 +0000

Don’t know when I’ll get to sit down and play it, but I’m definately looking forward to seeing whats been done with Cryostasis.

By: hydra9

hydra9 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:35:38 +0000

Thanks for the info, Mr. Still – It’s good to know!

By: Darryl Still

Darryl Still — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:55:07 +0000

Just to let you all know, all the 1C titles mentioned in the article will be published in the UK and US in 2009.
Men of War & Cryostasis by the end of Q1.