PC hardware manufacturers love piracy, says id CEO

Posted at: 11:26am 22nd August 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

Todd Hollenshead claims that the concept of free content boosts PC hardware sales, making the manufacturers secretly happy

While it generally costs more to buy a gaming PC than a console, a lot of PC gamers hope to save money in the long run by invoking the great unwritten PC gaming rule; you can get some of your games for free if you pirate them. According to id Software’s CEO, Todd Hollenshead, this is a secret money maker for manufacturers of PC hardware.

In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, Hollenshead said that the situation was ‘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.’

Hollenshead expanded on his opinion, saying that if you ‘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.’

According to Hollenshead, hardware manufacturers are ‘ignoring the enormity of the problem’ and aren’t doing enough to speak out against piracy. Is piracy one of the main benefits of owning a PC? Are hardware manufacturers secretly happy about piracy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Via gamesindustry.biz