Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is coming to Steam not only because of sales potential, but because of piracy.
Crystal Dynamics wants gamers to enjoy the upcoming Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, but it wants them to pay for the privilege and rightfully so. Due to the rampant piracy that goes on in the PC videogame market, the company feels that Steam is the only way to go for the game’s PC release.
Global brand manager for Crystal Dynamics Karl Stewart told CVG that Guardian of Light will definitely use Steam in the U.S. “We’ve gone down the road of implementing Steam DRM where we’ve committed to the U.S. being an exclusive and we’re going to make a decision as to whether or not we’ll use different distribution channels,” he said.
Pirates will pirate anything pirates can get their pirate hands on, even Mary Kate & Ashley: Sweet 16 Licensed to Drive, where players help the Olsen twins get driver’s licenses so they can go cruising in their new cars, something that nobody should ever want to do without being high on tar fumes. If they would pirate that, any game starring the popular Lara Croft and her even more popular boobs is sure to take a hit, says Stewart.
“Tomb Raider‘s got a huge following, when you look at Tomb Raider games in the past and how many times they’ve been pirated. I go on some BitTorrent sites and within the first 48 hours there’s like four hundred thousand downloads, it’s crazy.”
Guardian of Light might have even more trouble due to its nature completely changing from what fans have known of Tomb Raider in the past. “The biggest fear we have is that people are going to be inquisitive and are going to download it,” Stewart admitted. Guardian of Light is not the typical third-person adventure that Lara Croft has been known for, but an isometric single player or co-op combat and puzzle-based action game where players will take on dinosaurs while trying to figure out how to hit frustratingly out-of-reach switches.
I’m a sweet young boy, so I wouldn’t know about things like this, but haven’t people cracked Steam before? Does Steam’s DRM really have an effect when it comes to PC game piracy? Still, Stewart’s comments highlight why Ubisoft has a real stick up its butt about PC DRM. That’s just a little joke Ubisoft, I love you.
Source: CVG
