Microsoft has obviously been inspired by the success of the music business on how to fight piracy…. Oh wait! The music business is the main example on how NOT to fight piracy. Check out the news over @ BBC news

Microsoft might be big enough to pull this one off though, but I have a feeling they’ve just lost those 1 million customers that got a permanent ban unless they buy a new unmodified console to play on.

Why does several businesses out there insisit on fighting piracy head on? Instead of working around it?
Look at steam, I know dozens of has-been pirates that now buys the games instead, over steam. Of course, if it’s not on steam, they might end up downloading it unless the game is available for digital purchase online.

I was of the impression that Xbox live also was one of the good ways to stop piracy. Make games easily available online to download unto your console. I am sure most of the games from Xbox live is not subject to piracy, though I don’t know the statistics….
The most ironic thing is that the ban is only for Xbox live, which means they cut them off from the only thing that probably keep them from pirating ALL games…
They can still play offline, so what’s keeping them from still pirating games to play offline? Heh….

And I can actually understand why someone would want to pirate the store-games.
First of all; people like to be able to buy their games online without having to go to a store.
The Xbox games usually cost ALOT for any average gamer, which would also end in piracy.
And there has been so much crap games out there at times, that you feel really ripped off when you had to pay $60 for a game that just sucked.
Discs are fragile things, they can handle some beating, true, but I know myself that I like to have a digital backup of it anyway. Just in case.

I have a feeling this initiative from Microsoft isn’t gonna end in a good way….

Unity did it, and now Epic has done it too!

A little over a week ago, Unity decided to make their indie license for their 3D engine developer tool, Unity3D free. This was great news for us indie developers, and I have already decided to use Unity on our games instead of Torque!

But then! Epic announced a few days ago that their Unreal 3 engine Developer Kit can also be downloaded  for free!
Granted, they still require 25% royalties on all revenue over $5000, but the possibility that we indies now have to use the AAA U3 engine is bound to generate some great new games out there.

I like the development of the Gamedev business lately. What’s next? CryEngine for free?
This is kind of bad news for Torque though, since they recently decided to not make a separate indie license with their new Torque 3D engine, but instead offers it for $1000 for everyone. Which means they will most likely lose ALOT of indies to Unity or Epic.
Unless they use the opportunity and release a free indie license in the coming weeks, which might be a smart move as it looks now.

Also, Unity has just partnered up with  online video education site, Noesis to offer education on the use of Unity3.
Which is something I’ve always found lacking in the past, easy accessible education on the different 3D engines out there.
Hopefully this trend will continue too, so we get more education on the different engines online.