Bethesda Softworks Piracy Interview

MTV Multiplayer talks with Bethesda’s Pete Hines specifically about piracy (for the PC) and the way it costs the studio money.

Attempting to treat their players as legitimate consumers as widely as possible has its drawbacks, however. It becomes difficult for Bethesda to determine who is and isn’t someone who paid for their game. This becomes especially distressing for the studio’s customer support division.

(The amount of times we see stuff coming through where it’s like, the resolution to the problem was [the] guy had a pirated copy of the game.) said a visibly frustrated Hines. (The amount of money we spend supporting people who didn’t pay us for the game in the first place.it’s f ing ludicrous. We talk to other developers, guys who are [like] ‘˜Yeah, it’s a third, it’s 50% of our [customer] support.’)