Gabe Newell says Piracy is a ‘Non-Issue’ to Valve

Valve co-founder Gabe Newell says that piracy is a ‘non-issue’ for the Steam creator.

Newell explained to The Cambridge Student that there is a fundamental misconception about piracy, and that its often more of a service problem, than a pricing problem:

In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate’s service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty.

Newell Continued by stating that their goal is to create greater service value to pirates, and that has enabled them to reach this outcome:

Our goal is to create greater service value than pirates, and this has been successful enough for us that piracy is basically a non-issue for our company. For example, prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become our largest market in Europe.

Whilst several companies are shying away from releasing their titles on the platform, Valve’s digital distribution service Steam is going from strength to strength and now dominates the PC game market with over a 70% share.