GameDaily Biz recently posted an article covering comments from id Software's Todd Hollenshead about the growing problem of computer game piracy. Hollenshead discussed the billions of dollars lost to software pirates, the current methods to combat piracy, and even mentioned the possibility of abandoning the PC game market to avoid the problem.

Hollenshead did acknowledge that some progress had been made, though. There's now CD key authentication systems on all of id's PC games. He noted that Quake III's system still remains uncracked to this day. Still, there are ways around it on the server side and people have uploaded legitimate CD keys, so it's not the perfect solution. Hollenshead also stressed that it's important to be more careful around the office and when dealing with the press to make sure that pre-release versions of games don't end up in the wrong hands. Another method described that has been somewhat effective against piracy was the use of dongles. Without the dongle code plugged into the back of the machine you can't play the game. Hollenshead ventured that this dongle method might be the reason why they haven't seen a build of Enemy Territory on the Internet, even though they're positive someone has a copy of the game.

Looking ahead to the future, Hollenshead proposed a few ways that piracy could be combated. Perhaps PC games should adopt a subscription only method, he said, or perhaps it should be a requirement to connect to the Internet to finish installing (something that certain Steam games already require). Or, he proposed, the drastic measure of abandoning PC entirely and going to consoles. He gave a few key examples of that happening, like Halo from Bungie and Epic's Unreal and Gears of War franchises. You know the situation is bad when the CEO of id Software, a bastion of PC gaming, is saying that maybe they should just go to consoles because that market is bigger anyway.

GameDailybiz: Hollenshead vs Pirates

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