This blog goes out to Nintendo, Konami, and all the other developers that seem to be hell-bent against emulators. Here's a radical new idea that you should listen to: you're going at this exactly the wrong way!
Let's be real here, all the legislation that's being batted around and stuff will NOT stop piracy. It won't. Yes, the box-offices have taken a hit, but that's because of the rise of the home theater. Game sales have been fine!
1. Look at The Humble Indie Bundle! Name your own price DRM-free and STILL wildly successful! How can this be, considering that it would be so easy to pirate?! Egads!
2. System of a Down's 'Steal This Album' which was released free on their site STILL sold many many copies.
3. There are still many gamers out there that love old titles and would probably still pay money for them.
Here's the thing: instead of releasing 'Collector's' discs with a few of your old games, why not create officially-sanctioned emulators and release roms for nominal fees DRM-free? If you really think you'd lose money on this, you're crazy.
*Gamers who could get their hands on safe Roms rather than from virus-plagued sites would buy them.
*Those who wish to do things the legal way (like yours-truly) would rather buy official roms.
*Developers would be able to garner further funds from games just collecting dust.
*The same developers can track what sells to get better ideas about what the general consumer wants in a game TODAY.
*Working WITH the emulator community rather than against will certainly shed a positive light on the developer. It would also allow for easy cross-platform distribution that other companies only DREAM about!
*Looking at all the above in addition to the fact of how much cheaper digital distribution is to sell, disperse, and track, it's ridiculous this hasn't been done yet.
Just food for thought guys and gals.
