10 Lessons The Gaming Industry Must Learn From 2014

5. Piracy Is Inevitable, But Can Be Minimised

Although the PC side of gaming shows higher piracy rates than other platforms, pirates are a problem that all creators - across virtually every creative and digital industry - have to deal with. Fortunately, 2014 has yielded several examples of how piracy can be combated and discouraged. Many creators make the mistake of assuming that the correct approach to piracy is to try and stop it altogether. That's like trying to fight the rain. Nothing can prevent piracy entirely; users who want to obtain products without paying will always find a way around even the thickest red tape. With that said, creators shouldn't throw their hands up in abject despair and let their work be stolen. However, as Ubisoft and countless others recently demonstrated, the best way to handle piracy is to make it stupid, to obviate it, to make actually purchasing the game the better option. We've seen this accomplished by myriad in-game punishments rendering games impossible to complete unless purchased legally, which is an excellent (and hilarious) way to counter unsavory downloads. Again we see that this approach isn't full-proof either, but it's a far cry more effective than pointing fingers and threatening lawsuits.