Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!obsolete.UUCP!nazgul
From: nazgul@obsolete.UUCP (Kee Hinckley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Piracy
Message-ID: <8905240432.AA10334@obsolete.UUCP>
Date: 24 May 89 04:32:20 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 29


    Ok, let's face it, Pirating is wrong, but some companies ask for it when they
    try to sell something like Gauntlet GS for $35.  To me that is the same as

Think about it.  Media, duplication and packaging costs for a
single floppy game, with some kind of mimimal documentation, 
probably run 5 to 10 dollars.  That gives you 25 to 30 dollars with
which to pay advertising , marketing, support, development and
mailing costs.  When you are all done you discover that unless
you have a blockbuster program you are unlikely to be able to
make money on anything under $50 in price *unless* you have
a large number of different programs to sell at that price (in
that case you find that a number of the costs can be shared
across products).  That's why a number of the game companies
are actually just marketing companies, the game developers are
individuals or other companies.

So what do you do?  You can't make a living for under $50, but
you can't sell a game for more than $50.  And no matter what
you do, someone justifies pirating it and rips you off anyway.

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