Stop Piracy: Make a Peripheral

Peripherals have always been a way to distinguish your game from the crowd, whether that’s the Power Pad, Time Crisis Gunshock, or the Dance Dance Revolution controller; the point of them is to immerse the player in the game much more. In today’s industry, the obvious places these peripherals are seen are in the music game section of every videogame store, where boxes for Guitar Hero and Rock Band that people could fit inside of take up far too much room. But the most lucrative peripherals have come from the masters of the add-on, Nintendo.

Most notably the success of Wii Fit has been nothing short of extraordinary, topping the UK charts week in week out, save for when stocks run low. For a game that costs upwards of £65, the success in such an economic climate is even more noteworthy. Mario Kart Wii is yet another example of how to make a peripheral the centre of both a marketing campaign, and the game experience. Even when the game is criticised heavily by critics, and laughed at by most hardcore gamers, games like Wii Play have enjoyed even bigger success, in fact becoming one of the highest selling games ever. The success of Wii Play is especially hinged on the inclusion of an extra Wii Remote, making the game somewhat obsolete.

This is a theme that runs through a lot of games that seemingly ‘pack in’ a peripheral. Much like a large portion of the magazine industry in the UK, the question as to what the product is asked. Are you really buying that 30 page magazine with minimal facts about Star Trek, or the overpriced single episode on DVD? When buying games like Wii Play, it’s very obvious where the value of the deal lies. As with the magazines, it can lead to a much higher profit margin for the company, where having the player pick a game with a pack in for a higher price can make the deal seem much worth worthwhile. Animal Crossing Wii was another example of this, where the much criticised Wii Speak peripheral could be bought in a bundle with the game.

When considering videogame sales in this way, the inevitable path leads onto the topic of piracy, more of a problem in the industry as we speak than ever. Certain platforms, such as the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP are affected greatly by piracy, the PSP’s software sales being brought to rock bottom because of how easy it can be to pirate. But then again, these two platforms don’t feature peripherals. Could it be that the lack of peripherals for the top titles spells doom for their sales? Activision proved how much success a peripheral could have on DS with the trio of Guitar Hero titles there have been on the platform, and while the current Guitar accessory will soon become obsolete thanks to the DSi, the success of these games has been higher than expected. The fact that the peripheral has become successful from three titles has made it an example of how peripherals can beat piracy, as without the peripheral, the game is near unplayable.

But this can this work on other consoles too. Activision are once again trying to beat pirates by incorporating their new board peripheral for the latest Tony Hawk. Used to both get the player involved in the action directly and to reinvigorate a franchise that has become stale over time. If such a company were to come up with a peripheral that could inject the same level of excitement into games on the PSP then that could save the console from being overrun with piracy, something that not even EA with Rock Band Unplugged are attempting. If Rock Band featured a peripheral on PSP, could it sell much more than without? Only by looking at the sales numbers of that game when it’s released later this year will we be able to make a judgement.

As it stands though, Peripherals do have their place in today’s videogame market, and whether that is to prevent piracy, immerse the player in the game, or to make you fitter; they are here to stay. Look for 150 more boxes of different Guitar Hero combinations later this year, and throw some Tony Hawk Ride in for good measure too.