Recently, Sandy Petersen, who participated in the development of such iconic projects as DOOM, Quake, and Age of Empires, decided to speak out on social media about piracy.
In his opinion, pirate gamers are to blame for the problems in the gaming industry. He told pirates to ***** off — as "a person who developed video games from 1988 to 2012."
Petersen noted that many people pirated the DOOM shooter:
70–90% of DOOM players used pirated copies. If not for that, we would have had many more resources for work and future projects — perhaps Quake wouldn't have undermined id Software's position. At least 50% of Age of Empires copies were pirated, which ultimately contributed to the sale of [our studio] to Microsoft and its subsequent decline.
Sandy Petersen does not accept excuses like "you need to try the game before buying" — in his opinion, this is "complete nonsense":
In DOOM, you could play 9 full levels for free. In Age of Empires, you could play a battle to understand how everything works. We went out of our way to make sure you understood what you were buying.
The developer believes that "****** pirates are those who killed gaming companies." Among the victims of these pirates, according to Petersen: Atari, Amiga, Cinemaware, 3D Realms (Duke Nukem):
If you are NOT a pirate, I take my hat off to you. You are a true gentleman, and if you ever see me at a conference, come up and say, "Hey, Sandy, I've never pirated games" — and I'll buy you a drink.