For years, it seemed that PC gaming would be unable to survive the unrelenting crush of digital pirates committing copyright violations on a staggering level. A remarkably candid John Riccitiello, head of EA Games, has a more optimistic view on the situation.

Instead of fearing piracy as an industry destroyer, he instead plans to consider it a form of possible revenue. How? The answer is downloadable content, pay-for-play additions to games bought online after installation. Say Riccitiello “They can steal the disc, but they can’t steal the DLC.”

The smash hit multi-platform RPG Dragon Age: Origins debuted with two separate DLC packs available at launch. In short order, more than one million DLC packages had been purchased and downloaded. Certainly at least some of these were from pirated copies.

For those loyal to PC gaming, expect to pay for content right on release day for the foreseeable future. Although paying customers might balk at having to spend extra money to play everything after opening the box, the struggling PC gaming business is in need of innovative and pragmatic solutions such as these.

If you are one of the hoards of PS3 owners that were excited by Netflix announced streaming would be coming to the game console, today is the big day friends. Netflix has announced that its streaming service is now officially live on the PS3. I hope you ordered your PS3 Netflix disc.

The service is available free to all Netflix subscribers and allows you to watch on demand programming on your TV via the PS3 just like the Xbox 360 bragged about not long ago. The catch with the PS3 service is that you need that Blu-ray disc from Netflix.

The disc is available free and if you don’t have a Netflix account you can get one for only $8.99 per month that includes unlimited streaming. The streaming feature is possible via the BD-Live feature the PS3 supports. Way to skirt that exclusive streaming clause with Microsoft Netflix!

Netflix movie streaming, once available only for computers, the Xbox 360, and some Blu-Ray players, will soon be offered for the Playstation 3.

How will they do it? For unknown reasons, the software will not be integrated directly into the system. Instead, a Netflix subscriber can request a free disc with Netflix installed as a BD-Live feature. BD-Live is a system normally used to allow a movie’s special features to be downloaded from the Internet, rather than limited to content placed directly on the disc.

The cost of the Netflix service itself is the same no matter what you watch it on. However, Netflix subscribers using the Xbox 360 must also pay $50 per year for Xbox Live. The PS3 has no extra costs.