I wouldn't call it pirating but it causes the exact same problems for the game industry.
But pirating isnt 100% bad. There are people who use it as a demo service to help them decide which games to buy, and if they didnt have this demo then they just wouldn't buy it.
It also helps increasing the fan base and popularity of the game and it's developers.
People look at download numbers and assume that number is equal to the number of potential-lost-sales but they never look at the potential buyers that piracy promotes. But I think its fair to assume that the number of lost sales is far greater than the number of increased sales from piracy.
I wouldn't call it pirating but it causes the exact same problems for the game industry.
That might cause all kinds of issues if games EULA's were locked per user. It's already like that for digital distribution. Do game rental companies like GameFly pay extra for rental versions of games?
But pirating isnt 100% bad. There are people who use it as a demo service to help them decide which games to buy, and if they didnt have this demo then they just wouldn't buy it.
It also helps increasing the fan base and popularity of the game and it's developers.
While looking for articles about game piracy, I saw tons of people who said the same thing. Just wait for the demo, or read a review. But the thing is "You lead by example". If you go ahead and DL the full game for free, then who's to stop your circle of friends from doing the same thing?
In the case of Titan Quest, people who DL'ed the pirated version badmouthed it because of the "glitches and bugs". When in fact the glitches and bugs were traps put in by DRM software. The article above says this could/did have huge impact on sales as people would come by the forums and see people call it a glitchy pile of code, nevermind the version they have is cracked.
Now I'm sitting here with the Titan Quest demo and it's not working. Says I have no virtual memory, when in fact it's 8 gigs per drive. Gonna up the amount and restart.
Sorry guys.. no-one cares about you artists and developers, you're left holding the shit end of the stick I'm afraid. In 2008 the global games market was worth approximately $32 billion US dollars, that's just software sales.
What you need to be asking as developers is where the **** is all that money going? It's certainly not into your hands as the facilitators of IPs, fleshing out ideas and making them a reality that has merchantable value (ideas a ten-a-penny), that everyone apart from you seems to be making a crap-load from.
I think the only game i ever pirated was star craft because at some point someone borrowed it and never returned it.
Movies, every once in a blue moon i'll watch ripped version of a movie online. That's mostly only when i didn't get to see it in theaters and want to know if i should buy it(always end up buying them anyway), or i know its going to be REALLY bad and want to see the train wreck and not have to ever humiliated every time i see it in my movie collection...
Software, My logic is; If it cost a ton(over $500) and you don't make any money from it then how would you be able to afford to buy it? If you are making enough money with it to afford it then its your job to buy it.
Sorry guys.. no-one cares about you artists and developers, you're left holding the shit end of the stick I'm afraid. In 2008 the global games market was worth approximately $32 billion US dollars, that's just software sales.
What you need to be asking as developers is where the **** is all that money going?
I won't say those numbers are false, but is that net or gross? What was spent to get $32 billion in sales? Could that also just be CoD, Gears of War 2 and WoW profits?
I won't say those numbers are false, but is that net or gross? What was spent to get $32 billion in sales? Could that also just be CoD, Gears of War 2 and WoW profits? :
Figures do appear to be dominated by AAA titles, yes, and so far as I can tell in my research these are 'income' figures, will need to double check that.
Publishers are very cagey about revenue so I've only got units for some: Rainbow 6 - 20 million; Splinter Cell - 16 m. For others some numbers do exist; Modern Warfare was estimated @ $800 million from 11 million units in 08/09. WoW since 2004 @ $260 million.
GTA franchise @ $1 billion from 70m units. Gears of War had 5 m units by 08 end; GoW 2 had 3m at that same date. id softwares catalogue since 1996 $2 billion (D3 sold 3+million units).
I was writing an article on this which is why I've got these, but as mentioned above, developers and publishers are *very* cagey about releasing their numbers so there aren't really that many available for scrutiny.
Heck of a topic you guys have going, dunno what to say really. Personally i don't pirate games, but i sure play a lot of free flash games online from time to time and i certainly don't pay for those. In a way I almost feel worse about that, here's a game someone released for free and i'm not helping them along at all, I'm certain they could use the money more tha EA could. Even if they have a donation button (i'm a bit broke) I've never contributed.
So should i feel ashamed when my friend downloads a game for free because it's "the law". Would the world be a better place if all the stoners got off their butts and started working? Seriously think about that, what would they do? Would it make the world better to have people who would normally be at home pirating games out there trying to contribute to society for minimum wage?
Here's an idea: with all the good that video games have brought to our society by keeping theif's at home stealing intangible items that don't really hurt anyone, maybe gaming companies should be sanctioned by the government. Imagine a day when wars are won by dropping consoles over a nation and giving them free video games. Who wants to fight and die in a war when you can play call of duty 9?
Figures do appear to be dominated by AAA titles, yes, and so far as I can tell in my research these are 'income' figures, will need to double check that.
Publishers are very cagey about revenue so I've only got units for some: Rainbow 6 - 20 million; Splinter Cell - 16 m. For others some numbers do exist; Modern Warfare was estimated @ $800 million from 11 million units in 08/09. WoW since 2004 @ $260 million.
GTA franchise @ $1 billion from 70m units. Gears of War had 5 m units by 08 end; GoW 2 had 3m at that same date. id softwares catalogue since 1996 $2 billion (D3 sold 3+million units).
I was writing an article on this which is why I've got these, but as mentioned above, developers and publishers are *very* cagey about releasing their numbers so there aren't really that many available for scrutiny.
Interesting info. I guess the next step would be how piracy affected any one of those titles. What would the figures be then? Where are you getting these numbers? From the Titan Quest game article, he said about 90% piracy rate. That's insane for a game that wasn't advertised as much. I looked and didn't find anything.
I have pirated almost every game I have on my drive but I buy all the ones I like and delete the rest, usually after only a few mins of play. My connection is blazing fast when downloadinng off local torrent servers. If I can find a demo torrent I go that way but usually there isn't one unless its a pre release demo. Its just faster to torrent the pirate copy than to download the demo from the official site. I have always thought that it would be cool if demos were distributed via torrent BEFORE the game's release. It may not be much but at least some of the guys who dld the demo might be tempted to buy the game when its released. Sadly, a lot of people who start out just "try before you buy" mentality just finish the torrent version rather than buy the game and then, once the game is over they decide it wasn't worth paying for... That pisses me off, if you played it to the end then it WAS worth buying asshat. I buy as many of the games I like as I can and if I can't I wait untill the price comes down and buy it then.
Piracy isn't the problem, its the mentality of the people who dld the shit. I live in eastern europe so its an unwritten law here that piracy is the way to go. I don't get too pissed at that though because most games have little to no support for eastern european languages etc and for the most part the guys downloading the games are kids from low income families, they would never be able to afford the games in the first place so are not really taking anything away from the industry. When they grow up a lot of them start buying games that otherwise never would have been exposed to games enough to be interested in playing them. To be interested in games you generally have to be interested from a fairly young age and when you are talking 5 days groceries for one game at the store well, its just not going to happen. I'm also pretty sure that most of the titles in the stores here are pirated and have the language just hacked in.
Just do right by yourself and try spread the right attitude amongst your friends, thats all you can really do..
I've said it before, Blizzard had it figured out way back when with diablo. Provide an excellent online service build around exciting multiplayer and suddenly piracy is simply free advertising. Make your game so amazing to play legit that you'd be a fool to settle for the pirated copy (heck remember spawning?). This isn't new, we've seen it with every successful MMO, every blizzard title, and every FPS worth its salt. But not many companies know how to produce a game of that quality, so instead they blame the consumer for their shortcomings of not being able to produce a game worth buying. Single player games... they do just fine on consoles.
In all reality i can't help but feel that companies who complain about pirating should have invested more into their game to provide more multiplayer or downloadable content. If you think you can just release a game that offers nothing for the dollar (literally in this age of rampant piracy) you live in a dream world, and complaining about pirating after the fact just makes you look like a douchebag, regardless of how right you are. In the end gamers want a fun product and are willing to pay money for it if it has staying power, developers want money. There is a middle ground that very successful companies have been able to exploit the hell out of for huge amounts of money. From small companies with simple games like pop cap, to massive companies like blizzard. It all comes down to the gameplay. Make something that lasts, figure out how to make a dollar off it.
That only works with multiplayer games, people got Diablo and Starcraft for battlenet, and you can't easily hack your way into it without buying the game. And Blizzard made it hassle free for the legit user, just download the updates, no DRM shit.
I really don't understand the lengths some people will go to pirate games. Seriously, GFWL is such a pain in the ass at the best of times, I can't even imagine trying to work around that on cracked versions.
Back when I was younger and had no idea that game development was an actual job, I would do the whole mod chip and burn my games that I would hire from the video store. I would always buy the games I enjoyed or played the most.
Now, I honestly can't even remember the last time I played a pirated game.
I try and talk people out of pirating games, mainly because I work in the games industry and if they have the money to buy them, then they really have no excuse to pirate them.
I have pirated a large handful of games, but I have also purchased many games. I would say the time I have spent playing the pirated games, however, has been drastically less than the ones I bought.
My beef about PC games is that you can't rent them (naturally), so I don't want to buy a game to see if I like it. I torrent it, test it out, and if I like it I may buy it. There is also the standard no-return policy on PC games at most retailers.
But yes, it's mostly financial issues. As a full time student I spend more money on food and supplies than I do anything else just to keep me alive. Most of my gaming time is typically spent on games I've *bought* in the past.
However, there are a few games that I don't even need to torrent because I'm so fuggin' excited for.
Borderlands (only 3 more days, got it pre-loaded on Steam and everything!)
My beef about PC games is that you can't rent them (naturally), so I don't want to buy a game to see if I like it. I torrent it, test it out, and if I like it I may buy it. There is also the standard no-return policy on PC games at most retailers.
I think company's like Blockbuster and what not are worse than pirates.
They buy copies of the game for 60 bucks, rent them out for like 5 days to people for 5 bucks. After about 3 months they start to make a profit on these games. At least pirates arnt making money off the games they steal.
As for friends who do the whole "who cares I get it for free, its just a game." BS just start to steal things from there place of work. See how they feel about it when the shoes on the other foot.
well, piracy has a third leg, which is availability. there's a ton of stuff thats no longer available in stores anywhere, which is pretty much only available through torrent trackers.
there's also tons of great anime which never sees a release in the west, or great movies that are impossible to find, especially if you live in the great outbacks.
Yeah, but if enough someones buy your game you get royalties with which you might be able to buy yourself a cup of coffee. Perhaps even a doughnut to go with it!
Back in the day I pirated everything. I don't think I bought more than a couple of games until I finished high school. Since then, it's been entirely legitimate as far as I can remember. After ten years on the straight and narrow I don't feel any particular compulsion to go back, as much due to short attention span as because I'll be screwing my friends out of precious hundredths of cents - if I want a game or movie or music CD, I want it right now. To hell with waiting for a download, I'll go out and buy the sucker.
There's a question for you: How many of you high and mighty types pay for all of your music?
Console + getting a job changed everything for me. Now I have money (I spend like 100 a month on games, second hand though), and those damn X360 achievements make playing on PC seem worthless. NO SCORE to boast with!!
Most of my friends play console also and they buy their stuff (second hand though). I think maybe one friend considered hacking his Wii because he never used the silly thing anymore.
I pirated most of all with my GBA. That flashcart allowed me to finish like ... 300 games or so, without paying. But if today Nintendo would make their handheld download only because that's cheaper (50 euros is ridiculous for a DS game, cosidering how simple and short they can be) and have some sort of community achievement system I'd buy everything. Sounds like I'd have to go for PSP Go or whatever it's called
Interesting info. I guess the next step would be how piracy affected any one of those titles. What would the figures be then? Where are you getting these numbers? From the Titan Quest game article, he said about 90% piracy rate. That's insane for a game that wasn't advertised as much. I looked and didn't find anything.
As far as I'm aware, yes, the figures quoted above were purely 'income' (I'm assuming it's 'gross' and not net - net would be scary!) so your right, there's no accounting for revenues lost to piracy.
Having said that, it's important to clarify here that figures thrown about by developers and publishers in that context are, more often that not, purely speculative projections and forecasts. How do they know how much has been lost without being able to track units? If you have some form of activation that pings and registers on a server, then yes. Otherwise, there's no way to tell so what a lot of them do is pull figures out of the air and forward project in a way to make whatever figures they come up with advantageous to them (not just fiscally, but also 'politically').
So ya, with regards to Titan Quest, even if that has online activation and they can track numbers, I'd call BS on that as it seems above and beyond being wildly speculative. Either way it doesn't look good for them.
I downloaded Titan Quest back when it came out, played it once and decided to buy it when i had the cash, then two weeks ago i bought it off Direct to Drive with the exapnasion for a whopping $5usd (the bundle is back to $20 now).
that being said i found activating it harder with the legitimate version thanks to the 20 different key codes you have to enter 1 digit at a time.
I don't know much about where to go for 'somewhat safe' pirating. Every time demonoid goes down I am left out to dry.
I don't really play many games anymore. Software and maybe the occasional movie is my main thing I go after. Last PC game I played I bought. Titan Quest and then UT3 but really only for the editor.
yes rental stores pay a lot more for the games they rent, like movies... if they dont, then the lawyers for game publishers are retarded monkeys and capitalism has failed
I downloaded Titan Quest back when it came out, played it once and decided to buy it when i had the cash, then two weeks ago i bought it off Direct to Drive with the exapnasion for a whopping $5usd (the bundle is back to $20 now).
so like, 2 years after the developer went out of business due to lack of sales you bought their game?
bravo dude, you are a real hero for the common man.
I've said it before, Blizzard had it figured out way back when with diablo. Provide an excellent online service build around exciting multiplayer and suddenly piracy is simply free advertising. Make your game so amazing to play legit that you'd be a fool to settle for the pirated copy (heck remember spawning?). This isn't new, we've seen it with every successful MMO, every blizzard title, and every FPS worth its salt. But not many companies know how to produce a game of that quality, so instead they blame the consumer for their shortcomings of not being able to produce a game worth buying. Single player games... they do just fine on consoles.
In all reality i can't help but feel that companies who complain about pirating should have invested more into their game to provide more multiplayer or downloadable content. If you think you can just release a game that offers nothing for the dollar (literally in this age of rampant piracy) you live in a dream world, and complaining about pirating after the fact just makes you look like a douchebag, regardless of how right you are. In the end gamers want a fun product and are willing to pay money for it if it has staying power, developers want money. There is a middle ground that very successful companies have been able to exploit the hell out of for huge amounts of money. From small companies with simple games like pop cap, to massive companies like blizzard. It all comes down to the gameplay. Make something that lasts, figure out how to make a dollar off it.
That only works with multiplayer games, people got Diablo and Starcraft for battlenet, and you can't easily hack your way into it without buying the game. And Blizzard made it hassle free for the legit user, just download the updates, no DRM shit.
But what about single player games?
I'm starting to believe that single player games are becoming an obsolete business model (Coin-Op Arcades say Hi!). You can argue how much you love them till you're blue in the face, but quite frankly many people do not feel the same way, and they're speaking with their wallets.
Piracy is starting to kill off the PSP DS and Wii.
Is there a shocking revelation that none of them feature very strong online multiplayer with plenty of support and new content?
I know right? I'm like Robin Hood without the moustache.
In point of fact i bought it for a friends birthday at the time i just wasn't in a position to buy two copies. and had i not downloaded it in the first place i wouldn't have bought it for my friend either.
I think Jim Sterling of Destructoid had one of the best summations of this argument.
As for what I do, well it depends on the situation. If the game's out of print or the publisher's defunct it's probably not going to hurt anybody if you download the game instead of buying a used copy off eBay, obviously.
If you're pirating a Steam/Blizzard multiplayer game you're only robbing yourself of some of the best long-term support in the industry. Enjoy playing with your shitty friends who are probably all just going to use hacks and aimbots anyway.
If you're pirating a Steam/Blizzard single-player game you are an asshole.
If you're pirating a game not made by either of those two companies you're a thief. I'm not saying you should have the book thrown at you, almost everybody pirates something at some point, but don't act like you're fighting to "free the information" or doing anything other than stealing a product.
Speaking of valve, they have such good standing with their fans for consistently supplying a product worth paying for that their fans buy the single player titles out of principle. And the fact that they offer the best software distribution you can find (digital download) not only is it easier for the consumer, but increases their profit margin because they don't have to print copy or distribute. Pure profit, it's a win, win for everyone.
I'd love to see steam evolve further, see games made to coincide more with steam like they do with blizzard titles and battlenet. 3rd party matchmaking, server hosting, ladder standings, etc, etc. Open the door for smaller developers to gain access to this multiplayer goodness and steam could really start boosting PC sales, while further establishing a legit multiplayer gaming hub. But on the flip side, i haven't been too impressed with the matchmaking of valve games :P, they've kinda paled in comparison to blizzard titles (ranked skill levels and all that).
Piracy is starting to kill off the PSP DS and Wii.
Is there a shocking revelation that none of them feature very strong online multiplayer with plenty of support and new content?
I'd also put that down to the simplicity of flashing these consoles. You don't even have to do anything to the DS lite, just buy a flash cart and some memory and your set to pirate. The Wii has some sort of clip chip and the PSP just needs some battery mod.
How do I know all this? Because I've seen them all be done. People who try to argue piracy is down to not enough game for your dollar I won't say aren't wrong, but there is a large amount of public who are just happy getting something for nothing regardless of if it's AAA title or not.
As an example if I can play my copy of Modern Warfare 2 online, why would I buy the real thing?
Yeah, lots of people crack 3d products, but from what i've read on this site, major 3d software corporations are actually pretty cool about it, it increases their marketshare where it counts, in the actual industry.
If suddenly the major products of 3d software were hard to get ahold of for amateurs or those simply trying to become familiar with the program, other software suites would start gaining market share. The market is pretty monopolized, they'd hate to see that change.
Besides, the vast majority of people who actually turn a profit on this stuff (and can subsequently afford it); schools buying the software for educational use and game companies who make games, all pay for the product, I'd say the system works.
My problem is a lot of shit that I want to get my hands on (Plenty of old dos games, old computer games, etc) Just plain aren't available. I download games if I can't locate it. If I can, I bide my time until I can purchase it.
There's a question for you: How many of you high and mighty types pay for all of your music?
I actually do. Most of the bands I like are smaller bands or bands that need all the exposure they can get. And since I enjoy their music I have no problem paying money for it. Record companies don't see sales, bands don't tour. Bands don't make money, they disappear.
As for games, I just don't bother with pirating. I don't buy that many games, and the ones I do want to pick up I'll read a lot of reviews, download a demo, stuff like that before I get it. Anything that I'm kinda on the fence about I wait til it goes down in price or I can buy it used.
There's a question for you: How many of you high and mighty types pay for all of your music?
Not really a music person. With iTunes and other radio capable apps, there's no need to buy music. And with Pandora, just type what you like. I think I spend like $20~$30 a year on music, $300~$400 a year on software like Artrage (the odd year of upgrades will spike to $1200). Netflix is fine for movies, but Netflix/Hulu don't work over here so I've just done without. I also watch SouthPark on Southparkstudios.com. I've been really lucky with some of my software in that it's purchased for me by companies for long-term work.
@ Kat - Well if Titan Quest does online hosting/match-making for the game you should be able to compare the X-amount registrations vs, the Y-amount pirated versions using the service. Sorry to keep using this game as a example, but the 9:1 ratio of pirate:legal versions is really interesting. I can't even get the Titan Quest demo to run on my computer.
I'd also put that down to the simplicity of flashing these consoles. You don't even have to do anything to the DS lite, just buy a flash cart and some memory and your set to pirate. The Wii has some sort of clip chip and the PSP just needs some battery mod.
How do I know all this? Because I've seen them all be done. People who try to argue piracy is down to not enough game for your dollar I won't say aren't wrong, but there is a large amount of public who are just happy getting something for nothing regardless of if it's AAA title or not.
As an example if I can play my copy of Modern Warfare 2 online, why would I buy the real thing?
Yeah, I'm not even completely sure it has to do with simplicity. If its hackable, then people will hack it.
Create something that can't be hacked, like an amazing online community, an amazing online experience, well supported multi-player, and frequent updates.
If single player games can somehow find their way into needing online support, needing an online community and frequent updates, then I'm sure we'd see a lot more of them thrive.
As it stands, single player PC games are not a functional business model.
In the case of Titan Quest, people who DL'ed the pirated version badmouthed it because of the "glitches and bugs". When in fact the glitches and bugs were traps put in by DRM software. The article above says this could/did have huge impact on sales as people would come by the forums and see people call it a glitchy pile of code, nevermind the version they have is cracked.
The result...here's your new list of top ten selling PC games, since most of the people buying them aren't savvy enough to pirate: two iterations of the Sims, three of WoW, and a damn casual poker game!
I really don't need any of the shit I can download. If I have the money, and I want something, I buy it. If I don't have the money, and I NEED it, I'll do what cannot be named. If it's too much of a risk, I wouldn't, of course, I don't want to get in trouble or cause problems.
I don't give people shit for piracy, that's their own business. They'll deal with the consequences. So long as it isn't hurting shit, and I wasn't convinced it actually is, then I'm fine. Now that it's so mainstream, I think it definitely is changing the market.
In my opinion, even the retail version of Titan Quest was buggy for a lot of machines, that's just from my perspective. My family couldn't play it on their computer after buying a copy, although, it wasn't much of a gaming computer. But for a game that was "aimed at a casual audience" it should have worked. What I'm saying is, I don't think the crack effected the game at all. I tried a cracked version of the game and a retail copy and they both worked fine.
The result...here's your new list of top ten selling PC games, since most of the people buying them aren't savvy enough to pirate: two iterations of the Sims, three of WoW, and a damn casual poker game!
World of Goo also pulled in 105k Gross in a week from the "Name your price" thing. 57,000 people bought it on average paid $2.00. Check out the histogram below. Is this what the average consumer thinks of someones hard work? $0.01? Although he posts results of a poll at the end stating most people can only afford what they paid.
Wii is horrible for buying games digitally. A PITA to do anything and it's slow.
I do download games. I usually keep them on my computer until I realize I never used them. I'm not a big game player.
So, yeah.
I am like someone who takes prisoners, intending to kill them, but then he lets them go because he looses interest.
I did download oblivion though, which I had already on the xbox , and I play it often, but its all cool. I payed for a copy of it.
Replies
I wouldn't call it pirating but it causes the exact same problems for the game industry.
But pirating isnt 100% bad. There are people who use it as a demo service to help them decide which games to buy, and if they didnt have this demo then they just wouldn't buy it.
It also helps increasing the fan base and popularity of the game and it's developers.
People look at download numbers and assume that number is equal to the number of potential-lost-sales but they never look at the potential buyers that piracy promotes. But I think its fair to assume that the number of lost sales is far greater than the number of increased sales from piracy.
In the case of Titan Quest, people who DL'ed the pirated version badmouthed it because of the "glitches and bugs". When in fact the glitches and bugs were traps put in by DRM software. The article above says this could/did have huge impact on sales as people would come by the forums and see people call it a glitchy pile of code, nevermind the version they have is cracked.
Now I'm sitting here with the Titan Quest demo and it's not working. Says I have no virtual memory, when in fact it's 8 gigs per drive. Gonna up the amount and restart.
What you need to be asking as developers is where the **** is all that money going? It's certainly not into your hands as the facilitators of IPs, fleshing out ideas and making them a reality that has merchantable value (ideas a ten-a-penny), that everyone apart from you seems to be making a crap-load from.
Movies, every once in a blue moon i'll watch ripped version of a movie online. That's mostly only when i didn't get to see it in theaters and want to know if i should buy it(always end up buying them anyway), or i know its going to be REALLY bad and want to see the train wreck and not have to ever humiliated every time i see it in my movie collection...
Software, My logic is; If it cost a ton(over $500) and you don't make any money from it then how would you be able to afford to buy it? If you are making enough money with it to afford it then its your job to buy it.
Publishers are very cagey about revenue so I've only got units for some: Rainbow 6 - 20 million; Splinter Cell - 16 m. For others some numbers do exist; Modern Warfare was estimated @ $800 million from 11 million units in 08/09. WoW since 2004 @ $260 million.
GTA franchise @ $1 billion from 70m units. Gears of War had 5 m units by 08 end; GoW 2 had 3m at that same date. id softwares catalogue since 1996 $2 billion (D3 sold 3+million units).
I was writing an article on this which is why I've got these, but as mentioned above, developers and publishers are *very* cagey about releasing their numbers so there aren't really that many available for scrutiny.
So should i feel ashamed when my friend downloads a game for free because it's "the law". Would the world be a better place if all the stoners got off their butts and started working? Seriously think about that, what would they do? Would it make the world better to have people who would normally be at home pirating games out there trying to contribute to society for minimum wage?
Here's an idea: with all the good that video games have brought to our society by keeping theif's at home stealing intangible items that don't really hurt anyone, maybe gaming companies should be sanctioned by the government. Imagine a day when wars are won by dropping consoles over a nation and giving them free video games. Who wants to fight and die in a war when you can play call of duty 9?
Just some random thoughts.
Piracy isn't the problem, its the mentality of the people who dld the shit. I live in eastern europe so its an unwritten law here that piracy is the way to go. I don't get too pissed at that though because most games have little to no support for eastern european languages etc and for the most part the guys downloading the games are kids from low income families, they would never be able to afford the games in the first place so are not really taking anything away from the industry. When they grow up a lot of them start buying games that otherwise never would have been exposed to games enough to be interested in playing them. To be interested in games you generally have to be interested from a fairly young age and when you are talking 5 days groceries for one game at the store well, its just not going to happen. I'm also pretty sure that most of the titles in the stores here are pirated and have the language just hacked in.
Just do right by yourself and try spread the right attitude amongst your friends, thats all you can really do..
I've said it before, Blizzard had it figured out way back when with diablo. Provide an excellent online service build around exciting multiplayer and suddenly piracy is simply free advertising. Make your game so amazing to play legit that you'd be a fool to settle for the pirated copy (heck remember spawning?). This isn't new, we've seen it with every successful MMO, every blizzard title, and every FPS worth its salt. But not many companies know how to produce a game of that quality, so instead they blame the consumer for their shortcomings of not being able to produce a game worth buying. Single player games... they do just fine on consoles.
In all reality i can't help but feel that companies who complain about pirating should have invested more into their game to provide more multiplayer or downloadable content. If you think you can just release a game that offers nothing for the dollar (literally in this age of rampant piracy) you live in a dream world, and complaining about pirating after the fact just makes you look like a douchebag, regardless of how right you are. In the end gamers want a fun product and are willing to pay money for it if it has staying power, developers want money. There is a middle ground that very successful companies have been able to exploit the hell out of for huge amounts of money. From small companies with simple games like pop cap, to massive companies like blizzard. It all comes down to the gameplay. Make something that lasts, figure out how to make a dollar off it.
That only works with multiplayer games, people got Diablo and Starcraft for battlenet, and you can't easily hack your way into it without buying the game. And Blizzard made it hassle free for the legit user, just download the updates, no DRM shit.
But what about single player games?
Now, I honestly can't even remember the last time I played a pirated game.
I try and talk people out of pirating games, mainly because I work in the games industry and if they have the money to buy them, then they really have no excuse to pirate them.
My beef about PC games is that you can't rent them (naturally), so I don't want to buy a game to see if I like it. I torrent it, test it out, and if I like it I may buy it. There is also the standard no-return policy on PC games at most retailers.
But yes, it's mostly financial issues. As a full time student I spend more money on food and supplies than I do anything else just to keep me alive. Most of my gaming time is typically spent on games I've *bought* in the past.
However, there are a few games that I don't even need to torrent because I'm so fuggin' excited for.
Borderlands
They buy copies of the game for 60 bucks, rent them out for like 5 days to people for 5 bucks. After about 3 months they start to make a profit on these games. At least pirates arnt making money off the games they steal.
As for friends who do the whole "who cares I get it for free, its just a game." BS just start to steal things from there place of work. See how they feel about it when the shoes on the other foot.
What happened to "Just wait"?
there's also tons of great anime which never sees a release in the west, or great movies that are impossible to find, especially if you live in the great outbacks.
If you want to pirate at least support your average joe working
at rapidshare
Back in the day I pirated everything. I don't think I bought more than a couple of games until I finished high school. Since then, it's been entirely legitimate as far as I can remember. After ten years on the straight and narrow I don't feel any particular compulsion to go back, as much due to short attention span as because I'll be screwing my friends out of precious hundredths of cents - if I want a game or movie or music CD, I want it right now. To hell with waiting for a download, I'll go out and buy the sucker.
There's a question for you: How many of you high and mighty types pay for all of your music?
Most of my friends play console also and they buy their stuff (second hand though). I think maybe one friend considered hacking his Wii because he never used the silly thing anymore.
I pirated most of all with my GBA. That flashcart allowed me to finish like ... 300 games or so, without paying. But if today Nintendo would make their handheld download only because that's cheaper (50 euros is ridiculous for a DS game, cosidering how simple and short they can be) and have some sort of community achievement system I'd buy everything. Sounds like I'd have to go for PSP Go or whatever it's called
I paid $15 for Radiohead's name your own price album "In Rainbows"
Having said that, it's important to clarify here that figures thrown about by developers and publishers in that context are, more often that not, purely speculative projections and forecasts. How do they know how much has been lost without being able to track units? If you have some form of activation that pings and registers on a server, then yes. Otherwise, there's no way to tell so what a lot of them do is pull figures out of the air and forward project in a way to make whatever figures they come up with advantageous to them (not just fiscally, but also 'politically').
So ya, with regards to Titan Quest, even if that has online activation and they can track numbers, I'd call BS on that as it seems above and beyond being wildly speculative. Either way it doesn't look good for them.
I downloaded System of a Down's 'Steal This Album'.
*sucker punches off of high horse*
that being said i found activating it harder with the legitimate version thanks to the 20 different key codes you have to enter 1 digit at a time.
I don't really play many games anymore. Software and maybe the occasional movie is my main thing I go after. Last PC game I played I bought. Titan Quest and then UT3 but really only for the editor.
so like, 2 years after the developer went out of business due to lack of sales you bought their game?
bravo dude, you are a real hero for the common man.
Not only am I in 100% agreeance with you. So are Blizzard and Valve. Pretty much the only 2 major PC game companies left standing.
http://www.edge-online.com/news/valves-newell-entertainment-a-service
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22378
I'm starting to believe that single player games are becoming an obsolete business model (Coin-Op Arcades say Hi!). You can argue how much you love them till you're blue in the face, but quite frankly many people do not feel the same way, and they're speaking with their wallets.
Piracy is starting to kill off the PSP DS and Wii.
Is there a shocking revelation that none of them feature very strong online multiplayer with plenty of support and new content?
In point of fact i bought it for a friends birthday at the time i just wasn't in a position to buy two copies. and had i not downloaded it in the first place i wouldn't have bought it for my friend either.
As for what I do, well it depends on the situation. If the game's out of print or the publisher's defunct it's probably not going to hurt anybody if you download the game instead of buying a used copy off eBay, obviously.
If you're pirating a Steam/Blizzard multiplayer game you're only robbing yourself of some of the best long-term support in the industry. Enjoy playing with your shitty friends who are probably all just going to use hacks and aimbots anyway.
If you're pirating a Steam/Blizzard single-player game you are an asshole.
If you're pirating a game not made by either of those two companies you're a thief. I'm not saying you should have the book thrown at you, almost everybody pirates something at some point, but don't act like you're fighting to "free the information" or doing anything other than stealing a product.
I'd love to see steam evolve further, see games made to coincide more with steam like they do with blizzard titles and battlenet. 3rd party matchmaking, server hosting, ladder standings, etc, etc. Open the door for smaller developers to gain access to this multiplayer goodness and steam could really start boosting PC sales, while further establishing a legit multiplayer gaming hub. But on the flip side, i haven't been too impressed with the matchmaking of valve games :P, they've kinda paled in comparison to blizzard titles (ranked skill levels and all that).
I'd also put that down to the simplicity of flashing these consoles. You don't even have to do anything to the DS lite, just buy a flash cart and some memory and your set to pirate. The Wii has some sort of clip chip and the PSP just needs some battery mod.
How do I know all this? Because I've seen them all be done. People who try to argue piracy is down to not enough game for your dollar I won't say aren't wrong, but there is a large amount of public who are just happy getting something for nothing regardless of if it's AAA title or not.
As an example if I can play my copy of Modern Warfare 2 online, why would I buy the real thing?
If suddenly the major products of 3d software were hard to get ahold of for amateurs or those simply trying to become familiar with the program, other software suites would start gaining market share. The market is pretty monopolized, they'd hate to see that change.
Besides, the vast majority of people who actually turn a profit on this stuff (and can subsequently afford it); schools buying the software for educational use and game companies who make games, all pay for the product, I'd say the system works.
I actually do. Most of the bands I like are smaller bands or bands that need all the exposure they can get. And since I enjoy their music I have no problem paying money for it. Record companies don't see sales, bands don't tour. Bands don't make money, they disappear.
As for games, I just don't bother with pirating. I don't buy that many games, and the ones I do want to pick up I'll read a lot of reviews, download a demo, stuff like that before I get it. Anything that I'm kinda on the fence about I wait til it goes down in price or I can buy it used.
@ Kat - Well if Titan Quest does online hosting/match-making for the game you should be able to compare the X-amount registrations vs, the Y-amount pirated versions using the service. Sorry to keep using this game as a example, but the 9:1 ratio of pirate:legal versions is really interesting. I can't even get the Titan Quest demo to run on my computer.
Yeah, I'm not even completely sure it has to do with simplicity. If its hackable, then people will hack it.
Create something that can't be hacked, like an amazing online community, an amazing online experience, well supported multi-player, and frequent updates.
If single player games can somehow find their way into needing online support, needing an online community and frequent updates, then I'm sure we'd see a lot more of them thrive.
As it stands, single player PC games are not a functional business model.
Dunno if the actual article has been posted yet, but here's Mike Fitch's article on that
http://www.pixelrage.org/news/Michael-Fitch-talks-about-%60Death-Of-Iron-Lore%60-6096.html
And here's a similar one from World of Goo
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/11/acrying-shame-world-of-goo-piracy-rate-near-90.ars
The result...here's your new list of top ten selling PC games, since most of the people buying them aren't savvy enough to pirate: two iterations of the Sims, three of WoW, and a damn casual poker game!
http://www.edge-online.com/news/npd-september%E2%80%99s-top-20-pc-games
I don't give people shit for piracy, that's their own business. They'll deal with the consequences. So long as it isn't hurting shit, and I wasn't convinced it actually is, then I'm fine. Now that it's so mainstream, I think it definitely is changing the market.
In my opinion, even the retail version of Titan Quest was buggy for a lot of machines, that's just from my perspective. My family couldn't play it on their computer after buying a copy, although, it wasn't much of a gaming computer. But for a game that was "aimed at a casual audience" it should have worked. What I'm saying is, I don't think the crack effected the game at all. I tried a cracked version of the game and a retail copy and they both worked fine.
Wii is horrible for buying games digitally. A PITA to do anything and it's slow.
http://2dboy.com/
Yeah, I posted that Fitch article.
So, yeah.
I am like someone who takes prisoners, intending to kill them, but then he lets them go because he looses interest.
I did download oblivion though, which I had already on the xbox , and I play it often, but its all cool. I payed for a copy of it.