Pirate Bay Promotes Indie Game

[The Wooster]

Pirate Bay Promotes Indie Game

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The Pirate Bay adds minigame collection, McPixel, to its selection of legit torrents.

Content creators generally don't get along with the Pirate Bay, mostly on account of the whole well... piracy thing. While mainstream developers and record companies have been quick to sick their lawyers on the Swedish file-sharing site, several indie outfits have been using the site to promote their wares. Indie dev, Sos, is one of them; his latest game, McPixel, is the first video game featured on "The Promo Bay."

Sos spotted a version McPixel listed among the site's selection of torrents. Rather than lawyer up, Sos decided to start giving out promo codes for the game in the torrent's comment section. His actions caught the attention of the site's administrators, who then contacted him to set up an official promotion.

For the next three days, an ad for McPixel will be displayed above the site's main search bar. Clicking on it takes you to the McPixel website, where you can download a torrent of the game, which normally costs $9.99, for free. You can then pay Sos what you think the game is worth.

"I know that not everyone can afford entertainment. But everyone needs it," reads a message from the developer. "And even though I make games for a living. I am most happy just to see people enjoy them."

Sales haven't exactly been ground breaking, Sos says he's sold only 100 units with an average sale price of $1.34 since the promotion started. But that's still 100 sales he may not have seen otherwise.

The game itself is an eclectic mix of point-and-click minigames, complete with faux-retro pixel art graphics. The torrent includes versions of Windows, Mac and Linux, but the game is also available on iOS, Android and Blackberry.



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[fractured_sanity]

Still hoping it gets enough votes in Greenlight.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I wonder how many people will be banned for admitting to piracy on this thread? Anyway I might check it out.

 

[ZehGeek]

I think this is a great idea. I think..or atleast I hope..they'll be a few people who give more then the 10$ to him, specially if the devolper is this cool about it.

 

[Paulo Belato]

This reminds of the time that the devs from "No Time to Explain" released their own game on Pirate Bay, with the addition of a pirate hat to the main character and a message asking people to consider buying the game. They believe they sold a lot more copies because of that move.

 

[Gormech]

Escapist needs to put up the age checker thing on this one. The Eskimo isn't wearing a top when flashing the guy. That bit aside, it seems kind of random. Like that 30sec hero thing that came up a day or two ago.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

Those evil pirates, trying to stick it to the man and do anti-corporate stuff all of the time.

How ever are large corporations going to dominate with pirates and their indie friends working together?

Escapist needs to put up the age checker thing on this one. The Eskimo isn't wearing a top when flashing the guy. That bit aside, it seems kind of random. Like that 30sec hero thing that came up a day or two ago.

And we all know that exposure to breasts steals the innocence of children!

 

[esperandote]

Marketing for people that dont buy their stuff, i'm not sure if that's a great idea.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Since I imagine that as an indie dev they guy didn't really have the money to try challenging TPB (not that doing so has ever resulted in success for anybody since, you know, it's still there.) I imagine he decided it was more productive to try working with them rather than getting upset and blaming illegal downloads for his lost sales.

To be honest I'd like to see a larger developer go this route, if only to test the method out on a more well known/liked IP. Seriously, the 3 entertainment industries like to piss and moan about the damage sites like TPB do to them but have any of them ever tried extending an olive branch to even see if working together would be profitable?

 

[Reaper195]

Marketing for people that dont buy their stuff, i'm not sure if that's a great idea.

Wrong. Pirate Bay has always gone along the lines of "Yes, you can get it for free. But if you like it, buy the hell out of it."

 

[MopBox]

Marketing for people that dont buy their stuff, i'm not sure if that's a great idea.

A great many artists have become famous and successful without the direct profit motive.

 

[CharrHearted]

MC PEWDIE!

In all honesty, why promote it on piratebay? I mean, it doesn't sound that well done, But whatever, Mc Pixel is an awesome game so, why the hell not, might aswell let the developers do what they want.

 

[lacktheknack]

I predict total failure.

Because while many people ask me "What about people who can't afford it?", I simply counter that I know many pirates, and ALL OF THEM can afford it... easily.

Anecdotal evidence and blah blah blah... I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe there's a ton of people who can't spare thirty bucks a month for entertainment purposes when I can't find even one.

And as for "potential sales that never would have happened otherwise" and "personal demos", well, this is looking more like a nail in that argument's coffin rather than supporting evidence at this point, isn't it?

We'll see.

 

[Rack]

I predict total failure.

Because while many people ask me "What about people who can't afford it?", I simply counter that I know many pirates, and ALL OF THEM can afford it... easily.

Anecdotal evidence and blah blah blah... I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe there's a ton of people who can't spare thirty bucks a month for entertainment purposes when I can't find even one.

And as for "potential sales that never would have happened otherwise" and "personal demos", well, this is looking more like a nail in that argument's coffin rather than supporting evidence at this point, isn't it?

We'll see.

Err, I think you might possibly have a biased sample there. How many people do you know in Georgia?

 

[lacktheknack]

I predict total failure.

Because while many people ask me "What about people who can't afford it?", I simply counter that I know many pirates, and ALL OF THEM can afford it... easily.

Anecdotal evidence and blah blah blah... I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe there's a ton of people who can't spare thirty bucks a month for entertainment purposes when I can't find even one.

And as for "potential sales that never would have happened otherwise" and "personal demos", well, this is looking more like a nail in that argument's coffin rather than supporting evidence at this point, isn't it?

We'll see.

Err, I think you might possibly have a biased sample there. How many people do you know in Georgia?

Two. If you live in Georgia, and know tons of flat broke pirates, then I'll call it even (since you also would have a biased sample).

 

[Rack]

Err, I think you might possibly have a biased sample there. How many people do you know in Georgia?

Two. If you live in Georgia, and know tons of flat broke pirates, then I'll call it even (since you also would have a biased sample).

You are talking about Georgia the country right?

 

[Vrach]

Thumbs up. Also, I feel this is relevant, even though it's for the music industry, it works really well (probably even better actually) for the game industry - http://theoatmeal.com/comics/music_industry