U.K. Games Industry Starts Playing Hardball

[Andy Chalk]

U.K. Games Industry Starts Playing Hardball

Videogame companies in the U.K. appear to be taking a hint from their American counterparts following an announcement that 25,000 people in the country could be slapped with lawsuits for downloading games.

Times Online [http://www.atari.com] report, to go along with the 5000 names and addresses they've already gained access to by proving their participation in unlawful file sharing. Once the information has been received, lawyers for the group plan to contact each individual with a demand for an out-of-court settlement of around $550; those who refuse to pay risk far more devastating legal action instead.

"Our clients were incensed by the level of illegal downloading," said Roger Billens of Davenport Lyons, the law firm contracted by the group. "In the first 14 days since Topware Interactive released Dream Pinball 3D [http://www.topware.com/game_projects/project.php?game=19&l=en] it sold 800 legitimate copies but was illegally downloaded 12,000 times. Hopefully people will think twice if they risk being taken to court."

Up to six million people are estimated to be involved in illegal game downloading in the U.K., but the aggressiveness of this effort is unprecedented. It began with Isabela Barwinska [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7568642.stm], an unemployed mother of two unlucky enough to find herself made an example for others. She was ordered yesterday to pay Topware nearly $30,000 for downloading Dream Pinball 3D from a file-sharing site, and following that decision a lawyer for Topware said, "This is the first of many. It was always intended that there would be a lot more."

But not everyone in the industry is thrilled with the new approach. A source close to the U.K. industry group Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association [http://www.elspa.com/] said most of its members would rather not pursue legal against against their "core market" and would prefer to find other, presumably less punitive ways to combat piracy.


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[snuffler]

$30,000 for a shitty pinball game? Okay I don't download games, and I don't condone it, but seriously? You're going to fuck up three LIVES over a GAME? There's a point where it's not JUST a GAME anymore and these people just crossed a big god damn line. You seriously think bankrupting an unemployed mother of two is going to stop some skid hiding in his parents basement with the curtains drawn from downloading Oblivion from a torrent?

TopWare Interactive is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company publishes interactive consumer software products in North America and is establishing a vast portfolio from budget to console. TopWare is set to launch over 13 titles for the 2005 holiday season and has plans to launch over 50 titles in 2006.

Really? Okay so some out of date gaming company is crying because a title they released in 2006 got downloaded 15x more than it was sold? And the person they pick to make an example of is the one who they OBVIOUSLY WONT GET ANY MONEY OUT OF? Does anyone else see something terribly wrong with this? Or am I just crazy?

 

[Jhereg42]

The draconian approach never solved anything when looking at piracy. It sure didn't help the RIAA here in the US.

There are better ways of doing this, like additional content available by registering and additional on-line play with a unique serial key read off the CD. They should really look at Stardock as an example.

 

[Bretty]

At least this way they will make some money.

 

[Skrapt]

Yeah because of course those 12,000 people would have paid for the game if they couldn't download it... the industry leaders are becoming cretins. Who don't realize that the money wouldn't end up in their pockets with or without piracy. You just end up in 2 situations:

1. Person pirates game, they play it, companies get no money.
2. Person can't pirate game, don't want to pay, companies get no money.

It's not rocket science, I don't condone piracy but anyone can see that people pirate things because they do not want to pay! removing the ability to pirate things will still leave you with the problem of people not thinking your product is worth the money, and therefore not buying it.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

It's not rocket science, I don't condone piracy but anyone can see that people pirate things because they do not want to pay!

Yeah, well, if they don't want to pay then they shouldn't be playing. What gives them the right to use something they have no intention of buying? How is this in any way fair?

I don't think suing is the right way to deal with this, but I have trouble feeling much sympathy for those receiving the lawsuits.

-- Steve

 

[Skrapt]

It's not rocket science, I don't condone piracy but anyone can see that people pirate things because they do not want to pay!

Yeah, well, if they don't want to pay then they shouldn't be playing. What gives them the right to use something they have no intention of buying? How is this in any way fair?

I don't think suing is the right way to deal with this, but I have trouble feeling much sympathy for those receiving the lawsuits.

-- Steve

I said I don't agree with piracy, I'm simply stating that however much they legislate/sue even if they stamped out piracy completely none of the 'lost revenue' would find it's way into their pockets.

 

[sunami88]

All this for their crappy pinball game. Ya, how dare the pirates steal their hard earned coding efforts, formed as a PINBALL GAME. I mean, c'mon, that's a fresh, innovative idea, and everyone is STEALING IT!

* Adds these companies to "sunami88's big bad list of corporations not to buy from/pirate/support in any way shape or form" *

Cocks.

 

[odisious15]

It's not rocket science, I don't condone piracy but anyone can see that people pirate things because they do not want to pay!

Yeah, well, if they don't want to pay then they shouldn't be playing. What gives them the right to use something they have no intention of buying? How is this in any way fair?

I don't think suing is the right way to deal with this, but I have trouble feeling much sympathy for those receiving the lawsuits.

-- Steve

I see some flawed logic with this stance of "if you can't pay you shouldn't play" for one thing if you download a PC game to try before you go out and drop 50 bucks on a title you can't rent first ( And no demos don't count because they are not available for every single pc game, and they also do not let you experience the game on the same level a rental or the like would offer.) and can't return either if it won't run on said PC. When it comes to console games it's different as you CAN go out and rent the entire game with no limitations for a nominal fee and make up your mind before going out and dropping some hard cash on a game.

I do not condone Piracy for the sake of Piracy which coming from me is somewhat hypocritical because I do on occasion download a PC game before making a purchase because of the above reasons I mentioned. I also have a very very tight income and when it comes to an indulgence like a PC game I make damn sure that the game I'm going to go out and buy is worth the cash. I used to not have any cares when it came to buying any sort of console or PC game but now that I'm out of school and on my own things aren't the same and I can't just spend at will since I already walk a balance between bills, tuition, more bills, groceries, etc.

So unless someone is just downloading a game because they don't give a damn and could just as easily go out and buy it, I think other cases like the mother of two are just an example of greed and misused anger.

 

[HobbesMkii]

OMG! Our pinball (and I'd like to point out that you used to, and probably still can, get pinball free with some versions of Windows) game didn't sell well! Maybe it's because we reinvented PINBALL, for your computer. So you don't need to go to the pizza parlor and actually cheat, you can instead, play from the comfort of your desk chair! But no, it must be this illegal pirating thing that's killing us. Say, does anyone know why they pirated out game? No, who cares?


Game companies don't give a shit about this sort of thing. I agree they ought to look at Stardock and just go: well, those 800 people are the ones who would actually buy our game, and the 12,000 weren't going to anyways (those were probably just pity torrents by people who compulsively pirate), but by and large, the number of people who go: "Why? Why do people pirate?" aren't located in the game companies. They're located on the escapist.

 

[snuffler]

Seriously what I would love to see from a gaming company is a free trial of the full game, for say, a day, or a weekend (see <url=http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/40673>Valve). That way you can try the game and see if you enjoy it and then go out and purchase it. If it's a single player game let people have the full game but only for a set amount of time so that it's impossible to do all the things in the game in that set amount of time. Or it is possible but only if the person playing already knew where it all was to begin with.

 

[Skrapt]

Nice ideas Snuffler, but I personally think a Battlefield heroes style of games may the way forward. People get the major game for free, but have to put with adverts in menu's or billboards in game etc. and may pay for little extras. Which I think would pretty much stamp out piracy for that particular game, because why pirate when you get the game for free? And the developers make the money back through the advertising, and small extras people can pay for.

 

[broadband]

suing a unemployed mother for a pinball game? i simpli dont know what to say

 

[asinann]

What's sad here is that it was probably one of the lady's kids that did the downloading, that's why I live in a state that gave me the right to counter-sue if the law suit drives me to bankruptcy (it's illegal in several states to drive someone to bankruptcy with a law suit.)

http://www.newuniversity.org/main/article?slug=riaa_extorting_students_with29 RIAA related, but still fairly relevant.

 

[snuffler]

People get the major game for free, but have to put with adverts in menu's or billboards in game etc. and may pay for little extras.

These are great ideas for a good many of games. Some that I would love to see this in would be MMOs, to completely negate the monthly fee required by players they could have billboards in game that advertise products (Coke, iPod, whatever) and have those companies pay for their in game advertisements. Not only do these adds get seen by a MASSIVE amount of people, but also this could (possibly) cover the costs of running the servers. Since the likelihood that the majority of players would be in cities (From WoW, for example; Shattrath City, Orgrimmar, Stormwind etc) is far greater, and more so in PvP queue areas, posting these adds there would ensure they would be seen. I'm not saying they should have "This Illidan Kill was brought to you by Coca-Cola" but if WoW was free to play for seeing a few adds in major cities then I'd be completely down with that.

Alternately, ads could be incorporated into a game such as half-life by having them designed with in-game art. It wouldn't be so out of place to see an advertisement when you're running through a city in your every day routine so why not throw a coke add in City 17? Valve has actually added a feature to their games that shows where players are having the most difficulty/dying the most/spending the most time so I'm sure they could track how many times the ad is seen. This way they could offer the game for free or at a significantly reduced cost, and still offer the game (for those that wish to pay) completely ad free.

No offense to any companies mentioned in this post, I was simply using them as a "what if?" example.

 

[Skrapt]

Yeah, I agree. It's potentially very useful, and the art blending in is a good idea too. I wouldn't like to see a modern coke ad in Half Life city ruins, but if it was designed to fit in and designed as a more half life-ish coke ad that would be even better. I think it's simply a good idea because if done correctly even pirated versions of the game couldn't remove the ads, which would basically mean there was no point in pirating the game whatsoever, and the developers might even encourage it (if the ads aren't removable) if it leads to them getting more players and potentially more revenue through ads, mini sales etc.

 

[DarkHyth]

£~15,000 for downloading a crappy pinball game which could've probably been picked up for £10? I hope its not just me who thinks that is a bit much...

For downloading it, don't be so ridiculous, she should only have been made to cough up the amount it would cost to buy (and laywers fees, possibly). The people who upload the games in torrent form or similar should be the ones paying large amounts in compensation.

Pfft. If you don't want people to download your games, don't make it possible. I'm sure there must be ways to stop it happening, access codes, online databases etc. Until then, it will keep going on.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Pfft. If you don't want people to download your games, don't make it possible. I'm sure there must be ways to stop it happening, access codes, online databases etc. Until then, it will keep going on.

That's kinda like saying that if people don't want their cars stolen they shouldn't make it possible for others to do so; and that there must be ways to stop it happening like locks, alarms, boots, etc. Of course there's DRM out there... and it's hated by many users, to the point that some otherwise willing to buy actually prefer to download cracked copies.

There's only so much that developers can do before the DRM does more to punish legitimate players than it does to restrict the illegitimate ones. I just wish that people wouldn't view the Internet as some sort of free-fire zone for looting and pillaging; then the issue of DRM wouldn't even crop up.

-- Steve

 

[SimuLord]

There's a simple reason Dream Pinball only sold 800 copies, namely that it wasn't worth anywhere near as much as TopWare was charging for it.

The fact that 12,000 people thought "that's worth playing, but not at their price" says more about TopWare than about its userbase.

 

[Andy Chalk]

And now one of those people who thought "that's worth playing, but not at their price" gets to play it at somebody else's price.

$30 thou is awfully heavy for downloading a single game. On the other hand, if you don't want to risk punitive action, don't steal shit. On that point, at least, it seems pretty straightforward. I don't like it, I don't like the idea of zero-value downloaders being sued into oblivion because they're too cheap or stupid to buy a game; but like Anton, I'm also having a hard time working up much sympathy for the people getting hit with these suits. Regardless of how you look at it, punishing your customers into submission isn't a great way to do business.

Disclaimer: I will not be drawn into conversations that follow topics including the right to try before you buy, the high price and/or low quality of most games, "downloading isn't stealing" or any other rationalizing bullshit that will inevitably flow in a discussion like this. Know a better way to fight piracy? Let's hear it. But if you're just going to make endless justifications for your cheap, greasy behaviour, save us both some time and don't bother.