Machinarium Developer Offers Pirates Amnesty

[gregoryg]

Machinarium Developer Offers Pirates Amnesty

Machinarium developer Amanita Design is attempting to turn the tide against piracy with an amnesty sale.

The shadow of piracy constantly looms over the PC gaming market, and indie developers are no exception to the trend. Czech-based developer Amanita Design announced yesterday that as many as 95% of the downloads of its recent point-and-click adventure game, Machinarium, were illegally grabbed by pirates. To make up for lost sales, the studio has announced an "amnesty" sale, giving both pirates and new players a chance to grab the game for a lower price.

Machinarium, which was released last October, follows a robot named Josef as he makes his way through a wasteland to a machine-filled city. The game follows the traditional adventure game format, where a player must gather objects and use them to solve puzzles in order to progress. Machinarium was acclaimed for its unique graphic style and ability to convey hints and story details without the use of dialogue, winning an Independent Games Festival award for visual art.

Game designer Jakub Dvorsky told Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29768/Machinarium_Dev_Saw_Up_To_95_Piracy_Rate.php] today that only five to fifteen percent of people who downloaded the game bought it legitimately. He added, "We expected that our game would be soon available for free on torrents and other services, but the number of download links which emerged on the web almost immediately after the release really surprised us."

Amanita Design doesn't include any form of anti-piracy measure on its games. Dvorsky believes that they don't matter, noting that these measures "only make the legal version less comfortable than some free hacked illegal version."

There is a bit of a silver-lining in this story. Apparently, the piracy of the game led to new gamers discovering the independent studio. Amanita claims that a number of people contacted the studio, telling the developers that they had pirated the game and offering to pay the full price. In that spirit, the studio has announced a "pirate amnesty" sale. Anybody, whether they are a former pirate or a curious newcomer, can buy the game and its soundtrack for a measly $5, seventy-five percent off of the standard $20 tag.

To take advantage of the sale price, you simply need to grab the game from the official site [http://machinarium.net/demo/] before next Thursday, August 12th. A browser-based demo is available for curious players.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/29768/Machinarium_Dev_Saw_Up_To_95_Piracy_Rate.php]

Permalink

 

[MisterShine]

I've been meaning to pick this up for a while now..

/sniff

It's so sad to see that the pirates will abuse even these tiny indy developers. I'm sure many of the pirates have mitigating circumstances, but you know a lot of them are just cheap assholes.

Screw sale price, I'm buying it full when it goes off-sale!

 

[Seventh Actuality]

What you have to remember is that a good number of those 'illegal' downloads will have been by people who bought the game legally then found they couldn't play the bloody thing. Still, good of Amanita to roll with it like this.

 

[JaymesFogarty]

So, up to 95% of the game was pirated? Even though it was obvious that they were indie developers? Whatever happened to the, "noble cause against huge corporation," bullshit I heard about earlier?

 

[The Wooster]

While I apreciate the sentiment (it's nice to see a PC game company accept the inevitable rather than rage against the people who actually bought the title) I fail to see how this is an amnesty in any way shape or form. Were pirates somehow prevented from buying the game before the amnesty?

So, up to 95% of the game was pirated? Even though it was obvious that they were indie developers? Whatever happened to the, "noble cause against huge corporation," bullshit I heard about earlier?

I'd take their numbers with a grain of salt to be honest. But when you put out a game with a small file size and no protection whatsoever (it's just an exe) this is what happens. Personally, I never thought an online registration or a cdkey was that much a hassle.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Wow... this must be a REALLY good game for pirates to fully admit to it and offered to pay for the game.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

What you have to remember is that a good number of those 'illegal' downloads will have been by people who bought the game legally then found they couldn't play the bloody thing. Still, good of Amanita to roll with it like this.

If it has no DRM, as the article says, then will that actually be the case with this game? You might be able to make that case with games that have some pretty hardcore DRM, to the extent that it detracts from the game. But the article said that this game had no anti-piracy measures. If that's true, then would the difference between the legit and the pirated versions really make it easier to play? I mean, I'll admit, I'm not a pirate myself so maybe there's some other benefits to piracy that I don't know of, I don't have any desire whatsoever to get into an argument about it, but without the DRM you can't really make an argument like that in regards to this game.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

While I apreciate the sentiment (it's nice to see a PC game company accept the inevitable rather than rage against the people who actually bought the title) I fail to see how this is an amnesty in any way shape or form. Were pirates somehow prevented from buying the game before the amnesty?

No, but I think the company is being smart and trying to cut there losses.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

What you have to remember is that a good number of those 'illegal' downloads will have been by people who bought the game legally then found they couldn't play the bloody thing. Still, good of Amanita to roll with it like this.

If it has no DRM, as the article says, then will that actually be the case with this game? You might be able to make that case with games that have some pretty hardcore DRM, to the extent that it detracts from the game. But the article said that this game had no anti-piracy measures. If that's true, then would the difference between the legit and the pirated versions really make it easier to play? I mean, I'll admit, I'm not a pirate myself so maybe there's some other benefits to piracy that I don't know of, I don't have any desire whatsoever to get into an argument about it, but without the DRM you can't really make an argument like that in regards to this game.

It wasn't DRM I was talking about, but a weird screw-up with the PC/Mac versions that meant people's discs only worked on platforms they didn't have. I'm not too sure of the details, but it pissed my girlfriend off royally at the time.

 

[The Wooster]

While I apreciate the sentiment (it's nice to see a PC game company accept the inevitable rather than rage against the people who actually bought the title) I fail to see how this is an amnesty in any way shape or form. Were pirates somehow prevented from buying the game before the amnesty?

No, but I think the company is being smart and trying to cut there losses.

So it's really just an attempt to spin a positive out of a negative. The headline could just have easily been "Machinarium price slashed due to crappy sales."

 

[Kpt._Rob]

What you have to remember is that a good number of those 'illegal' downloads will have been by people who bought the game legally then found they couldn't play the bloody thing. Still, good of Amanita to roll with it like this.

If it has no DRM, as the article says, then will that actually be the case with this game? You might be able to make that case with games that have some pretty hardcore DRM, to the extent that it detracts from the game. But the article said that this game had no anti-piracy measures. If that's true, then would the difference between the legit and the pirated versions really make it easier to play? I mean, I'll admit, I'm not a pirate myself so maybe there's some other benefits to piracy that I don't know of, I don't have any desire whatsoever to get into an argument about it, but without the DRM you can't really make an argument like that in regards to this game.

It wasn't DRM I was talking about, but a weird screw-up with the PC/Mac versions that meant people's discs only worked on platforms they didn't have. I'm not too sure of the details, but it pissed my girlfriend off royally at the time.

Huh. Well, I guess that would explain some percentage of the illegal downloads. Though, it couldn't explain the "good number of illegal downloads" you mentioned. The numbers don't make sense. At maximum it can explain 5% of the pirated downloads. If 5% of downloads are legit sales, and even if we go so far as to claim that 100% of those legit downloads had the screw up and downloaded the game a second time through a pirated source (which, let's be honest here, is rediculous to think that 100% had that happen, but go with it just so I can make my point) then at maximum that explains 10% of the downloads, one legit download and one pirated download. Unless they had to download multiple pirated copies. But, like I said, it's highly unlikely that 100% of the people who bought the game had the screw up and instead of deciding to trouble shoot went and pirated it, it's unlikely that even as many as 50% had this scenario, hell, I'd be seriously surprised to find it even as high as 25%. Not to mention, if there was a serious problem, one would think that the company would get to work on a patch of some sort.

The point is that the numbers just don't add up. Even if we take the out of the question 100% scenario, 90% of downloads must have come from people who never paid for the game at all. And those really are some pretty discouraging numbers, especially considering that this is an independant gaming company, one who it seems to me from this article, really care about their game and their customers.

 

[Mr. Grey]

While I apreciate the sentiment (it's nice to see a PC game company accept the inevitable rather than rage against the people who actually bought the title) I fail to see how this is an amnesty in any way shape or form. Were pirates somehow prevented from buying the game before the amnesty?

I think the word amnesty is being used in how countries would provide amnesty for privateers and pirates alike. Basically they're not holding them liable for their past offenses and instead wish to treat them as entirely innocent customers.

Some - if not most - of those pirates of old that had been granted amnesty were later hanged, however... so I'm inclined to believe this is a trap.

 

[ThaBenMan]

I think Machinarium was well worth the $20 I paid for it - such great work deserves the monetary support. I hope their Amnesty is a success.

 

[undeadmouse]

Where the hell did that screen come from! it looks like the right art style - but I've played through the game and I don't remember that screen at all.

 

[Ewyx]

Just out of curiosity, how are these piracy statistics measured?

 

[migo]

The point is that the numbers just don't add up. Even if we take the out of the question 100% scenario, 90% of downloads must have come from people who never paid for the game at all. And those really are some pretty discouraging numbers, especially considering that this is an independant gaming company, one who it seems to me from this article, really care about their game and their customers.

The downloads likely came from being at the top of a torrent site right after being uploaded, people who logged in at the time saw it, thought it was interesting and downloaded. If you've got people who primarily pirate games, and don't bother with normal channels, that's how they'll find out about new games.

 

[Loonerinoes]

That silver lining? It happens far more than most might think and you'd be surprised how many pirates genuinely believe in it being worth the initial 'losses'. But until the statistics around these things stop being spun, no one will be able to say for or against it conclusively.

Still...good response from the developers I think. But we'll see how it goes from here.

 

[gregoryg]

Where the hell did that screen come from! it looks like the right art style - but I've played through the game and I don't remember that screen at all.

That was a new piece of art created for this sale. You can find it on http://machinarium.net/blog/2010/08/05/machinarium-pirate-amnesty/

 

[Weaver]

This game is also made in flash and is just an executable = incredibly easy to pirate.
IMO it wasn't worth the money I spent on it though, $20 for this game was too much. $5 is much more reasonable.

 

[scotth266]

Further evidence that pirates are mostly just jerks. Even if the entire 15% who actually bought the game found the game through piracy channels, or played a pirated copy as a demo, that still means at least 60% of the people who downloaded the game just plain stole it. And they stole it from an indie developer to boot.

This is on par with the 90% piracy rate on World Of Goo.