Piracy Inspires Indie Developer to Release Game for Free

roseofbattle

News Room Contributor
Apr 18, 2011
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Piracy Inspires Indie Developer to Release Game for Free

SpeedRunners developer tinyBuild has decided to release the offline features version of its game for free.

Piracy is a part of the wide entertainment industry whether developers and publishers like it or not. Some developers, especially indie developers, have warmed up to piracy. Indie developer tinyBuild is one such example; the developer will release a free version of its game SpeedRunners, a multiplayer platform-racer with superheroes. The offline features version will be available for free while the full game will be available for purchase.

tinyBuild's Alex Nichiporchik sent a statement to Rock Paper Shotgun detailing why the team is releasing a pirate-friendly version, noting that he was pirating Battlefield 4 at that moment. "I've seen it multiple times when people pirate some sort of software, fall in love with it, and then due to constant updates reminders end up buying it, just for the convenience," Nichiporchik wrote. "Basically, when developers provide a good service, people see the value in spending money. Minecraft is a great example. With the constant updates, it's so clear you should throw your money at the screen - simple provide a service, making it much more convenient than searching for cracks."

This is why a separate version with online features and updates will cost money while one without the service will be free. "We've decided to make SpeedRunners free when it comes out," Nichiporchik continued. "The local version of SpeedRunners will be available completely free. You'll be able to download it and play with your friends on a couch, or use any of the offline features (right now we have bots to play against offline)."

The game is on Steam Early Access [http://store.steampowered.com/app/207140/] right now, but costs money to play. However, if you play the game through Early Access, you will receive a paid version on launch.

Source: Rock Paper Shotgun [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/11/02/speedrunners-embracing-piracy-releasing-free-version/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RockPaperShotgun+(Rock%2C+Paper%2C+Shotgun)]

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kailus13

Soon
Mar 3, 2013
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"I'm breaking the law! Right now!"

That piece of idiocy aside, isn't this basically a demo?
 

the doom cannon

New member
Jun 28, 2012
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kailus13 said:
"I'm breaking the law! Right now!"

That piece of idiocy aside, isn't this basically a demo?
But it appears to be a REAL demo! not "play this for 2 minutes NOW BUY IT" demo
 

Jessta

New member
Feb 8, 2011
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I'm going to school for animation in media (Games or TV mostly but really anything that could use a 3D/traditional artist) and literally EVERYBODY in the class pirates stuff, even the teachers -most of whom work or worked for EA- admit to pirating TV now and then and all of them work in the field, every industry professional I've ever met pirates stuff and when I toured EA's work place awhile back I noticed that most of the people working on projects were pirating either music or TV in the background while the worked. The only people I've met that DON'T pirate games/tv/books etc aren't very interested to begin with and in the end spend far lass time and money on it anyways so I always feel it's kind of silly when I hear about some big name game company making some sort of self glorified heroic stand against piracy.

It's nice to see the indie studios are being honest with themselves.
 

snekadid

Lord of the Salt
Mar 29, 2012
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I would just like to thank pirates for getting me a legally free game. YouseewhatIdidthere?