Piracy Numbers
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
Just about what I thought. Pirates pirate, no matter the protection. Simple enough.
More DRM = fewer sales? Likely.
More DRM costs more to implement? Likely.
Bother with DRM? I wouldn't - offer continued support with additional content (over TIME, not at release) to encourage people to buy.
More DRM = fewer sales? Likely.
More DRM costs more to implement? Likely.
Bother with DRM? I wouldn't - offer continued support with additional content (over TIME, not at release) to encourage people to buy.
Fixed.llafnwod said:
Honestly, llaf, you respond to that by taking a potshot at him, and it's a no win. You post like a jerk and you're reinforcing that statistic. You post opposition to that statistic and you're reinforcing that you're in that demographic. The only way you can come across as something other than a jerk is to post either a) articulatly, or b) not at all.
That's some ridiculous numbers.
And to think, I love Stardock and actually paid for Entrepreneur and The Corporate Machine...
How can we tell them that the PC is still worth developing for? Buying more games? Thanks to steam, I just play a lot of demos and I hardly find something that screams to me "This is incredible, pre-purchase now."
Even indie games are great, but I bought Trine on sale - does this really help the developers? I'm not pirating it, but buying it at 75% off, how can they profit from me being a thrifty shopper? As a gamer, I don't like to spend a shit ton of money. A friend of mine bought Zombie Driver, and he and I had great fun with it - we went over to his house, and we played through it, alternating turns when we died and whatnot...And we loved it - but it was done in like 3 hours.
He felt ripped off that he spent 20 bucks on 3 hours of gameplay, and I wouldn't pay more than 5 dollars for that game, because I can get a movie ticket for 5 bucks around here for almost the same amount of time done.
It's a great game, I had fun, I enjoyed it, but no free-roam, only one city, no map editor, no DLC, etc...Why wouldn't someone pirate it?
A lot of demos I play (Eufloria, Metal Drift, Zombie Driver) give away a large portion of the gameplay, and I would like it to be significantly improved when I purchase the real thing - else I'll just wait for it to go on sale and that probably won't really help any developers, publishers, or the industry in general, even though I want to make an impact.
Should I just mail Stardock a 50 dollar check?
And to think, I love Stardock and actually paid for Entrepreneur and The Corporate Machine...
How can we tell them that the PC is still worth developing for? Buying more games? Thanks to steam, I just play a lot of demos and I hardly find something that screams to me "This is incredible, pre-purchase now."
Even indie games are great, but I bought Trine on sale - does this really help the developers? I'm not pirating it, but buying it at 75% off, how can they profit from me being a thrifty shopper? As a gamer, I don't like to spend a shit ton of money. A friend of mine bought Zombie Driver, and he and I had great fun with it - we went over to his house, and we played through it, alternating turns when we died and whatnot...And we loved it - but it was done in like 3 hours.
He felt ripped off that he spent 20 bucks on 3 hours of gameplay, and I wouldn't pay more than 5 dollars for that game, because I can get a movie ticket for 5 bucks around here for almost the same amount of time done.
It's a great game, I had fun, I enjoyed it, but no free-roam, only one city, no map editor, no DLC, etc...Why wouldn't someone pirate it?
A lot of demos I play (Eufloria, Metal Drift, Zombie Driver) give away a large portion of the gameplay, and I would like it to be significantly improved when I purchase the real thing - else I'll just wait for it to go on sale and that probably won't really help any developers, publishers, or the industry in general, even though I want to make an impact.
Should I just mail Stardock a 50 dollar check?
Nothing arguable about it. People in the revolutions never claim their actions aren't radical. Pirates cannot claim their actions aren't STEALING.llafnwod said:
Still we have a vicious circle, more DRM = more Pirates, more Pirates = More DRM
I bought spore, and also downloaded the pirated copy. Mainly because of all the shit the securom did to my system.
Sadly, publisher's just can't get their heads around the fact that their games will always get pirated. No matter what.
Movies and music get pirated all the damn time, arguably more than games. And yet they don't impliment mandatory online activation or whathaveyou.
Sadly, publisher's just can't get their heads around the fact that their games will always get pirated. No matter what.
Movies and music get pirated all the damn time, arguably more than games. And yet they don't impliment mandatory online activation or whathaveyou.
What's arguable about it?llafnwod said:
They steal.
OT: Some interesting points. The whole thing is doing my head in, because no-one will relent. Publishers won't with the DRM (well, some have) and the pirates just don't give a shit.
If you can't get rid of piracy (you can't), then you need to make things more appealing to get legit buyers more interested in buying your games. Then make the service you provide better (i.e. not DRM).
You know, I find these numbers very hard to take seriously.
For one, I know a number of people who have gone from pirated to proper copy. And a number who played pirated to get past the DRM (especially the constant disc/net checks).
But let's take the bookies favourite, Mewtwo.
Now, given our 90% piracy rate, (And in Mewtwo - it's almost likely to be higher) that means that of the figures they have
Never mind, let's look at the comeback. RRP was £55, but we know damn well that almost no-one bought it at that...best figure I can come up with was an average price of around £40.
So Infinity Ward should have made £220 million, made £170 odd million, and claim they should have made (90% piracy) £2.2 billion.
Now, figures don't really add up here, because it's fair to assume that 90% of the people who bought/pirated MewTwo (And remember it has a wonderful anti-piracy DRM that was cracked within days) were able to get online.
That means (90% Piracy) 40 million different players joined in. Which is basically the population of England, Ireland and Scotland. (UK is 62 mil)
Now if all of these games have roughly 90% piracy at all times...that means that for every new person who wants to play it, 9 pirates will also want to play it.
This seems less like hard data, and more like mass exaggeration.
For one, I know a number of people who have gone from pirated to proper copy. And a number who played pirated to get past the DRM (especially the constant disc/net checks).
But let's take the bookies favourite, Mewtwo.
Now, given our 90% piracy rate, (And in Mewtwo - it's almost likely to be higher) that means that of the figures they have
Hold on....that looks suspiciously like 50/50.wiki said:
Never mind, let's look at the comeback. RRP was £55, but we know damn well that almost no-one bought it at that...best figure I can come up with was an average price of around £40.
So Infinity Ward should have made £220 million, made £170 odd million, and claim they should have made (90% piracy) £2.2 billion.
Now, figures don't really add up here, because it's fair to assume that 90% of the people who bought/pirated MewTwo (And remember it has a wonderful anti-piracy DRM that was cracked within days) were able to get online.
That means (90% Piracy) 40 million different players joined in. Which is basically the population of England, Ireland and Scotland. (UK is 62 mil)
Now if all of these games have roughly 90% piracy at all times...that means that for every new person who wants to play it, 9 pirates will also want to play it.
This seems less like hard data, and more like mass exaggeration.
I've bought and paid for every game I've ever played. When I worked at a popular retail computer outlet and saw rampant piracy on a daily basis, I would still proudly buy the game and say "no thank you" as the tech guys offered to give (steal) me a copy.
What did the DRM that came along do for me? Well I stopped playing PC games at all. The hassles of being pestered by something even though I've always gone the prim and proper route soured me on the whole experience.
Point of this story? Well obviously I'm just offering a self-righteous rant to make myself feel superior. But maybe next time you make a column like this, you can have one category for me.
What did the DRM that came along do for me? Well I stopped playing PC games at all. The hassles of being pestered by something even though I've always gone the prim and proper route soured me on the whole experience.
Point of this story? Well obviously I'm just offering a self-righteous rant to make myself feel superior. But maybe next time you make a column like this, you can have one category for me.
In a lot of cases, yeah, they can. I torrented Psychonauts, The Longest Journey, and The Witcher, games I would not have bought had they not been "freely" available, and have since purchased all three of them. I got ICO for the PS2 since acquiring it "legitimately" through eBay would have cost at least one hundred USD more than retail price, precisely 0% of which would have gone to the developers.CommyGingerbreadMan said:
I'm starting to wonder if publishers like Ubisoft even understand how piracy works. All it takes is ONE GUY to crack the DRM, and then it's available to anyone; the DRM is useless after that. Like you said, how can DRM do anything if pirates aren't even affected by it?
Great article, and in fact I find this whole topic fascinating, if only for how dumb it is. Publishers really don't seem to understand what they're up against.
Great article, and in fact I find this whole topic fascinating, if only for how dumb it is. Publishers really don't seem to understand what they're up against.
What bothers me the most is that DRM is only affecting the paying customers, and not pirates.Woodsey said:
Why should I suffer because my neighbor pirate?
In all honesty, it makes me more likely to pirate [insert random game publisher here]'s next release, or boycott the game and company altogether.
I mean, why should i pay for an inferior product when my pirating neighbor get's the "good" version for free?
DRM has only on purpose, and that is to (hopefully) slow down the crackers so much that more people buy the game before it is available on torrent sites.
And this does not seem to be working, as new releases by [insert random game publisher here] are often on torrent sites before the game is even in stores!
In short, DRM is meaingless and pisses of your paying customers.
Please stop it.