Codemasters CEO: Beat Piracy With Unfinished Games

[The Rockerfly]

I completely agree with it, Batman Arkum Asylum was a good example of this s you could very easily pirate it but you couldn't download one of the most basic moves in the game

It's hilarious and it hs shown it works however I question if the long term thinking for this idea exists. In ten years times will the servers still exist for the half of the game? I still play games 10 years after they are released and it would be a shame if in the future I can't buy any games because the servers for half the content are missing

At least developers have now got two very effective ways of combating pirates, this method and multiplayer modes such as left 4 dead which is almost entirely based on the multiplayer requiring you to purchase a copy

 

[Steve Butts]

That's dumb and, once again, it's punishing all users as if they were criminals. So much for corporate goodwill.

Stardock has a great solution that I'm surprised no one else has copied. It releases games with limited (or in some cases NO copy-protection) and relies on registered keys for updates and additional content. It's not perfect but it seems to be working.

 

[Kollega]

EPIC FACEPALM MANOEUVRE!

DE CODEKCS ASTARTIES NEHMS DIS MANOOVAHR "STEEL REHN"!!!

OT: This idea is pretty stupid, and if they're not planning to cut the price of "base game", then it's also extremely evil.

And this comment thread will go up in flames.

 

[CoverYourHead]

I fail to see how this will stop piracy, and I can only see how it will aid it. Who wants to buy an unfinished game, then have to pay more for the rest of it?

This is the equivalent of stopping people from stealing silverware from a restaurant by only having them give you your entrée, then having the waiter slap you in the face and asking for a bigger tip before he brings you your main meal.

 

[migo]

You don't want people pirating your games - release for PS3 and not 360 or PC, job done.

Wait, what, millions of customers are on the other platforms along with some freetards and you'll looe sales? Oh well..

Yeah. Every single time it seems that the systems that are easiest to pirate on are the ones that sell the best.

This generation the Wii is easy to mod and the games simple enough to burn, it wins by a large margin. Xbox 360 is also easy enough to mod, particularly if you want to do it yourself, it's in 2nd place and has the highest attach rate. PS3 is unhackable and comes in last. DS is easy as hell to hack - just stick in an R4, it sells the best. PSP is much more convoluted to hack and has a much lower sale and attach rate.

At the very least we can see that piracy doesn't reduce sales, but it also strongly looks like piracy drives sales.

 

[GeneticallyModifiedDucks]

What's this guy smoking? Blizzard said it best: If you want people to not pirate your game then stuff if full of high quality content so that people will end up wanting to buy it. This has got to be the worst idea of the year.

 

[Snotnarok]

Let's all take a journey to a torrent site, or hell, GOOGLE, and look for pirated game DLC, because I bet you that it's all there.

Why would you think this would work? Why?? If you can pirate the game, ANY DLC for it will be just as easy. This is a dumb fucking plan that only stands to screw the people who buy the game yet again.

 

[TheDukester]

"That would create an offering that is affordable at retail - but over a period of time may also generate more revenue for the publishers to reinvest in our games"

If you sell me a game for >$5 bucks and then charge me DLC that opens the game up to a MAXIMUM of $60, I wouldn't care. In fact, that'd be awesome. Think of how many people wouldn't bother buying the single player unlock for Modern Warfare 2?

If you charge me $60 and then charge me money to "unlock" my own game, that's some bull right there.

 

[jayc4life]

Assassin's Creed 2 says hello, Codies.

 

[BlueHighwind]

Um... No. I would never buy a game like this, NEVER. If gaming becomes this much of a toothache, then I may never play a newly released game again. Hey, after 30 years of this industry, there's thousands of games I an play without any of this BS.

 

[Withall]

Actually... that makes sense. Kinda hard to make "fool-proof", but it's an interesting concept.

 

[WrongSprite]

Actually... that makes sense. Kinda hard to make "fool-proof", but it's an interesting concept.

How? Pirates will simply just download all the extra bits as they come out too.

 

[Hiphophippo]

Right. Because people never pirate DLC right? Right? Anyone? No?

He's correct though that being creative about how you handle DRM is important at this point.

 

[Radeonx]

You don't want people pirating your games - release for PS3 and not 360 or PC, job done.

Wait, what, millions of customers are on the other platforms along with some freetards and you'll looe sales? Oh well..

At the very least we can see that piracy doesn't reduce sales, but it also strongly looks like piracy drives sales.

That's probably because over the long term, a Modded Xbox 360 with pirated games is MUCH cheaper than a PS3 with legitimate copies, leading to more people buying it.

OT: Well, that's stupid, because DLC is just as "pirate-able" as the regular game.

 

[Raithnor]

This idea is total genius. /sarcasm

Let's make games so crappy that people won't bother pirating them.

 

[tlozoot]

Apparantly Rod Cousens here went to the same school of Public Relations as Bobby Kotick. Can he not possibly see that these comments might maybe, at all, just a little be seen as negative and hostile towards legitimate gamers?

 

[tikian12]

People hate micro-transactions more that the actual paying or DRMs. This idea is more retarded than sony's slowly less fun demo idea.

 

[digital warrior]

Take a lesson from Batman's latest outing [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94524-Arkham-Asylum-Pirates-Get-a-Gimpy-Batman], so that if it is pirated some specific aspect of the game that is needed to will not work.

 

[John Funk]

I think people are misunderstanding - or rather, I *hope* they are.

If he's talking about selling unfinished games at $60 and then charging more, then the guy's out of his rocker. But it seems to me that he's saying, "Let's sell a half-complete game for $30" (or whatever) "and then finish it in DLC." In other words, it's just ... episodic content?