Codemasters CEO: Beat Piracy With Unfinished Games
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
When this comes to pass (and make no mistake, this or something like it will), I will refrain from purchasing games anymore. I've been playing for twenty years and I don't think my loyalty to the industry should be paid with a thousand cuts.
I guess I'll be holding on to my BC ps3 for the rest of my life, it might very well be my last gaming console.
Better hit up Amazon and eBay and start stockpiling a collection to last for the next few decades.
I guess I'll be holding on to my BC ps3 for the rest of my life, it might very well be my last gaming console.
Better hit up Amazon and eBay and start stockpiling a collection to last for the next few decades.
I knew this would happen. I've been saying it would. If they they do this. I won't buy another new game. I swear I won't. I refuse to buy an unfinished game no matter how much of the price is taken down. I HATE DLC and I won't be buying a game that literally requires it to beat the game. Fucking stupid idea.
Codemasters is a horrible company anyway. Also this guy is a moron. Pirates can get DLC free easily.
Codemasters is a horrible company anyway. Also this guy is a moron. Pirates can get DLC free easily.
I actually like this idea, just because it lowers the cost of entry. Let's say an unfinished game costs between 10-40 dollars depending how much they cut out. This allows me to buy what amounts to larger demos, so I can try out more games, and just resell the ones I don't like without buying the entire thing. Plus, let's say I'm bored with Crackdown 2, but I still like it. I can go and buy a new game cheaper, and then come back to Crackdown 2 and buy the rest of the game later, so I get more options, more variety, and more entertainment.
thats retarded, not only are you buying an unfinished game for probably full price, but if you have xbox you have to pay for xbox live and then you have to actually pay for the rest of the game so damn dumb
Everyone is already doing this though. For example Modern Warfare 2 had all of its modding features and dedicated server removed in order to be able to push map packs on players.
I'd be less butthurt against the slightly less assholish concept being pushed by the CEO if games also took a duck in price to counteract this... but they won't... they'll stay at $60 (hurr we've removed content so you can pay for it down the line and raised the price... I wonder why we're getting so much piracy?).
I'd be less butthurt against the slightly less assholish concept being pushed by the CEO if games also took a duck in price to counteract this... but they won't... they'll stay at $60 (hurr we've removed content so you can pay for it down the line and raised the price... I wonder why we're getting so much piracy?).
How would it be marked? Would there be a sign next to it saying, "Buy DLC to complete your experience,"? Would the cashier have to tell you if it's a physical copy? Would there be a prompt on screen when playing that tells you so? If it doesn't or someone has never heard of this plan, lack of information can lead to a person being screwed.
For the minority that has never bought DLC, myself included, the need to register just to play the extras can also be off-putting.
For the minority that has never bought DLC, myself included, the need to register just to play the extras can also be off-putting.
It's the fear that you'll pull exactly that sorta shit that has so many people hating the concept of DLC. IDIOT!! Besides that it wouldn't take long for the pirates to figure out how to pirate the extra bits to complete the game anyway putting you back at square one. So once again all you'll have succeeded in doing is raping your legit customers up the ass with a cast iron rod (no pun intended). Oi, the stupidity of this is giving me a headache. This is even worse than Ubisoft's DRM nonsense solution.
This sounds like an awful idea that has the potential to be MASSIVELY abused by the developers/publishers, which of course, only hurts the "honest" customers who buy all of their crap legitimately anyways. Think about it: what's to stop them from charging for multiple endings? Quests/characters/story that SHOULD have been included in the original game? And what about the people who have no access to wireless internet and CANT buy DLC? No, I'm sorry, I hate pirates too, but there has to be another way to combat them without resorting to this.
Makes sense to me, actually. You sell what's essentially the shareware version, then have it contain mechanisms that will download the rest of the game and integrate it once the user goes through an online portal to unlock them. Granted, this is not to say that the pirates will be unable to compensate for the change, but it does make it a little harder than simply circumventing third party DRM mechanisms, particularly if the games which integrate the content have certain mechanics to make this difficult.
To these ends, the best mechanism would probably be to never actually download the completed game to the users, but rather have them access the content through online servers. In other words, the DLC ties together disparate portions of the game content, but is never actually stored on the users' hard drives. A pirate would have to actually find the information in the RAM, save it off, then modify the game source code to come up with a special pirate version that integrates the saved off portions. This is just enough work to be beyond the typical effort expended by crackers. It's not as much fun to crack when, instead of simply circumventing DRM code, it's actually your code that you had to work hard to make that you're giving out for free.
The negative gamer reaction is that we don't like buying DLC, but if you think of it as not being DLC but rather unlocking the full game after playing the shareware version, that makes better sense.
To these ends, the best mechanism would probably be to never actually download the completed game to the users, but rather have them access the content through online servers. In other words, the DLC ties together disparate portions of the game content, but is never actually stored on the users' hard drives. A pirate would have to actually find the information in the RAM, save it off, then modify the game source code to come up with a special pirate version that integrates the saved off portions. This is just enough work to be beyond the typical effort expended by crackers. It's not as much fun to crack when, instead of simply circumventing DRM code, it's actually your code that you had to work hard to make that you're giving out for free.
The negative gamer reaction is that we don't like buying DLC, but if you think of it as not being DLC but rather unlocking the full game after playing the shareware version, that makes better sense.
I suggest this: release a finished game. But there's a twist: make it worth the money...
I know, it's unheard of, but do give it a try?
I know, it's unheard of, but do give it a try?