Hotline Miami Developer Embraces Pirates

[T3hSource]

Here's a tip: They're Russians! Of course they're going to embrace piracy,because they know too well that it's not even worth trying to object it.

 

[mooncalf]

I feel sad if pirates actually take encouragement from this, but hey at least the dev is taking a realistic view of people's behaviour. But come on guys, seriously, it's freaking cheap, if you can afford it, buy it, if you can't, buy it when you can. Heaps violent game though, violent gameplay, violent colours, violent sound. Not to everyone's taste for sure.

 

[MonkeyPunch]

Well that's just someone who knows that getting mad at pirates isn't going to achieve a thing because it is inevitable.
Pirates that steal indy games like this are pretty low, but getting your knickers in a twist won't get you anywhere.

This is also someone who obviously cares a lot about his game. He apparently wants anyone who plays it to have a good experience which really shows a lot of love and the amount of dedication he has towards his creation.
The best kind of game developer really.

Shame it takes people stealing his work to show it, but he doesn't seem so fussed about it so why should any one else be?

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well good will does go a long way, this move of his has been going around the internet far more then the news of the game itself.

While I can't say this game is a perfect purchase I do approve of their standpoint.

 

[Smertnik]

Weird decision. I really don't get people who basically support those who acquire their products illegally. But eh, it's their game.

Also why the hell is there a torrent link in the original post?!

 

[Genocidicles]

Weird decision. I really don't get people who basically support those who acquire their products illegally.

Because it might guilt trip a few into buying it, and might make you a few fans who'll buy your next game.

Whereas screaming at them for being bad and putting in DRM only encourages more to pirate.

 

[Xanadu84]

Boy this feels like a question designed to make us feel uncomfortable about potentially bringing down mod wrath. I feel like answering this question honestly and with a anti-piracy stance could break forum rules about encouraging piracy. Please don't hurt me mods! I can change!

Props to him for his laid back attitude and all, but, well...theres an issue. As much as I hate to be painfully self aware, I was uninterested in this game, but might very well pick it up if it gets great reviews or goes on sale. But actively giving piracy a thumbs up? Now I kinda want to just pirate it because they said it was okay. Not saying I will, and I wouldn't think about it before this announcement, but I certainly feel the incentive here to not spend money. And if I was planning on buying it full price, I would have probably changed my mind and pirated it instead. If he wanted to get goodwill and promote future games, he could have just eventually made it free. So though I can't be angry at him, I can't help but feel like hes not exactly being too smart about this, and all he is doing is increasing the chances that he won't make enough money to finance his next game. Can't we find a middle ground between, "Everything ever should be free", and "Customers are all criminals and need to be treated as such"?

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

Here's the thing about pirates. When I was younger, and I used to download Nintendo Roms and songs I heard on the radio, I'd always say to myself, "I'll buy it if I like it" but I almost never would. Rationalize it all I like, I was stealing media. There wIll always be something more important to spend ones money on (like the games/music I couldn't steal) and for every single thing I bought after the fact, that I waved around as some false badge of honor there were dozens of other things I stole and enjoyed completely that no one ever saw money for.

I was younger, and dumb, and I was lying to myself. Maybe not every pirate out there is living my experience, but I find it hard to imagine it any other way but worse. (Not counting the guys out there in heavily restricted regions, those guys have legit reasons)

If the creators wanted you to try before you buy they'd put out a demo. Piracy only makes the industry stale as developers become more gun shy to take any risks on things that may not be bankable. I hope Hotline Miami's patch has a big F you hidden in it for pirates.

 

[Entitled]

Piracy only makes the industry stale as developers become more gun shy to take any risks on things that may not be bankable.

How does that make sense? If even some of the claims about people liking it and later buying it are true, then piracy is having positive effect on taking risks, since it allows people to play (and potentially buy) other things than sequels and imitators of things that they already know they want.

And even if it isn't true, piracy wouldn't be more harmful to experimental games, than to established blockbuster franchises. Even if all piracy would be eliminated tomorrow, and if everyone would act like the younger self that you described, so it would lead to an overall increase in sales, a disproportionally large part of that increase would go directly to EA's and Activision's big franchises that everyone feels "obliged" to check out even if they are not partcularly big fans, just because they want to stay "in the loop" with other gamers.

Also, popular things are easier to pirate. Indie content is only infrequently uploaded on most casual pirate sites, while overhypes blockbusters offer piracy links before you would even finish typing their name in google.

Besides, even if the pirates themselves really won't ever pay for the things that they play, they are spreading it's good name, so it won't remain obscure, and people like you can hear about it and buy it. Having a large playerbase can be a marketing benefit on it's own, without directly milking every player.

 

[sindremaster]

I like to think that I balanced the scales by calling people who actually pirate this game "jerks."

Not all pirates are jerks.

Some are just poor gamers, as Jonathan himself mentioned, trying to find a little escape from the pressure of daily life. Many of these type of pirates will buy games when they can actually afford it. No malice intended.

I'm sorry, but if you can't afford a 10 dollar game you should probably be spending your time trying to get a better job, not playing videogames.

 

[Lunar Templar]

well that's kinda cool of him i guess.

in the, 'the only way to beat pirates is by not fighting them' kinda way

 

[Danceofmasks]

Here's the thing about pirates. When I was younger, and I used to download Nintendo Roms and songs I heard on the radio, I'd always say to myself, "I'll buy it if I like it" but I almost never would. Rationalize it all I like, I was stealing media. There wIll always be something more important to spend ones money on (like the games/music I couldn't steal) and for every single thing I bought after the fact, that I waved around as some false badge of honor there were dozens of other things I stole and enjoyed completely that no one ever saw money for.

I was younger, and dumb, and I was lying to myself. Maybe not every pirate out there is living my experience, but I find it hard to imagine it any other way but worse. (Not counting the guys out there in heavily restricted regions, those guys have legit reasons)

If the creators wanted you to try before you buy they'd put out a demo. Piracy only makes the industry stale as developers become more gun shy to take any risks on things that may not be bankable. I hope Hotline Miami's patch has a big F you hidden in it for pirates.

Here's the thing about money.
You spend it on things you like.

I pirated games in 1981, at a time when I was also a whiz kid at everything from martial arts to playing a violin.
Nowadays, I choose to spend my (>$3000 per year entertainment budget) money on games instead of concerts, or skiing trips, or going to the movies.
'cos that's the medium I grew up to love.
Yes, I have a few musical instruments. Yes, I have exercise equipment. I spend pocket change on those things by comparison.

The notion that someone off the street would spend over $100 on games every week is ridiculous if they haven't already played hundreds of games.
I'm willing to wager you know people who download hundreds of TV shows and movies. Sure, some of them are just freeloaders, but how many of them also have hundreds of DVDs on their shelves?

Let me ask you this ... if you didn't play as many games as you did when you were younger, would you have bought as many games today?
Your retrospective guilt aside, would you have even become a gamer at all?

There is, after all, a reason a lot of people have Grateful Dead albums in their collections, even though that band has been giving their music away for free for almost half a decade.

Now, I don't pirate anything anymore. 'cos I have a lot of disposable income.
When companies such as EA or Ubisoft are being dicks, I just don't buy their stuff - I'm not one of those monogamers who "need" to have that one game, I have thousands of other games to play.
However, I would, without reservation, say "If piracy never existed, video games would never have got out of that Atari hole."

 

[The Hungry Samurai]

Let me ask you this ... if you didn't play as many games as you did when you were younger, would you have bought as many games today?
Your retrospective guilt aside, would you have even become a gamer at all?
"

I can say 100% without a doubt I would be every bit the gamer I am today without pirating Nintendo games 15 years after I started playing games. Games cost 50 for a nintendo cartridge back then and to suggest gaming is a $100 a week expense is ridiculous. The only reason I even bothered with piracy was because the games were no longer available.

Even if your rationale on having to play games to love games were true (it isn't) there is no excuse to steal games in this day and age when so many games are available for free or at massive discounts. Hotline Miami is a 10 dollar game. A PSN plus account will cost you 50 a year and give you about 2-4 free games a month. If pirating $100 of games a week is the average, then I'd say stealing $5200 a year is doing serious damage to the industry and for NO REASON AT ALL. Anyone who has time to play that many games needs to get a job, or go to class because they are living an unhealthy lifestyle.

That means a lot coming from me if you knew how much I game.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Wow... this guy actually knows that not everyone has sacks of money like the publishers that use DRM assume everyone has!

When I can afford it: SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! I probably won't even play the game but I HAVE to support this guy!

$9 is 'sacks of money'?

 

[JoshuaMadoc]

What angers me about this isn't the fact that he's being realistic about the whole piracy situation.

But rather that bunch of fuckwads who are shitting on him for "SUPPORTING ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES OF THEFT OF PROPERTY". Yes, I don't have that much of a grip on reality myself, but these people are arguably have even less of a grip on reality. Where the hell do those idiots think they are, Sunday School and Bible Studies?

 

[Denamic]

Rather than force people to pay you, make them want to pay you.
Humble bundle has done this since the beginning, and it's been doing absurdly well, and every new bundle does better than the last.
Why don't more people do this? Positive relations improve trade relations. War does not.