Square Enix Subpoenas Valve Over Deus Ex Leak

[rembrandtqeinstein]

Drop it Squenix, the possible outcomes aren't pretty:

1. it was a dumb kid who did it from his house and his own account

outcome: you nailed an adolescent, way to take a bit out of crime mcgruff while simultaneously making yourselves look like a petty assholes

2. it was someone slightly smarter who used a new account with fake into over some free wifi

outcome: you looked stupid and wasted a whole bunch of time while simultaneously making yourselves look like a petty assholes

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bonus points: by crying havoc and unleashing the dogs of war/lawyers you made the leak a much bigger, longer lasting news story than it originally was which will only increase the number of people who know about it

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

you can't take something back from the internet, might as well spin it to make yourselves look good

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

God... really Square? Are you being this fucking stupid?

What's next, firing off all the developers after the game releases because they encouraged those who did download this leak to post on the games official forums? Are you really getting pissed over something that has actually BOOSTED your initial sales figures for the game?


Hell, if you don't want money that badly, just pull a Ninteno (Of America) and just refuse to release the game at all.

I agree with you but think of it this way:

1) leak appears on the net Square gets all pissy about it and decides to bash at Valve for info.
2)Valve won't give in until SE subpoena's them which they continue to do so.
3)???
4)Profit! from suing a bunch of people, getting more popularity and more money in their greedy pockets.

I am really damn sick of the whole lawsuit thing i mean really money this and money that it reminds me way too much of the ZEITGEIST: moving forward video about how damn greedy the world is getting to be like and all because of damn money.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Even if they learn it's a formality to not have Valve be put in a sticky situation

Exactly, subpoenas aren't inherently hostile/confrontational. They're a procedureal formality for obtaining information from 3rd parties to insure that there are no questions as to how the information was gained.

 

[octafish]

Storm meet teacup. Tea cup this is storm.

I think Squeenix has every right to tighten their security and prosecute those that stole their property. This isn't about piracy as such, they aren't trying to prosecute everyone who torrented the "demo", more about stopping leaks. If they can get a successful criminal prosecution, that goes a long way to detering future leaks and thefts.

While I'm sure Valve is co-operating fully, (they don't want leaks or holes in their security eiter) they also have a privacy policy that protects their clients information, so Squeenix and Valve need a judge to say "Ok Valve you have upheld your side of the privacy policy by protecting your client, now I am compelling you to give that information to Squeenix". Valve can then give Squeenix the information they need without Valve having violated their policy. Valve is still the good guy because they didn't give up their clients information willy nilly and Squeenix can get on with chasing down the thieves.

Everyone is happy, except the thieves, and I guess Squeenix until they get their prosecution.

 

[Enamour]

Pre-orders aren't sales.

I'm pretty sure they go into the same year end columns.

Also, there is no such thing as bad publicity. The leak increased awareness, the subpeona increases awareness and telling everyone on Escapist and elsewhere increases awareness; we're sitting here bitching about it aren't we?

Edit: There's this thing about the Escapist forums that prompts MANY people saying the exact same shit over and over and over again. 5 pages of comments with only 3 original points of view. Repeating something that's been said 10 times already doesn't contribute to the conversation.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

This isn't about piracy as such, they aren't trying to prosecute everyone who torrented the "demo", more about stopping leaks.

Ding ding fucking ding!

In all honesty, I'm behind Square-Enix on this. As I've said before, it's about time (well past time, TBH) publishers openly started taking the sources of leaks to task instead of doing it in private while taking the time to publicly berate some section of the gaming community.

 

[UnravThreads]

Edit: There's this thing about the Escapist forums that prompts MANY people saying the exact same shit over and over and over again. 5 pages of comments with only 3 original points of view. Repeating something that's been said 10 times already doesn't contribute to the conversation.

It happens everywhere. The comments on PC Gamer's articles often make me facepalm due to it. Take the recent GfWL & Skyrim 'scare' that happened recently. Basically, a lot of news sites (Including RPS, surprisingly) left their intelligence at home for the day and then started freaking out and calling down the apocalypse when someone pointed out that the Skyrim case may have a GfWL logo on it. It was quickly shown that it was in fact just a Games for Windows case, but even after that had been stated, people were still crying bloody murder and refusing to actually look at the picture in question. Scaremongering and ignorant people go together well, sadly.

 

[theriddlen]

Trailers sucked too much for me to care about this game.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Didn't this same thing happen to Valve? Why, yes, yes it did. When Half-life 2 came out. Was anyone angry with Valve when they started tracking the person down? I'm fairly certain that because of that, Valve is more than willing to help and just needs Square to go through official channels. If Valve isn't willing to help, then my disappointment in them grows to an unbelievable level.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

I've heard five freaking stories about how the leak occured.

1. A disgruntled developer for Nixxes which is porting the game to the PC, grabbed a hard drive with the press demo inside and never returned to home or work.
2. A journalist with a press demo over Steam gave his friend access to his account. Said friend starts bragging on /b/ about access and ends up leaking the demo over torrent sites.
3. Hackers from Italy breached a journalist's press account through Steam.
4. Hackers from Russia breached a journalist's press account through Steam.
5. A demo disk for a journalist disappeared.

So really what damages arose from this leak? Why all the contradicting stories. I actually pre-ordered the game just because of videos of the leak.

This is the Deus Ex series after all, a franchise whose story is all about conspiracy theories. I conclude that the leak was an inside job, and a brilliant way of marketing the game.

 

[No_Remainders]

I imagine you'd have to have supreme confidence in your information to subpoena VALVE . Hope these guys win, I'm sick of leaks.

CAPTCHA for me was a Mandarin character this time. Yeah that's totally fair. I'm not a computer, I promise.

It's not like Valve are going to try to NOT give them the information.

After all, this is entirely about trying to stop this sort of thing from happening again.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

God... really Square? Are you being this fucking stupid?

What's next, firing off all the developers after the game releases because they encouraged those who did download this leak to post on the games official forums? Are you really getting pissed over something that has actually BOOSTED your initial sales figures for the game?


Hell, if you don't want money that badly, just pull a Ninteno (Of America) and just refuse to release the game at all.

I agree with you but think of it this way:

1) leak appears on the net Square gets all pissy about it and decides to bash at Valve for info.
2)Valve won't give in until SE subpoena's them which they continue to do so.
3)???
4)Profit! from suing a bunch of people, getting more popularity and more money in their greedy pockets.

I am really damn sick of the whole lawsuit thing i mean really money this and money that it reminds me way too much of the ZEITGEIST: moving forward video about how damn greedy the world is getting to be like and all because of damn money.

Maybe you have it all wrong. Square-Enix realizes that Valve isn't at fault. Valve can't just hand over a persons personal details and so the proper method to obtain those details is a subpoena. Square-Enix has a right to be pissy, someone stole from them and it's within their right to seek restitution. You may be sick of the whole lawsuit thing but I'm sick of all the leak and hacking thing. People need to sit the fuck down and be patient like the rest of us, if they do something illegal and get caught then I hope they get taken to the cleaners.

I was just rambling on about how annoying it is for a lawsuit to be involved when instead the culprits can be arrested and detained or heck serve community service for all i care but as long as it doesn't involve a lawsuit for money because it just shows greed for currency as a means to an end instead of just punishment which serves just as well.

 

[Zoe Castillo]

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[Enamour]

Pre-orders aren't sales.

I'm pretty sure they go into the same year end columns.

Also, there is no such thing as bad publicity. The leak increased awareness, the subpeona increases awareness and telling everyone on Escapist and elsewhere increases awareness; we're sitting here bitching about it aren't we?

If there's no such thing as bad publicity then this lawsuit can only be a good thing, correct?

Yes, that's what I thought.

If there's no heat wave then this weather can only be a snowstorm, correct?

Yes, that's what I thought.

Think man!