Square Enix Subpoenas Valve Over Deus Ex Leak

[Twilight_guy]

Hello rabid anti-piracy protection mobs. Why don't you go share your source code over in the corner there; I like the idea of making a living off the hard work you put into making source code and programs. Aside from that off topic mess that inevitable arise whenever anyone smells the word "pirate" in the air anywhere near games, this is just a legal crinkle on Square's way to suing some guy back to the stone age. Valve can't violate its own piracy so they need legal action to release that information whether they want to or not and its not as if Valve can do anything about it since its like a warrant, you can't fight it.
Not to be rude, but this should just be a footnote or update on a story about the leak. (Of course the massive Valve fanboy black-hole on the Escapist probably made this a full story because people click on anything with Valve int ht title.)

 

[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.

Becuase its still ILLEGAL. The damages accorded are completely irrelevant. Just because a robber breaks into your house but doesn't Steal anything, doesn't mean he shouldn't be arrested.

Did you understand my post? I wasn't questioning the legality the leak situation. I'm questioning the fact whether there actually was theft involved.

I believe the press demo wasn't "leaked" but instead was intentionally put out on torrents by the marketing behind Square Enix. (A brilliant guerilla marketing tactic id software has been doing for decades, and David Fincher recently did for his remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Similarly EA Games and Dark Horse comics faked boycotts and protests for their controversial Dante's Inferno and Satan's Sodomy Baby.)

It's terribly convenient that the "leak" came so close to the game's release, features only 1/3rd of the full game (and by reports can be well over 8-10 hours by itself) and that Eidos moderators on their own forums allow people to post about it and even encourage bug reports. It's a way to demonstrate a demo without actually releasing one, and strum up hype for the game, and beta test and gauge audience reactions without impunity for a buggy product. "Eidos releases Deus Ex: Human Revolution demo" won't make the headlines but "Hackers release unfinished version of Deus Ex" Human Revolution will".) And now they're probably continuing a charade of hunting hackers just for show and make more headlines and gain publicity.

How come HR is the only game leaked out of all the demos that might've been on the supposed Steam account or out of Square Enix? Because it's Deus Ex. In the Deus Ex universe a secret cabal would go as far as to fill up all of the orange soda slots with lemon lime in a vending machine because they know that a secret agent's favorite soda is orange and get angry from it. Likewise hackers won't just steal a copy of a game and release them on the internet, a secret cabal would release it on the internet and blame it on hackers.

I'm sure there is a point in all this gibberish, but i can't find it do to the huge supply of tinfoil hats and conspiracy theory. Maybe dig whatever you where trying to say out from all that foil, and give it a good shine before throwing it back to me.

1) Deus Ex is all about conspiracies.
2) This is a conspiracy. There was no leak.
3) Square Enix/Eidos "leaked" the demo as a guerilla marketing scheme. It's been done before.
4) There were multiple contradicting stories released by the press concerning how and where the "leak" occurred.

 

[Gindil]

Someone needs to film the reaction when they find out that the Deus Ex leak actually convinced a significant amount of people on the fence to buy the full version.

If only Square would listen. -_-;

 

[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.

Becuase its still ILLEGAL. The damages accorded are completely irrelevant. Just because a robber breaks into your house but doesn't Steal anything, doesn't mean he shouldn't be arrested.

Did you understand my post? I wasn't questioning the legality the leak situation. I'm questioning the fact whether there actually was theft involved.

I believe the press demo wasn't "leaked" but instead was intentionally put out on torrents by the marketing behind Square Enix. (A brilliant guerilla marketing tactic id software has been doing for decades, and David Fincher recently did for his remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Similarly EA Games and Dark Horse comics faked boycotts and protests for their controversial Dante's Inferno and Satan's Sodomy Baby.)

It's terribly convenient that the "leak" came so close to the game's release, features only 1/3rd of the full game (and by reports can be well over 8-10 hours by itself) and that Eidos moderators on their own forums allow people to post about it and even encourage bug reports. It's a way to demonstrate a demo without actually releasing one, and strum up hype for the game, and beta test and gauge audience reactions without impunity for a buggy product. "Eidos releases Deus Ex: Human Revolution demo" won't make the headlines but "Hackers release unfinished version of Deus Ex" Human Revolution will".) And now they're probably continuing a charade of hunting hackers just for show and make more headlines and gain publicity.

How come HR is the only game leaked out of all the demos that might've been on the supposed Steam account or out of Square Enix? Because it's Deus Ex. In the Deus Ex universe a secret cabal would go as far as to fill up all of the orange soda slots with lemon lime in a vending machine because they know that a secret agent's favorite soda is orange and get angry from it. Likewise hackers won't just steal a copy of a game and release them on the internet, a secret cabal would release it on the internet and blame it on hackers.

I'm sure there is a point in all this gibberish, but i can't find it do to the huge supply of tinfoil hats and conspiracy theory. Maybe dig whatever you where trying to say out from all that foil, and give it a good shine before throwing it back to me.

1) Deus Ex is all about conspiracies.
2) This is a conspiracy. There was no leak.
3) Square Enix/Eidos "leaked" the demo as a guerilla marketing scheme. It's been done before.
4) There were multiple contradicting stories released by the press concerning how and where the "leak" occurred.

eeeeeyup. All i still see is tinfoil.

Maybe if you remove the smug-pretentious glasses, your reading comprehension would improve.

 

[DigitalSushi]

From what I'm understanding it was Valve that told Squeenix to subpoena them, in order to overcome their privacy policy that what they needed to do and then Valve could co operate.

Maybe if you remove the smug-pretentious glasses, your reading comprehension would improve.

And perhaps if you toned down the conspiracy, inspector gadget would show up with a plate of tacos and a 800 pound gorilla.

Clipclop, Youth, stop arguing, you've both made valid comments but now your just flaming each other.

 

[Amphoteric]

Square Enix needs to calm the fuck down.

The leak didn't hurt them AT ALL.

 

[Tsaba]

This just seems to be a legal check in the box.... as much as this is "good" for sales, I do believe that the people responsible for the leak should be punished.

 

[Fensfield]

So many people not bothering to even look at the thread before running with the usual Square-Enix bashing and foul language.

It's a bit of bureaucracy as two companies work together to investigate a systems breach, not one company attacking another. Honestly.. -.-

 

[Frotality]

well square seems intent on removing all traces of potential customers they got from the leak....

i can understand them wanting to play publicity battle by countering the publicly known leak with a threat of their own, but isnt square kind of struggling financially right now? isnt the leak acknowledged as good publicity? what is the gain here? is it just the standard "hackers are satan" mentality square is trying to reinforce?

i mean, its like a man whos been shot in the leg by one guy and robbed by another limping after the robber instead of the hospital.

 

[Android2137]

The subpoena was a legal necessity for both Square and Valve. I hope they catch the guy. Developers have bills and need to eat like the rest of us humans.

 

[Inkidu]

Why steal it? So yeah, it'll probably help the sales in the end (no press is bad press and all that), but why steal it. That's their property and no one has any more right to steal it and release it than they do to mug a man or woman for the contents of their wallets.

People just can't ask nicely for demos.

 

[Baresark]

Someone needs to film the reaction when they find out that the Deus Ex leak actually convinced a significant amount of people on the fence to buy the full version.

Good luck finding some tangible proof of such a thing.

I think this seems fair enough...I mean, Valve could help them find the hackers, obviously. I just worry someone will come storming in, rude comment in mind, forgetting that "subpoena" doesn't mean to charge someone with a crime.

In todays world, a simple poll acts as tangible evidence, no matter how much it's not. I mean, politicians pass laws based on polls after all, I don't see why a simple poll wouldn't work here.

...Not really. That's why we vote with our wallets, not with our polls. If someone put up a poll saying "Is Call of Duty the BEST THING EVER?" it would likely get a negative response. Yet, if a new Call of Duty game came out, it would sell millions because of its marketing.

Deus Ex could be popular, it could be unpopular. Pirates could all say they "surely played it only because they played the demo", and just as many people could decide against buying it "because the beta sucked". There is no proof of association or cause of popularity, and polls are not a valid way of establishing it.

What I was saying was actually meant to be sarcastic, not a serious response. I am well aware of the state of voting with your wallet, I'm actually the last guy you would have to explain that to, haha. I'll lay it on thicker next time though, lol.

Also, if they literally asked everyone who bought the game to give an anonymous response to the question, "did the leaked beta convince you to buy the game?", they could surely devise a ballpark figure of of how much the beta hurt or helped. But, they would never do such a thing, and you would still have to rely on peoples honesty to get a true number.

 

[The Lugz]

i'm really getting tired of ass-hats stealing game code and causing the end users to put up with ever more draconian drm

it has to stop.. go square go.

 

[Lightslei]

i'm really getting tired of ass-hats stealing game code and causing the end users to put up with ever more draconian drm

it has to stop.. go square go.

Or companies could just drop DRM. Wasn't there one studio developer who suggested that like a month ago? Said something along the lines of it being better to not have any DRM which would interfere with normal(legal) gameplay experience.

 

[The Lugz]

Why steal it? So yeah, it'll probably help the sales in the end (no press is bad press and all that), but why steal it. That's their property and no one has any more right to steal it and release it than they do to mug a man or woman for the contents of their wallets.

People just can't ask nicely for demos.

i'm really getting tired of ass-hats stealing game code and causing the end users to put up with ever more draconian drm

it has to stop.. go square go.

Its a preview, the same as a game TRAILER. Its a cobbled version with no actual story, only gameplay. Its not the game, its the same as an E3 demo level. Its barely worth anything.

it doesn't matter what they steal its still causing major paranoia
( and for pretty good reason )
if demo builds can be leaked the whole game can, and it's not uncommon these days to get near release game builds pop up on the net and cause developers to rush a game out before it's ready to avoid sales losses and end up ruining the core game-play or adding a hundred and one un-patchable minor bugs and or adding draconian drm to the release build or later titles
and i see their point!
i just hope they don't ruin deus, because i was looking forward to it
and we aren't far away now..


#edit#

come to think of it this is exactly what cd proj did with the witcher 2, except they were awesome enough to remove the drm when they saw it was a problem