StarCraft 2 Sets New Mark for Piracy

[Evilsanta]

Wow, that is some big numbers.

I am not really that big a fan of Starcraft. I like Supreme Commander more.

I hope this wont lead to some kind of stupid AC2 like DRM...

 

[John Funk]

snip

The "Which, frankly, I'm perfectly okay with." made it sound like it's a new thing or that it just feels more justified now. I mean, who would be okay with pirates playing on the official servers? Why even bother say this?

No. I'm just perfectly okay with pirates having to go through complex workarounds to play online with only other pirates.

You're reading meaning into things that isn't there.

 

[Vhite]

I dont think that this is that bad for Blizzard, with pirated copy you can play only campaing and when people see how good it is they may think about buying an original copy of the game.

 

[Zhukov]

So I have to put up with that bloody Battle.net thing, while the pirates can just play the game without having to fuck around with login screens and whatnot?

Thanks Blizzard! DRM for the win!

 

[Jesus Phish]

Hmm, I talked about this with a friend of mine and he told he's one of those guys who pirated this.

So, do I go and beat the crap out of him?

Nah you make him watch you play it online, then enjoy him going out to buy a real copy.

 

[Halvhir]

I, too, am confused why a game that requires an ACTIVE BATTLE.NET ACCOUNT is such a popular piracy target. I guess it's possible that it's so thoroughly hacked that you can connect to other pirated copies through LAN or the web? That actually made me wonder enough to google it, and apparently that's not (yet) the case, so all these pirated copies can only play single player. When you could argue that's MAYBE half the game. I love the lore and the campaign modes, but Blizzard has not exactly been subtle with their E-sport mantra.

Sidestepping the whole DRM vs piracy issue... why even pirate in the first place? Did that many people really not already know if they'd enjoy friggin Starcraft 2 before buying it?

 

[fix-the-spade]

Yes but these people wont be able to play via battle net on-line im guessing?

Much like WoW, Modern Warfare 2 and others, someone will have come up with a work around and the pirates will be playing online, even if not via Battlenet.

Which sucks, whether Blizzard takes the attitude it takes with WoW of pretending not to notice until someone tries to make money out of it remains to be seen.

 

[RollForInitiative]

Which, frankly, I'm perfectly okay with. You don't pay, you shouldn't get to play

I believe the sentence ought to be ending right there, John. I'm getting tired of this self-entitled bullshit that gamers like to pull. If you don't pay, you don't play, just like any other entertainment medium out there.

 

[JusticarPhaeton]

It's not as though you pirate and you can't buy the game as well. Some of those torrents may have been a chance to "test" the game, and it was later purchased by the same person legitimately.

A weak argument, but a possibility.

Not to mention re-downloads. 2.3 million pirated copies doesn't mean 2.3 million pirates. Many people will torrent it multiple times because their firs try didn't work, etc. A lot like MW2.

 

[fix-the-spade]

So, do I go and beat the crap out of him?

Slip a Zergling under his bed...

 

[thublihnk]

Of course, he-who-must-not-be-named will probably read this, figure that obviously if they had locked up Starcraft a little tighter on the DRM side of things all these downloads would magically turn into sales and so I'm going to have to confirm my copy of Heart of The Swarm is legal every 10 seconds or Blizzard will kill my family.

 

[antidonkey]

MrShowerHead:
Hmm, I talked about this with a friend of mine and he told he's one of those guys who pirated this.

So, do I go and beat the crap out of him?
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Nah.....just take a crap on his keyboard when he isn't looking.

 

[Dobrev]

This is a big problem. Especially since one of the reasons for puting Battle.net 2.0 was to remove piracy. I would also love to see some distribution map on these torrents. As it will be interesting to know how the Russian & South American pricing model worked out.
My biggest concern though has to do with SCII as e-sport. Currently there is a lot of pressure from the pro-gaming community to release a LAN tournament client. And news like this will at no doubt delay it and making it more restrictive and with higher licensing fees. Something that only largest companies can get. And with the ever adamant control Blizzard puts in such events Starcraft no longer feels like the wild community driven beast, but a sick tame animal taken to beauty pageants.

 

[SaturdayS]

Clearly those 2 million people who downloaded the game were guaranteed to actually buy the game had piracy not existed. I don't see how else you could sum up those numbers as "losses".

I want to include a zinger about how Andy had to look up what a petabyte is, but I'm sure he deserves better than that.

 

[MetalGenocide]

This was foreseen in the moment they said "no lan". It's good to see people backing up their words. I won't buy it, and actually don't.

 

[bob1052]

Clearly those 2 million people who downloaded the game were guaranteed to actually buy the game had piracy not existed. I don't see how else you could sum up those numbers as "losses".

I want to include a zinger about how Andy had to look up what a petabyte is, but I'm sure he deserves better than that.

Its not a loss, and thats why no one calls it a loss. None of them were guaranteed so its called a potential loss.