Company leaks game on purpose for pirating

[Ginger Lord]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/r ... rent-sites

Piracy is here, so how can we take advantage of that? What we did actually, on day one, we put that game immediately on all the torrent networks ourselves," revealed Virtala, during a panel discussion at Develop Liverpool yesterday.

I think we have a winner here!

[D3ads]

Genius!

[FrieChamp]

Interesting to hear that someone tried this in the games business (with success). I've heard of independent movie makers who boosted publicity and sales of their works by spreading them in p2p networks before.

[Lord Ned]

Interesting to hear that someone tried this in the games business (with success). I've heard of independent movie makers who boosted publicity and sales of their works by spreading them in p2p networks before.

I think it was Tucker Max who promoted the movie they made about him on p2p sites just due to the low amount of places it was showing.

[Jetsetlemming]

Interesting to hear that someone tried this in the games business (with success). I've heard of independent movie makers who boosted publicity and sales of their works by spreading them in p2p networks before.

I think this is something that helped Paranormal Activity, the film festival screener of it has been available for about two years on torrent sites even though the movie just came out, and they relied on that whole "Demand it!" system to determine in what markets to release it. The publicity from people illicitly seeing the movie and spreading the word almost surely helped out that process.

[Sentura]

"We know anecdotally that even at 59p a lot of people have pirated the game," he said. "At 59p it's pretty fair to assume that a lot of those pirates would have been able and would have bought the game, but there's an overall attitude that it's fine to pirate."

just to respond to this: it's not really a question whether to pirate or not if a game comes out at a low price. price is a static barrier, and it would be the same whether you had a weighted price or a very low price; the barrier stays the same. the extra bother of going through credit cards or similar just to get access to a game is something that people don't want to bother with. i reckon in the future, the essence of distributing a piece of media will have to be so simplified that people won't have to bother with various payment options, but rather have a "one-click" button for everything. or, put differently, there is a blindside to impulse shopping online.

[Skjalg]

I agree with sentura on this.

On a related note, I noticed that steam now remembers your credit card info so its practically just click-and-buy now just like on xbox live.

[madgernader]

I also noticed that, sure made that on a whim half off mass effect buy easier

[AlexM]

I agree with sentura on this.

On a related note, I noticed that steam now remembers your credit card info so its practically just click-and-buy now just like on xbox live.

thank god, I'm the first to admit the old system has lost Steam a purchase from me on more than one occasion...

[Taylor]

The title is kind of deceptive, it's definitely not the first time a developer has leaked a dysfunctional version of their game onto torrent sites.

just to respond to this: it's not really a question whether to pirate or not if a game comes out at a low price. price is a static barrier, and it would be the same whether you had a weighted price or a very low price; the barrier stays the same. the extra bother of going through credit cards or similar just to get access to a game is something that people don't want to bother with. i reckon in the future, the essence of distributing a piece of media will have to be so simplified that people won't have to bother with various payment options, but rather have a "one-click" button for everything. or, put differently, there is a blindside to impulse shopping online.

It's much easier to buy stuff off Steam and iTunes than jumping through the various hoops to pirate it.

[Skjalg]

It's much easier to buy stuff off Steam and iTunes than jumping through the various hoops to pirate it.

Wrong, its just as easy. Browsing for games on steam is just as easy as browsing for games on thepiratebay. A couple of months ago it was easier to pirate it since you'd have to type in your credit card info in steam before you could buy, but now that you dont have to do that hassle anymore (since it saves your info) it's basically the same thing.

What is still different tho is the release date. Sometimes a game appears weeks before on torrent sites because idiots thinks its a clever idea to release in america before europe. (or visa versa).

[Taylor]

I've not downloaded anything for a long time, but I recall a significant amount of dicking about afterwards. Mounting it, applying the crack, whatever.

Either way, we’re pardoning piracy because they have to enter a number. As someone who occasionally still walks to the shop, that is really incredible.

[Mazy]

Hmmm, hope it turns out well for them. Didn't buy Trials HD on XBLA but I really liked the trial version (hur hur), was just too much other stuff to play when it came out and I kinda forgot to buy it.

Oh and speaking of sites saving your credit card info, I both totally hate it and love it at the same time. With Amazon I've probably bought a few too many things that I probably shouldn't have since its so fast to check out, and on the other hand then it just makes it a breeze to buy new shit.

Wait a minute, those seem like the same point, hmmm

[Skjalg]

I've not downloaded anything for a long time, but I recall a significant amount of dicking about afterwards. Mounting it, applying the crack, whatever.

Either way, we’re pardoning piracy because they have to enter a number. As someone who occasionally still walks to the shop, that is really incredible.

I guess you're right in the fact that its a little more hassle to do the pirated thing now I guess. Especially if you dont already got emulator software or winrar.

I'm not pardoning it either, I'm just saying I'd rather stay in my comfortable chair and download my games without having to get up, find my jacket/wallet to get to the visa card. Yeah, I know its lazy, and I know its a pathetic excuse and even more pathetic to realise that you dont have the energy to get up and walk 5 metres for a game.

But thats how most folks are; pathetic

Now this wasnt something that would deter me from the super awesome games (triple A games like the new mw2), I'd willingly go the extra mile (read: 5 metres) for those kinds of games, but I'd never in my life bother to do that to pick up for example Torchlight (which I have now btw, since Steam remembered my visa <3, its really cheap and really worth it!). The thing that deters me the most about triple A games now-a-days is the fact that I feel really let down when I pre-purchase them in norwegian stores (online), just to find out right after that they are freely available (no waiting 2 weeks!) on torrent sites for free.

So to list the pros and cons here;

Why pirate?

Pros:

• 1. in 90% of the cases you get the game in advance.
  2. No hassle with credit card (fixed with steam and xbox live yay!)
  3. You don't have to worry about some shitty anti-piracy move that would make your game not work. (Anyone remember the new CnC game that didnt work for 50% of the customers?)
  4. You don't have to pay.
  5. Never regret a purchase ever anymore.

Cons:

• 1. You are stealing, petty thief!
  2. In 90% of the cases, you dont get updates for the game.
  3. You dont get support if something happens.
  4. You dont got the game forever (only on steam?)
  5. The crack might be buggy and crash the game.

For me, its pretty simple if they want to lower the amount of piracy on the pc. 3 simple steps;

• 1. Always have world-wide releases! Don't let one group have the game before the other.
  2. Make it easier to purchase and download LEGAL games on similar platforms like steam (Steam still has a way to go).
  3. Lower the prices. Paying 60$ for a game that I don't even get a hard copy of is just too much.

[Gloglebag]

Add to that list as a pro for pirating:

Never regret a purchase ever anymore.