Though I agree, I think they are using in game telemetry not torrent stats for their numbers in this specific case.That's assuming that all the pirates actually play the games they are pirating. I would hazard the guess that many of the pirates, because of the vast amount of content they download, play for about five minutes before moving on to something else (unless it's a blockbuster hit).
Ironic game gets pirates to feel the sting of piracy.
I'd guess that the percentage of pirates who simply wouldn't buy/play a game at all if there was no pirate copy available is very high... which leaves a small percentage of pirates who actually would pay for the game as long as they were unable to steal it.
In my experience, the majority of pirates are opportunistic like this; they're only playing these games because they can pirate them, if they can't pirate them, then they don't play them.
That's assuming that all the pirates actually play the games they are pirating. I would hazard the guess that many of the pirates, because of the vast amount of content they download, play for about five minutes before moving on to something else (unless it's a blockbuster hit).
To continue my guessing, I think even more download but don't even install (or ever intend to install) the game. They are more 'collectors' than players. (Pokemon pirates - gotta catch 'em all).
This is a good point. Remember the statistics from Steam? I think it was something like half the games people buy never get played at all. And they hand money for those.
This move is particularly smart. I heard of similar tricks before, starting perhaps from the first Spyro game, but this time they hit the problem completely.
That said, I think I'm going to buy The Lunar Bundle this week. I'm afraid it will be a looong summer for me.
Wow, many interesting posts here.
I have to agree that majority of people pirate games because it's stupidly easy to do it. Sadly, for now implementing "always online" crap and similar mechanisms is the only way to at least somewhat reduce the piracy. I downloaded pirated version of SimCity 5 with intention to try it (EA/Maxis didn't offer demo) and see if it's worth buying because I have legal SimCity 4 which I love; after being unable to install it I deleted it.
However, always online DRM brings its own problems too (*looks at SimCity 5 launch*), and while for MP games it's completely valid solution it screws up SP games (*looks at Ubisoft*). Tricks like Game Dev Tycoon's are, in my opinion, better for dealing with piracy.
A little offtopic, but I'd want to share one nasty piracy check I encountered myself.
It was about 13 years ago. Mom bought me pirated version of Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon for PS1. Game was played pretty normally... until you get close to the end of the game (4th world of 4). You slowly lose access to the 2nd and 3rd world, your gem count starts dropping slowly, so does the egg found count. You lose access to the levels you previously had to and sounds stops in some parts of the game. Soon after that, game forces you back to the beginning of the game, resetting everything.
It's been 12 years since I last put that game in my console and I still want to properly beat it. And it seems I won't get a chance because now it only exists on the internet as pirated version.
It is difficult to estimate actual impact on sales. Most of sales of my game (and most of the revenue) comes from discount sales (Steam Summer Sale events, etc), so it is clear there is a lot of people who would buy it for a reduced price but would not buy it at a full price. Note that these people *did* buy it at a reduced price - it is entirely false to say that those who wouldn't buy it at the full price were not willing to pay anything at all.
It would seem that a huge fraction of pirates would pay something, like $1 .. $2 voluntarily, if they had to login with their credit card at all, and even bigger fraction would pay up if they only could obtain the game at a discount sale. And they don't, and so there is a very significant loss of revenue, easily well over 2x less revenue for indie games based on how discount sales seem to work on Steam.
edit: Some gameplay alteration which goes public (like in that game), that's clever. Subtly broken gameplay (e.g. camera jitter) to punish pirates is ridiculous. It decreases the likelihood that friends of a pirate buy it, potential customers are reading pirate's reviews, etc.
Yep, I got the article on my Flipboard, had a lot of fun with the complaints! You can't get enough irony in this business!
It is difficult to estimate actual impact on sales. Most of sales of my game (and most of the revenue) comes from discount sales (Steam Summer Sale events, etc), so it is clear there is a lot of people who would buy it for a reduced price but would not buy it at a full price. Note that these people *did* buy it at a reduced price - it is entirely false to say that those who wouldn't buy it at the full price were not willing to pay anything at all.
Meh, piracy has become the norm in recent years. The "5% sold/95% pirated" is actually so standard
that AAA developers expect as much, and take the numbers with them into forecasts. While a loss of
revenue is, of course, implied, we can no longer *expect* to make money from the 95% pirates. If they
eventually buy the game, that's awesome, but it's not the norm. Therefore, the 5% of people who
actually buy the game have become the 100% of players who are expected to buy the game.
Concerning the shenanigans of the publisher we're talking about: They kind of stabbed themselves
in the back by releasing a cracked/DRM free version at the same time as releasing the store version.
The release of cracked versions usually takes at least a few days from initial release. Whether they
could have made more money this way can't be proven of course.
Also, the point made is completely correct - by releasing the "Pirated" version themselves, the game
is effectively an official, albeit crippled and free release. While downloaded with the intention of
pirating, it's *not* a pirated version.
It is difficult to estimate actual impact on sales. Most of sales of my game (and most of the revenue) comes from discount sales (Steam Summer Sale events, etc), so it is clear there is a lot of people who would buy it for a reduced price but would not buy it at a full price. Note that these people *did* buy it at a reduced price - it is entirely false to say that those who wouldn't buy it at the full price were not willing to pay anything at all.
Meh, piracy has become the norm in recent years. The "5% sold/95% pirated" is actually so standard
that AAA developers expect as much, and take the numbers with them into forecasts. While a loss of
revenue is, of course, implied, we can no longer *expect* to make money from the 95% pirates. If they
eventually buy the game, that's awesome, but it's not the norm. Therefore, the 5% of people who
actually buy the game have become the 100% of players who are expected to buy the game.
Concerning the shenanigans of the publisher we're talking about: They kind of stabbed themselves
in the back by releasing a cracked/DRM free version at the same time as releasing the store version.
The release of cracked versions usually takes at least a few days from initial release. Whether they
could have made more money this way can't be proven of course.
Also, the point made is completely correct - by releasing the "Pirated" version themselves, the game
is effectively an official, albeit crippled and free release. While downloaded with the intention of
pirating, it's *not* a pirated version.
AFAIK the game was DRM free, so there wasn't a need for a crack, allthough it would probably have taken longer to hit the filesharing networks without their help since most paying customers are honest enough to not share games they've bought even if they are DRM free.
I'd guess that the percentage of pirates who simply wouldn't buy/play a game at all if there was no pirate copy available is very high... which leaves a small percentage of pirates who actually would pay for the game as long as they were unable to steal it.
In my experience, the majority of pirates are opportunistic like this; they're only playing these games because they can pirate them, if they can't pirate them, then they don't play them.
That's assuming that all the pirates actually play the games they are pirating. I would hazard the guess that many of the pirates, because of the vast amount of content they download, play for about five minutes before moving on to something else (unless it's a blockbuster hit).
To continue my guessing, I think even more download but don't even install (or ever intend to install) the game. They are more 'collectors' than players. (Pokemon pirates - gotta catch 'em all).This is a good point. Remember the statistics from Steam? I think it was something like half the games people buy never get played at all. And they hand money for those.
Bundles and sales are hard to resist :) i got a bunch of games on steam and gog.com that i've never played that i intend to play some day when i got time :)
That's not true, as mentioned earlier in the thread.Also, the point made is completely correct - by releasing the "Pirated" version themselves, the game
is effectively an official, albeit crippled and free release. While downloaded with the intention of
pirating, it's *not* a pirated version.
Software is copyrighted by default, and without any license from the author, you don't have permission to redistribute the work. It doesn't matter who gave the software to you, you don't have the right to go around making clones of it, which is what all those torrent users are doing. The torrent version comes with no copyright license.
When you purchase the game on the store, you're being given a license to use the DRM-free software, but you still can't go making copies for all your friends, despite it being given to you by the author.
The store version is DRM-free (so there's no need to even crack it), but the "cracked" version is intentionally broken.Concerning the shenanigans of the publisher we're talking about: They kind of stabbed themselves
in the back by releasing a cracked/DRM free version at the same time as releasing the store version.
Many hollywood companies do a similar thing, where they upload broken versions of their films to torrent sites in a feeble attempt to disrupt pirates (and also to track them and send them legal threats...).
Also, as for the "They released it, therefore it isn't piracy!" BS, if you actually took the time to read you would find this little gem in the installer (for the store bought version, which I assume is also there in their 'pirate' version):
"...Grant of rights
Upon
payment of applicable Licence fees, we hereby grant You..."
I can go to Adobe and download most of their software for free. However that doesn't actually grant me rights to the software itself.
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