Avast! Developers Released Pirated Version of Their Own Game
- Thread starter Marshall Honorof
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I recall Galactic Civilizations 2 sold significantly higher than expected when it was released DRM-free too. I've also spent a fair bit at GoG, often for games I already have on original CD for a downloadable & DRM free version. Publishers would do well to learn something from this thread.
At the opposite end of the spectrum are ubisoft with always on c**p and the forthcoming Diable III which I will not be buying for lack of an offline mode. But then with Skyrim and ToR (always on yes, but MMO, no grumble against those) I wouldn't have time for them anyway!
At the opposite end of the spectrum are ubisoft with always on c**p and the forthcoming Diable III which I will not be buying for lack of an offline mode. But then with Skyrim and ToR (always on yes, but MMO, no grumble against those) I wouldn't have time for them anyway!
Not to defend any big-name studios and some of the crazy things they've done to try and prevent piracy, but just saying: there's a big difference between paying $10 to a small indie studio for a cute joke and paying $35+ to a big-name company for a similar joke. This may work for small studios who in all honesty aren't looking to get massive profits to fund massive groups of employees, but for those whose products are (no offense meant, of course) better polished and more popular, and whose livelihood depends on getting a fairly large margin of profit, this probably wouldn't fly.
(One could argue that big-name studios don't "really" need to earn the money they rake in, but that's debatable. Unless someone's got a budget for a studio in question and can prove that they aren't spending most of their money on things that keep their studio afloat in some manner, that's a hard accusation to defend.)
(One could argue that big-name studios don't "really" need to earn the money they rake in, but that's debatable. Unless someone's got a budget for a studio in question and can prove that they aren't spending most of their money on things that keep their studio afloat in some manner, that's a hard accusation to defend.)
I'd do the same thing, except instead of making the changes visible, I'd just slip some spyware into the torrented version and get the pirates' real names and addresses. They choose to pirate the game, all bets are off.
And once word got around in pirate circles that there was a bad copy of the game out there doing that, I imagine that would discourage some of them from torrenting.
Of course, I wouldn't let on that I myself had leaked it...
And once word got around in pirate circles that there was a bad copy of the game out there doing that, I imagine that would discourage some of them from torrenting.
Of course, I wouldn't let on that I myself had leaked it...
Sadly, thar be research showin' that the transferrin' rate o' pirates t' legit customers be at 'round not even half o' one percent...The_root_of_all_evil said:
I hope this catches on, I wanna see a Tali Pirate, a Liara Pirate and a FemShep Pirate...
I'll buy the game of coarse, but I'd love to see those too.
I'll buy the game of coarse, but I'd love to see those too.
I... didn't know "No Time To Explain" was a full game, I only played the flash version (which I suppose would be a demo?)
I didn't like the flash version too much so I doubt I'll buy this, but LOVING the pirate themed twist, probably won't work for many other devs now that a company has done it so obviously, but this kind of thing is rather common and dates back the the Game Boy. It DOES seem to help sales quite a lot though.
The usual story is that the stunt gets publicity, and people pirate it just to see, these people then find they actually enjoy the game, and buy a copy
.
I didn't like the flash version too much so I doubt I'll buy this, but LOVING the pirate themed twist, probably won't work for many other devs now that a company has done it so obviously, but this kind of thing is rather common and dates back the the Game Boy. It DOES seem to help sales quite a lot though.
The usual story is that the stunt gets publicity, and people pirate it just to see, these people then find they actually enjoy the game, and buy a copy
.
Good will and a cheap price will always go further than a badly thought out DRM scheme that'll get cracked in a matter of days anyway.