COD4 dev blown away by PC piracy

[Luckyman]

They Wonder Why People Don't Make PC Games Any More We pulled some disturbing numbers this past week about the amount of PC players currently playing Multiplayer (which was fantastic). What wasn't fantastic was the percentage of those numbers who were playing on stolen copies of the game on stolen / cracked CD keys of pirated copies (and that was only people playing online). Not sure if I can share the exact numbers or percentage of PC players with you, but I'll check and see; if I can I'll update with them. As the amount of people who pirate PC games is astounding. It blows me away at the amount of people willing to steal games (or anything) simply because it's not physical or it's on the safety of the internet to do.

http://fourzerotwo.blogspot.com/

And COD4 PC is still selling. Sad for other games.

[Sho_Nuff82]

Even if it was as low as 20%, for a game that's probably sold over 500k that's a pretty big loss for the company, especially since the pirates are still leeching off of their matchmaking service.

[neorej]

Hire more ninjas then.

[carlosp]

forget pc, come to ps3 No piracy, no problems. Well didn't we already know pc games are pirated like crazy? I remember a guy from Ubi last year at our university who said you can count two pirated copys of a pc game for every sold copy.

[theBishop]

it would be interesting to see how many game developers download music and movies over bittorrent.

[Relix]

Consoles arent as easy to pirate, especially to play online games *wink**wink*

I really want to know the percentage, hell I expected a 50% at some point. Its really incredible why many people pirate the fucking games, just work your asses a bit and buy it. Steam FTW.... now that's one hard shit to crack, but of course it has been done I guess.

[jeremy_ricci]

This is why the PC industry will never, ever, take off or replace console gaming.

Console gaming = Money for developers. PC gaming will only get smaller. It won't die, but it will never grow.

[besada]

Even if it was as low as 20%,

Totally going to be higher than that. I wouldn't be surprised if it was North of 50%.

[traveler]

They're just poor college students with a right to the luxury of gaming, though. Don't blame them, blame the system.

This is a poor reference to another thread. Plez don't take it seriously and ban me.

[RubberJohnny]

forget pc, come to ps3 No piracy, no problems. Well didn't we already know pc games are pirated like crazy? I remember a guy from Ubi last year at our university who said you can count two pirated copys of a pc game for every sold copy.

They want their game to sell.

[drizzle]

At this day and age, really?

The rank/upgrades are stored LOCALLY on the pc you isntalled the game.

They work on a non-ranked server (aka, a pirated one, cracked not to check serial numbers).

Battlefield2 is still played lots, and most of it is on official servers with official copies (because, the way EA did it, you can't use your extra weapons/update your rank if you play on pirated servers).

On COD4, there's no central server that keeps track of everybody.

They're just innocent if they though people wouldn't pirate and crack the hell out of their game. Specially when you can create a server with the "open all weapons" option.


Edit: what i mean is, if your game has nothing limiting what you can and can't do with a pirated copy, people will pirate it. Hell, people will pirate it either way.

[Relix]

They want their game to sell.

Then go to X360?

[TheBranca18]

They want their game to sell.

The PS3 version has actually sold quite well.

[Omar Ismail]

It's a natural process. The more casual PC gamers that don't want to deal with driver and upgrade issues are either sticking with games like WoW or CS, or they're being siphoned off to the console world. That leaves the hardcore enthusiast crowd which is willing to spend hundreds of dollars on the latest graphics card, but won't pony up $30 for the latest game they upgraded FOR!

[Joni]

Indeed, it was the best selling game in a couple of European countries.

[Wollan]

They want their game to sell.

Million+ on PS3 not appreciated?

[harSon]

They want their game to sell.

Thats cold

But yeah, Piracy is a lot bigger then some devout PC defenders here would like to think. It's simply to easy not to do for most people. If stealing in real life were this easy and the punishing far and few between, then we'd have the same epidemic on our hands.

[Sho_Nuff82]

it would be interesting to see how many game developers download music and movies over bittorrent.

Because that would totally justify game piracy right?

The console wars stuff is pretty useless for this game guys - it is on 360 and PS3 already. Infinity Ward tried to put the game into the hands of as many gamers as possible, and did a great job of getting it running well on all 3 platforms. Unfortunately, some chose not to reward them for their work.

[_leech_]

They want their game to sell.

[Woakes]

Even if it was as low as 20%, for a game that's probably sold over 500k that's a pretty big loss for the company, especially since the pirates are still leeching off of their matchmaking service.

I hate piracy. It's not so much the money (though of course it's that too), it's the feeling that my work has gone unrewarded or unappreciated. That said, I also hate this sort of alarmist statistic. I remain unconvinced as to how many of those people would have actually bought the game had pirating it not been an option anyway.

Not to excuse piracy, as my stance on it is clear. But it's impact on the industry is probably overstated. I'm not saying it doesn't have a significant impact, of course it does. But invasive copy protection probably does more harm.

[Geoff9920]

By the devs reaction, I imagine the number is way closer to 50% than 20%. Hopefully he's able to post the number.

[theBishop]

Because that would totally justify game piracy right? The console wars stuff is pretty useless for this game guys - it is on 360 and PS3 already. Infinity Ward tried to put the game into the hands of as many gamers as possible, and did a great job of getting it running well on all 3 platforms. Unfortunately, some chose not to reward them for their work.

Of course it wouldn't justify it. But I think its hilarious that anyone (let alone a tech-savvy game developer) is "blown away" by internet piracy. I buy all my games, and music (i do pirate some movies...), but I'll bet the same guy who's shocked about videogame piracy probably has a couple gigs of pirated music.

[Tieno]

Someone said that around 180k people torrented Crysis on some big torrent website, that's more than they sold in the US.

[pr0cs]

Is this really surprising?
They should have just skipped the PC version IMO.

[MrSardonic]

I never use "pirated" copies of games...and that's why I only buy and play one or two PC games a year.

[sinnergy]

PC gaming best things from both worlds: cheap games and best GRFX!

And why do they even give a shit? They make enough money from the console versions.

[Sho_Nuff82]

I hate piracy. It's not so much the money (though of course it's that too), it's the feeling that my work has gone unrewarded or unappreciated. That said, I also hate this sort of alarmist statistic. I remain unconvinced as to how many of those people would have actually bought the game had pirating it not been an option anyway. Not to excuse piracy, as my stance on it is clear. But it's impact on the industry is probably overstated. I'm not saying it doesn't have a significant impact, of course it does. But invasive copy protection probably does more harm.

Anyone who would buy a decent rig and pour dozens of hours to build up an online avatar in a game like COD4 probably would've propped down $40 if there was no other avenue available to him.

[Hellraizer]

And why do they even give a shit? They make enough money from the console versions.

Maximizing profits and stuff...

[leehom]

pc piracy is definitely over 50%. pc, ps1, ps2, dreamcast, xbox, xbox 360, wii, gamecube to a small extent, psp, ds are all victims. the only almost full proof system were the catridge based systems ala nintendo, snes, n64, sms, genesis, saturn? (dont know much about it), jaguar (no one bought it cept me), 3do (before piracy existed on cd based systems), tg16, neo geo ($200 games) and ps3 (so far).

[Mr.City]

How depressing.

[speedpop]

Anyone who thinks piracy is new to PC gaming has been living under a rock since they were born (or weren't born at all when it boomed). Ask anyone who owned a C64 if they ever had illegal games and I'm sure 90% of people would say that they did. All I knew was to load it up, but I remember not having a single original game for my C64 back when my father bought it.

I also think anyone who wanted to play CoD4 online would have to buy the game. Trying to jump onto a multiplayer PC game with a cracked cd key is like driving a car without breaks. You're going to hit a wall regardless of what you do.

This is why the PC industry will never, ever, take off or replace console gaming. Console gaming = Money for developers. PC gaming will only get smaller. It won't die, but it will never grow.

PC gaming has been around just as long, if not longer, than consoles. Both iterations of gaming seem to balance themselves perfectly fine.

[Ranger X]

The irony of the PC market is that if they really wanted to prevent piracy they could make a game running with signed code + online verification when you start.

I agree that might be a pain but their money was really stolen they would make so the piracy is minimal. Right now every dev telling stuff like i read is marketing/PR/sensationalism.

[ElectricBlue187]

It blows me away at the amount of people willing to steal games (or anything) simply because it's not physical or it's on the safety of the internet to do.

christ I'm so sick of the Piracy belly aching. Welcome to Human Nature.
This is your fault for making it possible to play pirated games online.

[sinnergy]

Well we all know why PC gaming is the choice of the people. I had whole discussions with some retards. I ask why is PC gaming better than my console gaming, big tv, nice surround sound.
Responce: PC gaming has the best games. MMm okay and you pay for them? No I download them from the internet.
PC gaming FTW!

[mr_bishiuk]

What bugs me is that PC games are so cheap anyway! Theses people pay top dollar for their gaming rigs but are too cheap to actually buy any games. Scum bags!

[Netrunner2k2]

Maximizing profits and stuff...

Yeah, companies enjoy that stuff.


I'm not too knowledgeable on pirating stuff, but how widely spread was the pirating of Half-Life 2 and other of Valve's Steam-based software?

[leehom]

PC gaming best things from both worlds: cheap games and best GRFX! And why do they even give a shit? They make enough money from the console versions.

you would give a shit if you spent hundreds of hours developing a game. of course you didn't and you're probably part of the problem.

[The Orange]

I hate piracy. It's not so much the money (though of course it's that too), it's the feeling that my work has gone unrewarded or unappreciated. That said, I also hate this sort of alarmist statistic. I remain unconvinced as to how many of those people would have actually bought the game had pirating it not been an option anyway. Not to excuse piracy, as my stance on it is clear. But it's impact on the industry is probably overstated. I'm not saying it doesn't have a significant impact, of course it does. But invasive copy protection probably does more harm.

This is often a point of debate, but I agree. People mostly pirate games because they can't afford them otherwise, sales won't go up much if you can't pirate the game, since those people wouldn't have bought it no matter what. Of course there's probably a big group of people who just don't believe in paying for anything, even if they have the money, but that's life.

[speedpop]

Well we all know why PC gaming is the choice of the people. I had whole discussions with some retards. I ask why is PC gaming better than my console gaming, big tv, nice surround sound. Responce: PC gaming has the best games. MMm okay and you pay for them? No I download them from the internet. PC gaming FTW!

Because we know all PC gamers are complete fuckwits who don't give a damn about the companies support.

*shakes his head*

[Ranger X]

What bugs me is that PC games are so cheap anyway! Theses people pay top dollar for their gaming rigs but are too cheap to actually buy any games. Scum bags!

You made me laugh because it's so fucking true...

[Mistouze]

Captain Obvious strikes again!

But that must be really enraging when you are a dev.

[Logan Cano]

PC gaming best things from both worlds: cheap games and best GRFX! And why do they even give a shit? They make enough money from the console versions.

They probably don't like it when people steal their game.

[Woakes]

Anyone who would buy a decent rig and pour dozens of hours to build up an online avatar in a game like COD4 probably would've propped down $40 if there was no other avenue available to him.

Who says people don't torrent in fear of their rig being incapable of playing it? And I'm not talking about the system specs but the drives ability to even work with the copy protection. Also, at least here in the UK, our game retailers have a policy of asking you "Are you sure your PC can play this game because we don't refund PC games." While clearly bullshit most consumers don't know any better.

I completly agree piracy is terrible, and I believe they should try harder to prosecute them, the peers, seed, leechers and groups involved one and all. However it's a huge stretch to say 20% of 500K copies pirated represents an actual 20% loss of profit.

I buy all my games (My Steam Games list is like an epitaph for my credit card:( ), I just think a lot of people pirate games they'd never buy.

[traveler]

How much security and protection does Steam provide against this sort of thing?

Who says people don't torrent in fear of their rig being incapable of playing it? And I'm not talking about the system specs but the drives ability to even work with the copy protection. Also, at least here in the UK, our game retailers have a policy of asking you "Are you sure your PC can play this game because we don't refund PC games." While clearly bullshit most consumers don't know any better.

This argument really doesn't work given that there are demoes for practically every cutting edge PC game out there. (CoD4 included)

[TheBranca18]

christ I'm so sick of the Piracy belly aching. Welcome to Human Nature. This is your fault for making it possible to play pirated games online.

You're right.

Someone creates video game.
Someone steals video game.

The creator whines about the person who steals their intellectual property.

It's the creator's fault.

Super logic :)

[65536]

PC = Pirated
360 = Pirated
PS2 = Pirated
PSP = Pirated
Wii = Pirated
DS = Pirated


Clearly developers should only be focusing on the PS3 and dropping support for these platforms ASAP. The system is region free so there is no excuse for any kind of mod chips etc.

[AlStrong]

Could stolen copies also account for used-game sales?

[Whipped Spartan]

This is exactly why the industry can support 3 consoles now. PC games don't make any money. Everyone here knows it. We all know a PC gamer who never buys games and gets most of their gaming enjoyment out of playing the latest and greatest game for free.

[ZeroTolerance]

guess the next game will be console exclusive then ?

[davepoobond]

sux 4 u