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TorrentFreak's List of Most Pirated Games in 2011
- Thread starter Mr. Enigma
- Start date
You think even a fraction of those people would have bothered to buy the game if they had to ?
Seeing Xenoblade being pirated that much is really sad but I completely agree that in this day and age region locking and lengthy delays for PAL/NTSC versions are laughable and hurt the industry.
Piracy sadly isn't going anywhere, publishers and the big three should try and keep the people that buy games satisfied and try to bring new customers to the industry instead of losing legit customers - a more flexible pricing for the retail games, no more region locking crap, some free DLC, more dedicated servers for online play and a strict policy in the online services as far as piracy goes should be a good start IMO....all the above will make the industry better among other things don't you think?
Of course instead of that we get brand new copies of games with vouchers that have been expired, ridiculously overpriced DLC's, crappy P2P with shitty netcodes & online passes/cut out content and in top of that various problems with redeeming codes (Arkham City comes to mind).
Spiffy_1st
Member
I know it's just me being stupid but I feel much better about myself when I work for money and then give that money to developers that also worked hard, which could ultimately result in helping them to continue making more games for everyone to enjoy. I downloaded a ROM of Chrono Trigger because it never came out in Europe and then bought the DS version just so I could give something back...
I'm here for you Monolith!
I'm here for you Monolith!
Paracelsus
Member
If anything those Xenoblade numbers are the final proof that one pirated game does not equal one lost sale, no chance in the universe it was going to ship that much in the us, europe or even worldwide for that matter.
Neon_Icarus
Member
Even if only a fraction of those people had bought Xenoblade, it would have been a huge boost to its sales... *sniff* 
Yes, probably a fraction would have. A fraction could be 1%. Half or most? Probably not.
It sells a lot better when it's free. Amazing that we finally have proof.
I'd like to see the number of Crysis 2 downloads pre and post DX11 patch. As mentioned, Crysis is a benchmarking tool for people, I wonder how many downloaded it after the patch just to see how their rig could handle it and didn't feel like a benchmark tool was worth their money.
Not many want download 50 gigs, and I'm guessing even fewer have a BD burner.
Maleficence
Member
Perhaps it was a liberal estimate? :s
Risk Breaker
Member
This is the key to avoiding piracy! HUGE BD Iso files that everyone won't feel like pirating!
SpidermanJones
Neo Member
All things considered I would tend to say: not much.
Every gamer has some kind of budget, he is able/willing to spend on videogames. If this limit is reached, he simply can't buy more games even if there are dozen of good ones left. So, I can't see why it should harm the sales big time if he pirates some games (which I don't appreciate).
Maleficence
Member
You think everyone downloads games from the same place?
"The data for these estimated download numbers is collected by TorrentFreak from several sources, including reports from all public BitTorrent trackers."
It's in the article, these aren't only torrents from the website in question.
pharmboy044
Member
I'm surprised there is no PS3 list. I would have thought for sure the number of pirated games for it would be high. Especially after the whole "PS3 is cracked forever" debacle.
TouchMyBox
Member
Unless the dedicated server client leaked and I'm oblivious to it, pirated BF3 would be single-player only, right?
Those poor pirates, not even they deserve such a fate.
No PS3 games are 50 GB (not that I know of, the biggest is MGS4 at ~35 GB or something, right?) and you don't need a BD burner. But yeah, PS3 piracy is much harder than all other types of piracy.
Those poor pirates, not even they deserve such a fate.
No PS3 games are 50 GB (not that I know of, the biggest is MGS4 at ~35 GB or something, right?) and you don't need a BD burner. But yeah, PS3 piracy is much harder than all other types of piracy.
angular graphics
Banned
Wow those Crysis 2 numbers
And how do you know that 10% or 5% didn't buy the game???
Well, what percentage do you think it is? 0?
This is just the data from public trackers.
PS3 piracy is still basically a non-issue compared to any other platform (sans 3DS) out there. I've said so before, but I expect the same to be true for all consoles in the next generation.
darkpaladinmfc
Member
Most PS3 games are less than 10GB, not many are even above 25GB.
TouchMyBox
Member
Number of Downloads =/= Pirated Copies Being Played =/= Lost Sales
Three different numbers.
You know, when I want a game that isn't out in my country, I import. I even bought games later I already played on emulators, remade new releases in some cases, to support the companies making the games.
So basically people who pirated should buy the gamestop release. If they don't, well, NoE will probably still localize the occasional JRPG when NOA won't but it is frustrating for the people who localize these games and then have to see them perform poorly at retail.
angular graphics
Banned
I don't quite understand what you mean.
All I'm saying is when someone is saying "just think how many sales they would have if a 10% of those that pirated it, would buy the game!".. well how does he know that 10% or even more didn't buy it?
Obviously not every pirate will buy a game they pirated, but it's not unlikely or unheard of for a low percentage such as 10% to buy the game they pirated.
MMaRsu
Banned
What??? Bd burners lol
Torrents were buggy too.
Do we know how much Xenoblade actually sold?
Well, I should have said estimated sales. Just imagine if each (or even half) of these pirates bought the game and added to game sales and support.
RurouniZel
Asks questions so Ezalc doesn't have to
Are there any numbers showing where these people are downloading from? Like, are these predominantly USA downloads?
That's why I'm perplexed. Aren't the public trackers the most used for downloading?
Because I don't think that private tracker + direct download are massively used (for games).
Can someone give me some insight on this please? I could be wrong.
For reference, this is what Iwinski said:
Who is more accurate? Iwinski or TorrentFreaks?
Risk Breaker
Member
Eh.. at least here in Spain (where people pirate like crazy :/) direct downloads are very popular, a lot more than torrents, and I mean A LOT.
Manp
Member
i've been reading this since the PS2 times...
people have no problem downloading tens of 5GB games, why should have problem with one that is 40GB?
it just takes longer. not to mention that most multiplatform games don't even fill a DVD.
Starwolf_UK
Member
We have Japanese numbers which I forget but I think were about 100,000. European numbers we have two figures. French first shipment was 47,000 (7,000 are the red CC pro bundle), guesstimate of UK sales* puts that first shipment at 10,000 which then sold out for weeks and interest did not recover (you can pin that one down to retail, NOE are not going to blow money renting out a warehouse in case retail got their market wrong).
*-Based off monthly numbers published in Famitsu (though I think these are multiplied by 1.1 as the source, chart-track only covers 90% of retail) and maths from % gains and losses of weekly chart-track press releases combined with platform splits from the guardian.
On the contrary: they will download because they have shitty PCs and thus are guaranteed to have a lesser experience (if any).
The piracy numbers for Xenoblade are completely understandable. Nintendo basically stuck their fingers in their ears and screamed that it wasn't coming out over here.
To those saying people who pirated that game are awful people or whatever, get off your damned moral high ground. For a while By publicly saying it was under no terms coming over here Nintendo basically said that they don't care about the sales in the US. Those essentially don't matter to them. They weren't counting on them, and they weren't needed. Basically a US person who wanted Xenoblade didn't matter to them. So why should it matter if they pirate it? And to top it off the console is region locked, so it's not like they expect people to be able to import either. In fact region locking is actively preventing you from buying games from overseas.
Now if you wanted to import and support them, that's fine. But to me that's extra. If a company decides your region doesn't get something and you have a legit way of getting it yourself, then that's on you. It's up to the company to provide their service to the customer. If they can't do it they can't complain when the customer does it themselves.
Now that it's announced, that's another story. Pirating something that is coming to you and is expected to make a profit is something completely different.
To those saying people who pirated that game are awful people or whatever, get off your damned moral high ground. For a while By publicly saying it was under no terms coming over here Nintendo basically said that they don't care about the sales in the US. Those essentially don't matter to them. They weren't counting on them, and they weren't needed. Basically a US person who wanted Xenoblade didn't matter to them. So why should it matter if they pirate it? And to top it off the console is region locked, so it's not like they expect people to be able to import either. In fact region locking is actively preventing you from buying games from overseas.
Now if you wanted to import and support them, that's fine. But to me that's extra. If a company decides your region doesn't get something and you have a legit way of getting it yourself, then that's on you. It's up to the company to provide their service to the customer. If they can't do it they can't complain when the customer does it themselves.
Now that it's announced, that's another story. Pirating something that is coming to you and is expected to make a profit is something completely different.
Instant gratification.
You can start a 5 GB download in the morning and be playing it that afternoon. If you need to download a 40 GB file you need to start it and wait three or four days until you can play it.
A large majority of pirates play fewer games than your average NeoGAF reader (i.e. not at all). They download everything, install maybe half of it, play a fraction of what they do install for half an hour to an hour, and then move on. Only a small handful of pirates every actually put real time into games. Its a fetish "industry" with no financial tie to it. Not unlike those who pirate porn. People download hundreds of gigs, or even terabytes, of porn. More than one human could wank off to in a lifetime. Why? Addiction to a collector mindset.
Also, public trackers are only one portion of the torrent community, many very popular private trackers are available and see some of the highest volume of serious pirating. Though to off-set that the frequency of which a single person is running on multiple public trackers I'm sure is incredibly high.
Thank you. This is the reason that I find the Xenoblade numbers surprising. Xenoblade was a niche game with a niche following that saw it's reveal not at an E3 conference, but in the press kit as Monado, the game that was graphically worse than FFX. The only buzz the game got was on a few forums and through the articles related to the silly campaign.
Mother 3 had a similar, but stronger campaign. It also had promotion through the Super Smash Bros series. The game started as the much-wanted Earthbound 64 and fans haven't stopped asking for it since.
To illegaly play Xenoblade, you have to download a larger file and take a number of annoying steps to mod your Wii. To play Mother 3, you download a small file and open it in an emulator. One game seems much more accessible.
And yet, these numbers say that five times the people went after Xenoblade? That is surprising.
Not knowing anything about how TorrentFreak got their numbers, I highly doubt they could have used a way that was worse than Iwinski's.
GlamFM
Banned
I sure think so.
Manp
Member
i don't see how that would make anything different really. and you say:
which i think is absolutely true.
a single 40 GB download is just another download in the queue. most will just forget they're even downloading it until it's done, in the same way they download hundreds of gigs of porn and watch a fraction of it for the time it takes to blow a load.
for a pirate everything they may ever want (and, in the same way, everything they don't even care about or actually wouldn't ever get if they had to pay for) is just one click and no money away. that kind of convenience beat instant gratification any day.
just click...
PairOfFilthySocks
Member
I'm guessing a lot of the Crysis 2 piracy is thanks to the 'Crytek sold out to teh consoles but imma play teh game anyways n pay no moneyz' crowd.
Some play games from the PS3's internal Harddrive.
NinjaBoiX
Member
...justice.