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[JDMC13]

Was it even cost effective to localize to Portuguese with that many pirates? That could have a real chilling effect on localization that would really hurt the paying user.

 

[Nikodemos]

Wow, Android copyright infringement is even more rampant than PC. Whodathunk.

Is it because you're more likely to get some sort of awful malware on PC?

Or do PC users simply think "Ehh, I'll wait for a sale/bundle and in the meantime I'll play one of the other 250 games I got from sales/bundles".

 

[CrashPrime]

I don't believe 12:1 ratio of people interested in playing the game on android even know how to enable unknown sources, let alone find an apk and transfer it.

Sorry. After that confusing pie chart of %'s of paying customers (what is this data???), I don't think their data analysis is correct.

 

[Wildesy]

Not sure what they are trying to achieve with this. Focus on the 300k who bought it, not the 1.6 million, the majority of which never would've purchased it anyway.

 

[Bumbletron]

Not sure what they are trying to achieve with this. Focus on the 300k who bought it, not the 1.6 million, the majority of which never would've purchased it anyway.

They are probably posting it to shock people with the numbers while they are still accurate. I'd imagine the number of pirated copies has pretty well plateaued by this point, whereas sale numbers will likely increase at around the same rate. I would think most people intending on pirating would do so near launch. Anywhere after two months probably means most pirates have set their eyes on different games.

 

[mnz]

Not sure what they are trying to achieve with this. Focus on the 300k who bought it, not the 1.6 million, the majority of which never would've purchased it anyway.

How about raising awareness about a shitty practice?

 

[Narroo]

When ever people post numbers like these, I always wonder if it really equates to XXX people actually downloading it and playing it? Like, do some sites or people just run bots that automatically download pirated games? How often do single people re-download the game/hit the download multiple times, for what ever reason?

Pirated game copy downloads always seem really high compared to sales numbers - I always wonder how accurate the numbers really are.

That said, with 1.6 Million downloads, it's hard to say that it isn't high, and that more people didn't pirate the game than pay for it.

Hmmm....

 

[Ucchedavāda]

When ever people post numbers like these, I always wonder if it really equates to XXX people actually downloading it and playing it? Like, do some sites or people just run bots that automatically download pirated games? How often do single people re-download the game/hit the download multiple times, for what ever reason?

Pirated game copy downloads always seem really high compared to sales numbers - I always wonder how accurate the numbers really are.

That said, with 1.6 Million downloads, it's hard to say that it isn't high, and that more people didn't pirate the game than pay for it.

Hmmm....

They are not counting downloads, they are counting "activations":

On the other side our analytics tools (Unity Analytics + a 3rd party tool) track all activations via fingerprinting.

 

[shandy706]

This is some Polygon-ass pie chart and I'm not just completely missing something, right? Like, they're not trying to show the game's audience by region but the piracy rate by region and a pie chart makes zero sense in that context.

This pie chart bothers me. It says it's listing percent per country, but the percentages appear to add up to 100% like a normal pie chart, which would suggest they're plotting some sort of relative percentage that probably doesn't exist. I can't figure out what it's saying. The percentages on the chart don't actually match what I calculated from the figures in the blog article. In any case it makes me a little suspicious about how much they actually understand about the rest of the data in that article.

Haha, it is a funny one.

It's not "explained" well either. ALL IT IS...is a pie chart showing what percentage of total SALES was purchased in each country. That's why it = 100%. It's just where the 300k copies were sold and who bought them.

 

[Wildesy]

How about raising awareness about a shitty practice?

Yeah so achieving nothing pretty much then.

 

[Night Angel]

Yeah so achieving nothing pretty much then.

The same result as localizing for Portugal, apparently.

 

[Nheco]

I live in Brazil and I don't consume piracy in years (maybe some tv shows if this count to something). But even that the majority of games are dirty cheap here (again, comparing to US or Europe), most of people will always consider that "free" is cheaper. Event that "free" means using gray schemes or to stay without updates. It's shame, but it's kinda cultural, we must remember that a wide availability of legit stores selling game content is something kinda new around here, and still more common only on the internet and major cities. But things are gradually getting better.

 

[Ucchedavāda]

Haha, it is a funny one.

It's not "explained" well either. ALL IT IS...is a pie chart showing what percentage of total SALES was purchased in each country. That's why it = 100%. It's just where the 300k copies were sold and who bought them.

Keep in mind that these calculations are reported based on the first day of sales:

By doing some simple deductions, you can estimate the % of people on that day that actually bought Punch Club in comparison with the amount of people that pirated it.

What you describe does appear to apply to the "Pirated" figure, using the top 10 day one numbers, but it does not apply to the "% of people who bought the game instead of pirating per country" figure. If we do the calculation you describe for the actual sales, that gives us quite different numbers. For example, 464 copies sold in Germany out of a total of 1506 copies sold is 31%, based on the top 10 countries shown, not 46% as reported on the figure. And it's an even bigger difference if we assume that the calculation is to be based on ALL countries, and not just the top 10 shown.

 

[A.D. Skinner]

I will admit I basically used a copy as a demo on my phone and deleted it as it was almost a little too slow. Didn't know it was on PC, will certainly look it up and if it's any better, purchase.

 

[paperspace]

Brazil is crazy because the game is dirt cheap on nuuvem.

Doesn't really matter, it's still not worth it.

 

[dragonbane]

Graphics maybe, game, not so much!

Most offensive and wrong comment in this entire thread!

 

[malboroking]

Where in the US is the minimum wage $15?

In Seattle, well soon it will be anyways =P

 

[garath]

It's interesting to see the piracy numbers by region like that. But like other have said, it's very hard to equate those piracy numbers to lost sales. Would the pirate have paid to play the game if they were unable to pirate? Would piracy have been as rampant if they had DRM? Would DRM have impacted actual sales at all? Maybe negatively if it is a source of failure or frustration for paying customers.

Nonetheless, it does showcase a very real problem. I just dislike the immediate assumption many publishers make that it impacts sales negatively.

 

[Jacksinthe]

It's interesting to see the piracy numbers by region like that. But like other have said, it's very hard to equate those piracy numbers to lost sales. Would the pirate have paid to play the game if they were unable to pirate? Would piracy have been as rampant if they had DRM? Would DRM have impacted actual sales at all? Maybe negatively if it is a source of failure or frustration for paying customers.

Nonetheless, it does showcase a very real problem. I just dislike the immediate assumption many publishers make that it impacts sales negatively.

If you think for even a split second that piracy does not account for SOME lost sales, you are delusional.

I said earlier that it's 2016 and we can stop pretending pirates aren't dochebags who just don't want to pay for things.

Several games noted by several devs in previous discussions hihighted drops in sales day and date their games hit torrents.

Every pirated copy a sale? No. At least some? Yes.

Seriously. There's no need for people to play stupid anymore. This shit isn't new.

 

[Narroo]

They are not counting downloads, they are counting "activations":

Oooh, nice. So that seems relatively accurate. Not counting possible double dippers - most likely a minority, it really is fairly close to that number then?

 

[michaelius]

There's only one solution to piracy - easily accessible games on a store which is more convenient than piracy at prices adjusted to local buying power.

Almost all my high school/university friends who used to be pirates are now buying software legally since it's cheap enough to not bother with alternative means.

 

[PtM]

There's only one solution to piracy - easily accessible games on a store which is more convenient than piracy at prices adjusted to local buying power.

Almost all my high school/university friends who used to be pirates are now buying software legally since it's cheap enough to not bother with alternative means.

Entitled gamers.

 

[Ucchedavāda]

Oooh, nice. So that seems relatively accurate. Not counting possible double dippers - most likely a minority, it really is fairly close to that number then?

Sorry, I don't think I understand your question. Fairly close to what number?

 

[Real_Madrid]

Not sure what they are trying to achieve with this. Focus on the 300k who bought it, not the 1.6 million, the majority of which never would've purchased it anyway.

So when I don't plan on buying games, I can pirate all I want?

OT: this is why I don't mind DRM on pc games, especially since I'm an almost SP only gamer and piracy is only hurting that kind of games. Denuvo will be cracked someday off course, but it's nice to see it's taking them a while.

 

[françois]

So when I don't plan on buying games, I can pirate all I want?

Apparently. I've always hated that excuse. They're still playing the game, doesn't matter whether they weren't planning on buying it.

There's only one solution to piracy - easily accessible games on a store which is more convenient than piracy at prices adjusted to local buying power.

I get where you're coming from but I don't agree. Steam is far from perfect but during sales games are dirt cheap. Batman Arkham Asylum GOTY, City GOTY and Origins are currently on sale for €5 each. You can easily get 10-15 hours out of all these, if that isn't worth €5 then I don't know what is.

Sure those are older games, but you can't expect fresh triple A titles to cost €15-€20 on release when you consider the cost of making these.

The reality is that a lot of these pirates don't care. Doesn't matter how easy you make it,
As long as they can pirate it, they will.

 

[Wildesy]

So when I don't plan on buying games, I can pirate all I want?

How'd you come up with that from what I wrote...? I didn't comment at all on the morality of the act. All I said was they are better off focusing on the 300k people who bought it, myself included, than 1.6 million who had no intention of doing so. Well unless of course they've come up with a solution to piracy that is.

 

[Real_Madrid]

How'd you come up with that from what I wrote...? I didn't comment at all on the morality of the act. All I said was they are better off focusing on the 300k people who bought it, myself included, than 1.6 million who had no intention of doing so. Well unless of course they've come up with a solution to piracy that is.

This is a thread about piracy. Off course it's nice that 300.000 people bought the game, but the piracy number is ridiculously high and I find it completely irrelevant what the intention is of the people who pirate it.
I never liked the downplaying of the people who pirate, there's just no excuse for piracy. The only exception is when a game isn't available to buy like Simpsons Hit & Run for example.

 

[Narroo]

Sorry, I don't think I understand your question. Fairly close to what number?

The number of pirates. Baring a few people that may have downloaded the game multiple times - such as downloading it for multiple platforms, that should be relatively accurate number.

 

[prudislav]

i would be interested to know the percentage of the pirates, who keep it installed after the 30 minutes of it. Honestly noone i know have a single kind word about it...

 

[Tagyhag]

This is a thread about piracy. Off course it's nice that 300.000 people bought the game, but the piracy number is ridiculously high and I find it completely irrelevant what the intention is of the people who pirate it.
I never liked the downplaying of the people who pirate, there's just no excuse for piracy. The only exception is when a game isn't available to buy like Simpsons Hit & Run for example.

Simpsons Hit and Run can still be bought.

 

[Ucchedavāda]

The number of pirates. Baring a few people that may have downloaded the game multiple times - such as downloading it for multiple platforms, that should be relatively accurate number.

Ah, I see what you mean. The developers appear to essentially assume an activation rate of 1.1 copies per person, for legitimate copies sold, so if we assume that the same holds for pirates, then we can estimate the number of pirates as #Pirates = #Activated / 1.1 - #Sold. All that really means is that if we assume that the activation rate is 1.1 for both costumers and pirates, then the number of pirates is ~91% of the number of pirate activations given in the article.