Yes of course, but what I am talking about here is how bad is it? This is one of the main problems with Piracy! Any figures or statistics are hard to measure, hard to quantify, and even harder to get. Anyone looking into Piracy will know about the game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2". Not because it was the most pirated, or that it was one of the best selling game of 2009. But because of all the attention, people have actually gathered some piracy and sales statistics for it. So when people talk about the scale of PC Game piracy, people always refer back to Modern Warfare 2.
The Game itself had as much praise as it did criticism. Some people loved it, and some thought it was not as good as the last, however good or bad people still kept talking. The story for this game doesn’t end just with its piracy story. However if you would like more information I suggest reading it from this very informative site. (http://www.modernwarfail2.com/)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Modern Warfare 2 is a first person shooter developed by Infinity Ward, and published by Activision. This game was highly anticipated, because it was the sequel to the bestselling Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. During the release months it received much critical acclaim and lots of TV advertising. You can read more here at Wiki.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Duty:_Modern_Warfare_2)
What does that mean? Is piracy a big problem?
Yes, but it is not a clear cut answer! One of the main ways game publishers can tell if a copy is pirated is through support. For example, as cheeky as it is, even people who download the game illegally will sometimes require tech support. From this, and the suspicious questions asked, Publishers can guess as to the number of illegal copies that exist in the market.
The best way to see the problem is to compare the sales and piracy pattern. When Modern Warfare 2 for the PC is matched against the XBox 360 version, we find an almost trend reversal. That the sales for the Xbox matches the piracy level for the PC; and the Xbox piracy figures matches the sales for the PC. Of course the scale is different, but it does give an insight into the sales that should have been for the PC, if Piracy wasn't a problem.
So there is a problem?!?But no one is sure how big the problem is! Most pro-torrent sites will point out that an illegal copy won’t mean a direct sale. Also arguing illegal copies are people speaking out about the restrictive DRMs bundled with the software. Claiming that if Game Publishing companies removed the DRMs, resulting sales would go up. There is no evidence to support this, and even evidence to support the opposite.
The PC Game “World of Goo” suffered a 90% piracy rate at the hands of illegal downloaders. The fact is even more shameful as this was the first release from a small independent games company. The game itself was released without a DRM protecting its media, and also received critical praise as being one of the best puzzle games of 2008. Did resulting sales increase? No, a shame, but a lesson learned!
DRMs aren’t too restrictive, are they?But the customers have a point ... DRMs ARE restrictive! They generally only annoy the customer, but the illegal downloaders rarely experience any DRM issues.
In 2008, Assassin's Creed was released for the PC. What is significant, is the game's DRM, which was badly cracked, and thousands of illegal downloaders got their hands on this game. DRMs have security features that if someone attempts to remove the security protection, the game will fail. In this case, this is exactly what happened; the resulting bug was called the Jerusalem bug. (Referring to the place "Jerusalem" that when entered into during the game, would cause it to crash! Not the actual living insect, yes there is one!) But of course this wasn't discovered until much later and Ubisoft received the full brunt of blame, not the people who tried to remove the DRM.
Is it right that DRM’s are on the game in the first place? No.
Is it wrong that companies use DRMs? Again the answer has to be No!
So there is nothing the Publishers can do?
Two horrible words, Cloud Computing! For many reasons, this is the worst thing to hit the PC gaming industry since the ... DRM. Don’t get me wrong the technology is very clever and has much potential, just like the ...DRM. But honesty I can’t blame the Gaming Publishers for wanting to protect their products. What is really troubling is that OnLive beta across America in June 2010, and I feel that this is too early.
Cloud computing, for gaming, the game sits on a server and is streamed by video to the user. There are a hundred and one benefits to the game publishers, and nearly none for the customer. But what I don’t like about this the most, is you will never own your game in any way.
What’s the Answer then?!?!
We have it, and we want to tell you all about it! We have all the benefits:
• Not an intrusive DRM!
• A complete Piracy Solution, a Strategy!
• Benefits for Customers and Game Publishers!
• New Markets!
• New Control over your products!
• Low Costs, High Returns, Larger Profit Margins!
Come find out what we are talking about!
Information Sources:
Wikipedia Review of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2"
Modernwarfail2.com: Sales flop in the UK!
Gamespot.com: Five-day sales hit $550 million
TorrentFreak.com: Most Pirated Game of 2009!
Arstechnica.com: A Crying Shame, World of Goo piracy rate near 90%
Picture taken from PCFormat, Issue 239, May 2010, Article: A World of Piracy, by: Tamsin Oxford.
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