I thought this might interest the forum. Nothing here is especially newsworthy (pirates are teh bad), and it spans console and PC games...but the very fact that the AP felt it worth reporting seems remarkable. Sample:
DALLAS - A month before the video game's scheduled release this coming Tuesday, illegal copies of the hot sci-fi action title "Halo 2" were already circulating on the Internet. It's had a lot of company lately.
Several highly anticipated games, such as "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" and "Half-Life 2," have fallen victim to copyright theft. Illegal, often incomplete versions have appeared on file-sharing networks, news groups and Web sites.
"You spend three years of your life pouring everything you have into this project, and then somebody gets their hands on the game and gives it away to the world for free," said Brian Jarrard of Microsoft Corp.'s Bungie Studios, maker of "Halo 2." "We made this, and these guys had no right to give it out to the public."
Probably cus GTA and Halo 2 are such high-profile games. I know people with this attitude have been railed against in threads like these before, but as "wrong" as piracy is, with >1 million in preorders and likely eventual sales figures in the multimillions of copies for both games I don't feel particularly badly for anyone on either development team or the respective publishers. They are, shall we say, cleaning up regardless.
Jow wrote:I don't feel particularly badly for anyone on either development team or the respective publishers. They are, shall we say, cleaning up regardless.
Ouch. You're talking to a guy who just got laid off from a development house due to industry troubles. I doubt he's going to take what you've said here very seriously (as he's out looking for a job right now).
~Neal
"Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet." — Elontra
Just because they are making money already doesn't make it okay for other people to steal.
If the games aren't good enough to buy then don't waste your time downloading them and playing.
He didn't say it was okay to steal - he just said that those two particular teams aren't going to suffer much as a result of this, and 'Woe is me!' from them seems a little overdone.
To emphasize, I'm not condoning piracy, I'm simply saying, as Blackhawk said, that those two development teams aren't gonna be going hungry any time soon.
Blackhawk wrote:He didn't say it was okay to steal - he just said that those two particular teams aren't going to suffer much as a result of this, and 'Woe is me!' from them seems a little overdone.
Indeed, let me break out my world smallest violin for MS/Bungie, especially with all the media coverage the game is getting. ABC nightly news had a blurb on it last night even. They mentioned how the Incredibles made $70 million over the weekend. Then they said MS had 1.5 million Halo2 preorders. At $50 bucks a pop (more for collectors ed.) thats $75 million in a day (possibly..) alone.
The ones piracy hurts the most, it would seem, are the smaller devs, because these guys are still gonna make their money. However, piracy does suck.
And lets be honest, if you had an opportunity to play one of these games before it came out, you would, right? So, to a lot of these people, that's what this is. Granted, a lot of them are r0xx0rz b0iz, but some maybe just want to see the game they've been dying to play.
Downwards Compatible
We're playing every NES game alphabetically! Even the crappy ones! Send help!
And lets be honest, if you had an opportunity to play one of these games before it came out, you would, right?
Actually no, I wouldn't, I've never played a game early and these are not exceptions. And even if I was planning on buying the games I wouldn't have looked to find them early.
Eel Snave wrote:And lets be honest, if you had an opportunity to play one of these games before it came out, you would, right?
Honestly, no.
Edit to qualify: unless I'd received an advance copy from the publisher or something. My "no" response refers to digging it up on the web somewhere and d/l'ing it.
Ranulf wrote:Indeed, let me break out my world smallest violin for MS/Bungie, especially with all the media coverage the game is getting. ABC nightly news had a blurb on it last night even. They mentioned how the Incredibles made $70 million over the weekend. Then they said MS had 1.5 million Halo2 preorders. At $50 bucks a pop (more for collectors ed.) thats $75 million in a day (possibly..) alone.
The PC/Console games industry is bigger than the movie industry now. Much like the RIAA, pirates will rail against them because they're making so much money, etc. Not an excuse, as already said. Capitalism. Wonderful idea. Feh.
"The avalanche has already begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote." - Kosh
And lets be honest, if you had an opportunity to play one of these games before it came out, you would, right?
Actually no, I wouldn't, I've never played a game early and these are not exceptions. And even if I was planning on buying the games I wouldn't have looked to find them early.
Ditto. I rarely even bother with demos. I know the compulsion to get games on Day One (or before) is common here, but I've never understood it.
Ranulf wrote:
Indeed, let me break out my world smallest violin for MS/Bungie, especially with all the media coverage the game is getting. ABC nightly news had a blurb on it last night even. They mentioned how the Incredibles made $70 million over the weekend. Then they said MS had 1.5 million Halo2 preorders. At $50 bucks a pop (more for collectors ed.) thats $75 million in a day (possibly..) alone.
I don't understand this (No, I'm not being an ass.) Let's say MS/Bungie made $423 million a day from their sales, what does it have to do with lost (perceived or actual) revenue from piracy?
I apologize in advance if there was something ele in the thread that I missed that was addressed.
The smaller developers who need every sale they can get to stay afloat are the ones who are really hurt by pirate behavior and who I'm most concerned about.
When you have developers who have just launched possibly the highest-selling console game of all time complaining about piracy, it's the "Metallica syndrome" all over again. It doesn't make pirate behavior right nor justify it - it just is.
Personally I really hope that Half Life 2 cannot be warezed. The PC could use a huge hit, and if on-line activatation means the end of the likes of Starforce, I'm all for it. With the blockbuster sales of Halo 2 and GTA:SA, I'm pretty sure that the PC is looking less and less like a viable gaming option.
Spike wrote:The PC/Console games industry is bigger than the movie industry now.
If only that was true. This is a myth that just does not want to die. The games industry isn't even close to the size of the movie industry.
The myth originated from the games industry rivaling box office receipts. But once you add in DVD sales, rentals, etc, the movie industry blows it away.
JayG wrote:Personally I really hope that Half Life 2 cannot be warezed. The PC could use a huge hit, and if on-line activatation means the end of the likes of Starforce, I'm all for it. With the blockbuster sales of Halo 2 and GTA:SA, I'm pretty sure that the PC is looking less and less like a viable gaming option.
Yeah, something isn't right when Half-Life 2 (which has a real good chance to go down as the best game ever), won't do even half the sales of Halo 2 or GTA: SA.
Huge lines of people were generated when those were released. Microsoft is saying that Halo 2 sold through 2.4 million copies in the first 24hrs. GTA: SA was probably right up there too.
And although HL2 will likely be the better game (according to critics and most gamers), I would be real surprised if there are any lines for it on release day.
The thing is, how can we possibly even come close to electing Halflife 2 as "the best PC game of all time" or even "the best game ever"? I obviously haven't played it yet, but it's another first-person shooter in a genre saturated to overflowing. Whenever I think "best game of all time" and analyze gaming over the last 20 years or so, titles like M.U.L.E. and Doom and some others come to mind, rather than anything that's come out in the last 10 years or so.
Jow wrote:The thing is, how can we possibly even come close to electing Halflife 2 as "the best PC game of all time" or even "the best game ever"? I obviously haven't played it yet, but it's another first-person shooter in a genre saturated to overflowing. Whenever I think "best game of all time" and analyze gaming over the last 20 years or so, titles like M.U.L.E. and Doom and some others come to mind, rather than anything that's come out in the last 10 years or so.
Sorry for the personal soapbox hop.
I think of Doom, Civ, Planescape: Torment, Jagged Alliance 2, and Super Mario Brothers, Operation Flashpoint as well as others, but a lot of them do come from the last 10 years for me. Technology mandates that almost anything can be done, so it is up to people's imaginations to make the good games, and a few have come out well.
ohh and here is your rolly eyes you lost em.
-AttAdude
The ones piracy hurts the most, it would seem, are the smaller devs
Don't forget that we as gamers suffer as well. I'm old enough to remember the Atari 800 - probably the best gaming platform in the first generation of computers for the home. Yet the Atari market died when developers stopped writing for it (and not just games, either). Why? Because the Atari market was perceived as a hotbed of piracy, and developers and publishers got tired of having their work stolen.
Next time one of your favorite "quality" development houses has to close shop (i.e. Looking Glass), ask yourself if they would have been able to stay afloat if every copy in someone's hands had been paid for legitmately.
I spent 90% of the money I made on women, booze, and drugs. The other 10% I just pissed away.
And I wasn't saying that we would all d/l games. I was saying, if the opportunity to play a game that you had been DYING for presented itself, say, from a publisher or dev, you would take it. That's playing with permission. Now, in their odd little minds, they think that's what they're doing. Realistically, we know it's not, but at least understanding where they're coming from will help to figure out how to stop it.
Downwards Compatible
We're playing every NES game alphabetically! Even the crappy ones! Send help!
