Pirates react to their games being pirated

Ok this is a pretty funny story. I never heard of this game but Greenheart Games released a Dev Story like game on Windows/Mac/linux but instead to use a normal DRM method by blocking it they actually released a torrent with the cracked version with a nice side effect.

The full story here:

http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/04/29/what-happens-when-pirates-play-a-game-development-simulator-and-then-go-bankrupt-because-of-piracy/

quite sad.

If you want to try this game out there is also a demo available on the site which is quite good. Also please help to greenlight the game it is currently at 88% of the needed votes.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=134714217

lets support this game and become all game developers. Its only like 7$ and seems pretty deep later on as well.

This is the best thing ever. So funny! Ok it is actually really really sad but this is probably the best way of showing the results of piracy.

This is both extremly funny and extremly sad

What these devs did is absolutely amazing.

Okay, I've never even heard of this game before, but now I'm interested and willing to give the game developers my money.

That is very clever, but sadly way more interesting than the game itself to me.

One thing that annoys me when people start talking about piracy, though, is when they say that most of their users are pirates. Well, of course more players would play it if it's free. The game is $8 per copy! (Kinda ridiculous that $8 feels like a high price, but now $8 can buy so many other great games.) What I'm really curious about is how it's actually affecting their sales/revenue, whether it increases awareness or makes the games sell less or whatever, but nobody seems to care enough to research that.. or I'm just not aware of any serious research like that.

I do not think that 8$ is much, I looked at some later gameplay vids and this stuff seems very complex from engine development and marketing to even going all the way for motion capturing etc. I really love the idea and wanted such a game for the PC for ages. I will gladly pay 8$ for such a game^^

The only concern I have is that I also want the steam version. So if I get a steam key later on I will buy it tomorrow^^

Neat idea. Similar things have been done before.

The comment in the OP seems a bit suspiciously 'on the money' though.

I believe this was done in batman arkham asylum, you could make it 3/4 of the way through the game before not being able to continue.

I agree I feel like it's possible there is some marketing sorcery at work here.

If you mean me no I am not. I support this kind of idea though so I might try to push it a bit sorry for that^^.

As for the campaign. That is a perfect marketing job for sure yeah. That is how people talk make you talk about the game for sure.

@darji: I meant the 'I can't progress further... HELP!' comment. It reads like it was written by somebody who understands exactly the point being made, if you see what I mean.

Yeah, either that or he's super invested in the Game Dev Tycoon universe. Parts of it read it's actually happening to him.

This was also done in Serious Sam where an invincible fast scorpion would appear on the first stage and there's no way around it.

That's hilarious.

I find it weird that when a game cant make money everyone blames piracy. I'm not saying that piracy isn't a factor, but If your game isnt selling maybe it just isn't very good. Go ask Edmund McMillen if he thinks games cant make money.

So sad that it's for Windows 8 only.
But yeah, this has been done before and it's a neat way of doing it.
Batman: Arkham Asylum, you couldn't glide.
The Godfather, you got into your first car and couldn't get out(was during a timed mission, I think they said)

The fun part is when they actually go on the official forums for the games and ask what is going on and the developers chime in and go "oh, you're playing a pirated version!" and then the user is never heard from again.
Poor people, the jesters of our time, I salute you

That's pretty funny although that comment seems fake as fuuuuck.

"revolutionary engine" should tip you off that the comment is fake, unless that refers to in-game lingo. doubt the authenticity regardless.

edit: also "I could build a DRM or something..." is a huge tip off.

the whole DRM debate is silly anyways. I haven't seen a single study that suggested piracy hurt sales in real-world numbers; in fact, I've only seen just the opposite. piracy is a bad thing, for sure. but you can think of a thousand reasons why an individual pirated download might not reflect an individual loss of sale.

So will the next Game Dev Story have you going bankrupt because people outright copy your games and release them on other platforms?

They are talking about in-game mechanics, since the game is about running a video game company.

I bought and downloaded this game as a result of the publicity it's getting from this, and it's pretty cool. It's clearly very iterative of the formula in Game Dev Story, but it expands on that format a fair bit and is fun. I've only made about 10 games so far, so I'm not super deep into it, but it seems great so far.

Strange that now a developer has some evidence of how piracy can hurt sales that (what I'm assuming are) pirates think it's all made up. So now if there ever is evidence, then it's faked like the moon landing.

I can totally imagine a 13 year old not getting the irony and posting on why it's happening to them. The revolutionary engine is a part of the actual game. You can tell that the person commenting is a kid because they just don't understand. Kind of like how kids think their parents have infinite money until the parents have to go out of their way to show how "money doesn't grow on trees". These kids just haven't gotten the message yet.

I think young teens actually make up most of the pirating anyways since they're the ones with zero income, all the time in the world, and they're still learning about morals.

Oh man Patrick needs to dump truck on these guys.

Um... is this game a (lesser) carbon copy of Game Dev Story? Because it totally looks like it.

Is that a bad thing? I loved game dev story but hated how there was a ceiling after a certain point in terms on console releases, employees, and goals. If this game makes it more open ended would totally be down to drop 8 bucks.

@i_stay_puft: I just think it's silly that the games press crucifies people like Zynga, the guy who cloned Luftrausers, and the Ninja Fishing devs, while this developer is a martyr.

If this game adds substantial new mechanics, then it's not a bad thing. But if it's literally just Game Dev Story but on PC and maybe with a few new things, then yes, it is a bad thing. I used to love Xbox Live Indie Games, and that was (and still is) congested by Minecraft clones. Clones stifle creativity. However, I haven't played this and I don't know how much of a clone it actually is, so I'll withhold judgment.

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with trying to improve on somebody else's game. Like if I liked a game a lot but thought it was missing all these features. The best thing to do is make your own version with what you think would make a better game. If nobody copied ideas, we'd have a total of about 100 games and they'd all be pre 2000 games. Because every idea has already been done before anyways. There's just been improvements since.

This would be commendable if selling a shameless clone was less immoral than piracy.

Oh wow this is glorious. These guys are pretty clever.

Looking forward to reading the article. I didn't know it was coming to PC.

Edit: I was confusing this game with Game Dev Story. I'm put off by the idea of this guy copying someone's work and I don't want to vote for this on Greenlight anymore.

Some JRPG would let you play the entire game, up to the final boss battle, which would the cause the game to restart and delete your save.

Oh, it was Earthbound, see this (awesome) article:

http://www.cracked.com/article_19162_6-hilarious-ways-game-designers-are-screwing-with-pirates_p2.html

That comment seems super staged. It's a little too perfect. Kind of ruins the whole story for me to be honest.

It is a bummer that so many people pirated their game, though. This is assuming that those numbers are correct and not staged like that comment is.

Art imitates life!

So uh, how is it stealing (or piracy in general) if the developers themselves hand out free copies? A game is not cracked just because you obtain it through a torrent. You can't remove/circumvent DRM that doesn't exist in the first place. A game is not an illegitimate copy because you obtain it through a torrent. Especially when the torrent is made and uploaded by the copyright holder themselves.

This is not pirates reacting to their imaginary games being pirated. This is people playing the free version of the game handed out by the developer reacting to their imaginary game being pirated.

All this shows is that people would rather play a free copy of the game than pay $8 for something they don't know if they want. What a revelation.

Clever free marketing, whether or not it is legit.

I've already played Game Dev Story, though.

Going to get the windows 8 ver

I once got an English NES Earthbound rom that let me play half the game, then at the halfway point it yelled at me for playing a pirated game and blocked my progress.

The weird part is that the NES Earthbound game was never released in English, so it wasn't as if there was a retail alternative that I could buy instead >.>

And what evidence would that be?

Wow, $8! That is almost like, a lunch!

"what evidence would that be?" would be their own metrics that generated that graph linked in the topic.

@dezztroy: Yeah, legally it gets weird when they do that. It's similar to when some anti-piracy beaureu uploaded stuff with copyright holder consent and tried to catch the people downloading it: there's obvious intent to commit a crime but the would-be criminals are conned into doing something legal instead since, like you say, it's questionable if you can actually call downloading something made available with owner consent piracy.

From a tactical standpoint I can see what they are doing: they're poisoning the well. If they can trick crackers into thinking the download is DRM free then they delay actual cracking. But it's still weird to talk about in an ethical perspective.

Bought a burrito today for $6 and change.

A shitty burrito. I would have rather played the game.

P.S.:Also, I find it ironic that his anti-piracy message is riding on a game that is a blatant ripoff of Kairosoft's Game Dev Story

The thing many forget about the "black market" isn't that it is necessarily free but that it is use. Easier than finding it on Steam and paying $8 for.

It was brought up on Reddit but if you search for it on torrent link sites pretty much the only torrent you can find of it is the one they put up themselves...it's a fair bet that if they hadn't put up that version there wouldn't have been a torrent there at all (and before the counterargument comes, the fact that no one has released a version where you can progress proves that no one gives a shit)...while pirating is bad this is more a case of the devs shooting themselves in the foot.

Plus no one would have heard of this game if they didn't pull this stunt. That and what I've played of it makes it seem like a poor rip-off of Game Dev Story.

The difference between free and 1 cent is that you have to go through the process of paying that 1 cent. I hate to sound like I'm defending piracy but the truth is those 3140 users won't magically pay for your game if they could not pirate it. "Potential" buyers aren't actually buyers. If piracy was impossible I doubt the numbers would be too different.

That's cool!

I agree that there is not a 1 to 1 correlation between pirated game to lose of sale however there is a percentage that is. Even if it is 1% that would be really significant for a small game like this.

I realise I'm being super pedantic, but if 1% of the people who pirated this game (according to the above chart) actually bought it, at $8 a pop, it would come to $250, give or take. That isn't even a weeks wage. I wouldn't call that significant.

Again I'm being super nitpicky but I don't care :P.

Loved how they did the way of spotting the pirated copies of the game in Batman so this is also good to hear. While I don't support pirating games, it just seems silly of people pirating smaller priced games like Game Dev Tycoon, as it's just the pinnacle of being a cheapskate with bad money planning skills to afford something $20 or less.

Given only 214 bought the game (about $1712), $250 is pretty damn significant. I am not saying the game would/will be financially successful if pirates didn't pirate and a percentage bought the game but a 10% increase in revenue is not insignificant even if the actual dollar amount is not.

It is not. They also released a Win 7 Mac and Linux Version of the game. I bought the Win 7 Version and it works great and we later get steam keys if it gets greenlighted^^