Indie game developer strikes back at pirates

[Deleted]

http://www.greenheartgames.com/2013/...use-of-piracy/
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comme...ated_the_game/

This company have made a game which is about running a game studio in a tycoon manner, but they did something slightly different that a number of other studios would never have done. They also uploaded a version of their game to known torrent sites, but with a small change to coding in comparison to the retail version.

When your studio started to grow large in the pirated version of the game, people suddenly starts to pirate the games your studio makes driving you bankrupt.( I know piracy is not gonna kill the industry, its just a description of the game ) Was an interesting way of dealing with piracy to say the least in my opinion giving pirates a moral cookie. Also quite hilarious seeing how people with non legit copies asks on forums how to deal with piracy.

[Sealed]

That is a completely realistic scenario well supported by the actual evidence on the matter and the economics of the entertainment industry.

Not.

Still, that's a funny meta-joke !

[Deleted]

That is a completely realistic scenario well supported by the actual evidence on the matter and the economics of the entertainment industry.

Not.

Still, that's a funny meta-joke !

I know its not realistic, since far from everyone that pirates actually buys the games for various reasons, and there is also people that pirate because of DRM and always on functions, still was a joke worth sharing

[rhandric]

I love the irony of someone who obviously pirated the game trying to research DRM in the game

[Deirhese]

Haha, this is genius. Now people who pirate can feel the disgusting feeling when you get pirated except game companies lose real money from their game to which it cost a lot of money and time to make.

[philefluxx]

Heh thats pretty good.

[Gnarz]

stop selling games for 60$ duh stupid gaming companies and no one would even pirate a crappy facebook tycoon game lol so mission failed game dev tycoon...

movies take way more money to make than games do,yet they only cost like 10$ brand new for dvd...game industry is a joke

[Deleted]

stop selling games for 60$ duh stupid gaming companies and no one would even pirate a crappy facebook tycoon game lol so mission failed game dev tycoon...

movies take way more money to make than games do,yet they only cost like 10$ brand new for dvd...game industry is a joke

The game in question here is only 8 dollars at release though, bit of a difference even if i understand were you are coming from with the AAA titles from big producers. Its more related to DRM, always online functions and availability why people pirate those. Steam is a brilliant example of how this is done right with the DRM, easy access, deep sales etc were you can get excellent deals instead of downloading torrents while supporting the developers.

[-aiko-]

stop selling games for 60$ duh stupid gaming companies and no one would even pirate a crappy facebook tycoon game lol so mission failed game dev tycoon...

movies take way more money to make than games do,yet they only cost like 10$ brand new for dvd...game industry is a joke

This game didn't retail at $60, so your point is moot anyway, but gaming is not as mainstream as you'd think. Movies have a MUCH larger audience; they can afford the $10 costs. Do you also know how much they make at the box office?

Regardless, stealing something because it's "too expensive" is a stupid excuse.

[Deleted]

I hope their site gets flooded by people who downloaded it from torrent sites, after all THEY released it on the torrent sites, so they have to support it.

Regardless, stealing something because it's "too expensive" is a stupid excuse.

File Sharing is not Piracy, Stealing or theft....

[Deleted]

so many shitty indie games coming out recently. If I was an indie game developer I would be happy that someone plays my game and won't punish peopel for wanting to play my game.

[Nerraw]

so many shitty indie games coming out recently. If I was an indie game developer I would be happy that someone plays my game and won't punish peopel for wanting to play my game.

So you're okay with pouring all your time and money into making something and then people just take it for free?

[Deleted]

This game didn't retail at $60, so your point is moot anyway, but gaming is not as mainstream as you'd think. Movies have a MUCH larger audience; they can afford the $10 costs. Do you also know how much they make at the box office?

Regardless, stealing something because it's "too expensive" is a stupid excuse.

$60 is often justified price for AAA title with great multiplayer, on hte other hand $8 for a very cheap game might be in fact more than $60 for AAA game.

[Nkagnito89]

I hope their site gets flooded by people who downloaded it from torrent sites, after all THEY released it on the torrent sites, so they have to support it.

They released the game on a Torrent site to prove something, that version of the game does not need to be supported.

The devs are not done with the legal version of the game and will be supporting that, though I do not know how long.

[PoisonedLizard]

I hope their site gets flooded by people who downloaded it from torrent sites, after all THEY released it on the torrent sites, so they have to support it.

Not really. That version is working as intended. :P

[Rennadrel]

How does this really change anything? People say that piracy is hurting developers, yet the majority of them are still in business and constantly see record sales with some of their franchises. Do you know what the real problem with game sales is? Franchising, it alone has severely ruined game sales as a whole. The constant recycling of franchises is causing new games to struggle when it comes to their sales, so people like to blame piracy for games lacking in the sales and popularity department when the biggest issue is marketing and lack of hype for new games, or new ideas that are released with a poor quality final product. If non franchise games sold better, I would think you would see a more abundant release of new games or more franchises rather then the same several that we have been seeing the last several years, especially on consoles.

[Aerai]

When I saw that pie-chart in the original article, my heart sank. I really feel for these Indie developers that operate on razor thin margins to break even only to get destroyed by results like that. It's $8, that's less than a meal at most fast food places in Canada. You really can't justify helping these guys out with a project they poured so much effort into so you can essentially eat out at McDonald's one extra time a year?

To the few above that brought up creative stagnation. THIS IS WHY THAT IS HAPPENING. The EA/Activision/Ubisoft's of the world are businesses, they approve/deny project proposals based upon their risk. They get their metrics from Indie titles which is where 90% of the new ideas come from. So if you're seeing huge margins of Indie titles being pirated for less than $10, why on earth would you want to fund anything that hasn't already proven that it will move several million units for $60 a pop? You wouldn't, they don't, and it's your fault.

Go ahead and blame the executives all you want, they're just doing their job. You're creating the environment for them to make the decisions to never take risks. Quick history lesson, these same huge publishers everyone loathes were some of the biggest innovators of the 90's.. the companies haven't changed. The market has. We're the market.

[PuppetShowJustice]

This thread is spectacularly negative. They made a game about game development and I only heard about this game because of their fake game version. Regardless of whatever point they were trying to make (which I think is a decent one, the people in the thread defending piracy make me sad), I see this as pretty clever marketing.

I have no idea why people are putting them down -- they haven't done anything wrong.

[McNeil]

I must admit, thats amazing

[-aiko-]

File Sharing is not Piracy, Stealing or theft....

Okay, that's cool. It's still illegal.