Piracy: does removing offline mode make an impact?

[Sun-Ra]

There seems to be a new trend starting in the gaming world, removing the ability to play the game offline, or forcing online activation before you can play, a few big names are Skyrim and Diablo 3. I completely disagree with pirating software and will never do it, but it sucks having my options limited on how I can enjoy my game because of such people, and from what I've seen, the people who pirate, find ways around these limitations of being force online easily, so whats the point?

From everyone's experiences, do these limitations effect or limit the amount of piracy you see going on?

[Asmekiel]

From everyone's experiences, do these limitations effect or limit the amount of piracy you see going on?

They don't. Maybe shortly after release there'll be less people with a pirated copy, since the protection needs to be cracked. But once it has been cracked, the numbers will rise to the usual level.
Just look at Witcher 2, it has no DRM at all (it had at the start, but patch 1.1 removed it) and there are no reports of more or less than usual pirated copies. Maybe other developers should take a look at how Project Red did it...

[Beat5beat]

I think it depends on the type of game. If it is a multiplayer game it may reduce piracy slightly. If it is a single player game like skyrim, I think it increases piracy dramatically.

Missing poll option (increases piracy)

[Ratyrel]

I remember Ubisoft releasing a statement saying that their proactive stance on these matters had significantly affected the number of pirated copies of their games. You're free to believe that or not.

[Meledelion]

If pirating really had such a great impact devs would've stopped making games all together. Even with all the pirating going on companies (music/software/games/...) are still making a profit, otherwise they wouldn't still be producing.
The biggest issue is that if everyone pirates (or the majority) devs will stop making games.

And no, you can not stop people from pirating. Devs have to put in backdoors so people can still play it when things go wrong. Nobody will buy a game for 70dollars if there's no support but hackers will always look and find these backdoors, it's a matter of time.
Pirates will pirate it just depends on their amount of patience.

The CEO of angrybirds said himself that pirating has helped to make AB so popular, he looks at the lost profit as cost of marketing.

[Deleted]

It effects piracy to a certain degree, but many people will refrain from buying it, at least of the people I know. MMO's aren't something you can have going side by side, 5 games at once while actually being competitive.

[Gandrake]

nope.

cracked skyrim the day it came out. I mean, I bought it later... But not everyone is as noble as me.

[Deleted]

Games like Skyrim, or any where the player is by themselves with no reason to or need to connect to a game server will always be pirated sooner or later, this is a fact that cannot be gotten round, I have yet to see a game which is totally single player and not yet been "cracked" for illegal use.

However Since D3 will have an auction house of sorts which mean some form of interactivity between players and to avoid people simply logging onto a "cracked" game adding all sorts of stuff to the character then logging on to a "legit" game and selling it for RL money then a connection to the internet is needed to be fair.

I will freely admit that I sit on the middle of the fence on this subject, I can understand reasons for and against piracy, in recent years there has been a somewhat lack of any demo's for the PC versions of any major game releases and whilst this is not the major reason behind the levels of piracy of games I cant help but wonder if publishers where to release demo's of games would they see a rise in sales and a decline in piracy simply because those that try the game can then decide if it is worth there money or not. Too many times in the past I have bought a game only to find that it is nothing like what I expected or read up on.

As for "forcing online activation" then again I can see why they do it, Game companies don't want you to simply buy a game play it through then sell it on to someone else as they would only get the first sale value out of it and nothing from re-sales. Sadly this only (from what I know as I don't have a console) is limited to the PC market.

[Cairhiin]

If pirating really had such a great impact devs would've stopped making games all together. Even with all the pirating going on companies (music/software/games/...) are still making a profit, otherwise they wouldn't still be producing.
The biggest issue is that if everyone pirates (or the majority) devs will stop making games.

And no, you can not stop people from pirating. Devs have to put in backdoors so people can still play it when things go wrong. Nobody will buy a game for 70dollars if there's no support but hackers will always look and find these backdoors.

The CEO of angrybirds said himself that pirating has helped to make AB so popular, he looks at the lost profit as cost of marketing.

Hmm pirating actually has a very large impact on developers. Did you read some articles/interviews lately? The makers of Kingdoms of Amalur: reckoning pretty much stated that making a game for PC only is not profitable due to all the pirating. So yes pirating has a HUGE impact.

"IG: Do you think it’s still viable to create a game with this kind of budget for the PC only?

IF: No, probably not. A game this big is very expensive to be blunt about it. The PC, with piracy being as rampant as it is, is really hard to make money from. My first game was Titan Quest, a hack ‘n’ slash RPG, which was PC only but the amount that it was pirated was the difference between us staying in business and going out of business.

It’s really, really hard to be profitable by concentrating only on PC. Unless you’re an MMO."

http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/...mbat-in-an-rpg

[Sun-Ra]

The diablo series has always been the game I turned to when router was giving me problems, or power outage, ect, now with D3's limitation I might not even get it /sadface

[Deleted]

I know people who download games instead of buying them and at some degree it annoys me. I'm not saying I would never do it. For example I "tried" Assassin's Creed. I played the first mission and I disliked it. I'm glad I didn't buy it. I buy games of which I think aren't dissapointing and which are not overhyped. I will rather buy a game that is rather unpopular to support the developers than buy a game like AC that enough players bought. And if I tried it and I like it, I buy it.

[mmff4]

Removing offline mode only makes playing games more frustrating for legit players. Pirates always had a way to go round the limitations.

[Meledelion]

~ snip ~

I have trouble believing what he's saying.
Developers are still releasing content on PC (not only on PC) so the investment is still worth the trouble. If they wouldn't make a profit (cost of piracy vs cost of marketing can be a profit aswell) devs wouldn't still put their resources into making games for PC. They could use that budget to expand the game, get better PR/marketing/engines/...

What he says is that ONLY releasing on PC isn't cost effective due to pirating, this doesn't mean that releasing games on PC (+consoles) isn't cost effective due to the piracy on PC.

TL;DR no positive aspect of releasing on PC => No more release on PC (this isn't happening at the moment).

[Deleted]

Increases piracy, I think. Pirates will crack them anyway on day one and make them work offline. It's only a nuisance for people who actually buy the game so if there is no offline option, those who don't have a constant or stable internet connection or have a limited one and pay per GB, maybe be forced to pirate it.

I think the only way to reduce piracy is either a dictatorship with tapped internet connections and cencorship or just producing quality products and not getting overly greedy.

[Asmekiel]

Hmm pirating actually has a very large impact on developers. Did you read some articles/interviews lately? The makers of Kingdoms of Amalur: reckoning pretty much stated that making a game for PC only is not profitable due to all the pirating. So yes pirating has a HUGE impact.

"IG: Do you think it’s still viable to create a game with this kind of budget for the PC only?

IF: No, probably not. A game this big is very expensive to be blunt about it. The PC, with piracy being as rampant as it is, is really hard to make money from. My first game was Titan Quest, a hack ‘n’ slash RPG, which was PC only but the amount that it was pirated was the difference between us staying in business and going out of business.

It’s really, really hard to be profitable by concentrating only on PC. Unless you’re an MMO."

http://www.incgamers.com/Interviews/...mbat-in-an-rpg

If all developers at least tried to make controls for the PC not feel like you need a xbox controller, then piracy numbers would also decrease.
Not saying that they did it wrong with Amalur, but take a look at Crysis 2 for example....

[Vayshan]

There seems to be a new trend starting in the gaming world, removing the ability to play the game offline, or forcing online activation before you can play, a few big names are Skyrim and Diablo 3. I completely disagree with pirating software and will never do it, but it sucks having my options limited on how I can enjoy my game because of such people, and from what I've seen, the people who pirate, find ways around these limitations of being force online easily, so whats the point?

From everyone's experiences, do these limitations effect or limit the amount of piracy you see going on?

I downloaded Skyrim and used a crack and 'cracked server' to activite the game online. Was able to play it without any hasle afterwards. Now before I get flamed... I already own the game on my X360, I merely downloaded it so I could play it on my laptop and mainly to make use of the Creation Kit (and copies are allowed in my country, but only for private use). However since you need Steam for the Kit and my laptop ran the game at 5fps, I removed it again.

In any case the constant online thing is just a pure annoyance. Online activation is less of a problem, but is still not pirate proof (nothing is for that matter!). Now piracy has always existed (in the days of VHS video tapes), so I really don't think that all these 'anti-piracy safeguards' are working at all. So these ppl as you call them are not at fault, it only hinders the 'loyal' customer considerably but it does nothing to prevent piracy. Companies should just stop using them and instead deliver products that are worth buying. Also I think that when a company makes the bold statement that their product is unhackable, you're just taunting the hacker community and you just give them a challenge which they will happily accept. Imo the best way to limit piracy is to just make high quality products that require a lot of space (on disc, not on install) so people will basily become discouraged to download a game that takes up 20GB of hdd space for example.

[Chronius]

TBH I don't give 2shits if people pirate or not, to some extent the companies deserve it.
The archaic rule that the US gets to play the game damn near every time a small week ahead of the rest of the world is just ridiculous in this digital age.
Who can blame people for not wanting to wait 1-2weeks to play, when they can get it for free within the hour, let alone those parts of the world where they have to wait a month.

[Anakso]

It's definitely stupid, especially if they start doing it with console games because most games I buy are for the Ps3 which isn't connected to the internet.

As for PC games that's also stupid and if they do it they should put a huge warning on the box saying "REQUIRES INTERNET CONNECTION" because many people, especially those lacking money, may have a computer but not an internet connection.

[Snorkle]

If D3 had an offline mode, I'd pay for it. As it does not, I won't play it at all, original or otherwise. And I bet I'm not alone in this. Pirates will find a way to eventually get around that protection.

[Heltoray]

as long as companies bother me and my shitty internet with online crap I won't buy their games. I buy a lot of games, though. but skyrim for example..............