Spore's Piracy Problem

FantasyStar - 481 days 6 hours ago

I know if I saw a Console game marked up to $60 just because, I wouldn't buy it. Everyone should follow Nippon Ichi's example and price games back at the $50 mark.

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Charmers - 481 days 6 hours ago

yeah because console games are unpiratable ......... Oh no wait they aren't. Infact if you have a look both the 360 and PS2 versions of Force Unleashed are already out there being massively pirated.

As for the difference in price erm yeah you do know what that is don't you ? See that extra 10 bucks you pay for your console game, that never actually reaches the developers hands. Nope that extra 10 bucks (that PC gamers don't pay) goes straight into MS and Sony's pocket, it is a royalty fee you pay to play a game on a console you "supposedly" already bought.

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Rich1631 - 481 days 4 hours ago

Are you serious about the royalty fees? Damn that is uncool, I had no idea.

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Charmers - 481 days 4 hours ago

Very serious, that is why Sony initially sold the PS3 at a $200 loss they were hoping to make the loss up in game royalty fees. Both console companies take a slice from each game sale whether they have anything to do with the game or not. It has always been that way with consoles, I am a bit surprised you didn't know that.

Anyway that is why PC games are usually 10 bucks cheaper there is no royalty fee even though games are designed for Windows, MS doesn't take a royalty fee (it would be next to imnpossible for them to do it on the PC which is part of the reason they came up with the xbox).

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orakga - 481 days 3 hours ago

Charmers is right.

In fact, that's one of the ways Sony stole so many studios from Nintendo back in 1995 (during the PS1 vs N64 days); they offered lower royalty rates for developers.

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Lumbo - 481 days 6 hours ago

erm sorry, me, the poor oversea EU chap has a cheap unlimited 16mbit DSL line, and thats not unusual, flatrates are the norm for DSL lines and you hardly get anything slower than 6mbit. Actually the US is the country with the low capacity broadband right now, the other countries have invested into DSL coverage while the US cable companies seemingly have forgotten to upgrade their lines. And while the US customers fight over download limits for slow cable connections the oversea people get fiber optic vdsl lines to offer 50mbit+ to customers on a nationwide scale.

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Jdoki - 481 days 4 hours ago

Well then why not BUY the game, and install the pirated copy if you have such big issues with DRM.

It's such an easy excuse to say 'I pirate because of DRM'. That's a crock.

If you want the game and want to support the developer then pay up.

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darkstar - 481 days 2 hours ago

And people like you are the reason drm exists.

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Heldrasil - 481 days 2 hours ago

Agreed

It's not hard to install your legal copy, patch it and throw on a fixed EXE or use a fixed image file in daemon tools. the means for legit circumvention has been around for days.

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agentace - 481 days 2 hours ago

BUT stuff it its EA they have stuff me so many times

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kalos - 480 days 23 hours ago

LOL at the person who 'disagreed' with you. what, they think they know better and you haven't downloaded+installed Spore? :D Amazing.

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AliC - 481 days 4 hours ago

I agree with you, I don't pirate games, i think it's wrong however DRM's like the one spore uses which allows you to install the game 3 times is just taking the mick.

If I buy a game I first of all should not need an internet connection in order to activate the game.

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Jdoki - 481 days 4 hours ago

Agreed cpuchess.

None of us are perfect, but all this BS around 'I hate EA', 'the DRM is draconian' so I'll pirate the game makes me sick.

Just as many people would pirate this game if it had no DRM, or a more relaxed copy protection.

Just because no one can see the thief download the game doesn't mean it isn't as bad as walking in to a shop and stealing something from the shelf.

I bet a good proportion of people on this site would love to work in the games industry - I wonder how they'd feel if 2+ years of their lives was wasted developing a game most people steal.

Just because EA/Maxis won't go bust because they lose a few thousand (10's of thousand, 100's of thousand) copies doesn't mean that smaller devs won't go under because of piracy... And guess who loses out in the end... Us gamers.

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hay - 481 days 1 hour ago

Pirates aren't stealing. They just don't support hard working devs which sucks.
Saying that pirating = stealing is like going to church without offering some cash, and call it the same.
Don't wanna defend pirates but calling them thieves is a bit wrong.

Well anyone can buy the game, and then bypass DRM using cracks so I guess it's not a big problem after all. If you want to support Will of course.

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Zhit - 480 days 23 hours ago

Hate to burst the bubble of folks suggesting you buy the game and just install the crack. According to the letter of the law, by cracking the protection of the game you have violated the DMCA (well in the USA). In the eyes of the courts, there is no difference between simply downloading or buying and cracking.

With that said, I grabbed Spore, but became rather bored.

As for the thief argument: If you visit a book store and tuck a book under your jacket and walk out--you are a thief. What are you if you grab a book and read it while having a coffee in the store coffee shop? You haven't stolen the book, so you are not a thief.

Two other nit-picks with the article, sure their are 200,000 downloads, but the internet covers the globe. Those 200,000 were not from North America alone, in fact using the proportions, only a fraction of those 200,000 will impact American sales.

And finally the article mentioned DRM on games is fine because iTunes supplies music with DRM. I have a Zune and three iPods--you would never catch me buying music with DRM. iTunes (just like games with DRM) are for the idiots that don't know better....

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cpuchess - 480 days 12 hours ago

Pirating is stealing. If you are playing the game and you didn't pay for the rights to play it, then you are stealing.

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Motion - 480 days 8 hours ago

If you steal something you take the original, and then it is gone.
If you pirate something, you're just making a copy. The original is still there. To steal it, you'd have to go into a store, grab it off the shelf and then run out. So you didn't steal anything, you're just not authorized to use it.

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