Comments on: 'Spore' leads 2008's most pirated PC games

EA probably isn't too happy about having two games in this list of the top 10 most pirated.

[malmedia]

EA Rules the Top 5

1. Spore (1,700,000)
2. The Sims 2 (1,150,000)
4. Crysis (940,000)
5. Command & Conquer 3 (860,000)

[SteveW928]

Natural selection at its finest... those who pirate save more of their money and are more apt to survive. ;o) (well, at least as long as they don't get caught)
Sorry.. just couldn't resist taking a shot at the irony of a morality claim over an evolution based game. (I don't condone piracy).

[sharmajunior]

Yes, TAKE THAT!!! EA. That's what you deserve for putting DRM and locking customers into a 3 time activation-only policy. Take down the policy, remove the DRM and piracy will be at it's minimum as compared to its current rate.

Take down every EA game like that. YESSSS!! I also emailed Blizzard to address the current situation with piracy in regards to the release of Starcraft 2. They better not put any DRM on it. The previous version- Starcraft didn't have any and it was better then.

[murbo]

previous starcraft? dude thats like more than a decade ago.. there was no kazaa, no imesh, no emule, no rapidshare, no torrents... what the hell are you talking about?

[pjhenry1216]

@murbo: you think piracy only started recently? piracy was still pretty heavy well before there were apps to make it easier. people would trade on irc, even aol. piracy may have been more underground, but it was still significant.

[sandor_f]

hotline was around long before torrents, and irc long before hotline. i remember having friends that got pirated versions of Mac 7.6 when i was still stuck with 7.5.3......

[ImSpartacus]

No torrents a decade ago? Were you born yesterday?

[DEC_42]

Actually, seeing as StarCraft was released in 1998, and the BitTorrent protocol wasn't proposed until 2001, he's kinda right. Still, Newsgroups, IRC, etc were around a LONG time before 2001. Get your fact straight, buddy.

[jCounsel]

Heh... Perhaps gamers (and I am one) should be reading the license prior to buying the game. In face, you are not buying a game--rather, you are buying a license to use the software. It is time we decide to NOT buy those licenses if we want to teach them a lesson.

However, if you download the game illegally, aren't you, in fact, doing worse than they are? I mean, they, at least, own the software and can limit its use as they want.

[chrisfrary]

Its pretty bad when you own the game, yet have to pirate it for it to work.

[Lerianis]

You know, that is the EXACT reason why I download game patches to remove the copy protection: sometimes, the game will not work on my system unless I do, because I have Daemon Tools on it in order to run images of backed up games!

[tacit]

Yep. I buy all my games, and have to this date never pirated a one, yet I often must turn to the pirate cracks because I play the games in emulation on a Mac. often, the anti-piracy controls don't work in emulation, so I buy the game, take it home, download the crack, and install it. It's the only way to get many games to play correctly on my system.

[Ottozer0]

LOL........ Dam thats so Funny... But So Freaking True. EA should just sell all its games on Steam and People will buy them and not rip them off.

[ALTrdGenetics]

Im glad that these numbers have come out. At the current moment all of my friends are leaving be behind because i refuse to buy these games due to heavy DRM restrictions. I have run into the same problems with adobe products as well as microsoft games. I would install them on my desktop and on my laptop so i could have them where ever i was to find out that after one of them crashed that i was going to have to endure a 30 minute phone conversation from here on out on why i didnt disactivate my product via the magical button that i should have pressed before my hard drive fried. and even after that they would not reset my 2 install count. they gave me some fake number so i would have to call EVERY GOD DAMN TIME.... and that was for the adobe suite. after purchasing software that expensive you would think i would not have to yell in the phone and CS would be a little more understanding

The idea of the DRM heavy software makes me happy that people are pirating their software. It's their own stupidity of the DRM is driving this download frenzy.

[Lerianis]

This DRM is stupid, and that is being mild compared to what I would like to call it. Frankly, no DRM is necessary, and it just pisses the customers of these game developers and others off. What they REALLY need to do: lower their prices and charge a REASONABLE RATE for the games! No more of this "$60 dollars to start!" bullcrap, and it is bullcrap!

I have YET to find a game where I would be willing to pay $60 dollars for it, outside of the Orange Box.... and that's because I am getting 4-5 games in one box!

[ducttapeBigSexy]

So, apparently, including this online activation garbage didn't prevent people from pirating Spore - looks like people pirated that more than games that don't container online activation (Crysis, The Sims 2, etc.). So, EA, other than pissing off your customers, online activation has done nothing.

Seriously, I don't get it. Companies claim piracy is killing PC gaming, so the solution is to **** off the customers who are still buying your product? I mean this completely: Now that EA is including online activation in all PC games, I will never purchase another EA PC game ever again. And that is a true lost sale there, EA.

[mementh]

I support Brad Wardell from Stardock.
No DRM, there are activations but no drm is built into the system.

I have even talked to a few of the game developers and they have said if there company ever goes under (come on a DRM free company going under that maeks great games like sins of a solar empire and galactic civ II.... HA HA)
But anyways I talked to them and they have said that if they ever go under (HA HA) then there would be a official activations remover for there games. (I assume if they ever changed there activation servers as well but thats a easy fix via a patch to the installation program like there system Impulse or Stardock central (being defunked/not used much anymore)

thats my thoughts and you did not even have to pay a penny for them :)

[Renegade Knight]

If a company goes under it's only the honorable ones that will spend the money to release a path to remove the activation issues.

More likely they will lay off the staff that would have coded the patch.

[gnutux]

Until EA abandons the stupid SecuROM 7 installation limits, I will not see that their piracy will go down because it makes more sense to pirate than to own it legitimately anyways.

This can be easily explained by this comic: http://xkcd.com/488/. Either way, even for legitimate users like me, if I were to get the game (I opted to boycott on the grounds of DRM), I'll be technically be a pirate and will be subjected to nonsense DRM. So, why not just pirate it in the first place and not have the DRM limits.

This is where EA's decision failed them and their legitimate consumers. The SecuROM 7 install limits is the main driver for people to rather pirate than to buy it even if they wanted to because the install limits doesn't make sense. It will NOT deter piracy, it encourages it.

[manticore--2008]

Very well done Digitus Impudicus :-) and I couldn't agree more. DRM is hugely counterproductive, and does nothing to prevent piracy: it simply punishes legitimate game owners. Piracy will ONLY ever reduce when A > Prices come down to a reasonable cost per example of game ( eg: 25$ per copy, instead of 90$) and B > when game developers and producers realize that punishing their own customers for the actions of others actually reduces sales, as does deliberate manipulation of game-hosting servers and support, all of which the gamer pays for, but derives little true benefit from, beyond the minimal of occasionally being able to play a game trouble-free.

[jCounsel]

I don't like paying $60 USD for a game either. However, I don't get to go steal a Lotus car because I think their profit/price is too high. They can charge what they want. If nobody bought the game, prices would come down.

I don't like DRM either. However, people do have a right to "protect" their property--intellectual or otherwise. If you don't like the product or the "security," please feel free to not buy it or use it. Resorting to theft because you think it is too expensive is not using reason or logic to support your actions. I mean, based on your actions, I should be able to go steal anything because I think it is too expensive and the seller isn't pricing their product in a manner that allows me to easily purchase the item.

I love Ansel Adams, photographs, art, etc.. Should I be able take what I want without compensating the owner?

[sparrowhyperion]

Game publishers need to keep in mind the fact that charging so much for games is just going to remove the ability of a large amount of gamers to afford their games. As a result, they are going to lose a lot of money from lost sales. If they reduce prices to a level mere mortals can afford, then sales will pick up and more people are likely to buy their games, and less people are likely to pirate it because they simply can't afford it.

Then there is the DRM issue. All DRM like this does is cheese off customers and make it more likely that someone will pirate the game. As seen by the download numbers, it does absolutely NOTHING to curb piracy.

Piracy has been around well before the INTERNET. In the 80s, it was done through the old BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) systems. Which was a bit more hassles, especially since most people had analog modems.

Piracy is not going to go away and publishers need to realize this and stop wasting their time and money trying to plug the hole on the Titanic with a wine bottle cork. Lower prices and do whatever you can to make your customers happy so they will remain loyal and like your company. Right now, people are sick of the draconian DRM policies EA Games and other companies use. This set of DRM Policies will only make things worse.

[3rdalbum]

I remember the guy from EA saying "For 99% of people, the DRM in Spore isn't an issue". That's true - 99% of people got Spore without the DRM from a filesharing network.

[lorcro2000]

Frankly, the amount of unauthorized downloads of a game is completely irrelevant in most cases. I'm convinced the vast majority of those downloads were by people who would never have bought the game anyway but downloaded it to give it a whirl and see what the hoopla was about. That's the way it has been since games first started being made, and the same applies to any type of software, to boot.

Outrageous and consumer-hostile DRM (all DRM is consumer hostile to some degree) is certainly a very foolish move by the game companies; thus far, the protections they add ostensibly to deal with copyright violators just punishes the legitimate purchasers of the product, not the people who download the cracked versions. Add to that the increased pressure on their own support organisations to deal with people who have issues with hair-trigger DRM and the sheer folly of clinging to DRM just cannot be ignored.

[JLBer]

Glad to see that DRM works so well and is worth paying the the money to Sony instead of employees.

[SteamChip]

Cartoon on Spore DRM

http://www.geocities.com/cloudchip/

[Shaun822]

While I agree that DRM solve anything, anyone that thinks a reduction in price is going to prevent piracy is living in a dream world. Even if games drop to $25 dollars a copy, people are going to want it for $15 and pirate it anyway. As long as there is any price attached to the game piracy will run rampant.

[Renegade Knight]

Lower the price. Lower the priracy rate. Of a normal game. Spoor isn't normal. It's DRM gets in the way of legitimate purchases.

[pithenumber]

It isn't impossible to pirate console games

wonder why console piracy isn't as big as pc

[Rohou]

because it is much easier and cheaper to download a game to the device you are playing on than to download, purchase a blu-ray/double-layer dvd burner and its respective disk, mod your console and play.

[Dragon_Myr]

It's the most rapidly growing segment of the video games industry. It's getting so bad Nintendo made changes in their new DS to prevent the running of pirate loading software. It's getting so bad Microsoft recently banned a ton of accounts on XBox Live again and are planning another snare early in 2009. Console piracy is rampant but doesn't involve harming paying peoples' property with rootkit software, thus less drama and less of a media sensation.

[Renegade Knight]

Ironicly I'd probalby have to pirate it to make my paid for copy work right. What a PITA.

[bigmc6000]

Downloaded 1) doesn't mean it was stolen 2) doesn't mean it was played and 3) certainly doesn't mean the people would have paid for it if it want available.

That's gotta go the biggest point - they always like to pretend like all the pirated copies would have been purchases - HA!! At MOST it's 5% or less of those who pirate it would actually buy it - same goes with music. AT MOST... In fact, a lot of times, people might pirate it, realize they like and end up buying a game in the future they had no plans on buying in the first place...

[Macajuel]

good point, game publishers should not point the numbers of pirated software downloaded as sales lost. Not many people who download pirated software would be willing to purchase thst software if given no other choice. But there are a number of individuals (myself included) who would download pirated software and actually purchase the full game later if I were impressed. Unfortunately EA eroded that trust long ago by including the uber crappy Securom DRM in the demo (off all things) for Bioshock...........silly.

[Dragon_Myr]

Agreed, but 5%? It's actually 1% according to EA. Yes, it's that magic number of 1%. Only 1% of people are apparently affected by DRM, only 1% of people have legitimate technical issues with EA games, only 1% are having graphics issues with GTA IV, only 1% is ______ and so on. Ever notice how often companies like EA, Rockstar, Ubisoft, Atari, and others throw around the 1% statistic?

If piracy were really the 1% they say (or 5% you say) then all that extra licensing expense, compatibility expense, and support expense would be better eliminated by cutting out the DRM portion. Companies like EA are foolish in falling for Sony Securom's slick marketing presentations. Earlier this year they convinced Epic Games that their game Unreal Tournament 3 had been pirated over 40+ million times. Right now that number has been more than doubled yet gullible businesses who don't want to listen to their customers continue to fall for the slick marketing presentation and put DRM on their products even when its effectiveness is clearly misunderstood and falsely advertised.

I'm a more weary purchaser of digital media than ever. DRM is costing sales because I know it's prevented me from buying.

[bigmc6000]

1% is fine with me - I was just wary of putting out such a small number. My personal opinion is it's less 0.1% at most (certainly for expensive games). When it comes to games like Spore I'd guess that of that 1.7 million maybe 1,000 would have actually bought it (.059%) but that's just my gut.

[PrinceGaz]

I know someone who used to pirate pretty much every good PC game released, he had well over a thousand games released between about 1995 and 2005, every single one of them pirated. But how many of them would I have, sorry, he have actually bought having played each of them for a few hours at most sometimes, and a few minutes most often? Less than ten. Less than ten out of well over a thousand game downloads.

To all intents and purposes, downloading a pirated copy of a full game in most cases is just an alternative way of obtaining a trial copy, and in most cases that person probably played less of the game than was available in the official free trial. The only thing that person has to show for downloading all those games is a large set of drawers filled with CDs that have never been used since the day they were burned.

So for that person, less than 1% of games downloaded would have been bought anyway, and almost all of those he would have bought would still have used illegal cracks as I hate DRM, erm, and so does "that other person".

[Macajuel]

EA has done irreparable damage to its level of public trust. I for one will never ever purchase a PC game with an EA logo on it. A buddy of mine came over one day with a purchased copy of Medal of Honor: Airborne with the intent of installing it for play on my PC. I had to tell him to take it back and bring the console version instead as there was no way I'd risk an EA sponsored Securom "infection/infestation" on my PC. I think it's a very sad time we live in when I can rely not on a corporation but on pirates to ensure a much better, fair and user-friendly PC gaming experience. I'm not opposed to EA games though as I'd happily purchase the PS3/XBOX360 versions of excellent titles like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge...................though I'd stick it to EA where it hurts and buy em all used.

I want to urge people to support companies like Stardock buy buying their products such as the excellent Sins of a Solar Empire (which launched without any DRM whatsoever)................look EA, look.....see? That game didn't even make the list....................no DRM = minimal piracy = happy customers = happy EA.................simple

[Dragon_Myr]

This whole DRM fiasco is comical. They say it's to stop piracy but the games that have this DRM are normally pirated even before they get released. Many DRM schemes have severely crippled the games I've paid for. There's a couple I had to remove the DRM from in order to get running without pausing every 10 seconds to check the CD or do something else ridiculous. If DRM is intended to stop piracy it's certainly not working and is making the problem worse. If DRM is intended to stop used sales, its turning all those potential used sales customers into pirates.

I find it comical Spore and many other games got pirated so much. It really says something about the quality of the products they hype up and then release. Nearly every EA game I've purchased or considered purchasing has not even remotely lived up to expectations and the promotion it was given, particularly Spore. Add in the hassle that is DRM and a harsh economic environment and it just makes sense to pirate until until someone gets it through their thick skulls that paying $50 or $60 for a game with an endless parade of $20 to $30 expansions and parts packs starting a mere 2 months after the game releases is not even remotely acceptable.

The DRM experiment has, again, failed for another media industry. It's stunning how we continue to allow failures to be propped up.