$304,149,300 Stolen From Activision
That's right, over 300 million dollars stolen just of the one game, Modern Warfare 2, in 2009. Obviously Activision had much more stolen from them with other titles, but MW2 is by far the worst affected. According to TorrentFreak 4,100,000 copies of the PC version of MW2 were stolen and 970,000 copies of the Microsoft Xbox 360 version.
Thieves using bit torrents are indulging in the biggest orgy of theft in the history of humanity. When they can steal with no chance of getting caught then they will. How they justify this appalling lack of moral fibre to themselves is beyond me. I have heard a whole litany of empty excuses from the thieves to try and justify their actions but the fact remains that they are benefiting from other people's labour that they should have paid for but haven't. So they are thieves.
And they are stupid because they damage that which they love. Activision are not about to go out of business because of this particular frenzy of stealing. But in the past plenty of other game companies have gone bust because of game theft. And many top creative game developers have left the industry for ever. We have lost a huge number of potentially great games to piracy. It doesn't even need for the company to go bust, they can just allocate their resources elsewhere. There are nearly as many Nintendo DS consoles in the world as Wiis, PS3s and Xbox 360s combined. So where are all the great DS games? That's right, piracy stops them even being written.
The fact is that if you want people to work for you creating great games then you have to pay their wages, they have to pay for their food and rent just like everyone else.
There are a number of possible solutions to this massive stealing problem:
* Educate the thieves. Explain their low morality to them and the harm they do to the development of games. I think this has no chance of succeeding, they have proven, on a massive scale, that they are perfectly happy to steal.
* Technical protection. This is the best solution. A game console's main purpose in life is to serve as an anti piracy dongle. All three current generation home consoles succeed at this, the PS3 works best, followed by the Wii with the Xbox 360 putting up a distinctly average performance.
# But open, multi purpose platforms like the PC and the iPhone lack this technical protection and so piracy is rife. Alternative business models. Monthly subscriptions and in game items are increasingly popular alternatives to up front game purchase. Many people are perfectly happy to spend thousands of dollars on a simple browser game like Evony for instance.
# Using the ISPs to stop peer to peer distribution of stolen IP. This is probably the main viable route. Already implemented in France and proposed for the UK and most other civilised countries. The scale of thieving is so enormous that the thieves are not directly punished, instead they get a warning letter. If they continue to steal they get another warning letter. Then if they ignore both these warnings they are disconnected from the internet. A very mild course of action against thieves, many of whom have stolen thousands of dollars worth of stuff they should have paid for.
# Publisher activism. The publishers can go after the thieves that are stealing from them directly. However the thieves don't like this and indulge in massive online activism to stop it. So the publishers, even though they are morally right to protect their property, are loath to take this sort of action for fear of Streisand effect.
# Government action. There are millions of thieves out there that the government is turning a blind eye to. In fact government authority is being totally usurped. If I fancied a new Ferrari and went and stole it the police would show a great interest. However is someone steals a game that I publish, using torrents, they aren't interested. Yet the Ferrari and the game are both the result of people's labour.
Eventually something will be done, stealing on this scale is unsustainable whatever way you look at it. In the meantime game development suffers and the thieves are too stupid to realise it.
Biggest game release ever, biggest pirated game ever, biggest number of camp friendly levels ever. Is there no statistic MW2 can't obliterate?
I'm sure 90+% of the pirates wouldn't have bought the game anyway.No, you STOLE THEIR MONEY OMG
I pirated Bioshock 2 the other day. Game was shit. Will not buy.
Oh no!!! 2kGames lost €55 thanks to me!! ::)
"Stolen" lol
edit: Oh lord, this dipshit actually uses the "You wouldn't steal a car" example.
And what's this about the Wii being a formidable obstacle for pirates? Isn't that the easiest system of this generation to mod?
DS for sureOh yeah. I love my AceKard 2 :heartbeat
That's a cute defense to hide the fact you're still committing a crime. DIRTY THIEVING POOR
the way that article is written pisses me offIt's almost like a parody of the anti-pirate moral crusaders. I bet this guy fingers his anus to stories of the RIAA's court victories over single parents and the elderly
Young people are morally bankrupt, news at eleven.
I don't pirate games myself and don't really condone the act to be honest, however I have a hard time feeling sorry for these companies when it does happen. Especially considering how much they benefit from the idiotic copyright laws. The two issues seem to counterbalance each other.
So MW2 didn't make enough money to pay the staff?
If only people had the sense not to pirate MW2, we could've actually had a MW3 in a few years. Unfortunately, it now sounds like we will not. Just not enough profit from game buyers in there to make another 5 hour campaign.
So MW2 didn't make enough money to pay the staff?
If only people had the sense not to pirate MW2, we could've actually had a MW3 in a few years. Unfortunately, it now sounds like we will not. Just not enough profit from game buyers in there to make another 5 hour campaign.
Activision > NIS
So MW2 didn't make enough money to pay the staff?
If only people had the sense not to pirate MW2, we could've actually had a MW3 in a few years. Unfortunately, it now sounds like we will not. Just not enough profit from game buyers in there to make another 5 hour campaign.
Activision > NIS
I'm sure I'll pirate games like crazy when I live in a place that lacks any rental option, has a shitty resale market and where a new game costs about $100.
Sounds like whole of Europe!
It's not the piracy that bothers me, more the defenses these filthy poor pc gamers some up with to justify shit. You stole it. Who cares?
But its not stealing and its legal Cohen.
It's more like fraud...
It's more like fraud
also think a lot of the money is mismanaged
also think a lot of the money is mismanaged
Relevance?
Main Entry: steal
Pronunciation: \ˈstēl\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): stole \ˈstōl\; sto·len \ˈstō-lən\; steal·ing
Etymology: Middle English stelen, from Old English stelan; akin to Old High German stelan to steal
1 a : to take or appropriate without right or leave and with intent to keep or make use of wrongfully
... How is that not stealing?
I don't feel bad committing insurance fraud knowing the CEO of the insurance company makes tens of millions of dollars! :spinalso think a lot of the money is mismanaged
Relevance?
Less with games but more with movies, I dont feel bad pirating at all when some Farell gets 20 million to start in it.
Kosma should back out now before the annihilation gangbang.
What don't you understand Willco? If I steal you money you can't buy anything. But if I copy your money, uuuh?
Good games don't have to be afraid of piracy....
If I steal someting from you, you don't have it anymore.
But if I copy something you have, thats not stealing. Copyright =/= property rights
What do you mean download it without right? Copyrights are only as valid as the state you live in deems them to be, and my country says its ok and it's not theft and I can download all I want as long as I dont sell it.
Uuuh yeah it is mate.
But we can also smot pot freely, have legal prostitution and gay marriage.
Biggest game release ever, biggest pirated game ever, biggest number of camp friendly levels ever. Is there no statistic MW2 can't obliterate?
Good games as "good" and appealing to your userbase,yeah you could make a game that has artistic and review stamp on it,but if it doesn't appeal to userbase,nobody will care,not even pirates.Good games don't have to be afraid of piracy....
GTFO :rofl :rofl :rofl
Uuuh yeah it is mate.
Good games as "good" and appealing to your userbase,yeah you could make a game that has artistic and review stamp on it,but if it doesn't appeal to userbase,nobody will care,not even pirates.Good games don't have to be afraid of piracy....
GTFO :rofl :rofl :rofl
You guys are just morally bankrupt. Just 'fess up.Yeah, it's taking something without paying for it and there's no way to defend it as ethical, but I just get a kick out of how these companies act like this is money being taken right out of their pockets. I'm willing to bet that most regular pirates are either filthy poors or underage -- neither of whom are gonna be buying many games in the first place. There isn't really a tangible way to estimate just how much it hurts the industry because you don't know who would have made the purchase had piracy not been an option, so morons like the blogger in the OP exaggerating the damages are way off base.
You are very wrong there,why would someone waste its bandwidth,or in 360 case pay for discs if the game isn't quality and doesn't appeal to them???Good games as "good" and appealing to your userbase,yeah you could make a game that has artistic and review stamp on it,but if it doesn't appeal to userbase,nobody will care,not even pirates.Good games don't have to be afraid of piracy....
GTFO :rofl :rofl :rofl
People will pirate whatever they want as long as they can, quality has nothing to do with it. Anybody who thinks otherwise is being naive.
watPeople will pirate whatever they want as long as they can, quality has nothing to do with it. Anybody who thinks otherwise is being naive.You are very wrong there,why would someone waste its bandwidth,or in 360 case pay for discs if the game isn't quality and doesn't appeal to them???
I live in some place in Europe,its basically a piracy land,piracy talk is normal even on official gaming magazines forums and believe me people there play less games than you do and they could pirate everything...
CROATIA!? HARDLY KNEW YA
I could be easily renamed like that,not just in games department :lolCroatia,Borys knows where that is.
Really? I thought you were in DirtyThievingPiratestania.
Specify wat :DI dunno, I think the pirates that buy REEL GUD GAMES out of some moral obligation are definitely a minority. Your average schmuck doesn't have such a nuanced code of ethics, they just think FREE STUFF HOLY SHIT AWESOME DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD. Otherwise MW2 wouldn't have been pirated so many times :lol
I dunno, I think the pirates that buy REEL GUD GAMES out of some moral obligation are definitely a minority. Your average schmuck doesn't have such a nuanced code of ethics, they just think FREE STUFF HOLY SHIT AWESOME DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD. Otherwise MW2 wouldn't have been pirated so many times :lolAny normal human being who can get something for free instead of paying for it takes the free route.