The Deus Ex pirate fighting PC piracy

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 17 October, 2011

Hides questionnaire in illegal preview build.

A video game file sharer uploaded a cracked preview build of Deus Ex: Human Revolution to torrent sites as part of an experiment designed to help fight PC game piracy.

In what is perhaps the most bizarre anti-piracy effort so far, Vigilant Defender founder James Grimshaw took the preview build of the Eidos Montreal-developed action stealth game, which leaked in May, modified it to look like official releases from well-known piracy groups, and uploaded it to torrent sites for pirates to download.

Included were the first few levels of the game, but after level three was completed, pirates were booted out and directed to an online questionnaire.

Questions included why people illegally download and which torrent sites they use. It also asked questions around DRM systems such as SecuROM and Steam.

Speaking to Eurogamer, Grimshaw defended his controversial "anti-piracy experiment", saying it was designed to get users to download a free trial of a game and then go on to buy the full product.

"We wanted two things: to gain attention and let people know of our anti-piracy strategy, and to show that illegal downloaders can be potential customers," he said.

Grimshaw estimates around a million people downloaded the 'trial' version of Deus Ex, based on the 900,000 unique visitors it saw come to the company's questionnaire.

Vigilant Defender, a small operation based in Co. Mayo, Ireland, claims to offer game publishers anti-piracy strategies.

It wants to create some kind of controlled distribution system through torrent sites that will benefit publishers in the long run.

As part of its Deus Ex experiment, Vigilant Defender set up a Paypal account and promised to distribute a copy of the torrent to anyone who gave a donation.

"This would then go back straight to the publisher, but this didn't happen and shut down this part of the anti-piracy experiment," Grimshaw said.

Grimshaw's goal was to "ask illegal downloaders what they would pay, then to ask them to put their money where their mouth is".

He said 26,000 clicked a link declaring their interest to pay, and the average pledged was 14.49 euro.

While most publishers agree PC piracy is harmful, Grimshaw insists he is helping their cause.

"We are offering them a way to reach the mass market, a targeted mass market of illegal downloaders, at an unbelievably low cost. This low cost will allow us to encourage more money back to the publisher; the rate of return is much higher as they only have to supply one digital copy."

Grimshaw has contacted Square Enix and Eidos about Vigilant Defender's work, but is yet to hear back. Square Enix declined to comment when contacted by Eurogamer.

Either way, Grimshaw and Vigilant Defender appear determined to mark their mark.

"Sceptics will always exist; only people can stop illegal downloading, this anti-piracy method gives customers hundreds of benefits that far outweigh piracy," Grimshaw said. "This is the best way to stop piracy.

"The grandeur of our experiment was not to upset people, but to get the attention and show we could do this. Of course we are sorry for having to attempt this in such an extravagant way, but now we are here we can get down to business."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (49) Latest comment 7 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Genome #1 7 months ago

    I'm sure the people downloading it never asked for this.

  • AcidSnake #2 7 months ago

    So, buy the game in shops and pay full price...Pirate it and get a free demo and huge discount?

    That's sure going to reduce piracy...

  • -cerberus- #3 7 months ago

    14.49 euro? Then they'd better have a look at the second hand market because that's the average price for a used game.

  • Freek #4 7 months ago

    Collecting data? Asking for user input? Comming up with new ways to charge for games? All of this sounds far too sensible to ever get the attention of a major publisher. Pro tip: add more panic, completely curb user friendlyness or any rights a legitimate consumer may have and then make it crash your PC every once in while, just to make sure.
    Now you have a succesfull DRM platform.

  • bad09 #5 7 months ago

    Welll is gotta be better than the current plan followed by the industry which is just fuck over the consumer in a bid to stop it.

  • bobfish09 #6 7 months ago

    So, their solution to piracy is... shareware?

    There is a reason gamers like demos and publishers don't like them. Try before you buy is important when a game costs £30 or £40 and invariably turns out to be utter crap.

  • Steve2911 #7 7 months ago

    @-cerberus- - Two years after release, maybe. In the first six months or so the greedy as hell retailers will price almost everything at £30 or more.

  • -cerberus- #8 7 months ago

    @Steve2911 #7: Never buy used games from retailers. I buy them on ebay.

  • FireMonkey #9 7 months ago

    "Grimshaw has contacted Square Enix and Eidos about Vigilant Defender's work, but is yet to hear back. Square Enix declined to comment when contacted by Eurogamer."

    Hang on! So he never had their permission to do this?
    That means he just admitted uploading torrents of the game (even though it was only a small section) and hacking the game code.
    Surely Eidos could take legal action against him for that.

  • SaintDaveUK #10 7 months ago

    Steve, why would they sell pre-owned games for any less just to please you, if they are selling fine at £30 after a few months?

  • jamieleng #11 7 months ago

    Yeah I can really see people filling out a questionnaire after being duped like that. Not saying they don't deserve it though.

    Trying to find out why people pirate is like an unsolvable equation. Oh wait, no it's not. They just don't want to pay for it.

  • Radish #12 7 months ago

    I'm a bit confused by that aswell FireMonkey - this wasn't done with permission? Despite having good intentions, that's not going to end well for him surely. Well, I say good intentions - offering pirates the chance to buy something for a much lower price than legitimate customers is a bit odd. Was he trying to charge them for the cut version they'd just played, or would he have given them a full copy?

  • ShiroBen #13 7 months ago

    Didn't Darwinia do something vaguely similar? A version (presumably put on torrent sites and so on) that stopped after a couple of levels with a message from the developers--something like "Hey, we know it's tempting to pirate but this is our livelihood". Or did I just dream that?

  • orren #14 7 months ago

    I used to pirate games when i was a kid/in school. But after i got a job with solid income, i stopped, for two reasons:

    1> it is FAR more convenient to buy a game through steam and download it in few clicks, as opposed to going through the trouble of searching for a torrent and dealing with all the cracks, non-working botched releases and whatnot.
    2> i don't want to get my computer loaded with random 'freebies' that so often come packed with said cracks.

    This leads me to believe that there aren't that many potential buyers in the pirating crowd - if they could buy it, they already would have done so. Pirating is a hassle people only put up with because they have no other options.

  • Clive_Dunn #15 7 months ago

    900,000 unique users and only 26,000 wanted to pay anything. Great, another nail in the coffin of those of us fighting against intrusive DRM implementation.

  • dingo75 #16 7 months ago

    14.49 euro? Then they'd better have a look at the second hand market because that's the average price for a used game.

    Actually the 22.49 EUR I pay for less succesful games at play.com / zavvi Monday Deals etc. shortly after release is pretty close to this.
    Steam daily / midweek / Weekend sales + Season sales also price those games around this mark or lower.

    What is overpriced and ripping off people are casual games which should be 5-10 EUR max. new but ask for 15-20 EUR (boxed releases)

  • arcam #17 7 months ago

    Wait - this guy just admitted to massive copyright infringment.

    And then, "Vigilant Defender set up a Paypal account and promised to distribute a copy of the torrent to anyone who gave a donation."

    WTF? Without Square Enix's permission? Either this story is wrong, or this is a very brave strategy for a new company. Brave, or incredibly stupid.

  • darleysam #18 7 months ago

    If you want to pay £14 or whatever for it, then.. buy it when it's that price. PC copies always launch for less, and the prices drop like a stone. No you won't be able to play it at launch, but then if you're not prepared to pay the launch price for anything, that's the way it works.

  • kangarootoo #19 7 months ago

    "greedy as hell retailers will price almost everything at £30 or more"

    You really should have been around in the 80s. Videogames have NEVER been as cheap as they are right now. I remember my dad paying £40 for an Atari 2600 game circa 83. £40 in 1983!

  • Crunchalias #20 7 months ago

    "the average pledged was 14.49 euro. "

    There's a link at the top of this page to buy it legitimately from Zavvi for £14.95. Go!

  • d.j. #21 7 months ago

    Neg him as much as you like, kiddies, but kangarootoo's right. Games are cheaper now, in real terms, than they've ever been.

  • TeeHee #22 7 months ago

    @arcam

    I can't see SE getting many supporters if they sue a company that is trying to give them money.

  • DisneyJon #23 7 months ago

    @-cerebrus - comment #8

    LOL! You realise that ebay is making money (around 15% of every sale) from letting people sell used games through ebay? Just like any other retailer. And then they are taking a cut of the Paypal payment you HAVE to offer on every videogame auction as well. eBay's revenue from every videogame is 15-20% in the UK. It's no better or worse than just buying used in videogame stores, except in the stores you can check the condition, and have more redress with a faulty product. Not to mention faster.

    Games on eBay generally cost more than in stores as well by the time you add on postage.

  • FuzzyDuck #24 7 months ago

    I misread the name as "Village Defender".

  • BritishBlue1 #25 7 months ago

    I'm interested to know, how exactly does one "mark their mark"?

  • Nismo400R84 #26 7 months ago

    kangarootoo and dj are right games in the 80s 90s where alot more expensive ,Streets of rage foe the megadrive was like £49.99 in argos .........god i feel old . and from what i remember N64 games cost north £60

  • arcam #27 7 months ago

    Neg him as much as you like, kiddies, but kangarootoo's right. Games are cheaper now, in real terms, than they've ever been

    No they're not. Standard console game price last gen was £29.99 for console, £19.99 for PC. Even adjusted for inflation, game prices are considerably higher now. You can check last-gen prices at most websites here: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

  • johnson81 #28 7 months ago

    @kangarootoo

    Exactly, games are cheaper now and higher quality than ever. I can remeber paying £69.99 for Perfect Dark and then another £45 for the expansion pack. Watching old episodes of Bad Influence on Youtube and Snes/Mega Drive games were £49.99-£59.99. But it's the world we live in unfortunately, it's all want, want, want and it's so easy to pirate on PC with all the torrents etc.

  • Caimbeul #29 7 months ago

    and of those 900,000 "unique hits. How many of those were the same people coming from a diffrent dynamic IP?

    Also those suggesting £14.49 Euros are skin flints. I think game ARE too expensive, particularly on console. I think that £25-£30 should be the cost of a AAA title. maybe people pirate because cost is just too prohibitive with so many good titles these days. Justa thought.

    I for one dont mind paying for games, particularly on PC dur to (usually but not always) being better versions and always much cheaper. The DRM oftem peeves me off though.

  • Caimbeul #30 7 months ago

    just look at the Zavvi advert at the top of this page for example. Deus Ex: Human Revolution on PC for £14.95!! F'ing Bargain. if you dont think that is good and fair pricing you should not be playing games.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #31 7 months ago

    @arcam

    That's rubbish, my parents had to pay £29.99 for games (for me) on the SEGA MASTER SYSTEM.

    And that was in 1988. (I was 8 years old) - if anything they're about the same.
    Edited by TheEarlOfZinger at 17/10/11 @ 13:12

  • arcam #32 7 months ago

    What's rubbish? You don't remember PS2 games costing £29.99? Or PC games for £19.99?

  • TheEarlOfZinger #33 7 months ago

    I'm saying that the prices seem to have stayed the same. They've always tracked around the 30 quid mark.

  • arcam #34 7 months ago

    But console games don't cost "around 30 quid", they cost 40 quid. They were £30 last gen, £40 this gen (or if you prefer RRP, £40 last gen, £50 this gen). Therefore they are are not cheaper now than they have ever been.
    Edited by arcam at 17/10/11 @ 13:39

  • Cobalt_Jackal #35 7 months ago

    Deus Ex sounds like Day of Sex. XD

  • SaintDaveUK #36 7 months ago

    Arcam, if anything I think games are quite a bit cheaper these days. Except for release price of Call of Duty etc.

  • azic #37 7 months ago

    (It wants to create some kind of controlled distribution system through torrent sites that will benefit publishers in the long run. )

    This is just an opportunist way of trying to make a business.
    The Company (Vigilant Defender) Should be slammed in court and shut down. I mean setting up a paypal account!!! We dont need to use Torrents as a distribution system. Stick to Steam etc.
    Shut it down..
    Edited by azic at 17/10/11 @ 13:58

  • -cerberus- #38 7 months ago

    @DisneyJon #23: I'll take shipping costs any day over crowds of adolescents touching (used) video game boxes with their spunk-ridden mits.
    Edited by -cerberus- at 17/10/11 @ 13:58

  • azic #39 7 months ago

    @-cerberus-
    Says he who never touches himself inappropriately?

  • arcam #40 7 months ago

    Arcam, if anything I think games are quite a bit cheaper these days.

    I don't mean to be rude, but it doesn't matter what you think. It's not a matter of opinion - the prices of last gen and current gen games are there for everyone to see. Here is the front page of Play.com from May 2005.

    if you wish to check for yourself if prices have gone up or down you can do so using this to find old prices, and this to adjust the price for inflation.
    Edited by arcam at 17/10/11 @ 14:13

  • -cerberus- #41 7 months ago

    @azic #39: No, says he whose decades-old video game collection is in pristine condition.

  • silversun #42 7 months ago

    Is shareware a real option for pc games ?
    I got deus ex on steam but having a shareware version would be intresting to both people that buy games and people that dont.
    Is that a good or bad idea.
    I not sure?

    The industry going on about free to play but maybe shareware would be a better choice.

  • IronCladChicken #43 7 months ago

    So pirate demo, but no offical PC demo (that I could find) - scuppered!
    Edited by IronCladChicken at 17/10/11 @ 16:03

  • intpleeus #44 7 months ago

    That gives me an idea. One way to prevent piracy is to increase the cost of downloading pirated games. Make it more difficult to find actual working illegal copies of a game and some people will just give up (and a few of those will become paying customers). The strategy here would be to deluge the internet with fake torrents and websites ostensibly informing people how to download pirated games. This is hardly a peculiar phenomenon on the internet, but publishers would need to target real pirate networks too. The real pirates will continually try to differentiate themselves and so it would take continuous effort on the part of publishers to keep sowing confusion. But this could limit online pirate networks to a dedicated minority willing to form tight-knit communities to keep out all the misleading information and fake download links.

  • kevwinter #45 7 months ago

    @arcam
    I remember paying £49.99 for sonic 2 on the megadrive months after it came out but now it's possible to pick up 360 games for £10 brand new 3-4 months after they are released (Red faction armageddon is a recent example).

    I'm sure the rrp may have been just as high but I can defiently buy brand new games now for a lot less than i was playing second hand
    Edited by kevwinter at 17/10/11 @ 17:14

  • arcam #46 7 months ago

    deluge the internet with fake torrents and websites

    This is already done currently on a pretty large scale, but I don't think it has been very successful. All the popular torrent websites have some kind of file verification system, whether it's votes or comments or moderation, and fake files are weeded out pretty quickly.

    The only times it does work is when it's not immediately obvious that the file is fake - Arkham Asylum had a version that looked for all intents and purposes installed and played like the real thing, but some crucial gameplay elements (gliding etc.) were altered so that the game couldn't be completed.

    That caught quite a few people out, but involves an amount of work for the developer that may not be worth it, and of course the publisher needs to give the OK to someone giving their work out for free on the internet, even if it's not a fully-working version.

  • Dave #47 7 months ago

    I'm assuming most people know it's illegal to download commercial games from torrents. So, why would anyone, let alone 900,000 people fill out a questionnaire popping up at the end of one of those games? That's like stealing a car with less gas then is showed on the fuel meter, causing you to stop halfway home where some guy comes up to you and asks you to fill out a questionnaire about why you stole the car. And then you go, oh hang on, this might be helpful, this guy is not going to rat me out, let's take some time to answer his questions. Very strange.

  • Jon1292 #48 7 months ago

    Oh cheers then, people that decide to break the law get the play for half the price of us law abiding paying customers?

  • Murton #49 7 months ago

    Seems to be lot of disagreement with the truth here. In real terms, that is price vs wages games are cheaper now than ever. Thanks to a culture change which have allowed them to break into the mass market video games have managed to maintain a fairly steady RRP in spite of massive inflation and ballooning development budgets.

    If you think games are too expensive then you are misunderstanding the reality of the situation, games are a luxury item and therefore can't be considered too expensive, it's because everything else is too expensive that you can't afford a game, not the price of the game itself. Food, electricity, petrol, tax, all of these have increased at rates much higher than the cost of video games in the last 10 years, thankfully games drop in price over time so you can pick them cheaper up later on, can't do that with your council tax can you?