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World of Goo piracy at 90 per cent News
PC News by Robert Purchese
Developer 2D Boy has said that 90 per cent of people playing its excellent PC game World of Goo are using pirated versions.
Speaking on its blog, the developer arrived at this figure by dividing the known sales figures by the number of unique IPs submitting high scores, and ended up with roughly 0.1.
Variables such as dynamic IPs and multiple installations could deflate this number, although further research showed, on average, 1.3 unique IPs and 1.15 unique installations per person.
Of course, there are also factors that could inflate the figure - such as not everybody choosing to submit scores, or multiple installations at offices on the same IP, where games are shared as easily as germs.
Interestingly, 2D Boy found no difference in the number of people pirating World of Goo to the number of people pirating Ricochet (by Reflexive), which shipped with DRM and publicly aired its findings recently.
"We can't draw any conclusions based on two data points, but I'm hoping that others will release information about piracy rates so that everyone could see if DRM is the waste of time and money that we think it is," reads the conclusion.
Head over to our World of Goo review to find out more.
World of Goo is due for release on WiiWare in December.
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makeamazing
17/11/08 @ 09:41
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So i guess that shows non DRM doesnt work either...pirates will use any excuse... and claiming DRM is the reason they pirate is just an excuss (knew this anyway)... ah hate pirates.!
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most recently on 17/11/08 @ 09:41
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I motherf*cking hate it when people play/watch pirated games/movies!
I'm being a bit hipocritical(?) as I helped off the Amiga back in the day, when i didn't know better. But now I stear completely clear from everything pirated. How can people moan about there not being enough quality titles out there, when even the "cheap" quality titles gets pirated, thus giving less money to the developers. Plus my spelling sucks today! |
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stodgypudding
17/11/08 @ 09:49
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I bought this but I do admit to sharing it with some friends. I'm absolutly sure that these people would never have bought the game or indeed bothered playing it if I hadn't given it to them.
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GamesProgrammer
17/11/08 @ 09:58
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This is why im starting to think PC versions of games generally land later than the console versions, cos they dont want console sales to get diluted with people playing PC version on pirate, i know people pirate console games but it aint anywhere near this 80%+
This is especially shamefull tho for the PC community when the game is like £10 , if there are any pirates out there that always defend PC as the best games machine, guess what, your the reason the PC format is dying. |
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StooMonster
17/11/08 @ 10:06
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Pirates who want something for nothing will always be there, but their whiny self-justifications (e.g. it woz the DRM wot made me do it) should be ridiculed and these people should look at themselves and realize that they are simply cheap cnuts that the rest of us have to pay for.
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The_Inquisitor
17/11/08 @ 10:08
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I'm going to buy the game now, I don't generally buy games for my PC as I don't use it for gaming, but everybody has to do their bit.
I just realised the game is out on the Wii, I'll get it on that instead.
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Just to be clear here: Wii version has also been pirated already, I should know, I have it installed on my Wii while I am patiently waiting for the European release so I can buy it.
Also, I think that the tone of some of the comments while understandably bitter is clouding the issue. The point here is that this is a DRM-free game that has seen the same rate of piracy as the previous game from the same dev/publisher that came with DRM. Meaning that DRM is nigh useless. Meaning that, bizarrely, 2D boy may have made more money from this game because they didn't spend money and resources on DRM tech. Having said all that, PLEASE go out and buy World of Goo beacuse it is a fantastic title and you'll not only be buying a splendid game but also helping a good cause. |
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Such a shame. I'm hoping that the percentages are a bit off, with dynamic IP's and multiple installations (such as in the office and at home) getting in the way, but even so, that's too much.
What's even worst is that some of these people are obviously enjoying the free ride enough to get a high score and cheekily submit it, yet think nothing of its small innovative developer :(
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most recently on 17/11/08 @ 10:12
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AlvySinger
17/11/08 @ 10:12
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All I can say is, cheap bastards.
Against all the triple-A titles out at the moment, World of Goo is the game that has sucked up the most of my time and is more than worth the £10 or so ($20) I paid. Stealing from someone like EA (with their hateful approach to DRM) is one thing but pirating an indie game is inexcusable. There'll be a special circle of hell devoted to people like your, or - if there are space issues - you will have to bunk up with the scum who don't leave a note after denting someone else car with their ludicrously oversized 4x4. |
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StooMonster
17/11/08 @ 10:14
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Vistrix: with most providers you only usually get a different IP address when you hardware reset broadband modem, so I guess turning yours on/off four times in one week is a little unusual.
My ISP only reassigns my dynamic IP address about twice a year, even when I power on/off. But I guess just because yours works that way means the rest of world does too... If you read the post on 2D BOY's site they explain that they account for people with multiple dynamic IP addresses, because there is a unique player ID too: 76% of players have contacted the server from 1 IP 13% from 2 IPs 5% from 3 IPs 3% from 4 IPs 1% from 5 IPs 1% from 6 IPs 1% from more than 6 Source: http://2dboy.com/ |
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makeamazing
17/11/08 @ 10:17
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Stealing from someone like EA (with their hateful approach to DRM) is one thing but pirating an indie game is inexcusable.
Why is it ok? Because they use DRM or because they are massive? Its not really fair to steal from anyone is it? EA have just announced they are getting rid of 100's of jobs, now Im not saying this is due to piracy.. but if a company loses money, you can bet that many of the low end, low paid workers are the first to lose their jobs... this was the same argument that people made about record companies. Its sad people dont realise that its the people getting low salaries that are hit. With Indies the problem is made even worse because they are the bosses and making no or little money :( |
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Why the fuck should publishers and developers 'trust' PC gamers if this is what happens with even non-DRM games. They're just going to keep trying different DRM schemes until they hit on one that works. They won't give a shit if genuine purchasers are inconvenienced because they're still going to have a better genuine/pirated ratio.
And when you get down to the visceral, non-logical basis to the argument, that almost matters more than actual higher sales. No-one likes their work being stolen, and if they feel like they are shafting a lot of potential pirates, they won't care about a few legit gamers being harmed. |
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The Bodybuilder
17/11/08 @ 10:41
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Wow, so much anger....
Yet I'm willing to bet that the majority here are pirates. Buying pirates games, movies heck even music. |
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the_dudefather
17/11/08 @ 10:44
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@The Bodybuilder
'Buying pirates games, movies heck even music. ' who the hell buys pirate stuff? |
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The Bodybuilder
17/11/08 @ 10:45
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>"No-one likes their work being stolen, and if they feel like they are shafting a lot of potential pirates, they won't care about a few legit gamers being harmed. "
So how are legit owners who in your own words are "inconvenienced" now "hurt" because of DRM? |
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Triggerhappytel
17/11/08 @ 10:46
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This is bloody awful; it's made all the worse given that its from a small developer. Maybe the PC is beyond saving?
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makeamazing
17/11/08 @ 11:01
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@siro... he said Stealing from someone like EA (with their hateful approach to DRM) is one thing) but...
To me that suggests he thinks it ok to steal from EA, but not from indies.. Im just making the point that stealing from any company is wrong :).. I see the point your making.. perhaps it could have been better worded to suggest that ;) @TriggerHappy... I think its going that way unfortunately. One thing that irrates me about pirates is its bad enough that they steal the software, but when they then come complaining the product doesnt work as they want it, or have as many features as they would like, and also sap up LOTS of free support time from the developers... thats when i get real upset. |
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MrChuckles
17/11/08 @ 11:10
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If i were them I would just send the player an 'online key' in email when they download a copy. without that, they lose any online features of the game. Also, they know which online keys have actually been sent out and can shut out all the rest.
Then, make all the online features of the game the really cool ones, and make the game just 'ok' offline. If people complain that they aren't online these days, then they are obviously living in the past. |
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the_dudefather
17/11/08 @ 11:11
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@Katsumoto
its much easier to download stuff to your pc in a few hours than to find someone with the game you want and COPY DAT FLOPPY |
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Triggerhappytel
17/11/08 @ 11:17
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Katsumoto - "There has always been awful piracy. Why would it only now kill pc gaming? You're all like a broken record that's been playing for two decades."
Because now, more than ever, traditional PC developers are abandoning the platform in favour of the consoles - on many multiformat releases PC games are already a token gesture, and if this level of piracy continues I can see developers deeming the platform unworthy of the effort and abandoning it entirely. |
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Math..ssss
/peep show @trigger - well, I hope you're wrong, I really do. But in fairness, we have seen these concerns being raised at this level for the last couple of years, but there hasn't really been any noticeable drop in the amount of pc games (with a few high profile exceptions, GoW2 etc). I'll remain optimistic. I can't handle gamepads!
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most recently on 17/11/08 @ 11:25
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I'm puzzled by this. It's been known for a long time that the conversion rate from playing a demo to actually buying a product (on the internet) is about 10% or less. Correct me if I'm wrong here but, doesn't that mean that 90% of people who play an internet download game don't go on to buy it.
I've sold games on the internet before and, while the returns are not great. They are fine for supporting a small team of developers (I'm talking 3 - 4 here). However, the returns were never going to be enough to support the likes of an EA team or even allow for expansion of a 4 man team. Perhaps the XNA community games and (when sony and nintendo eventually follow suite) sony's version and nintendo's versions will finally put things back in perspective. |
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It's the sort of game you just have to share with someone, and in my case it meant passing it on to my mum and my brother, neither of whom would have ever bought the game. That doesn't really help the devs though, unless they bring out Goo 2. Sorry 2D Boy.
Still, they clearly would not be making 900% more profit if this was released in the days before bittorrent, and they haven't gone bust yet, so that is something. Plus, there must be a little bit inside of them as artists that is secretly happy their game has reached a hugely higher of number of people than it would have done without piracy. |
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