Spore the Most Pirated Game of 2008

TorrentFreak has posted some statistics on the most pirated games of the past year. Leading the list by a large margin is Spore, made infamous even before its release for the draconian DRM attached to the game. It was downloaded through BitTorrent roughly 1.7 million times, with The Sims 2 and Assassin's Creed following at just over a million each. (It's worth noting that Spore came out in September, so that figure is essentially for a mere three months.) GameSetWatch has posted a related piece discussing the countermeasures involved in dealing with piracy. It's the second article in a series about piracy; we discussed the first a couple days ago.

Comments

Re:Because of the DRM

[FriendlyLurker]

Can go one better: The weight of evidence is in the real world sales: http://torrentfreak.com/alchemist-author-pirates-own-books-080124/
http://toc.oreilly.com/2008/08/pirates-convince-game-develope.html
The weight of real-world evidence is in favor of the hypothesis posted above. The only anti-hypothesis you've got is 1 Pirate == 1 lost sale. *cough* Your data prove your hypothesis?*cough**cough*

Re:Because of the DRM

[LingNoi]

I had to pirate the game after buying it in Thailand (I live there) because EA support refused to give me the English language (1.3 meg of files)

Dear *******,

Sorry for the inconvenience, but Spore Thai retail version support only Thai language as indicate on the package. And there's no English text file include in the build.

The only way to get English build in Thailand is to buy the game at i27 http://www.i27games.com/?cat=pcg

Kindly let us know if you need more info.

Best Regards,
EA Thailand Support

....

Dear EA Thailand Support,

You are right, that's very inconvenient and can't believe you are telling me to go buy this game twice for just 3 files that total up to
1 Megabyte.

You have left me no choice but to download the game off the internet and get the three files in need to put into the "Locale" folder. I
find it frustrating that I have to pirate EA games I have bought to be able to play them.

I hope that in the future you will provide a better service to your customers that are buying your products instead of leaving it up to
internet pirates to provide support for your games.

Regards,
******

.....

Dear *******,

All AAA EA titles in Thailand are localized to Thai language. All are locked preventing user to change the language. We have this language switching protection to prevent our goods being export to other territories due to the cheaper price on Thai products. As for Spore, retail price in Thailand is only £8.5, while you have to pay for £35 in UK.

We also aware that people can get the locale file from the internet. But it is against our policy to provide you the locale files from our side.

We hope you understand and sorry again for the inconvenience.

Best Regards,
EA Thailand Support

and why the fuck should I care if it's more expensive in the UK if I don't live there? In fact why do they mention the UK at all?

WHY RESPOND! I DON'T GIVE A SHIT WHY YOUR FUCKING ME OVER FOR THREE FILES!!!

Re:Exactly !!!

[theaveng]

>>>want to see what a game is worth before buying!

I just got into a debate on a forum about this very subject. Unfortunately the Moderator is pro-copyright, and I earned myself a one-week banning. :-( My argument was: "I downloaded Galactica 1980 to see if it was worth buying, and it was worthless trash, so I saved myself from wasting ~$50." I was amazed at how many people rushed in to call me scum, part of the entitlement generation who steals instead of pays, and that I should have supported that show by buying the DVD.

RIAA's propaganda campaign seems to be working. They even have customers claiming I should buy ____ like Galactica 1980!!!

Re:The Solution.

[theaveng]

For those of us who had Ataris and Commodores, that day happened around twenty-five years ago.

- Pirated versions load faster.
- Pirates versions customize the game (skipping levels, unlimited lives).
- Pirated versions don't pound your 1541 drive's head to pieces and incur a $500 repair to fix it!!!
- Pirated versions can be backed-up whereas the original can not; the disk dies and you're out $30. The game company won't send you a new one.

Yep. I've been preferring pirated versions since circa 1985.