They are just comparing sales with completed torrents. It's actually a conservative estimate since there are other forms of piracy like private servers.
you're taking their work without paying and that is theft.
Sneaking into a movie theater doesn't result in a net material loss for the theater but it is still just as much a case of theft as stealing from the food counter. The courts don't care if you left the theater with empty pockets. You took a service without payment, that is theft.
The way this submission was written and half the comments are further proof that most pc gamers are in fact pirates and want to rationalize their actions.
It sickens me that excuses are made for even piracy of $10 indy stuff or mobile games.
Oh but you told your brother's friend about the game so yea that allows you to make some weird marketing rationalization. Tomorrow I'm going to dine n dash and but I will tell 10 people about the restaurant to make up for it.
All these lame excuses and shoddy rationalizations just lead me to the uncomfortable truth that pc gamers are disproportionately cheap and probably don't deserve a lot of single player games. Get ready for MMO saturation, have a look at Asia if you want to see what the future of pc gaming looks like thanks to piracy.
It's sad really. PC gaming piracy has gone from something that teenagers and the unemployed do to a common trait of anyone that owns a $200 video card. Very sad.
So we will get the occasional single player game that doesn't require a team of artists, programmers and musicians.
We will basically get the Linux gaming supply.
Sorry but 99% of the gaming world does not consider that to be a pile of cool stuff.
Those 90% piracy ratios come from publicly tracked torrents and are actually a conservative estimate since while sales are fixed torrent piracy is only the main form.
They also are not an aggregate figure, they come from comparing completed torrents to sales.
If everyone pirates the game then the company gets nothing and goes bankrupt.
If everyone buys the game then the company gets an excellent return on their investment.
The typical game is somewhere between these two points and represents a partial loss from piracy and a moderate return for the company. To say there is no loss is disingenuous.
People pirate because they don't want to pay. It's really that simple.
DRM is pointless in some cases and works very well in others like the PS3. Yes this doesn't conform to the Slashdot view but then the Slashdot view is partially based on wishful thinking.
It's extremely rare for a game to have its source code leaked and movies are a different matter since they have to pass through a lot of hands before release.
And as I said the source can be tied to server hardware to make emulation difficult in the event that it is leaked. Just because you got the server code doesn't mean you can load the 15gb of data that exists in an external sql server into memory.
and all their defenders here who spend their time making endless rationalizations for people that take the work of others without payment.
If the pc didn't have sky high piracy rates then all games would just come on DVDs with securerom at the most. However due to the fact that most pc gamers don't pay for their games the publishers are constantly researching new ways to provide content that is difficult to pirate. For an open platform like the pc that means tying data to a server.
as he said they only have to move small amounts of game code to the server. Crackers will either have to get a leak of server code or re-write it themselves. Both are very difficult propositions compared to capturing streamed data.
towards safe areas like the PS3 which still doesn't have pirated games.
DRM that is tied to hardware and a server connection can be extremely difficult to crack. The more digital revenue is destroyed by pirates the more we move to a future of black boxes where the OS and the content are inseparable. Think app store but with all programs existing on the server and only feeding the user a video stream based on actions.
There is nothing ethical about taking the hard work of others without compensation. Most game programmers work 50-60 hours a week in the months before the game is released. Have some respect for your fellow geek. Buy the console version if you don't like the limitations of the pc version.
and when torrents outnumber legit sales by 9:1 which is a common for pc games they can see that the vast majority of people playing their game aren't paying for it.
there are even third parties that provide torrent tracking services. They can't tell if you share it with your friends but they can see when millions of people download the game without paying for it.
those trainers existed because a local engine could be cracked. Tying data to the server changes everything. Even moving a small part of that engine to the server would cause a major problem for the cracker.
Have fun building a trainer for a racing game when the local client is entirely dependent upon the server for the positions of the other cars.
Slashdot Mirror
They are just comparing sales with completed torrents. It's actually a conservative estimate since there are other forms of piracy like private servers.
as seen by the Unreal trojan that sat undetected for almost a year. http://www.webupd8.org/2010/06/linux-trojan-goes-unnoticed-for-year.html
you're taking their work without paying and that is theft. Sneaking into a movie theater doesn't result in a net material loss for the theater but it is still just as much a case of theft as stealing from the food counter. The courts don't care if you left the theater with empty pockets. You took a service without payment, that is theft.
You're taking the hard work of others without payment. It's just as unethical as theft.
The way this submission was written and half the comments are further proof that most pc gamers are in fact pirates and want to rationalize their actions.
It sickens me that excuses are made for even piracy of $10 indy stuff or mobile games.
Oh but you told your brother's friend about the game so yea that allows you to make some weird marketing rationalization. Tomorrow I'm going to dine n dash and but I will tell 10 people about the restaurant to make up for it.
All these lame excuses and shoddy rationalizations just lead me to the uncomfortable truth that pc gamers are disproportionately cheap and probably don't deserve a lot of single player games. Get ready for MMO saturation, have a look at Asia if you want to see what the future of pc gaming looks like thanks to piracy.
It's sad really. PC gaming piracy has gone from something that teenagers and the unemployed do to a common trait of anyone that owns a $200 video card. Very sad.
It's well established that a wide range of intellectual works would not be created if not for copyright.
Sorry but teams of hobbyists do not organize themselves on the weekends to create financial analysis software.
Most copyright holders are individuals so at least do some research before giving your evul corporations speech.
So we will get the occasional single player game that doesn't require a team of artists, programmers and musicians.
We will basically get the Linux gaming supply.
Sorry but 99% of the gaming world does not consider that to be a pile of cool stuff.
Those 90% piracy ratios come from publicly tracked torrents and are actually a conservative estimate since while sales are fixed torrent piracy is only the main form.
They also are not an aggregate figure, they come from comparing completed torrents to sales.
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/13/world-of-goo-has-90-piracy-rate/
but they were able to pay for the gaming pc that it requires.
I also saw piracy in college and it had nothing to do with ability to pay. People could find the money for beer and pot but not games or music.
Don't make excuses for people that steal luxury entertainment.
If everyone pirates the game then the company gets nothing and goes bankrupt.
If everyone buys the game then the company gets an excellent return on their investment.
The typical game is somewhere between these two points and represents a partial loss from piracy and a moderate return for the company. To say there is no loss is disingenuous.
Windows 7 is more of a p.r. release.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/11/acrying-shame-world-of-goo-piracy-rate-near-90.ars
People pirate because they don't want to pay. It's really that simple.
DRM is pointless in some cases and works very well in others like the PS3. Yes this doesn't conform to the Slashdot view but then the Slashdot view is partially based on wishful thinking.
Somehow I doubt you were complaining when there were criticisms of unreleased versions of Windows.
The iPad also has over 100k apps you can run locally and an offline movie service.
They can just move parts of the game that are dependent upon user input but don't require a fast response time.
I could actually care less about what they do. I have mostly switched to consoles and I rarely play Ubisoft games.
It's extremely rare for a game to have its source code leaked and movies are a different matter since they have to pass through a lot of hands before release.
And as I said the source can be tied to server hardware to make emulation difficult in the event that it is leaked. Just because you got the server code doesn't mean you can load the 15gb of data that exists in an external sql server into memory.
and not a very well designed one. Wait until they start moving game code server side.
and all their defenders here who spend their time making endless rationalizations for people that take the work of others without payment.
If the pc didn't have sky high piracy rates then all games would just come on DVDs with securerom at the most. However due to the fact that most pc gamers don't pay for their games the publishers are constantly researching new ways to provide content that is difficult to pirate. For an open platform like the pc that means tying data to a server.
as he said they only have to move small amounts of game code to the server. Crackers will either have to get a leak of server code or re-write it themselves. Both are very difficult propositions compared to capturing streamed data.
the pc market is a low priority to them compared to consoles. This is probably a last ditch effort to bring their games to the pc.
towards safe areas like the PS3 which still doesn't have pirated games.
DRM that is tied to hardware and a server connection can be extremely difficult to crack. The more digital revenue is destroyed by pirates the more we move to a future of black boxes where the OS and the content are inseparable. Think app store but with all programs existing on the server and only feeding the user a video stream based on actions.
There is nothing ethical about taking the hard work of others without compensation. Most game programmers work 50-60 hours a week in the months before the game is released. Have some respect for your fellow geek. Buy the console version if you don't like the limitations of the pc version.
and when torrents outnumber legit sales by 9:1 which is a common for pc games they can see that the vast majority of people playing their game aren't paying for it.
there are even third parties that provide torrent tracking services. They can't tell if you share it with your friends but they can see when millions of people download the game without paying for it.
those trainers existed because a local engine could be cracked. Tying data to the server changes everything. Even moving a small part of that engine to the server would cause a major problem for the cracker.
Have fun building a trainer for a racing game when the local client is entirely dependent upon the server for the positions of the other cars.