I wonder if they turn off, or downgrade to the point of unusable, the servers the day that Assasin's Creed III is launched?
They wouldn't do that would they?
The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work
71–80 of 123 posts
Re: The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Many of the major game protocols are not only encrypted, but are extremely complex and irregular. They're absolutely no fun to reverse.
Though it's sad that the 'extremely complex and irregular' part is probably not by design, but due to haphazardly adding features just to push out a product.
In a couple cases, I know that to be the truth. You're basically looking at the results of getting PC LAN developers to implement Internet protocols, and getting Win32 systems programmers to implement encryption.
Re: The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work
#73Honestly, I believe people shouldn't be pirating videogames at all. And most gamers actually don't. So nobody's going to hate them. On the other hand, I think no one's planning to do the same thing for MS Office in the nearest future, that would be insane.
Do you have anything to back up that statement? The article says that 90% of all copies of popular games are pirated, but he also doesn't back it up. However, it's important to always remember that a pirated copy doesn't equal a lost sale. Many people download a game, but never install it or play it. Others download and play it, but if they couldn't have downloaded it, they would never have played it. And finally, th…
There's also a (likely small) percentage of people who pirate games they have already bought in order to "simply play it." I can't tell you how many NoCD hacks I've used, which while different from outright piracy, is very similar in concept and likely prone to inflating piracy figures.
Lastly, there is also the (likely small) category of those who pirate and later buy the game once the price comes down. Many games drop to $5-$10 on Steam after a year or two, which is rather enticing even to a pirate.
Re: The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe, but on the other hand, on the app store where games are really inexpensive there is still a lot of piracy and a lot of developers can't make end meet because their price is too low... So, I'm not convinced that making video games cheaper is the answer...
Well obviously pricing them too low won't make you any money. There is a big difference between 25 dollars and 99 cents.
"Well obviously pricing them too low won't make you any money. There is a big difference between 25 dollars and 99 cents."
But what he said disproves your point. Even if something is 99 cents, it will still be cracked. What makes you think they will pay $30?
The community is filled with excuse after excuse to justify piracy. Many people have even said that the industry needs to find a "new business model". I think this article shows that they already have: Software as a service. Piracy will eventually drive all software in this direction.
Re: The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, the hate will come from 2 directions: One is the pirate crowd that are mostly angry that they can't get the game for free. The other is the people that bought the game and now the damn thing doesn't work because the servers are down or there's a connection issue or they're trying to play the game they paid for on their laptop somewhere where there's no internet.
Don't forget my direction - a guy who always buys his games, but has been deeply disillusioned by the way games have been "consolified" of late, hence has spent less and less on games, and has built up a level of resentment of publishers who think that reduced game sales is owing to piracy , rather than crappy ports .
"Don't forget my direction - a guy who always buys his games, but has been deeply disillusioned by the way games have been "consolified" of late, hence has spent less and less on games, and has built up a level of resentment of publishers who think that reduced game sales is owing to piracy, rather than crappy ports."
Maybe if there was less piracy, we could make a logical conclusion that it was a "crappy port".
Re: The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work
#76The solution to onerous DRM is: just don't buy any product using it. No-one needs to buy Assassin's Creed II; there are plenty of other computer games out there.
Alternatively stop stealing games and pay the game companies for their product and they wouldn't need to go to such great lengths to save their IP.
I do. It somehow doesn't save me from dealing with the DRM and jumping through the hoops that people who don't just bypass.
As the restrictions get more onerous and the hoops get higher, smaller, and set aflame, piracy will not go down.
Re: The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work
#77The solution to onerous DRM is: just don't buy any product using it. No-one needs to buy Assassin's Creed II; there are plenty of other computer games out there.
That's a valid point but it dodges the thrust of the post, which is that piracy is pushing the industry in this direction --- this is a mainstream title from a mainstream vendor that is making a clear and visible usability concession to protect the new release window from pirates. Most users probably won't care (remember that we're a disproportionately vocal minority --- or, you are; my job is to make these titles wo…
What's funny is that they're making it more convenient to play the pirated version than the legit version. The more invasive DRM you force on your legit users, the more they're going to look for workarounds online and fuel piracy.
Re: The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work
#78Somewhat informative article, but I disagree with the conclusion. Assassins Creed 2 isn't going to be the best game ever, it's not even an original game, just another sequel. So it's not like people are going to buy it no matter what kind of crazy DRM they must suffer through. I imagine that Ubisoft will loose a lot customers because of this decision.
This is a test on Ubisoft's part. They're testing how the crackers, pirates and market react. I'm sure if they make significantly less money than expected they'll scrap the idea. On the other hand if they make more money, they'll roll it out to future releases. My guess is that they'll make less money. Even if a some people buy the game instead of pirating it, the abysmal reviews on Amazon will have a stronger effect…
> I'm sure if they make significantly less money than expected they'll scrap the idea.
OR they'll still blame piracy and try to make it even harder. until it's nothing more than a streaming webcam pointed at a TV playing it on an xbox.
Re: The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alternatively stop stealing games and pay the game companies for their product and they wouldn't need to go to such great lengths to save their IP.
I do. It somehow doesn't save me from dealing with the DRM and jumping through the hoops that people who don't just bypass. As the restrictions get more onerous and the hoops get higher, smaller, and set aflame, piracy will not go down .
Sadly, this is true. I ran into this recently with the DVD for the movie Transformers 2. I normally rip all of my movies onto my Boxee system (NOTE: I do this after I purchase the legitimate physical DVD copy of the movie, which I then keep!) It's not only more convenient to pick the movies from a menu, but more importantly for me, with two pre-teen kids in the house DVD's get scratched up fast if don't.
Normally, this is a pretty easy process, but Tranformers 2 apparently has a rather aggressive copy prevention scheme that seems to defeat most DVD rippers. I finally found a ripper that would rip it successfully, but not until after I came very close to returning the damn DVD to the store after a friend at work showed me that the Pirates Bay had not only the full DVD version of Transformers 2 available for download, but the god damn Blue Ray version as well! It would have been easier for me to pirate the damn movie than to format-shift my legitimately purchased copy.
Re: The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a valid point but it dodges the thrust of the post, which is that piracy is pushing the industry in this direction --- this is a mainstream title from a mainstream vendor that is making a clear and visible usability concession to protect the new release window from pirates. Most users probably won't care (remember that we're a disproportionately vocal minority --- or, you are; my job is to make these titles wo…
What's funny is that they're making it more convenient to play the pirated version than the legit version. The more invasive DRM you force on your legit users, the more they're going to look for workarounds online and fuel piracy.
Titles can offload more and more of their game content into code paths that depend on the Internet, and if those titles generate more revenue (because they're harder to pirate effectively), it's not unlikely that the market will move that way.