Machinarium (Pirate Amnesty Sale)- Only 5$

I came across this news today. Apparently the developers of the game claim that Machinarium suffers from a 90% piracy rate. "In an attempt to give those 85-95 percent of players a chance to make amends, Amanita is having what it's calling a Pirate Amnesty sale. Until August 12, the game-which is playable on PC, Mac, and Linux-and its soundtrack will cost just $5, which is 75 percent off the regular $20 asking price."

I really liked the artstyle, soundtrack, atmosphere. It has a neat hint/walkthrough system too. It's shocking that the piracy rate is so high for the game though. Thoughts?bawathegamer

I'm skeptical whenever a dev releases piracy statistics because, well, where's the proof? Haven't played Machinarium but it looks like the kind of game that would be a prime target for piracy. For an indie puzzle game to be worth dropping $20 it has to be really good.

Piracy rates have been around that high for a while now...as far as proof there's ways devs know. Renevent42

Yeah game developers are all a bunch of lying lazy thieves amiright! The pirates (the people breaking the law and taking things that are not theirs without paying for it), on the other hand, are actually the honest ones.

lol

Whatever you need to tell yourself to rationalize it, I guess.

At any rate, even if you don't want to take the devs word for it's not like you can't see the torrents stats for yourselves. Most of these sites actually brag about this and have monthly top 10 lists. It's really no secret how much games are pirated...

lol 20$ for a 2d java game, 5$ is more right. Too bad I hated the demoFranko_3

Oh man, and I thought you guys would have the decency of showing some empathy for these guys; you know cheet has to be bad when they're openly yelling piracy. Ah well, we pirate their game, we call their statistics phony, hey, we deserve the lameass ports we get and lack of support.

Oh man, and I thought you guys would have the decency of showing some empathy for these guys; you know cheet has to be bad when they're openly yelling piracy. Ah well, we pirate their game, we call their statistics phony, hey, we deserve the lameass ports we get and lack of support.

Kruger_shark

[QUOTE="Kruger_shark"]

Oh man, and I thought you guys would have the decency of showing some empathy for these guys; you know cheet has to be bad when they're openly yelling piracy. Ah well, we pirate their game, we call their statistics phony, hey, we deserve the lameass ports we get and lack of support.

SAGE_OF_FIRE

You don't, but it's not like you save the developers do you? I'm speaking collectively, we pirate games, people who game on this platform.

Well since I never pirated their game I think it is only fair I don't take part in this "Pirate Amnesty" either. When I heard about this amnesty I went and had a look at the game, my initial reaction was "damn they were charging 20 bucks for that ?". But I forget myself obviously being a PC gamer means I am scum and I steal everything according to some users on here.

I think it was a bit of a low blow from this developer to call a "sale" of a 1 year old 2d java game a "pirate amnesty", a more apt name would be "our game is now at the price it should be for a 2d java game".

who the heck would spend $20 on this game? No wonder the piracy rate was high. Now they are insulting the customer just to get easy free pr.

This kind of stuff is really getting on my nerves. Piracy amnesty...**** off. Some of these indie devs are more annoying than the big publishers. I don't for the life of me understand why would anyone think people are in it to "support" whomever. If you make a great game that appeals to me and offer it for what I consider a fair price - I'll buy it. Playing the "poor indie dev affected by piracy (support us!)" card is pathetic. Get some self-respect, believe in your product and offer it for a competetive price, stop asking for handouts just because you're "poor and indie".

Anyway, I bought Machinarium on Steam during the last holiday sale and it's terrific, easily one of the best adventure games in recent memory. The demo is charming, but it only hints at the awesomeness that follows. The game grows on you very fast, it's filled with personality and charm, the storytelling and puzzle design are inventive and it has a superb hint system that curbs the "what the hell am I supposed to do now?" feeling to a bare minimum.

It seems like they're rewarding pirates with a discount. lol. Why didn't they just make it a regular sale - or do what 2D Boy did and make a donate-any-amount celebration/promotion type... And isn't the game in Flash - not Java? Or is that the same?

I think it was a bit of a low blow from this developer to call a "sale" of a 1 year old 2d java game a "pirate amnesty", a more apt name would be "our game is now at the price it should be for a 2d java game".charmingcharlie

who the heck would spend $20 on this game? No wonder the piracy rate was high. Now they are insulting the customer just to get easy free pr.TerrorRizzing

You know in 80% of the cases a developer claims a 90% piracy rate, theyre right 30% of the time all the time

Are you guys kidding? This is a major problem with gaming today. Just because a game is 2d doesn't mean it's worth less or less effort has been put into the product.1carus

No the major problem with gaming today is developers setting unrealistic prices for their wares. I very much doubt that Machinarium had a million dollar budget did it ? Yet they have been selling this game for $20 for a whole year, that is almost half the price we are expected to pay for the latest multimillion 3D blockbuster game. Hell you can even buy Mass Effect 2 now for $20 and I am willing to bet that cost a hell of a lot more to make than Machinarium did.

So for our $20 we got an adventure game in 2D (yeah I bought a GTX260 so I could play 2D games), was basically a java/flash game and lasted all of 7 hours according to reviews... my my what a bargain NOT. This game should have been $5 to start with not a year after it was released and coming with the "oh people pirated our game" crap.

lol 20$ for a 2d java game, 5$ is more right. Too bad I hated the demoFranko_3

I'd say that it's easily worth $20 or more - it's one of the best adventure games of the last decade. I bought it full price on release, and I'm tempted to buy the collector's edition now for $25AUD.

For $5 it's a steal. Check it out, people. ;)

Some of you guys are being pretty harsh. Sure I bought it on sale for $10, $20 seemd like a lot for it at the time, but it's a damn good game and would've easily spent $20. The soundtrack is amazing and the game is really fun. And who cares if it's a 2D java game? Does FUN matter in a game now a days?

This game is pretty boring. I bet 90% of the people who pirated it never ended up playing more than 15 minutes.

[QUOTE="1carus"]Are you guys kidding? This is a major problem with gaming today. Just because a game is 2d doesn't mean it's worth less or less effort has been put into the product.charmingcharlie

No the major problem with gaming today is developers setting unrealistic prices for their wares. I very much doubt that Machinarium had a million dollar budget did it ? Yet they have been selling this game for $20 for a whole year, that is almost half the price we are expected to pay for the latest multimillion 3D blockbuster game. Hell you can even buy Mass Effect 2 now for $20 and I am willing to bet that cost a hell of a lot more to make than Machinarium did.

So for our $20 we got an adventure game in 2D (yeah I bought a GTX260 so I could play 2D games), was basically a java/flash game and lasted all of 7 hours according to reviews... my my what a bargain NOT. This game should have been $5 to start with not a year after it was released and coming with the "oh people pirated our game" crap.

Why should budget be a factor in pricing for games? It sure as hell isn't for films. Every film ticket is roughly the same price (changes depending on the cinema, not the film) regardless of budget. I payed $17.50 to go see Inception ($160 million budget) the other night, and $17.50 to see Wild Target ($1 million budget) a few days later. It's not about the budget that the price should be gauged. It's the quality of the product. If someone doesn't think $20 is appropriate for Machinarium, they shouldn't buy it.

The point is, the game is, right now, $5. I spend more money getting the train to university every day. This is a huge bargain.

machinarium is hands-down my favorite game of all time. the design is beautiful and the way the game plays is spectacular. this is the one time all year where i put aside everything else in my life just to play the game. i got it for $10 on a steam sale and felt i got much more out of it than i payed for it. i then went on to play both samarost games and bought the retail version of the game simply for collectors purposes (w/ a poster).

this is a superb deal and machinarium is an experience you won't forget - i suggest you give it a look.

They claim %90 piracy rate... just because somebody pirates something, doesn't mean it's a lost sale. I bet if most people couldn't pirate it, it probably just wouldn't have been talked about.

I'm not paying $20 for an adventure game that has the technology of a year 2000 game. I'm usually not a graphics whore, but if the game didn't cost much to make and PROBABLY didn't take much time to make, don't be a greedy ******...

They claim %90 piracy rate... just because somebody pirates something, doesn't mean it's a lost sale. I bet if most people couldn't pirate it, it probably just wouldn't have been talked about.

I'm not paying $20 for an adventure game that has the technology of a year 2000 game. I'm usually not a graphics whore, but if the game didn't cost much to make and PROBABLY didn't take much time to make, don't be a greedy ******...

simardbrad

My god this is ignorant. Your first paragraph is fine. But, I'm sorry, "a year 2000 game"? What? The game has better graphics than anything else that has come out this year. The artstyle is lightyears better than anything that's come out this year. This is mindboggling.

Do you understand that Machinarium would have made far less profit than something bigger like COD or ME2? They're not being greedy. Selling a legitimate game at $20 is the opposite of greed. That's generous. Like I said above, the budget of a game is completely irrelavent to the price it should be marked at. It should be based on the quality of the game. How much it's ultimately worth. Not to mention the effort. And it looks like a huge amount of effort has been put into it.

How shallow are the current generation of gamers? Looking at screenshots for a game and evaluating "2d graphics + adventure gaming + no action = rip off at $20." Ridiculous.

[QUOTE="simardbrad"]

They claim %90 piracy rate... just because somebody pirates something, doesn't mean it's a lost sale. I bet if most people couldn't pirate it, it probably just wouldn't have been talked about.

I'm not paying $20 for an adventure game that has the technology of a year 2000 game. I'm usually not a graphics whore, but if the game didn't cost much to make and PROBABLY didn't take much time to make, don't be a greedy ******...

1carus

My god this is ignorant. Your first paragraph is fine. But, I'm sorry, "a year 2000 game"? What? The game has better graphics than anything else that has come out this year. The artstyle is lightyears better than anything that's come out this year. This is mindboggling.

Do you understand that Machinarium would have made far less profit than something bigger like COD or ME2? They're not being greedy. Selling a legitimate game at $20 is the opposite of greed. That's generous. Like I said above, the budget of a game is completely irrelavent to the price it should be marked at. It should be based on the quality of the game. How much it's ultimately worth. Not to mention the effort. And it looks like a huge amount of effort has been put into it.

How shallow are the current generation of gamers? Looking at screenshots for a game and evaluating "2d graphics + adventure gaming + no action = rip off at $20." Ridiculous.

Pirate Amnesty... Well lol at that.

Here is the scenario that would have happened without piracy:

*Dev1: Only 10 people bougth our game...

*Dev2: Yeah we simply cant get people to buy the game. I mean we dont have the money to PR this so there is no real word out there about the game...

*Dev1: Yeah...

*Dev2: But hey atleast no one have pirated the game. Thank god that they put all these pirates in jail!

*Dev1: Yeah! The free PR from it is **** anyway.

*A few months later the company dies due to lack of sales*

Also i find it funny... i did take a look at the game. I would maybe pay 3-5euro for it. Im sorry but 20$? It simply make me laugh. I could go out and buy 4 old school games that would last 200 to 800 hours for that price. When will indie devs learn that instead of being greedy and asking for one hell of a sick price...

I would love to see a indie dev upload a "good" game to a torrent site with links and so on to their website saying "you can buy the game here: for 5$-10$ if you enjoy it support us" :D

Sadly that would never happen :P

Pirate Amnesty... Well lol at that.

Here is the scenario that would have happened without piracy:

*Dev1: Only 10 people bougth our game...

*Dev2: Yeah we simply cant get people to buy the game. I mean we dont have the money to PR this so there is no real word out there about the game...

*Dev1: Yeah...

*Dev2: But hey atleast no one have pirated the game. Thank god that they put all these pirates in jail!

*Dev1: Yeah! The free PR from it is **** anyway.

*A few months later the company dies due to lack of sales*

Also i find it funny... i did take a look at the game. I would maybe pay 3-5euro for it. Im sorry but 20$? It simply make me laugh. I could go out and buy 4 old school games that would last 200 to 800 hours for that price. When will indie devs learn that instead of being greedy and asking for one hell of a sick price...

I would love to see a indie dev upload a "good" game to a torrent site with links and so on to their website saying "you can buy the game here: for 5$-10$ if you enjoy it support us" :D

Sadly that would never happen :P

KalDurenik

Why should budget be a factor in pricing for games? It sure as hell isn't for films. Every film ticket is roughly the same price (changes depending on the cinema, not the film) regardless of budget. I payed $17.50 to go see Inception ($160 million budget) the other night, and $17.50 to see Wild Target ($1 million budget) a few days later. It's not about the budget that the price should be gauged. It's the quality of the product. If someone doesn't think $20 is appropriate for Machinarium, they shouldn't buy it.

The point is, the game is, right now, $5. I spend more money getting the train to university every day. This is a huge bargain.

1carus

Why should budget be a factor in pricing for games ? are you serious ? charging 20 bucks for a game like Machinarium is a rip off. Now you use movies as an example well good for you I don't go to the movies because I think they are a rip off. Do I agree you should pay the same price to see a $160 million movie as you do to see a $1 million movie ? No I don't, that is a rip off and that is one of the reasons why I do not go to the movies anymore.

What has annoyed me about the devs of this game is not that they are charging $20 for their game (that is their right). What annoys me is they are blaming piracy for low sales, the reason why Machinarium suffered sales wise is down to the ridiculous pricing. A flash game like this should never be more than 5 bucks instead they got greedy and expected people to pay $20 for it and sales suffered.

Now as I said I didn't pirate their game (hell didn't even know it existed) so it would be "unfair" of me to take part in this "pirate amnesty" they are clearly aiming this promotion at pirates, now since I am not a pirate I will keep my money in my pocket then and they can keep their game.

[QUOTE="Franko_3"]lol 20$ for a 2d java game, 5$ is more right. Too bad I hated the demoPlaneforger

I'd say that it's easily worth $20 or more - it's one of the best adventure games of the last decade. I bought it full price on release, and I'm tempted to buy the collector's edition now for $25AUD.

For $5 it's a steal. Check it out, people. ;)

The insecure cynicism is abit too far because they have a point as seen in this thread.. oh $20 for a flash game? I think I should pirate it!illmatic87

I am sorry do you see anyone in this thread going "oh $20 that it too expensive so I will pirate it" ? No you see people saying that the game was over priced to begin with that is the reason for the low number of sales. I certainly have no intention of pirating this game, I tried the demo and I was actually amazed anyone would even dare ask $20 for the game myself.

I cannot believe what PC gamers will accept from indie developers these days, if a company like EA or Ubisoft had released Machinarium at $20 we would have been yelling that they are ripping us off and $20 for a "flash" game is unacceptable. Yet because it is an indie developer it is perfectly acceptable :? .

[QUOTE="simardbrad"]

They claim %90 piracy rate... just because somebody pirates something, doesn't mean it's a lost sale. I bet if most people couldn't pirate it, it probably just wouldn't have been talked about.

I'm not paying $20 for an adventure game that has the technology of a year 2000 game. I'm usually not a graphics whore, but if the game didn't cost much to make and PROBABLY didn't take much time to make, don't be a greedy ******...

1carus

My god this is ignorant. Your first paragraph is fine. But, I'm sorry, "a year 2000 game"? What? The game has better graphics than anything else that has come out this year. The artstyle is lightyears better than anything that's come out this year. This is mindboggling.

Do you understand that Machinarium would have made far less profit than something bigger like COD or ME2? They're not being greedy. Selling a legitimate game at $20 is the opposite of greed. That's generous. Like I said above, the budget of a game is completely irrelavent to the price it should be marked at. It should be based on the quality of the game. How much it's ultimately worth. Not to mention the effort. And it looks like a huge amount of effort has been put into it.

How shallow are the current generation of gamers? Looking at screenshots for a game and evaluating "2d graphics + adventure gaming + no action = rip off at $20." Ridiculous.

No, what is ignorant is this group of Devs... I can play the original monkey island for next to nothing and it's WAY better than this game. Charging $20 for this game which does nothing better than previous adventure games (even some you can get for free (Sam and Max one of the episodes))... then why would I even want to look at this game.

[QUOTE="illmatic87"]The insecure cynicism is abit too far because they have a point as seen in this thread.. oh $20 for a flash game? I think I should pirate it!charmingcharlie

I am sorry do you see anyone in this thread going "oh $20 that it too expensive so I will pirate it" ? No you see people saying that the game was over priced to begin with that is the reason for the low number of sales. I certainly have no intention of pirating this game, I tried the demo and I was actually amazed anyone would even dare ask $20 for the game myself.

I cannot believe what PC gamers will accept from indie developers these days, if a company like EA or Ubisoft had released Machinarium at $20 we would have been yelling that they are ripping us off and $20 for a "flash" game is unacceptable. Yet because it is an indie developer it is perfectly acceptable :? .

The game doesn't look that great. I don't even think I'd pay $5 for it.

I didn't know we were so poor and destitute here on GS we couldn't afford $20 for a game. The sense of entitlement pirates have is astounding, "Well, this game is $20, and that's just TOO expensive! I wouldn't buy it for that price so I'll just pirate it." Anyways, pirates are scum, as are the apologists. When there was an indie bundle of like 4 games where you could pay what you wanted and it all went to charity, well pirates pirated that bundle too.cametall

It's a really intelligent argument you have there though... You should keep it up.

Do you understand that Machinarium would have made far less profit than something bigger like COD or ME2? They're not being greedy. Selling a legitimate game at $20 is the opposite of greed. That's generous.

1carus

LOL it's some indie 2d sidescroller, I don't think anyone doubts it made far less than any reputable title. Who does it appeal to? Almost noone. The java requires more than integrated graphics so they just lost their biggest market, casual gamers with netbooks. $20 is obviously not generous, there's no basis in this argument whatsoever cause it sold lousy. Basic economics suggests its because the original price point was too high for whoever actually was interested.

Just because your torrent was downloaded 1000 times DOES NOT mean 100 people actually installed it, or that even 50 people enjoyed the game. Hate it when these companies self-pity themselves with meaningless stats. That said, $5 sounds like a good regular price for such a game, I would not pay more. Another overpriced game is Braid. That's why I don't buy most of these casual games unless they reduce their price during sales.

I cannot believe what PC gamers will accept from indie developers these days, if a company like EA or Ubisoft had released Machinarium at $20 we would have been yelling that they are ripping us off and $20 for a "flash" game is unacceptable. Yet because it is an indie developer it is perfectly acceptable :? .charmingcharlie

If EA or Ubisoft released a game like Machinarium I'd be jumping with joy. It's far more interesting than any mainstream game I've seen in some time from either one of them. I don't understand this attitude that because it was programmed in Flash, it's not worth money. Why? Because you can play other Flash games for free? That has nothing to do with the efforts put into the game, or the final quality of the game. It was probably a foolish decision to work in Flash, but that's only because ActionScript is a lousy programming language. The price a game is sold should be regardless of what it was initially programmed for.

No, what is ignorant is this group of Devs... I can play the original monkey island for next to nothing and it's WAY better than this game. Charging $20 for this game which does nothing better than previous adventure games (even some you can get for free (Sam and Max one of the episodes))... then why would I even want to look at this game.simardbrad

The original Monkey Island is 20 years old. Really? That's your example? Since when does "doing nothing better than previous adventure games" have anything to do with price? Dragon Age is, if anything, a step down from Baldur's Gate in terms of innovation, and it was sold at full price. Apart from graphics of course. And if we're talking about graphics, Machinarium's is lightyears ahead of the original Monkey Island's (If you wanna talk Curse's graphics though, that's up for some debate).

LOL it's some indie 2d sidescroller, I don't think anyone doubts it made far less than any reputable title. Who does it appeal to? Almost noone. The java requires more than integrated graphics so they just lost their biggest market, casual gamers with netbooks. $20 is obviously not generous, there's no basis in this argument whatsoever cause it sold lousy. Basic economics suggests its because the original price point was too high for whoever actually was interested.

Just because your torrent was downloaded 1000 times DOES NOT mean 100 people actually installed it, or that even 50 people enjoyed the game. Hate it when these companies self-pity themselves with meaningless stats. That said, $5 sounds like a good regular price for such a game, I would not pay more. Another overpriced game is Braid. That's why I don't buy most of these casual games unless they reduce their price during sales.True_Sounds

My god. Why. Why does it matter that a company is independent? Why does it matter that it's 2d? Why does it matter that it's programmed in Flash? The FINAL output is what matters. If the quality is there, and it is, it's worth money. They're not asking you to pay full price. They're asking you to pay 1/3rd of the price of a standard game, or for me in Australia, 1/5th.

It's just ridiculous to not buy an indie game simply because it's an indie game. A lot of these games have far more heart and innovation than mainstream games today. World of Goo? One of the best games I've played in the past 5 years. And a good majority of people here seem to be of the mind that it's not worth more than $5. It's worth more than most full priced games today.