COD4 dev blown away by PC piracy

They Wonder Why People Don't Make PC Games Any More

We pulled some disturbing numbers this past week about the amount of PC players currently playing Multiplayer (which was fantastic). What wasn't fantastic was the percentage of those numbers who were playing on stolen copies of the game on stolen / cracked CD keys of pirated copies (and that was only people playing online).

Not sure if I can share the exact numbers or percentage of PC players with you, but I'll check and see; if I can I'll update with them. As the amount of people who pirate PC games is astounding. It blows me away at the amount of people willing to steal games (or anything) simply because it's not physical or it's on the safety of the internet to do.

http://fourzerotwo.blogspot.com/

This is why every major PC game from now on will be on 360 or PS3. Hermits, not saying you, but a hell of alot of your kind do not purchase games but instead chose to get them for free. You are basically killing your platform.

sad

if devs stop making games for pc ,mac will win it

that's too bad.

they should make a fool proof way of protecting games.

sad

if devs stop making games for pc ,mac will win it

dulgn_ps

mac people also DL pirated games though.

Yeah, they echoed this in the 1up yours podcast when John mentioned talking to one of the Crysis devs. Apparently it only sold around 80,000 copies or something stupidly low like that.

Its a tragedy when gamers kill their own system.

sad

if devs stop making games for pc ,mac will win it

dulgn_ps

Mac..? Gaming..?

No.

Yeah, they echoed this in the 1up yours podcast when John mentioned talking to one of the Crysis devs. Apparently it only sold around 80,000 copies or something stupidly low like that.

Its a tragedy when gamers kill their own system.

nicenator

That's only in North America for the month of November, and digital downloads weren't counted. (Edit: Actually that figure is only for the United States, not all of North America.)

Not saying that isn't a low number though. Crysis had a ton of hype surrounding it.

Perhaps if Internet providers gave us larger download speeds, and developers stepped up with digial distributions...anonymoussum1

Yeah, walking to the shops is a disgrace these days.

Yeah, they echoed this in the 1up yours podcast when John mentioned talking to one of the Crysis devs. Apparently it only sold around 80,000 copies or something stupidly low like that.

Its a tragedy when gamers kill their own system.

nicenator

Okay..why the hell are they allowing people to play online with stolen copies of the game? I don't have CoD4 and I don't want it, but it would seem to me there'd be some sort of CD-key authentication tied to online play.Velocitas8

With PCs theres always a way.

Wait Europe = US. LOL. Everyone knows almost all sales for PC gaming in general comes from Europe. Just last Year in Europe PC gaming rose 70% from the year before.Killfox

wow really? didnt know that... but if it rose 70% then there must not have been so much to begin with eh mate? Besides EVERYBODY knows that pc gaming in general comes from all those asian countries where the gold miners for WoW and other MMO's are.

steam fixes pirating problems, steam will be the xbox live of pc gamesRiki101

Oh god anything but that.

steam fixes pirating problems, steam will be the xbox live of pc gamesRiki101

I like Steam..but it fixes nothing when it comes to pirating.

Half-Life 2 was pirated before it even hit store shelves. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case with at least a couple of the Orange Box games as well..considering they let Steam users pre-order and pre-load the game files.

Okay..why the hell are they allowing people to play online with stolen copies of the game? I don't have CoD4 and I don't want it, but it would seem to me there'd be some sort of CD-key authentication tied to online play.Velocitas8

Yeah, I mean, if they know who has a pirated copy, why are they letting them play then? It's almost as bad as a cop complaining about all the car theft when he's holding a list of a good number of the theives in his hands and doing nothing about it. It seems like the height of stupidity.

I agree with you. There isnt any excuse for "pirates".

There are many for 360 too though latetly. Dunno how they do it but they play copy games as well.

But to be honest to you,these companies making billions per year already. I bet all the headquarters of these big companies with the crazy sales like activision and COD4,making vacations 6 times per year anf goin to the best luxury hotels worldwide.Got the best cars and all. Isnt such a big deal to go 4 times instead of 6 ... You got what i mean dont you?

Piracy is bad no doubt. But what really kills this piracy is the smaller companies that trying hard.These are in truly danger to close.

[QUOTE="Riki101"]steam fixes pirating problems, steam will be the xbox live of pc gamesVelocitas8

I like Steam..but it fixes nothing when it comes to pirating.

Half-Life 2 was pirated before it even hit store shelves. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case with at least a couple of the Orange Box games as well..considering they let Steam users pre-order and pre-load the game files.

thats why Valve made Steam....it wasnt till that incident that Steam went into development, and half life 2 was delayed a year.

I agree with you. There isnt any excuse for "pirates".

There are many for 360 too though latetly. Dunno how they do it but they play copy games as well.

But to be honest to you,these companies making billions per year already. I bet all the headquarters of these big companies with the crazy sales like activision and COD4,making vacations 6 times per year anf goin to the best luxury hotels worldwide.Got the best cars and all. Isnt such a big deal to go 4 times instead of 6 ... You got what i mean dont you?

Piracy is bad no doubt. But what really kills this piracy is the smaller companies that trying hard.These are in truly danger to close.

AzatiS

[QUOTE="Velocitas8"]Okay..why the hell are they allowing people to play online with stolen copies of the game? I don't have CoD4 and I don't want it, but it would seem to me there'd be some sort of CD-key authentication tied to online play.ReverseCycology

With PCs theres always a way.

No. You can't play online in recent PC games with an invalid CD key. Period. I'd be surprised if CoD4 was an exception to this.

You might be able to play on a LAN game with an invalid CD key, but joining online servers viewable in the server browser requires CD-key validation before a connection can be established.

Someone might be able to circumvent validation and join games for a couple minuites at a time (they'd be kicked during mid-game checks,) but that's a good way to get your IP address/range banned. Something like that isn't possible in games that require creation of an account for online play, either (Battle.net, Steam, and pretty much any EA game.)

that's too bad.

they should make a fool proof way of protecting games.

Heydanbud92

Lol, like they aren't trying!!! Everything is crackable.

thats why Valve made Steam....it wasnt till that incident that Steam went into development, and half life 2 was delayed a year.cobrax25

Hmm, are you referring to the game resource leak? I didn't knnow a playable build of HL2 came out of that incident.

But I was referring to the retail game of Half-Life 2. Steam was emulated a few days before Half-Life 2 hit shelves and I saw screenshots of the retail build on a few forums.

[QUOTE="Heydanbud92"]

that's too bad.

they should make a fool proof way of protecting games.

Relys

Lol, like they aren't trying!!! Everything is crackable.

Agreed. Crack is the way of the future.

[QUOTE="ReverseCycology"]

[QUOTE="Velocitas8"]Okay..why the hell are they allowing people to play online with stolen copies of the game? I don't have CoD4 and I don't want it, but it would seem to me there'd be some sort of CD-key authentication tied to online play.Velocitas8

With PCs theres always a way.

No. You can't play online in recent PC games with an invalid CD key. Period.

You might be able to play on a LAN game with an invalid CD key, but joining online servers viewable in the server browser requires CD-key validation before a connection can be established.

Someone might be able to circumvent validation and join games for a couple minuites at a time, but that's a good way to get your IP address/range banned. Something like that isn't possible in games that require creation of an account for online play, either (Battle.net, Steam, and pretty much any EA game.)

This is why Hamachi is so popular. Any game with online capibilities can be cracked to play for free.

I'm not promoting piracy, I'm just stating that it isn't going anyware.

[QUOTE="AzatiS"]

I agree with you. There isnt any excuse for "pirates".

There are many for 360 too though latetly. Dunno how they do it but they play copy games as well.

But to be honest to you,these companies making billions per year already. I bet all the headquarters of these big companies with the crazy sales like activision and COD4,making vacations 6 times per year anf goin to the best luxury hotels worldwide.Got the best cars and all. Isnt such a big deal to go 4 times instead of 6 ... You got what i mean dont you?

Piracy is bad no doubt. But what really kills this piracy is the smaller companies that trying hard.These are in truly danger to close.

Click_Clock

Blizzard has a revenue of 1.1 billion.

[QUOTE="dulgn_ps"]

sad

if devs stop making games for pc ,mac will win it

Heydanbud92

mac people also DL pirated games though.

This is why Hamachi is so popular. Any game with online capibilities can be cracked to play for free.

I'm not promoting piracy, I'm just stating that it isn't going anyware.

Relys

Yes, it's possible with tunneling software to play LAN games over the internet. I meant online servers, which is what it would seem the developer was referring to (I highly doubt he has numbers on virtualized private networking play.)

[QUOTE="Click_Clock"][QUOTE="AzatiS"]

I agree with you. There isnt any excuse for "pirates".

There are many for 360 too though latetly. Dunno how they do it but they play copy games as well.

But to be honest to you,these companies making billions per year already. I bet all the headquarters of these big companies with the crazy sales like activision and COD4,making vacations 6 times per year anf goin to the best luxury hotels worldwide.Got the best cars and all. Isnt such a big deal to go 4 times instead of 6 ... You got what i mean dont you?

Piracy is bad no doubt. But what really kills this piracy is the smaller companies that trying hard.These are in truly danger to close.

cobrax25

Blizzard has a revenue of 1.1 billion.

Yeah sure, i dont put much validity in this guy's blog who fails to not only give the numbers but also doesn't disclose his sources. Piracy is a scape goat developers use when their games are horrible. COD4 is selling perfectly fine.Vandalvideo

Quoted for truth, and further effect

that's too bad.

they should make a fool proof way of protecting games.

Heydanbud92

[QUOTE="cobrax25"][QUOTE="Click_Clock"][QUOTE="AzatiS"]

I agree with you. There isnt any excuse for "pirates".

There are many for 360 too though latetly. Dunno how they do it but they play copy games as well.

But to be honest to you,these companies making billions per year already. I bet all the headquarters of these big companies with the crazy sales like activision and COD4,making vacations 6 times per year anf goin to the best luxury hotels worldwide.Got the best cars and all. Isnt such a big deal to go 4 times instead of 6 ... You got what i mean dont you?

Piracy is bad no doubt. But what really kills this piracy is the smaller companies that trying hard.These are in truly danger to close.

Click_Clock

Blizzard has a revenue of 1.1 billion.

Ermm...Vivendi/Sierra publishes Blizzard's games. Anyway... people act like developers are having it good on consoles. Wrong. They have it much worse. Look at landscape of console developers, all either went bancrupt or were bought by some publisher. If console market is so good for developers,then how come independent (ie.. not owned by other company) developers are bassicaly extince now on consoles, while they do just fine on PC? Maybe because nowadays to have any hope of profit you need to sell over million copies on consoles, while pc games bring good profits for their developers even with 300K sales.

that's too bad.

they should make a fool proof way of protecting games.

Heydanbud92

That's not possible with cracks. Look at BioShock - people find a way around it, and all it hurts is the consumer.

With piracy, and pre owned games, digital distribution is the way of the future.

PC is of course - has been leading the charge for a long while now

[QUOTE="anonymoussum1"]Perhaps if Internet providers gave us larger download speeds, and developers stepped up with digial distributions...Hoobinator

Yeah, walking to the shops is a disgrace these days.

A lot people are too lazy to walk there.

ppl torrent console games as well. but it is a bigger problem with pc gamers. the problem is that if you target the "hardcore" pc gamer market with games that require the top of the line hardware, you'll get less honest casual players and a larger percent of pirates.Ontain

Yeah, from what I've heard, modding an Xbox 360 is as easy as doing the same for the PS2.

Console have just as much problem as consoles.

most importantly...if they do have the actual numbers...than why cant they just ban everyone without a valid CD key?

could their have been a mix up of some kind? because as I know, you dont need a CD key at all if you bought the game through Steam.

180k people torrented Crysis on some big torrent website, that's more than they sold in the US. This is the reason why you will see it on consoles by the end of the year.xNickNackx

there is just as much piricy on consoles so your point?

[QUOTE="Riki101"]steam fixes pirating problems, steam will be the xbox live of pc gamesVelocitas8

I like Steam..but it fixes nothing when it comes to pirating.

Half-Life 2 was pirated before it even hit store shelves. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case with at least a couple of the Orange Box games as well..considering they let Steam users pre-order and pre-load the game files.

except not everyone can figure out how to crack steam, its much harder

[QUOTE="Velocitas8"]

[QUOTE="Riki101"]steam fixes pirating problems, steam will be the xbox live of pc gamesimprezawrx500

I like Steam..but it fixes nothing when it comes to pirating.

Half-Life 2 was pirated before it even hit store shelves. I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case with at least a couple of the Orange Box games as well..considering they let Steam users pre-order and pre-load the game files.

except not everyone can figure out how to crack steam, its much harder

It is possible to play these games outside of steam, but updates are univalable, and online games are limited to few private servers.

Besides Half Life 2 supposedly is at over 10 million legit copies - including digital distribution and ati bundling