MW2 PC sold 290,000 copies, was pirated over 4 million times Ouch!

[QUOTE="mo0ksi"]While Activision should have considered the backlash with the PC community, that is a pretty pitiful ratio.Dataleak

It is shameful, but it's pretty obvious that half of those pirated were due to spite Activision and IW due to lack of dedicated servers. What's even more shameful is that 970,000 Xbox 360 users pirated it for no apparent reason other then being selfish ****s.

Eh, considering what they did to the PC version I'm not surprised. I just wouldn't buy it on PC personally as I do own it on PS3 and 360 (Yes, on both, to play with friends...don't ask). But I'm not surprised PC gamers pirated it as much as they did.

Puckhog04

[QUOTE="GojiMaster"]

[QUOTE="lundy86_4"]

Piracy hurts gaming for everybody, even the pirates. All systems are susceptible to piracy (though some to a lesser extent) and it just ruins gaming experiences for legitimate consumers.

HavocV3

290,000 copies of MW2 sold is just ridiculous. There is no comparison to consoles on this game. 360 has sold almost 11 million, and PS3 has sold over 6 million. There is no PS3 piracy yet, and 360 MW2 piracy has to be very minimal since modded consoles can no longer get on Xbox Live. Activision shafted the Wii on this game, but even the Wii CoD games sell over 1 million copies.

I wonder how much money Activision is wasting just to pay for all the extra server bandwith for these pirates.

that isn't including STEAM, correct?

This has already been stated quite a few times but here goes:

1: No soruces

2: STEAM (just to name the popular service) is not included

3: How exactly do they determine the amount of pirated games? Do they tend to exagerate?

Probably at least 600k in the US with Steam figures combined and perhaps even more. Probably 2-2.5 million plus worlwide. Low compared to the console versions but the US isn't a strong PC game market.

[QUOTE="WilliamRLBaker"]

or you could just answer instead of skirting around it.
why do they deserve it?

Arach666

You mean a game that was stripped down of most of it´s features just so it could be equal to the inferior version?

When you do that,that´s what happens. When you do a proper PC game(Crysis for instance,sold around 2 million copies retail ONLY,and it´s not even close to the PC best sellers...)things like this don´t happen,never at this scale.

LOl I love pc gamers logic, "the game is not up to our standards so instead of just not playing it, we are going to steal it because since it is stripped down they deserve it." Pc gamers wonder why they are losing support left and right. I love it they are getting what they deserve.

[QUOTE="Ravensmash"]Also...stumbled across this earlier http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/10/one-quarter-of-humble-indie-bundle-downloads-were-pirated/Advid-Gamer

:lol: they have no shame at all!!!!! Stealing from charities.:lol:

You should read the whole article, it is not always a case of people being cheap or unwilling to pay.

http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Saving-a-penny----pirating-the-Humble-Indie-Bundle

[QUOTE="Arach666"]

[QUOTE="WilliamRLBaker"]

or you could just answer instead of skirting around it.
why do they deserve it?

Advid-Gamer

You mean a game that was stripped down of most of it´s features just so it could be equal to the inferior version?

When you do that,that´s what happens. When you do a proper PC game(Crysis for instance,sold around 2 million copies retail ONLY,and it´s not even close to the PC best sellers...)things like this don´t happen,never at this scale.

LOl I love pc gamers logic, "the game is not up to our standards so instead of just not playing it, we are going to steal it because since it is stripped down they deserve it." Pc gamers wonder why they are losing support left and right. I love it they are getting what they deserve.

Try not generalizing. I'm primarily a PC gamer and I don't condone piracy in any way, shape or form.

I'm just curious how many copies would've sold on PC had they not forced steam, cut out dedicated servers, and cut out modding.

You mean pirated multiplayer on PC? I have never played MW2 on PC, so I wouldn't know. Does anyone know if pirates can play multiplayer MW2 online on the PC? It seems to me that if you couldn't, MW2 would be a pretty lame game.GojiMaster

[QUOTE="Infinite_Access"]I call bull. People are more likely to pirate a good game cause they get more... for nothing.foxhound_fox

[QUOTE="Arach666"]

[QUOTE="WilliamRLBaker"]

or you could just answer instead of skirting around it.
why do they deserve it?

Advid-Gamer

You mean a game that was stripped down of most of it´s features just so it could be equal to the inferior version?

When you do that,that´s what happens. When you do a proper PC game(Crysis for instance,sold around 2 million copies retail ONLY,and it´s not even close to the PC best sellers...)things like this don´t happen,never at this scale.

LOl I love pc gamers logic, "the game is not up to our standards so instead of just not playing it, we are going to steal it because since it is stripped down they deserve it." Pc gamers wonder why they are losing support left and right. I love it they are getting what they deserve.

Hey look at BC2, it sold more on the pc then both consoles combined! SAGE_OF_FIRE

[QUOTE="SAGE_OF_FIRE"]Hey look at BC2, it sold more on the pc then both consoles combined! lowe0

[QUOTE="lowe0"][QUOTE="SAGE_OF_FIRE"]Hey look at BC2, it sold more on the pc then both consoles combined! DarkLink77

well....when u consider they took away dedi's that doesnt leave a very good or reliable server to play on.....so.....yeah.....i can see how pc gamers wouldnt want to buy a 60usd game for a 5hour campaign and multiplayer that doesnt have the resources to be playable........

And the only reason this happened is because Activision decided to screw over PC gamers.. Know what PC gamers can always do? Pirate for the single player and let that be it.Ringx55

Seriously, why do you all keep justifying the piracy? Guess what I am a PC gamer as well and people with that mentality are screwing it up for me!!!! It pisses me off, I have never stolen a game, If I dont like it I wont buy/play it. End of story, thanks for making me buy all my games for my consoles with worse graphics and lower framerates because developers have moved on to a fanbase that PAYS FOR THERE GAMES. Seriously in a few years when you wondering wht the hell happened to pc games, look in the mirror.

well....when u consider they took away dedi's that doesnt leave a very good or reliable server to play on.....so.....yeah.....i can see how pc gamers wouldnt want to buy a 60usd game for a 5hour campaign and multiplayer that doesnt have the resources to be playable........

lpjazzman220

never said the single player was bad.....i just felt cheated for payin 60usd for a game that had an extremely short sp.....beat it in one sitting and vet.....and then loggin onto mp that was extremely laggy......i have cable and max out my nic at 100mps......ive never played a game were someone was under 100ping.....which is atrocious.......that and all of the hackers.....that arent gettin patched out.....played a couple of nights ago, and 5 of the 8 matches i played had at least 1 aim bot.......no way i can spawn and get head shotted from across the map with 4 other people gettin killed in diff areas by the same guy with a machinegun.......i personally felt cheated by activision for the reductions they made in the multiplayer

[QUOTE="Ringx55"]And the only reason this happened is because Activision decided to screw over PC gamers.. Know what PC gamers can always do? Pirate for the single player and let that be it.Advid-Gamer

Seriously, why do you all keep justifying the piracy? Guess what I am a PC gamer as well and people with that mentality are screwing it up for me!!!! It pisses me off, I have never stolen a game, If I dont like it I wont buy/play it. End of story, thanks for making me buy all my games for my consoles with worse graphics and lower framerates because developers have moved on to a fanbase that PAYS FOR THERE GAMES. Seriously in a few years when you wondering wht the hell happened to pc games, look in the mirror.

Piracy will happen regardless of whatever DRM system the developers/publisher put in. I am sure Starcraft 2, for example, will get pirated to hell and back but will still sell a lot of copies.the_ChEeSe_mAn2

You have to admit, it would sell a hell of alot more if it was impossible to pirate.

[QUOTE="the_ChEeSe_mAn2"]Piracy will happen regardless of whatever DRM system the developers/publisher put in. I am sure Starcraft 2, for example, will get pirated to hell and back but will still sell a lot of copies.Advid-Gamer

You have to admit, it would sell a hell of alot more if it was impossible to pirate.

There's no guarantee that those who pirate would buy the game if it were not readily available. They may download solely because it is "free" and has little to no legal ramifications.

Sales could definately see a bump, but it's purely speculation.

And people say the 360's piracy problems are close to the PC's...

The_Game21x

[QUOTE="The_Game21x"]

And people say the 360's piracy problems are close to the PC's...

imprezawrx500

I seriously doubt that, I have a few friends that pc game, mostly wow, but point is there pcs are no where near as good as mine. I seriously doubt there 100 million gaming pc's out there that can run mw2 good. Pc gamers like to twist things alot it seems.

[QUOTE="Dataleak"]

Well, almost 1million 360 verions were pirated. That's still bad in itself.

SaltyMeatballs

Charging $60 + excessive DRM = more piracy. I can't believe developers actually think DRM helps. People will still find ways around it and it actually pushes people to pirate games because it punishes paying customers.

oh you forgot to mention x360 had about 1 million copies pirated. Considering there are easily 4 time the amount of gaming pcs than there are x360's thats not saying much for xbox. Games have always been pirated and always will be. Until you can find steam sales any sales figures are worthless. steam sales = 80% of pc game sales. imprezawrx500

PC game piracy

Does this also apply to PC (Windows/Mac/Linux) gamers? Many PC game developers find that about 90% of their users are running pirated copies — does this mean that piracy is killing PC games? Let's try our alternative explanation, and see if these statistics are possible even if only 20% of worldwide PC gamers are pirates. The average PC gamer worldwide only buys about three games a year, and plays them for a long time [4]. I buy many more than that, and you probably do too, but again, we are not average gamers! On the other hand, game pirates might download a new game every few days, for a total of about 125 games a year. Given these numbers, games would see 90% piracy rates even though only 20% of gamers are pirates.

Are these numbers accurate? The NPD recently conducted an anonymous survey showing that only 4% of PC gamers in the US admit to pirating games [5], a number that is comparable to XBox 360 piracy statistics [6] . However, since piracy is inversely proportionate to per-capita GDP, we can expect piracy rates to increase dramatically in places like Russia, China and India, driving up the world-wide average. Let's say to 20%.

This means that if all pirates would otherwise buy as many games as the average consumer, then game developers would be losing 20% of their revenue to piracy.

But would pirates really buy games?

Anecdotally and from studies by companies like the BSA, it's clear that pirates for the most part have very little income. They are unemployed students, or live in countries with very low per-capita GDP, where the price of a $60 game is more like $1000 (in terms of purchasing power parity and income percentage). When Reflexive games performed a series of experiments with anti-piracy measures, they found that they only made one extra sale for every 1000 pirated copies they blocked [7]. This implies that their 90% piracy statistic caused them to lose less than 1% of their sales.

Why are PC games really losing sales?

While many game developers blame piracy for their decreasing PC game sales, it is clear that this is not the problem — relatively few gamers are pirates, and those that are would mostly not be able to afford games anyway.

However, it's easier for these developers to point their fingers at pirates than to face the real problem: that their games are not fun on PC. The games in question are usually designed for consoles, with the desktop port as an afterthought. This means they are not fun to play with a mouse and keyboard, and don't work well on PC hardware. Their field of view is designed to be viewed from a distant couch instead of a nearby monitor, and their gameplay is simplified to compensate for this tunnel vision.

Blizzard is one of the most successful game developers in the world, and it develops exclusively for desktop computers. Why do they succeed where everyone else fails? They create games that are designed from the beginning to work well with the mouse and keyboard, and with all kinds of desktop hardware. If developers spent more time improving their PC gaming experience, and less time complaining about piracy, we might see more successful PC games.

With the Humble Indie Bundle promotion we've seen that when we treat gamers as real people instead of criminals, they seem to respond in kind. Anyone can get all five DRM-free games for a single penny, and pirate them as much as they want — we have no way to find out or stop it. However, in just the first two days, we have over 40,000 contributions with an average of $8 each! Would we have seen this much support if the games were console ports that only worked when connected to a secure online DRM server? We'll never know for sure, but somehow I doubt it.

David Rosen is the founder and lead programmer of Wolfire Games.

LINK

I think this article truly fits activisions situation concerning MW2 since it was basically a port.. BTW the guy who wrote this is the same guy who released the humble indie package

Also...stumbled across this earlier http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/10/one-quarter-of-humble-indie-bundle-downloads-were-pirated/Ravensmash

Thats just pure shameful, what a bunch of degenerates, pirtating games were profits go to charity is a new all time low.

PC = 290,000 unit sold----piracy rate =4 million = OUCH,PWNED

XBOX 360 = 10.5 million units sold----piracy rate =1 million = bad needs to be rectified

PS3 = 8 million units sold----piracy rate = ZERO = FLAWLESS VICTORY :D

Why are PC games really losing sales?

While many game developers blame piracy for their decreasing PC game sales, it is clear that this is not the problem — relatively few gamers are pirates, and those that are would mostly not be able to afford games anyway.

However, it's easier for these developers to point their fingers at pirates than to face the real problem: that their games are not fun on PC. The games in question are usually designed for consoles, with the desktop port as an afterthought. This means they are not fun to play with a mouse and keyboard, and don't work well on PC hardware. Their field of view is designed to be viewed from a distant couch instead of a nearby monitor, and their gameplay is simplified to compensate for this tunnel vision.

Blizzard is one of the most successful game developers in the world, and it develops exclusively for desktop computers. Why do they succeed where everyone else fails? They create games that are designed from the beginning to work well with the mouse and keyboard, and with all kinds of desktop hardware. If developers spent more time improving their PC gaming experience, and less time complaining about piracy, we might see more successful PC games.

With the Humble Indie Bundle promotion we've seen that when we treat gamers as real people instead of criminals, they seem to respond in kind. Anyone can get all five DRM-free games for a single penny, and pirate them as much as they want — we have no way to find out or stop it. However, in just the first two days, we have over 40,000 contributions with an average of $8 each! Would we have seen this much support if the games were console ports that only worked when connected to a secure online DRM server? We'll never know for sure, but somehow I doubt it.

David Rosen is the founder and lead programmer of Wolfire Games.

LINK

I think this article truly fits activisions situation concerning MW2 since it was basically a port.. BTW the guy who wrote this is the same guy who released the humble indie package

devious742

Seriously dude? If the games are not fun why play them? Man, you guys are just full of excuses that are trying to make STEALING GAMES seem like it is ok, "the people that pirate games wouldnt have bought them anyways" or "Its activevisions fault they make a crappy game pftt.....were not paying it it sucks, but it was good enough to pirate". Make all the excuses obviously the developers are not buying it and are trying to do something about and that is all that matters, enjoy your DRM

[QUOTE="devious742"]

Why are PC games really losing sales?

While many game developers blame piracy for their decreasing PC game sales, it is clear that this is not the problem - relatively few gamers are pirates, and those that are would mostly not be able to afford games anyway.

However, it's easier for these developers to point their fingers at pirates than to face the real problem: that their games are not fun on PC. The games in question are usually designed for consoles, with the desktop port as an afterthought. This means they are not fun to play with a mouse and keyboard, and don't work well on PC hardware. Their field of view is designed to be viewed from a distant couch instead of a nearby monitor, and their gameplay is simplified to compensate for this tunnel vision.

Blizzard is one of the most successful game developers in the world, and it develops exclusively for desktop computers. Why do they succeed where everyone else fails? They create games that are designed from the beginning to work well with the mouse and keyboard, and with all kinds of desktop hardware. If developers spent more time improving their PC gaming experience, and less time complaining about piracy, we might see more successful PC games.

With the Humble Indie Bundle promotion we've seen that when we treat gamers as real people instead of criminals, they seem to respond in kind. Anyone can get all five DRM-free games for a single penny, and pirate them as much as they want - we have no way to find out or stop it. However, in just the first two days, we have over 40,000 contributions with an average of $8 each! Would we have seen this much support if the games were console ports that only worked when connected to a secure online DRM server? We'll never know for sure, but somehow I doubt it.

David Rosen is the founder and lead programmer of Wolfire Games.

LINK

I think this article truly fits activisions situation concerning MW2 since it was basically a port.. BTW the guy who wrote this is the same guy who released the humble indie package

Advid-Gamer

Seriously dude? If the games are not fun why play them? Man, you guys are just full of excuses that are trying to make STEALING GAMES seem like it is ok, "the people that pirate games wouldnt have bought them anyways" or "Its activevisions fault they make a crappy game pftt.....were not paying it it sucks, but it was good enough to pirate". Make all the excuses obviously the developers are not buying it and are trying to do something about and that is all that matters, enjoy your DRM

Why are you so adamant to blame all PC gamers wholesale and accusing the PC gamers in this thread as condoning piracy?

I see not one PC gamer who condones it nor claiming that they pirated. All that was offered was why people pirate and more often than not, they clarified they do not support piracy.

But in your eyes, you seem them as guilty regardless..why? because they are PC gamers?

You have some serious issue with PC gamers for some reason.

Make all the excuses obviously the developers are not buying it and are trying to do something about and that is all that matters, enjoy your DRM

Advid-Gamer

Don´t worry,consoles are going there as well,EA is starting a new trend to figth the "legal" piracy.

It won´t be long until others devs follow,and console games will be in a very similar situation.The devs aren´t dumb,my friend.

[QUOTE="Advid-Gamer"]

[QUOTE="devious742"]

Why are PC games really losing sales?

While many game developers blame piracy for their decreasing PC game sales, it is clear that this is not the problem - relatively few gamers are pirates, and those that are would mostly not be able to afford games anyway.

However, it's easier for these developers to point their fingers at pirates than to face the real problem: that their games are not fun on PC. The games in question are usually designed for consoles, with the desktop port as an afterthought. This means they are not fun to play with a mouse and keyboard, and don't work well on PC hardware. Their field of view is designed to be viewed from a distant couch instead of a nearby monitor, and their gameplay is simplified to compensate for this tunnel vision.

Blizzard is one of the most successful game developers in the world, and it develops exclusively for desktop computers. Why do they succeed where everyone else fails? They create games that are designed from the beginning to work well with the mouse and keyboard, and with all kinds of desktop hardware. If developers spent more time improving their PC gaming experience, and less time complaining about piracy, we might see more successful PC games.

With the Humble Indie Bundle promotion we've seen that when we treat gamers as real people instead of criminals, they seem to respond in kind. Anyone can get all five DRM-free games for a single penny, and pirate them as much as they want - we have no way to find out or stop it. However, in just the first two days, we have over 40,000 contributions with an average of $8 each! Would we have seen this much support if the games were console ports that only worked when connected to a secure online DRM server? We'll never know for sure, but somehow I doubt it.

David Rosen is the founder and lead programmer of Wolfire Games.

LINK

I think this article truly fits activisions situation concerning MW2 since it was basically a port.. BTW the guy who wrote this is the same guy who released the humble indie package

rollermint

Seriously dude? If the games are not fun why play them? Man, you guys are just full of excuses that are trying to make STEALING GAMES seem like it is ok, "the people that pirate games wouldnt have bought them anyways" or "Its activevisions fault they make a crappy game pftt.....were not paying it it sucks, but it was good enough to pirate". Make all the excuses obviously the developers are not buying it and are trying to do something about and that is all that matters, enjoy your DRM

Why are you so adamant to blame all PC gamers wholesale and accusing the PC gamers in this thread as condoning piracy?

I see not one PC gamer who condones it nor claiming that they pirated. All that was offered was why people pirate and more often than not, they clarified they do not support piracy.

But in your eyes, you seem them as guilty regardless..why? because they are PC gamers?

You have some serious issue with PC gamers for some reason.

[QUOTE="Advid-Gamer"]

[QUOTE="devious742"]

Why are PC games really losing sales?

While many game developers blame piracy for their decreasing PC game sales, it is clear that this is not the problem - relatively few gamers are pirates, and those that are would mostly not be able to afford games anyway.

However, it's easier for these developers to point their fingers at pirates than to face the real problem: that their games are not fun on PC. The games in question are usually designed for consoles, with the desktop port as an afterthought. This means they are not fun to play with a mouse and keyboard, and don't work well on PC hardware. Their field of view is designed to be viewed from a distant couch instead of a nearby monitor, and their gameplay is simplified to compensate for this tunnel vision.

Blizzard is one of the most successful game developers in the world, and it develops exclusively for desktop computers. Why do they succeed where everyone else fails? They create games that are designed from the beginning to work well with the mouse and keyboard, and with all kinds of desktop hardware. If developers spent more time improving their PC gaming experience, and less time complaining about piracy, we might see more successful PC games.

With the Humble Indie Bundle promotion we've seen that when we treat gamers as real people instead of criminals, they seem to respond in kind. Anyone can get all five DRM-free games for a single penny, and pirate them as much as they want - we have no way to find out or stop it. However, in just the first two days, we have over 40,000 contributions with an average of $8 each! Would we have seen this much support if the games were console ports that only worked when connected to a secure online DRM server? We'll never know for sure, but somehow I doubt it.

David Rosen is the founder and lead programmer of Wolfire Games.

LINK

I think this article truly fits activisions situation concerning MW2 since it was basically a port.. BTW the guy who wrote this is the same guy who released the humble indie package

rollermint

Seriously dude? If the games are not fun why play them? Man, you guys are just full of excuses that are trying to make STEALING GAMES seem like it is ok, "the people that pirate games wouldnt have bought them anyways" or "Its activevisions fault they make a crappy game pftt.....were not paying it it sucks, but it was good enough to pirate". Make all the excuses obviously the developers are not buying it and are trying to do something about and that is all that matters, enjoy your DRM

Why are you so adamant to blame all PC gamers wholesale and accusing the PC gamers in this thread as condoning piracy?

I see not one PC gamer who condones it nor claiming that they pirated. All that was offered was why people pirate and more often than not, they clarified they do not support piracy.

But in your eyes, you seem them as guilty regardless..why? because they are PC gamers?

You have some serious issue with PC gamers for some reason.

If they dont condone it, they make excuses for it.

Wow. Piracy is just destroying PC gaming. Why? Because people are too cheap to buy them legitimately. And they wonder why there are such DRM's on PC games, such as Assassin's Creed 2.

Everything I have said in this tread is on point and correct, since i am right, Im am sure people are going to attack me and try and discredit me.;)

[QUOTE="WilliamRLBaker"]

or you could just answer instead of skirting around it.
why do they deserve it?

Arach666

You mean a game that was stripped down of most of it´s features just so it could be equal to the inferior version?

When you do that,that´s what happens. When you do a proper PC game(Crysis for instance,sold around 2 million copies retail ONLY,and it´s not even close to the PC best sellers...)things like this don´t happen,never at this scale.

oo since they are counting retail sells.. what about online DD sales from steam?? since this game is a steam game

[QUOTE="Arach666"]

[QUOTE="WilliamRLBaker"]

or you could just answer instead of skirting around it.
why do they deserve it?

WilliamRLBaker

You mean a game that was stripped down of most of it´s features just so it could be equal to the inferior version?

When you do that,that´s what happens. When you do a proper PC game(Crysis for instance,sold around 2 million copies retail ONLY,and it´s not even close to the PC best sellers...)things like this don´t happen,never at this scale.

*claps* I get sick of fighting these topics by myself. Glad to see I am not crazy and other people can see it to.

As I pointed out earlier, the numbers are skewed. Even people who purchased the game end up playing pirated copies to bypass the DRM. With their detection methods there's no way to distinguish between those post-purchase pirates and "actual" pirates. They're all lumped into the same statistic despite post-purchase piracy not harming sales in any way, shape, or form.

xDimMaK

So the people who buy the games should suffer because of the pirates? Things like DRM don't even stop piracy in the slightest so why even put it on there? I don't see what the point of pointing out piracy so much is... they still probably made a profit off that port anyway.

If you're so worried about how many sales the publisher/developer misses out on then you should be all for serial keys on console games to stop used game sales.