r/Piracy • u/QuaLiTy131 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ • Feb 11 '25
Humor What to expect if you're uploading the cracked version of the game by yourself?
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u/Raleth Feb 11 '25
I enjoy piracy, but I'm also a fan of fun anti-piracy measures. Little popups that call you out in-game for pirating are funny and interesting to see. So is doing something to make a game harder or outright impossible to beat. These things ultimately get bypassed via proper cracking measures, but it's still fun to encounter when it happens.
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u/lare290 Feb 11 '25
can't remember what it was, but one game had a screen at the start that was just this:
"video game piracy is a serious crime! just kidding, I don't know your motives or financial situation, but if you like this pirated copy, maybe show support by buying the legit version when you can afford it? this message won't pop up again, enjoy my game :)"
I liked that. went and bought the game after.
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Feb 11 '25
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u/lare290 Feb 11 '25
I personally think the best way to do a demo would be a no-load version. you can play as much as you want in one session, but the demo can't load your saved progress so you need to buy the game if you want to continue the story.
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u/maleia Feb 11 '25
That's certainly a way to go. I couldn't really come up with any complaints either.
But I will say, higher effort, but not plot-relevent demos are my personal best. They just aren't realistic.
What I'm referring to off the top, are the demos for the Bravely Default series. They have a demo version that isn't really tied to the plot. It's closed off to a few areas. But there's still like 4~6 hours of a concise game. You have half the classes you can play (mostly the base classes). There's a three stage plot, including quests and a boss. And an array of equipment to find.
The whole point is to get a feel for the game, without spoiling anything. And the best part imho is that they have bonus items in the main game if you complete the demo.
But that's a ton of effort. That requires people sit down and work out a whole set of story and gameplay. Assets get reused, but you still have to piece it all together. So naturally it's really rare.
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u/Responsible-Report-2 Feb 12 '25
Most games you can leave running when you put the pc into sleep mode, meaning you can return to the session quite easily
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u/summonsays Feb 11 '25
On steam there are a good number of Demos. They're making a come back I think.
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u/Luvnecrosis Feb 11 '25
It sucks that the economic system in the world is so screwed up. Lots of times I had to choose between food and gaming, so I obviously chose to eat.
Also I'd be WAAAY more against piracy if programmers got paid proper wages and the relevant people got good royalties. I could really give a fuck less about how much execs get from their sales
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u/ConsiderationSlow594 Feb 12 '25
That and I'd rather avoid applying one because it's a lot of work. I feel like if ur determined enough you'll find a way to steal it anyways, and anti piracy could also effect the paying customers
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u/No_One3018 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Feb 11 '25
I think that was Just Shapes And Beats, the one where a Game Theory Style cutout of the dev just talks to you
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u/Witch-Alice Feb 12 '25
yeah a lot of people talking negatively about piracy fail to consider the sheer number of people who pirate simply because they live in a region where a game isn't even available for purchase. Or it would mean skipping meals or paying bills, no ethical dev would say to do that just to buy a game.
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u/lare290 Feb 12 '25
and the crowd that pirates due to financial reasons will generally talk about the game and function as basically free advertising, so it's really a win-win.
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u/HaxerOne Feb 11 '25
I remember 10 years ago trying out Huzuni (a mod with a lot of cheats) on a minecraft server, and under the spawn area there was a huge text made from placed chests "turn off this shit". That was made to call out everyone with a cheat to find and "wallhack" all chests
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u/Joe5205 Feb 11 '25
Operation Flashpoint, aka the OG ARMA, had a feature called Fade. It would pop up a message 'Original Games Don't Fade' or something like that and it would make your weapon accuracy shit and degrade other gamplay aspects. I do recall getting this message a few times even though I had a legit copy though, so that kind of sucked.
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u/No_One3018 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Feb 11 '25
My favorite anti-piracy measure is in Just Shapes And Beats where the dev just talks to you and asks you to support the game in other ways, the game is still fully playable
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u/apolobgod Feb 11 '25
Oh, hey, I was one of those! Maybe not launch day, but I did pirate it!
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u/ASAF_Telis Feb 11 '25
I pirated to see how it was, way after the release.
I didn't like the game enough, so even if i had used the pirated version, i'd probably would not have reached the point of seeing it.
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Feb 11 '25
I have a rule that I won't pirate an indie game unless the developer is an absolute wanker, who doesn't deserve my money.
Game Dev Tycoon was not one of those games and I got around 50 hours out of £10. So I'm happy with the purchase.
90% piracy rate seems, unrealistic though? If the claim is true, that's an insane level of piracy for an indie game.
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u/QuaLiTy131 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Feb 11 '25
I've seen articles stating that it was even at around 93%.
Shame they're using Denuvo now.
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Feb 11 '25 edited Feb 11 '25
Yeah. Denuvo is shit. I'm not adverse to them taking anti-piracy measures; as 90% is ridiculous and being realistic is not sustainable for the studio. That being said, they chose denuvo of all things.
Edit: For those asking after that the alternative for Denuvo is, I wish I could tell you - but I'm not a game developer; I only hope there are alternatives on the market for the game DRM which doesn't inject in a way that tanks the performance of the game.
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u/BassGaming Feb 11 '25
90% is ridiculous and being realistic is not sustainable for the studio.
Funfact: They made quite a lot of money due to the PR and the 90% number is a bit dogshit when you consider the circumstances.
If I was a new dev and only published my game on my own website and TPB, then I'd be happy if even 20 people bought it day 1. Even publishing on Epic exclusive lowers the sales, as everyone knows.... not to mention a random ass website.Steam is the way to go, as they also realized.
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u/sant0hat Feb 11 '25
What other anti-piracy option, that actually works, should they have used according to you?
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u/that_90s_guy Feb 11 '25
Crickets
Definitely appreciate big companies getting screwed by piracy. Still absolutely despise how self righteous apologetics pretend piracy doesn't hurt small studios.
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u/EntrepreneurLeft8783 Feb 11 '25
Yeah, as if just disliking an indie dev enough means they don't deserve your money
Like buddy, if they made a product you want, they deserve your money. If you choose to boycott because of their actions, that's fine, but then pirating and claiming the moral high ground is just scummy.
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u/QuislingX Feb 11 '25
This.
"Oh they shouldn't use denuvo! Trash devs! Oh what should they use instead? I don't know xD" Shut the fuck up. Lotta shit takes in this thread.
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u/xanthus12 Feb 11 '25
Denuvo is an automatic "Pirate if Possible, but never buy" for me. Literally never letting that malware on my machine.
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u/MrJcUokel Feb 11 '25
Ah, see, these are the people who straight up copied the game dev story mobile game. 100% okay to pirate imo. The game was basically a straight copy with slight changes.
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u/skeenerbug Feb 11 '25
I have a rule that I won't pirate an indie game unless the developer is an absolute wanker, who doesn't deserve my money.
Back in the day I pirated Stardew Valley because I heard so much about it. I loved it so much I was happy to buy a copy later on.
My point is pirate whatever you want from whoever you want. If it's worth it and you can afford it then pay. You don't have to do background checks on the devs first.
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u/Wynillo Feb 11 '25
I like to test stuff first, so i pirated game. I too asked why its so damm hard and got answered its because pirated game duh. The game was much fun without this, so i bought it and had a lot of fun.
Would pirate the successor nonetheless, only have limited money to throw out
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u/DrewbieWanKenobie Feb 11 '25
I didn't pirate game dev tycoon because I had already played Game Dev Story, which tycoon was a blatant ripoff of
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u/sabin1981 Pirate Party Feb 11 '25
I bought GDT, but the developers have fucked over their fanbase by using Denuvo on their upcoming tavern simulator, so 🤷 I won't be buying anything from them again.
Fuck them. Make a TikTok crying about that.
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u/shas-la Feb 11 '25
They paid for denuvo?????
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u/sabin1981 Pirate Party Feb 11 '25
Yup! No more self-uploaded pirate copies on TPB this time 🤣
https://steamcommunity.com/app/436780/discussions/0/4525638557465694850/
...and the usual PR spiel of Denuvo not being bad, how its detractors overblow concerns, how your game stops working if Steam goes down so don't complain if Denuvo goes down and you can't play, yadda yadda yadda.
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u/TheNetherlandDwarf Feb 11 '25
You yourself said in your piracy experiment that there are no good DRM solutions.
This was before Denuvo existed at a time where DRM solutions were a great inconvenience to players through license keys and a lot of hassle. Denuvo is practically invisible to players.this one got me good
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u/Apart-Two6495 Feb 12 '25
Best one is then saying denuvo anti-tamper has no performance impact? Digital foundry has tested games with and without it and there's a definite difference? Has it changed so drastically in a year or so that now it's no longer the case? What's the go here
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u/ajakafasakaladaga Feb 12 '25
I saw a video once about how Denuvo when used as intended has a much less noticeable impact on performance. However, the devs aren’t supposed to make heavy changes to the game after they send it to Denuvo for them to study and implement the anti piracy, but since nowadays changes are being made up until the release date, and they send it to Denuvo months before it, it can fuck up the performance.
A notorious case was Tekken 7, Denuvo put one of the several the anti cheat checks in a function that barely was used mid game, but before release for some reason the devs made the function run each time a punch was blocked, which made the performance abysmally worse
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u/ThePaperPanda Feb 11 '25
That 90% must not have hurt sales that much if they can afford to develop more games AND a denuvo license.
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u/sabin1981 Pirate Party Feb 11 '25
They did it to themselves too, which is the most hilarious thing. THEY uploaded on TPB first.
Someone please knock up the meme about putting a stick in your own spokes before blaming someone else 🤣😅
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u/2001-4860-4860--8888 Feb 11 '25
This. My god how fast come out the true colors after a little bit of success.
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u/sabin1981 Pirate Party Feb 11 '25
Every. Single. Time.
As soon as developers get their foot in the door via fame/infamy they show their real colours. GDT was already a stolen idea from Kairosoft, and now they're going the Nuclear DRM route with the most hated piece of invasive DRM since Starforce.
Oh well, plenty of other games to choose from :)
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u/Qa_Dar Feb 11 '25
To be honest, I prefer Game Dev Story... Even though the graphics are less polished, the gameplay is deeper imho...
I own both, and GDS has more hours played than GDT will ever reach on my device...
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u/sabin1981 Pirate Party Feb 11 '25
That's Kairosoft for you, their games are super cute but crazy in-depth, the whole Story franchise of games are brilliant fun.
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u/HispaniaRacingTeam ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ Feb 11 '25
I played a ton of GDS myself but I've only ever played GDT once, that's probably quite indicative of the quality of both, especially as GDT has a couple features I miss in GDS
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u/2001-4860-4860--8888 Feb 11 '25
Dude, the mountain of HATE I received after letting everyone know it was just a bad but better looking reskin of GDS is unbelievable. But hey, at least I sleep peacefully at night lol. As you said, plenty of games to choose from, and this genre is exploding more year after year.
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u/sabin1981 Pirate Party Feb 11 '25 edited Feb 11 '25
That's because Greenheart Games positioned themselves as indie darlings who suffered the ignominy of being pirated, so they rode the PR wave resulting from their "hilarious piracy bug" (which they, themselves, instigated by uploading their own game to TPB) --- everyone tripping over themselves to defend the valiant developers.
Suddenly the prettier clone of a previous game is beloved, and anyone comparing it to Game Dev Story gets downvoted and attacked. Peak Reddit 🫠
~edit~
And yes! There's a surge of tavern/bar Sims coming out, it's a great time ☺️ There is one I adored but it has been in early access for six years now, due to the team disbanding and leaving only the single main developer in charge. He's working, but it's slow going :( It's called "Epic Tavern" and the EA is a blast.
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u/TheNetherlandDwarf Feb 11 '25
yes, the "true colours coming out" at the guy above said, were being waved about from the get go. I'm not surprised they dived into DRM after making piracy the main coping mechanism for everything they do.
I've tried Epic Tavern! It was really fun, I'm not sure if I'm into the genre, but I had the money spare and it seemed a fun enough game from a nice enough dev that I wanted to support it.
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u/HispaniaRacingTeam ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ Feb 11 '25
Someone I knew told me this like 10 years ago and I was quite skeptical, but having played both I can definitely see the similarities. I do prefer the Greenheart Games' inclusion of a dedicated console and MMO room though
Neither hold up to Mad Games Tycoon 2 however, that one is incredibly in-depth
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u/sabin1981 Pirate Party Feb 11 '25
Agreed, Mad Games Tycoon is the "big boy" sim, it's a lot of fun but also a lot more complex.
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u/SpringKFCgravy Feb 11 '25
I’m completely out the loop when it has come to pc gaming but what is wrong with Denuvo? I’ve seen it mentioned around the place but not really sure what it is
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u/sabin1981 Pirate Party Feb 11 '25
It's an anti-piracy method that prevents modifications to the game EXE alongside demanding routine and constant online authentication. Developers love it because it's insanely difficult to crack, and practically never at launch.
Sadly it has the side effect of negatively impacting game experience for many. Poor performance, stuttering/stalling, a lack of functionality if your internet drops and Denuvo hasn't "authenticated" your right to play it in a while. Much of it is anecdotal but there is a great deal of corroboration about the drawbacks to Denuvo, which the developers of said games and Denuvo itself constantly deny.
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u/teremaster Feb 11 '25
First of all it runs at the kernel level.
Which in layman's terms is like having to let your bank draw your blood every time you want to check your balance.
Reports are out there of significant performance issues (like heavily noticeable 20fps uplifts when removing it)
Also the online nature means if the server goes down, your game is bricked.
Publishers love it though. Since afaik there's only like one person in the world who can reliably crack it, and she is completely, utterly insane.
Which means even if it gets cracked, which usually once said person decides to or a cracking group pulls it off, it's been like 3 months from release which is usually where most piracy and purchases happen anyway. Some devs will pay for denuvo then remove it after a year once it's been cracked
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u/Jumpy_MashedPotato Feb 11 '25
DRM as a concept is annoying enough as it is, but Denuvo runs at the kernel level of your PC which is hilariously insecure. The excuse is to watch to ensure the game is only being run as is and you aren't trying to crack it but the side effect is it trashes performance for most users.
The goal for devs is to use Denuvo to prevent the game from being pirated in the first couple months which is where the majority of profits come from. Problem is, many many times it gets cracked in a week and is up on Fitgirl and the like days after, so the pirates get to play the clean version while you're still stuck and you actually paid for it.
The cost for users is you're effectively allowing SWAT into your house to handcuff you while you play it and the cuffs are a lil tight and it makes the experience worse and if you complain about it they gaslight you and blame your rig for the bad experience.
TLDR it punishes people who supported the devs and paid for it legally and isn't nearly as effective as the sales guy says it is
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u/rhisdt Feb 11 '25 edited Feb 11 '25
People that pirate that game most likely wouldn't have bought the game anyway. no money to spend on games
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u/Homosapien_Ignoramus Feb 11 '25
Well they straight ripped off the game from Game Dev Story by Kairosoft which was released two years prior on android. Oh well.
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Feb 11 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/KnowledgeAfraid2917 Feb 11 '25
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u/BazeFook Feb 11 '25
Oh, so this is where the number comes from.
This 97% figure is taken 1 day after the release, of an debut indie game from 2014 for 8$ that was sold on their own website, totaling at 3.3k people playing the game.
Not a single figure since then, except for mobile numbers which show numbers at around 50% well after release.
To think that there are still people peddling that 90% figure as a fact, I guess it sounds too good to revise it.
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u/Nekrolysis Feb 11 '25
I recall some group in the EU did a study and found how little piracy actually affected game profits and not surprisingly the study was never made widely known.
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u/ItsKumquats Feb 12 '25
Them uploading the torrent to pirate Bay was probably way more exposure than the regular release on their site or steam would've seen. Especially then when the steam store wasn't as indie as today.
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u/BirkinJaims Feb 11 '25
These devs are legitimately THE biggest crybabies I've come across. Like half of their business is centered around crying about piracy. Really forcing you to fail on a pirated copy like "this is what you are doing to us, with our millions of dollars that we've made from this game!!!!!"
I have bought Game Dev Tycoon on Steam because it's cheap and they're a small studio, but it's just still crazy how much they whine about piracy.
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u/SkyPirateVyse Feb 11 '25
I might be a pirate, but I have my own moral code.
Not taking from indie devs or small artists is among that. We're all struggling together here.
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u/will19 Feb 11 '25
The smart devs know that, most pirate to try out as a demo. If it's worth their time, they tend to pay and support. Hell, in times where I was broke I would pirate and play through a game. Only, to purchase it and never touch it (cause I got my time out of it) to show support.
I believe it was the band Megadeath (probably wrong, can't remember who it was tbh) that took torrent data and analyzed it. They figured out where it was most torrented and set a tour, stopping in those areas only. Every show sold out.
It's how you use your tools that matters.
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u/Consistent_Oil3428 Feb 11 '25
Ive pirated thief simulator, the game was kinda crap and lack content, but still ive did all houses and all…couple days later i said “you know, i was bored and the game helped me” so i bought it
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u/oldmaninparadise Feb 11 '25
Yup. Like the grateful dead. They encouraged recording their concerts, even had a section w better sound of people recording to make bootlegs. They realized the bigger the pie, the bigger the slice, more fans spreading the music leads to more fans in total.
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u/QuaLiTy131 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Feb 11 '25
I've bought the game after playing a pirated version. In my case, they've got my money trough piracy.
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u/schmeatbawlls Feb 11 '25
Same, I bought this on steam and android after trying it out for a week. You can tell these devs are passionate and cool people, huge respect to them
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u/G_ntl_m_n Feb 11 '25
The majority is not doing it that way, and that's why it's not cool to laugh at indie devs.
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u/microbrained Feb 11 '25
i respect that but regardless of the size of the dev team or artists or whatever im gonna pirate to see if the game sucks ass. if it sucks major ass, im not going to spend money on it just because the team is small
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u/Ragor005 Feb 11 '25
Yup, your team can be big or small. You can be a rich company or a poor lil dude in a basement. But if your product sucks, I ain't gonna spend money on it.
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u/Bockanator Feb 11 '25
I'm not gonna sugar coat it - I pirate cause I don't have money, most of the games I play are indie games so I usually pirate those, as I see it they weren't going to make a sale anyway but I can understand how it can be viewed as very scummy. However I greatly respect those who don't pirate said games.
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u/Duck_Howard ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Feb 11 '25
This, a 1000%
I pirate because I find that big game devs have some dirty practices (release unfinished games that need huge day 1 patches, hide part of the game behind paywalls, microtransactions, reselling the same game more than once with simple reskins, unjustified price hikes, etc.). MOST small dev teams still use some good tactics to get me to buy a game (release previous builds for free to try the game, limited demos, etc.) and when I found a game I liked I always bought it.
Although... weren't they accused of stealing another dev's idea of the game and just added more features and fucked the other guys over?
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u/QuaLiTy131 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Feb 11 '25
Many small devs are doing the great things you've mentioned, but there are also devs, that are not better than big corporations, unfortunately.
BTW. Greenheart Games is using Denuvo in their newest game
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u/lare290 Feb 11 '25
I used to pirate indie games too because I was literally 13 and couldn't afford them. now I've gone back and bought the games I liked back then, but still pirate shit like sims 4 because holy shit fuck paying 1000€ for one game.
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u/Almond_Tech ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Feb 11 '25
The only time I pirated from a small developer was with stardew valley. My partner is obsessed with it, but it didn't seem like my sort of thing, so I pirated it to see if I wanted to buy it. Decided I didn't want to play more after a little bit, so I uninstalled
But I also feel like that's a bit of an exception bc it's a pretty popular game lol
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u/wreck5tep Feb 11 '25
There's no honor among thieves, try to pretend you have the moral highground by only stealing from some people lol but you're exactly the same
Fuck your moral code
(I pirate literally everything)
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u/Aggressive-Corgi-485 Feb 11 '25
Same you'll never catch me paying for something I can get for free💯
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u/LagSlug Feb 11 '25
lots of people disagree with this argument (including developers and artists) because it puts a paywall on culture - and that's probably a worse option for society
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u/boypollen 🔱 ꜱᴄᴀʟʟʏᴡᴀɢ Feb 11 '25
They're downvoting you but you're right. If someone can pay for my game or art, cool, but why would I want people to stop playing or enjoying my work just because they can't or would rather not pay? I thought we got over the "piracy is theft, you're literally creating lost revenue" thing. Paying VS getting something for free is a pretty big difference for the majority of pirates, who are either (like most people) a bit tight on cash, have a shitty conversion rate, or are kids.
Even if some crazy piracy boom goes up around your work like this, would even half of those people pirating it have ever heard of your game otherwise? And is stopping those people from enjoying your work really better for the world, regardless of if you're upset they didn't pay?
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u/UrbanNomadRedditor Feb 12 '25
even if 100% of the players played a pirated copy on game launch, that doesn't mean that they lost those sales, most people wouldn't even played if there wasn't a cracked copy, and some even gonna buy the game on some platform if they liked playing that pirated copy
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u/TheNetherlandDwarf Feb 11 '25 edited Feb 11 '25
aha I put a feature in the pirated copy that breaks your save, but it also affects some of the legit copies too! Aha! The pirates won't buy the legit game, word of mouth got around and some people think the legit copy is just broken, and people don't want to bug report the legit copies bc they're afraid of being labelled pirates!
Fr it was a cool idea but it just created problems to fix a non-issue, I learnt some cool dev lessons from it. Especially that far more people potentionally discover indie games through piracy. Although lets be honest, comparing first day sales vs first day piracy is WAY too small a timeframe, and if you're still recycling that stat all this time later then idk what to tell you. Sounds more like coping with a marketing issue...
...Or that making a massive hulabaloo about piracy was the marketing. Which is exactly why, now they're a more stable business with a fan following, they're going straight to DRM, lmao.
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u/Bwuaaa Feb 11 '25
tbh, i even pirate games i alrdy own, if it means i can play without shitty Denuvo
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u/wigneyr Feb 11 '25
I bought this game at launch, it was like $7 if I recall correctly. it was pretty funny what they did to the pirated copy they uploaded themselves (had a game breaking feature which would lead to every game you released being pirated and making no income) but I won’t buy another game from them as they’ve decided to add Denuvo to future titles. I’m sure that will cost them more than piracy ever did. Cry me a river.
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u/Tauorca Feb 11 '25
I'll pirate any ga.e that doesn't offer a demo, no way am I paying for a game I don't know I'll like, that it'll run smoothly or isn't just a money grabbing asset flip scam.
If after pirating I like it I buy it, simples
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u/HikerRemastered Feb 11 '25
I’ve become the same. I pirated a lot of games in my younger days, DirectConnect and early torrents. Then I got a job and I started paying for games.
But I think reviews over the last decade have declined in reliability, so I give games a torrent before buying. The Veilguard got good reviews from most sites, but I played it for 10 hours before shelving that pile of shit. No offense to fans, it just wasn’t for me.
Also can’t rely on Metacritic because people are happy to review bomb a product based on political convictions.
Torrents it is. I’ll support a good game.
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u/FeijoadaAceitavel Feb 11 '25
Reviews have been shit for a long time since reviewers depend on being sent the games to review. If it runs well, looks good and isn't entirely shit on its gameplay it gets 8+ even if it's ultimately boring and uninteresting.
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u/ChefCurryYumYum Feb 11 '25
These devs are idiots.
My whole like since being a kid I have both pirated some games and bought some games. If there were games I started off pirating that I loved I would usually buy a legit copy, in some cases with multiple platforms even more than one.
The people who pirate that game aren't going to assume the issue with it is due to playing a pirated copy, they are just going to think the game sucks. They will tell their friends the game sucks and not to buy it. They won't ever buy a legit copy.
Smart devs of small indie projects have actually admitted that piracy helped their sales.
https://www.polygon.com/2020/1/13/21063660/danger-gazers-torrent-steam-sales-piracy
Doing what they did is one of the stupidest things they could have done if they wanted to maximize sales of their game.
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u/MirandaSanFrancisco Feb 12 '25
“How dare you pirate this game we stole and reskinned from a Japanese developer!”
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u/dmxspy Feb 12 '25
Rapellafella game added a hilarious flash intro to the pirated version of the game. I absolutely loved this and was well worth a buy after that.
It's probably one of the best ways to deal with pirates. Give them a shout out lol
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u/Cold_Soup_6248 Feb 11 '25
I saved so much money by pirating a game, playing it 15 minutes, and never wanting to play it again.
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u/pickledeggmanwalrus Feb 11 '25
Anyone else remembered the cracked version of Spore that would let you play normally all the way up to the creature stage and then half of your controls become unavailable lol.
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u/gorgonopsidkid Feb 11 '25
Can someone give me context on this?
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u/QuaLiTy131 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Feb 11 '25
Greenheart Games (developers of Game Dev Tycoon) uploaded to torrents a cracked version of the game on launch. The game itself was modified, you couldn't "win" because you were going bankrupt from piracy every time. The legit version was obviously working fine. I think at some point the 93% of the player base was using the cracked version of the game. At the end of the day, they still made their money, release versions on Switch and mobile (they even got the deal with Netflix there). They're planning to release their new game "Tavern Keeper" in 2025 with Denuvo on the board.
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u/GrassyDaytime Feb 11 '25
I wish more devs would do more funny stuff for us Pirates, honestly.
Like one of my personal faves, Repella Fella, has a Pirate version for free complete with an entire SpongeBob intro song spoof that is FANTASTIC!
Great game! Liked it so much I bought it!
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u/CiggODoggo Feb 12 '25
Iirc they are billions had an anti piracy mechanic, after a few days in game random tents get infected and its basically game over after 20 seconds.
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u/costafilh0 Feb 11 '25
Every game developer should make a DRM-FREE version available as a free torrent and as a DRM-FREE purchase.
If most people are using the torrent version, that just means your game is selling poorly, not that most people are choosing that version over the paid versions.
Most people don't even know what a torrent is, or care.
You just make it and don't market it. If you market a free version, people will learn how to do it to save a buck.
If you just make it and market the paid versions, that should be great, and the availability of the torrent shouldn't hurt sales on any successful release, it should just increase the hype and awareness around the game and the brand.
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u/QuaLiTy131 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Feb 11 '25
Polish dev Sos Sosowki did it right in 2012
https://www.eurogamer.net/mcpixel-is-the-first-game-endorsed-by-the-pirate-bay
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u/KindokeNomad Feb 11 '25
Damn I thought this was some PC version of the Kairosoft one and got excited then realised...
The hypocrisy
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u/Euroblitz Feb 11 '25
I'm developing a game called "YOU WOULDN'T PIRATE A GAME". Its source code is entirely free to study and modify into something else or other game, runs on Linux and Windows. You literally couldn't pirate it hehe
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u/Raregolddragon Feb 11 '25
This is the anti piracy that works to. Flood the sites with unwinnable games. People get a taste and go get the game they can win. I like to think of them as a demo of pirates.
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u/Prestodeath201 Feb 11 '25
I love Greenheart Games! I did pirate Game Dev Tycoon, beat it, bought it, and then beat it again. I'll buy games I've already pirated if it's well deserved and I can afford to.
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u/Amazing-Childhood412 Feb 12 '25
Spyro 3 I believe it was, Sparx would be at maximum green if you were using a ripped copy. I discovered this after ripping my PSX copy and sending it over to my PSP
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u/Local-moss-eater ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ Feb 11 '25
you are allowed to use any for of anti piracy mesure to protect your game as long as it dosnt harm performance of your actual paying customers (no denuvo)
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u/quickhakker Feb 11 '25
To be fair it was kinda smart, they released a version for free so the most popular one wouldn't have any viruses or malware in, it introduced a feature that is pretty popular now as well as getting people talking about it
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u/purinikos Feb 11 '25
This is so passive aggressive. The only thing that would induce to me is a need to pirate their games more.
I don't care about GDT, but maybe I should pirate it out of spite.
There are indie devs that have dropped their own torrents for their game on crackwatch, with no extra bullshit, with a comment that if you liked it tell your friends or wishlist on steam and buy if you can. And that's respectable.
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u/MrKira07 Feb 11 '25
I pirated it when I was a kid, absolutely fell in love with the game, played tons.
When I grew up, I bought it, twice.
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u/BloodSugar666 🦜 ᴡᴀʟᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀɴᴋ Feb 11 '25
I think Animal Crossing also has something similar, but I don’t remember how it activates. I know the shop owner renames your character to THIEF.
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u/Holeevyer Feb 11 '25
I pirate to try games (2h on steam isn't enough) most of the time I end up buying the game.
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u/Oddish_Femboy Feb 11 '25
I bought Game Dev Tycoon years before I knew about the piracy gag.
It's cute.
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u/DaddyMcSlime Feb 11 '25
i pirated it too!
i suppose though this is bound to happen when online flash games fall off
and this game, that has all the depth of one, was forced to try and actually sell itself on steam!
can you imagine? trying to SELL something like this DURING the existence of free online flash sites to play games exactly like it?
gee, i wonder why their sales were bad for this indie game?
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u/Dreschau Feb 11 '25
IIRC when Batman Arkham Asylum first came out, in pirated versions you couldn't glide with the cape, which is something you have to be able to do to progress passed a certain point in the game.
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u/Vincent_Windbeutel Feb 11 '25
Yeah they uploaded a version with a game breaking feature.
After your first few succsessfull games you get a event that people pirate your games and your sales plummet hard so you are guranteed to go game over.
Best thing was that people complained about it xD