A ranking of the most pirated games of 2009 provides a measure of popularity of sorts, and seems to demonstrate that the misgivings publishers have about piracy rates on the PC are not all froth after all.
The games, as measured by copies illegally distributed through torrenting:
PC
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (4,100,000)
2. The Sims 3 (3,200,000)
3. Prototype (2,350,000)
4. Need For Speed Shift (2,100,000)
5. Street Fighter IV (1,850,000)
360
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (970,000)
2. Street Fighter IV (840,000)
3. Prototype (810,000)
4. Dirt 2 (790,000)
5. UFC 2009 Undisputed (720,000)
Wii
1. New Super Mario Bros. (1,150,000)
2. Punch-Out!! (950,000)
3. Wii Sports Resort (920,000)
4. The House of the Dead: Overkill (860,000)
5. Mario Power Tennis (830,000)
PS3
0
(PS3 ISOs are distributed but there is no way of running them)
Although it is uncertain what percentage of these downloads would actually have resulted in a lost sale, it certainly seems the PS3 enjoys an almost unprecedented advantage in this area, for game developers at any rate.
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I just wish the PS3 had games to pirate.
Am i the only one who's noticed that Piracy for these main systems are such a big deal now that the game's aren't of the same quality as they used to be?
I think it's pretty simple. Start making genuine fun games and people will buy them. Keep doing a bullshit job and only focusing on the graphics instead of the gameplay and people will continue pirating. Because who wants to pay for a lousy game?
No wonder why ps3 console sale is low but why the heck the psp is beaten by the ds when it can be pirated too? maybe lack of games or good games i think
I think that soon it may change since there are people making a DS emulator for the PSP. I haven't tried it yet but some games are supposed to be playable.
I've heard it said that a bank robber is not a 'radical' by any means, that he himself is one of the strongest supporters of "The System" in that he absolutely agrees with the value of the money he takes from the banker.
The companies should be flattered if anything about the downloading issue. Just put out nice messages to support them for their labors, they'll be popular with people who can't afford 'em in the recession right now but when the economy improves will go back to buying their stuff. Whereas though they of course would want to protect their intellectual property, the spreading of the materials does more good in advertising than hurting in lost sales. It probably opens up a market to them that would otherwise not browse their games.
And, btw, one thing I DON'T download is "Pirated Games".
Anyone who's been following my posts knows that my M/O is "Buy no game system under a year old". I just wait and watch and then buy from a used shop. Just before X-Mas as a gift to myself I got Lego Star Wars and Batman from a Pawn shop for US$5 each. Fun games, and US$5 is so worth it in time versus having my computer 75% tied up mastering a DVD for 12 hours, not counting download time. If I'd bought 'em at $20 each, okay... And I'd REALLY have had "Buyers Remorse" getting them each at $60. But I just waited a while, $5 each, no need for "Piracy".
I don't think these big companies are hurt by piracy, if anything they are helped. Smaller makers, however might be. The guy that made BilesToad (ancient game, anyone remember?) said his game was a multi-million user 'hit' but he himself barely sold his first "Print run" of a few thousand. Myself, yes, I first wanted the game BAD when I saw my friends playing pirated copies. I plead the 5th on anything I did regarding that;-) And I actually went with B-Day money to buy it from the software store but no one there knew about it, how to order it, and treated me like dirt trying to ask about it. That was pre-www and mostly pre-internet...
If it takes you 12 hours to burn a disk then you either have an extremely slow computer that couldn't run it anyways or a really crappy burner. It takes around 15 minutes or less to burn a disk and if it is a movie that needs reencoding then it takes at most 2 to 3 hours.
Or my relative "Green" ness to the subject...
For raw data backup, my DVDs go pretty fast, though with "External HDDs" more affordable, I prefer those nowadays. Gonna get a Terrabyte one ASAP!!! I do "Double fault" for stuff I like (comics, porn, books) and "Triple + fault" for critical things.
However, I've made a few DIY porn (collections of favorite parts of porn movies) DVDs and it took F*cking forever. The DVD software (nero) laid everything out and let me demo it, but then the mix-down to DVD readable track really took a long time to grind it out/convert it. Maybe I should have converted a file before adding it to software that presented itself as "Drag and Drop"...
Haven't ever tried making a PS2 DVD either. I'm patient and can just wait till I see things available. Might want to burn a CD for older stuff, that is waaayyyy past any company even existing/interested and I'd get scalped for: Dreamcast titles, SegaCD... (Saturn, perhaps, if I get one)
Wonder why PlayStation 3 software sales are still generally below the Xbox 360's, even though this one was definitely the PS3's year...
professional developers barely know how to program the ps3, with documentation (haha) and all. let alone some random dude
how can they calculate this... normally people never say they bought or downloaded pirate movies or games.
I know, it's another way to let us know that the PS3 is superior...LOL.
I guess,in a sense, PS3 beats all other consoles.
and still the sales of PS3 and 360 multiplat titles show no large differences which tells me the effect of pirates on sales is moot
and on a second note MW2 was torrented over number as protest or simple rage like spore
Good job Sony, for making a good console with no pirated games :)
Good for PS3.
F-ing pirates.
lets see
In the world we're living now
Sales for 'This Game' is 160K copies
but 'This Game' was dled 900K times, if they can't pirate it, we won't have this poor sales... is it?
In the world where we can't pirate anything
Sales for 'This Game' is 160K copies
why is it the same as the world of piracy?
as I bought ps3, as there's no options, I simply bought the one that I really like only, became more picky in buying stuff. buying off stock clearance games, 2nd hand, whatever.
as if I would spend my 1/n monthly salary for that piece of crap. got $100 budget monthly, Disgaea 4 ($40), Sim Crap ($65), Atelier Something ($50), re-skinned FPS with a little bit theme changes ($70)
I'll be happy with my disgaea 4 and atelier something for hundreds of hours, than buying sims crap or buying re-skinned FPS with a little bit theme changes.
That's what you get Modern Warfare 2 on the PC. Bring freaking dedicated servers next time you want to come to the PC.
I am not sure how much game pirating affects sales. What I do know is that pirating should not affect the game financial success of a game. Games like MW and GTA SA may have been pirated a lot but they still sold massive amounts of numbers. I am of the opinion that majority of people who pirate software, movies, music, etc. would never buy the game new in the first place. Before napster got hit I used to download music. I never bought a cd before or since. I literally own 7 cds that were gifts. The film industry is the same. You either are going to go to the theater or not. I wouldn't spend a dollar to watch Ishtar. A lot of games that have flopped that were good flopped for more tangible reasons. Freespace 2 flopped because the space sim genre was on its way out. Okami had a bad advertising campaign. I would even say the box itself needed some work. The Legacy of Kain series lost its way a bit after Soul Reaver. SR2, BO2, Defiance were very similiar to each other in gameplay. SR2 while I would consider it have normal gameplay time nowadays was extremely short when it came out. It could be finished in 10 to 12 hours and Soul Reaver 1 took around 60 according to box. Probably 40 to 50 with a faq on your lap. I distinctly remember reviewers considering it half a game. Most game failures can be traced to something other than pirating. If pirating ceased to exist I doubt various industries would see a substantial increase in revenue.
the usual...
to add insult to injury, the already pricey ps3 has security flanking it on either side to assure that we can't get cheap games for it either.
(cries bitterly)
Rofl for PS3 XD
I'm lucky living in a Country were I can freely buy Pirated Games and DVDS especially Movies .
Pirated DVDs are as crystal clear as original DVDs minus The Fucking Stupid Special Features because all we want is to enjoy the fucking movie not Stupid Special Features .
If People say Pirated Goods are Bad , then your most probably a westerner .
From Where I live , We Support Pirates . ARGH !!!!!
I agree with PC cause I downloaded 4 outta 5 of those xD
Kinda surprised PS3 won at something for once :\
I dont really see too much of an issue w/ pirating. Dont be a stupid company and make stupid decisions and your game wont be pirated except by the tards that steal everything no matter what. Here is a perfect example.
Borderlands Vs CoD:MW2
DRM:Borderlands purposfully has NO DRM while MW2 included the latest batch uf "unhackable" DRM from activision.
Community:Borderlands was made FOR gamers BY gamers and utilized community input and continues to listen to its community for its expansion packs. MW2 blatantly ignored ALL input from its community and specifically took away things it KNEW its client base expected (see dedicated servers, and many other advanced features available in past offerings). Not only that but MW2 Dev's continue to ignore all input from its community and go against the flow of its user base.
Distribution: Borderlands publishers decide to opt out and NOT use steam due to its invasiveness on user systems and the conflict of interest it presents w/ Valve. It offers standard(see old school dvd) distribution against the current trend of download with DRM(gamespy,impulse,steam). MW2 offers current trend distribution only and your game MUST be connected to the internet and verified to even think about playing it.
Scorecard: Borderlands is not often pirated and most copies pirated turn into purchases so you can play multiplayer with friends as multiplayer is strong and continues to improve with each expansion. MW2 is the most pirated game of the year and may wind up most pirated of the decade at this rate. Most copies DO NOT turn into purchases due to advances in hamachi and users developing advanced coding for the game themselves have made their own dedicated servers and community. No need to buy a version of the game with less features ensures this trend will only get stronger
Read this and MAYBE developers will understand how making video games works. Here is a few tips... Dont claim you know all, listen to your users. Pretty simple right? Apparently not for infinity ward....
Where the hell are you living? Borderland has been on Steam for ages. It even has run several discount campaings. Even right now you can get it at a discount price.
Initially borderlands (see Gearbox) refused to use steam but caved after forum requests started showing up. Just google gearbox refuses steam to see the original interview with Gearbox and how they planned on NOT using steam. I may sound like a borderlands fanboi but I will attribute its retraction of position on its ability to listen to their customers (or future customers) requests. How are MW2 issues being handled so far.... OHHHHH wait, they arent.
I agree with you save on the apparent demonization of Steam.
As long as developers aren't forced to introduce DRM crap into their products in order to get them on Steam, I think it's all fine and dandy.
And I somewhat want to believe that it isn't Infinity Ward the ones with the assholic behavior here, but Activision. We'll have to wait and see Treyarch's next entry in the series to be 100% sure about this, though.
yay for piracy.
...............oh wait, PS3 still hasn't been pirated yet, which is why nobody play it's game.
That's because PS3 has no games to pirate.
There are ways of running ISOs on the PS3, there has been since it was first released. The real reason why no games were pirated is because the PS3 had no games to begin with!
Yes. Adapt or die.
Well the ps3 definetly has the advantage but not from a gamers point of view just the developers but microsoft is stopping this on the xbox isn't it because there were loads of articles on this site about modded 360 users being banned from xbox live, i suppose thats a start but that doesn't really stop the problem though.
Helluewa, why is there's not Luffy, or someone from One Piece on the article pic ???
I'm a game developer (console platforms), and I can assure you that third party (non-publisher owned, i.e. publisher-independtent) game developers do not care.
In fact we sometimes pirate games ourselves (privately anyway, but sometimes just to get ahold of hard-to-get reference titles when we design a new game. For research, of course).
Umm...there actually is a way to play burned PS3 games now. You just have to afford the discs and burner.
You can play PS2 ISOs on the PS3 if you have one of the first PS3s.
getting games off bootlegs sometimes works but soon u will have 2 moded your systems 2 play bootlegs games but u will get 3 red lights its suck so much and u have 2 risk it >.<
Do you know why the PS3 has no piracy?
because it has no gaems
360 fanboy spotted.. lol and its spelled GAMEs, of which it Clearly has Get your head out of M$ ass and you'll see. and no i dont have a PS/360/Wii. =) dumbass..
Oh god can't you guys see that this person is clearly trolling?
"ps3 has no gaems" is a meme (don't know if it's a forced one or not).
PC fanboy spotted...lol and it's GAMES, of which it clearly has(.) Get your head out of M$('s) ass and you'll see. (A)nd no (I) don(')t have a PS(3)/(Xbox)360/Wii. =) (D)umbass..
PS3/Xbox360 = Hardcore.
Wii = Casual.
PC = More casual, but not hardcore.
EAT IT, BITCH!
i don't believe piracy is a big a problem as the company say simply because me like most other people only get what they couldn't/wouldn't Buy/afford such as games,manga,anime that are only distributed in japan or that country's either ban or massacre with censoring,editing,crappy voices and subbing whats wrong with wanting the original product.
yeah kinda weird PSP is not there ._.'
and I thought sims 3 would be in first place xD or not even close to it, but it looks it got the 2nd place ._.'''
Yea I kinda assumed that project diva would be on this list seeing as miku is the image for it :3
But you must buy the original Project Diva with the cute mini Nendo!!!
bundled items are a great incentive. /agree
look, i am a pirate, but i rarely torrent new games cause i think some of the new games suck, but that is only for PC and DS.
I at least balance it out by not getting my wii or 360 chipped because i find that most PC and DS games are WAY over-priced and that 360 and wii games are priced accordingly
Pirate suck ! if u cant afford it dont buy it.Get a job.Thats why pc gaybox wii suck.
What about DS?
and Love Plus?
Nobody wants a pirate wife.
nobody wants a wife like Nami, Robin or even loli pirate Patty?
that could be awsome, you get to raid the tresure chest every night
Pirates are just cheapskates. They just make justifiable reasons that what they're doing is right. Pathetic I tell you. They just pass the blame to the developers instead. I'd say FUCK piracy.
Who shit in your cereal?
Greedy game companies are just cheapskates. They just make justifiable reasons that what they're doing is right. Pathetic I tell you. They just pass the blame to the pirates instead. I'd say FUCK those greedy bastards.
Yeah!
Fuck em until they stop making games, that'll show those greedy bastards!!! ...wait, wat
"(PS3 ISOs are distributed but there is no way of running them)"
Sure you can. All you need is a Blu-Ray Disc Burner and an up-to-date copy of PowerISO.
lol. good one.
You are mixing "burn" with "run".
The PS3 will refuse the disk, unless you circumvent the chip that is used to authenticate the disks.
And there are no publicly known ways to do that.
Hah! MW2 deserves it... They screw PC gamers like me.
And that was awfully kind that PSP isn't here. :P
This reminds me of the PS2 RPG Suikoden V. There's always crying why Konami is taking so long to make Suikoden VI. Hah, why should they! Grats, you pirates killed the game series, I hope you're happy.
In Japan, Suikoden V only sold 195,000 copies compared to Suikoden IV 303,000 copies.
Well, no matter, mediocre games should just die off and make way for more cinematic Metal Gear Solid.
Probably because IV was crap -) they did not want to buy next game..
I don't like your tone with the Suikoden games, dear Anon. :|
Thankfully, all mys Suikoden games are original. Also, I blame Suikoden IV for lack of sales by V.
Yah, sure. And surely doesnt matter that Suiko IV was a horrible, horrible dissapointment. That´s not gonna hurt the sales of the next one, of course not. Its all the fault of those dirty buccaneers!
Anyways everyone knows that Suikoden rechaed the perfection in the second, after that the series started to go in downhill.
What about the DS? The games I pirate are either DS or old school games.
MW2 so fucking deserved it.
People got what they paid for.
Aw shut the fuck up.
People might have bought more PC copies if it wasn't such a turd of a port.
Well, makes sense MW2 PC players got screwed with the haphazard 360 port and loss of dedicated servers with how much people pirate.
Strange how the internet thinks everything should be free to them now. I'm all for eliminating money, but still...
What? PC port? If anything MW2 was made on Xbox 360 and/or PS3 architecture then ported over to the PC not the other way around.
That's what he said, fanboy.
Usually when you say "360 port" it means "ported to the 360". He phrased things oddly.
Consoles/Casuals are a bigger market is why.
Poor game companies making millions off of completely regurgitated and recopied content. Oh and please bring me more pricey microtransaction based content.
BAWWWWW.
This is not necessarily true. Clover Studio -- the developers that brought us Okami, Viewtiful Joe, and "I'm like the motherfuckin' Fist of the North Star" God Hand -- is a prime example.
Okami was rightly hailed by game press as a truly outstanding video game but Clover Studio closed due to poor sales.
It's pretty much universally agreed upon that the Legacy of Kain series has some of the best voice acting in the history of video games. The series' intriguing, mature plot is amazing.
But there's a good chance we'll never see another LoK game because the last couple games sold dismally so publisher Eidos (now known as SquareEnix Europe) doesn't want to take anymore risks on it. There is proof of this -- Crystal Dynamics wanted to make a sixth game and started preliminary development but Eidos canceled it.
Okami, God Hand, LoK, etc. are anything BUT rehashes and crappy sales killed them, not consoles/casuals.
And guess what? I have not bought, downloaded or played any of those 3 games.
Since I didn't download tem it probably means that I helped the companies by not stealing money from them. Yay for me. This is great - I'm helping someone by not doing anything.
"illegally distributed through torrenting"...
So if a relative does it and gave all the PC games to me that way, do i get shot by the government?... :D
Bcuz this anon is guilty for having those top 5 pc games... aheh... heh...
All pirates should just die, you are the reason why pc game industry is dying.
Are you an idiot, it's the reason why everything is dying. I lol'd! but it's "Ai-ight" to a T.
Complete and utter bullshit, honestly. I'm a game developer with experience in the field and with contacts in both big and small companies and I still say that.
I would personally argue post-Xbox Microsoft is the reason the PC gaming industry is in such dire straits...
I don't think it's Microsoft's fault that many publishers (such as Activision) don't consider the beneficial effects of releasing demos of highly expected titles, or that they think infecting the users' systems with random DRM bullshit is actually a good idea (see 2K Games).
For more info, check this out: http://insomnia.ac/commentary/pc_game_piracy/
It's long as all hell, but it paints a pretty good picture of the situation, all sides considered.
No. While people say it's "dire", it's still in a good condition. Unlike consoles, where developers has to pay royalty to develop games for Sony (PS3) and Microsoft (XboX), you don't have to pay anything for the PC. Which is why PC is still the best bet for indie game developers. some of these indie games tends to be a hit as well Games like World of Goo, Portal, and Audiosurf were created as indies first, but then picked up by larger game developers and became more famous.
Another thing is the ease of modding on the PC compared to te consoles, as this also lead to some popular mods that sometimes eclipse the original games. Will we ever see soemthing like the Counter Strike phenomenon on the console. No. But that phenomenon will still happen on the PC. And for that developers like Valve, Blizzard and Codemasters still believe in the PC side of gaming. Capcom for example released better, more refined versions of it's street fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 for the PC, citing it's the BEST version of the game. If they think the PC gaming industry is dying why would have they done that?
Yes but let's not forget that Microsoft tried or is still trying to make us pay even when we play a game online in our PC like her X-Box users do.
the more you pirate, the more money you steal from the game developers, this is true.
but Infinity Ward wouldn't use that money for fixing MW2, and the fact that the pirated version actually had dedicated servers, pirates win this war.
YEARGH!
Pirating isn't stealing anything. A 1:1 comparison like that just isn't true. I've personally downloaded games/movies/music that I would never have paid for if I had the money. Where does that fit into the equation? Yet, some of the stuff that I'm downloading and find that I like, I later purchase. Where does that fit in? And don't say "honor to you" or whatever; I'm certainly not the only one thinking and doing like that.
Piracy is a rather complex issue, and NOT just "it's stealing". Piracy has probably been one of the great pushing forces responsible for forcing publishers to go digital, and/or to just simplify distribution for the consumer, and for the developers. This has also opened up easier routes for developers to bypass the
publishers, by giving them cheap tools to publish their games themselves.
Damn. I can't believe how well the bawwwwing publishers have brainwashed (sorry) the general public like this! It's the publishers that won't adapt to the market that suffer - that is true, but not so much those that do adapt, and not so much the developers, unless they're stuck with publishers that won't budge.
I somehow agree, I've always tried the game from pirated torrents.
And if i feel like it, why wouldn't i give them some $$$ in exchange by buying the original ?.
Thumbs up to you sir.
Anyways, sources from this kind of debate is vague due to the biasness of both parties. So it'll still remain a debate at best...
Karma is arguing based on the laws of demand.
chen-03 is arguing based on the free rider problem.
Both are valid you know, and publishers are constantly trying to eliminate free rider problem through innovative means, but I've yet to see much success in this area.
Nonetheless, we consumers benefit a lot from all that, so I am not complaining.
@ Karma:
This would be true, if everyone in the world actually torrented things just as a demo, deleted them if they didn't like them, or bought them if they did. Nine times out of ten, people just torrent to steal them. I often follow the same process as you and actually buy it if I like it enough, but we're in an incredibly small minority.
>It's the publishers that won't adapt
>to the market that suffer
True enough, for every piratable product. I just don't want anime DVDs or music CDs. Why bother buying and _then_ ripping on the computer so I can use them? Or like, I wanna watch Urusei Yatsura from the eighties. Wut? Impossible to buy? Screw the publishers, I have the interwebz!
(Chen-03, who has still no way of recovering his lost password.)
It's one thing when you're pirating a successful game.
It's another thing when you're pirating a game that could have really used the sales boost.
House of the Dead: Overkill had the best characterization and dialogue I've observed in a current-gen game. It was also stupid, over-the-top rail shooting fun that I haven't had since I was a kid playing Area 51 in arcades.
It's the best Wii game I've played and it got great reviews but its sales were dismal.
I'm sad to see it on this list.
also people would buy them easier.
actualy i have an idea how to make distribution easier and make games less cost productive then bringing them to cds and dvds in the factories.
I would like to suggest,sell my idea that could pretty much help all game companys and other data distributers but i don't know to who should i turn to share my idea.
And i will make that idea copyrighted so nobody could steal it from me.
Indeed. I pirated alot of stuff myself and I treat it as some form of a "extended demo". If I really like it, in most cases I end up purchasing the product. And here I'm talking about stuff that I would never ever even consider buying if I didn't get to try them out via piracy.
tisk tisk i pirate ps2 games and dvds as well as pc stuff, i like to get 'free' stuff from everybody
Fuck you.
who here haven't downloaded anything without paying for it?
we're all pirates, it is not a shame, nor it is an honor
i can honestly say i have never pirated a game. i have a job and pay for all my games. after college tuition, rent, food, and other necessities, i allow myself to buy two a games year. i know what i want and when i want it. i have no desire to “demo” my games. make fun of my morals all you want, but it play it straight.
Pirates Rulezzz !
PS: see One Piece ! :)
no u idiot.