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.
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!
That’s because PS3 has no games to pirate.
yay for piracy.
……………oh wait, PS3 still hasn’t been pirated yet, which is why nobody play it’s game.
Yes. Adapt or die.
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.