digg

Join DiggAbout

The Digg Crew wants to hear your thoughts!
Please take our short survey about Digg and potential feature ideas.

See the original image at tgdaily.com —

Crytek, Epic lost billions of dollars because of piracy

tgdaily.com — Crytek's CEO gave an interview where he stated that Crytek can no longer afford to be PC exclusive. Crysis and UT3 reported similar levels of piracy - according to Mark Rein, Epic experienced 40 million registration attempts with illegal UT3 keys. Its easy to see that those two companies lost more revenue than AMD or Nvidia's achieve in a quarter.

show profanity settings
expand all
  • Varz, on 05/01/2008, -21/+12I didn't know the piracy numbers were THAT high.
    • Drahkar, on 05/01/2008, -5/+53They aren't. There are any number of reasons that there would be a hit on a bad registration. Anything from typing things in wrong to actual piracy.

      Plus they are using RIAA math. Just because someone has pirated a copy of the game doesn't automatically make it 'Lost Revenue' for a company. A good portion of those people would have never bought the game at all. You can't lose that revenue because you never would have had it.
      • flashback99, on 05/01/2008, -0/+5RIAA bias just got busted!

        Does anyone ever remember what Shareware was?
      • jezsik, on 05/01/2008, -2/+18Right. Not to mention that any number of people could have tried multiple times to register the same bad copy.
      • piper999, on 05/01/2008, -8/+6So they are lying? Really? There is no piracy and game companies are really making a ton of money off PC games and are just getting out of PC games because they are stupid and they hate you? Wow.
        • MWeather, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5Yes, they are lying. No, the rest of your comment does not logically flow from that fact.
        • NYC10004, on 05/02/2008, -1/+0Dude, seriously. You know they're not lying. It so easy to get illegal copies of PC games.
      • JudgeMonkey, on 05/01/2008, -4/+3I always love that "Would have never bought it at all" defense. Sure, it's true to a degree, but if there was no free way to get it, then there would have been more sales. Me, I didn't pirate OR buy it, so yeah, no sale here. If I was interested though, who knows.
        • Drahkar, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2Frankly I know many people who use the pirated version to see if they like it and when they decide they do they buy it. Most games these days if you pirate it won't work online or multiplayer.
    • Spuy767, on 05/01/2008, -7/+4How about this. . . We make a game that is worth purchasing, and people won't be compelled to steal it just to try it out. Because those people, like myself, who downloaded Crysis, never would have bought it to begin with.
      • thanakar, on 05/01/2008, -4/+10This arguement is old and tired. You're basically saying that if something is crap then it is okay to steal it. Crysis wasn't crap though, it was actually a very good game.
        • piwy, on 05/01/2008, -5/+4Negative. The graphics were very good. I got tired of the game itself halfway trough. It was basically shoot koreans and move on. Next shoot aliens and move on. And then the big twist, shoot koreans AND aliens and move on. That rinse repeat cycle is the main reason why i didn't buy the game.

          It's not stealing when i wasn't planning on getting it to start with. CoD4 is something i did steal. And the stolen copy was the one that made me run to the store to get the legal copy.
          • mourne, on 05/01/2008, -2/+9You evidently played enough of it to know the entire game.... yet it sucked and you never 'planned' on getting it anyway. That's ***** and you know it. I believe in downloading trials of games, you played the whole damn thing and then decided you didn't feel like paying for it.
          • piper999, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5He's an idiot and the type of sweaty palmed troglodyte who will be first to cry like a bitch when his toys get taken away from him and the industry moves on.
        • MWeather, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3"You're basically saying that if something is crap then it is okay to steal it."

          Yeah, it's like saying just because there's no harm, then there is no foul. What a silly thing to say!
        • thepotatoman, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1But if it was truly crap, why would you bother pirating it and giving the publishers an excuse to create more crap?

          And before anyone says it was a try before a buy, there was a demo out.
          • MWeather, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1"But if it was truly crap, why would you bother pirating it and giving the publishers an excuse to create more crap?"

            So piracy encourages them to make more games?
        • Spuy767, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1No, I am actually saying, that if I never would have wasted 50$ on the game, then it is a fallacy to claim that a sale was lost from my downloading it.
    • AlmostEvil, on 05/01/2008, -2/+19Oh cry me a river, if you make 1. An average fps game. 2. That pretty much requires that only the most highest spec of computers are able to run it.

      Then don't be surprised when it doesn't sell all that well.
      • piper999, on 05/01/2008, -5/+4You do realize that your 'rig' or whatever you 30 year old virgins call the PC you play your games on will be rendered somewhat pointless when the grown ups stop making games for you to steal?
      • r337ard, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Your opinion is pretty much summarized in this forum post by one of the Sins of a Solar Empire designers here:
        http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/post.aspx?pos ...

        They don't even have copy protection on the game, it was simple a well designed game targeted at a profitable market and guess what? It sold very well. It sucks that more people in the entertainment industry don't share this guys common sense.
      • Spuy767, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1Amen, half the reason I downloaded it was simply to see how it ran. Like *****, on pretty goddamn swell hardware.
    • nikkesen, on 05/01/2008, -1/+6Sure the numbers are high, but who wants to pay for a game that their computer will be unlikely to run?
  • Thorlord, on 05/01/2008, -5/+82that an odd way to measure piracy.
    • SonnyW, on 05/01/2008, -12/+40Piracy is just a convenient excuse. Crysis was an expensive (to develop), average game that won't even run on the average computer and doesn't run properly at the highest settings on even the best hardware.

      But could it be the quality of the game or the poor design choices for Crysis were bad? NO, blame piracy instead! It doesn't even matter that despite its shortcomings the game sold relatively well. Think of all the virtual dollars you can make up by pretending the game is better than it is.
      • jezsik, on 05/01/2008, -4/+1It still bugs me that they didn't continue to use the original engine and produce a sequel to Far Cry. The look and feel of that game still beats everything I've played since.
        • MOJIRA, on 05/17/2008, -1/+2Are you trying to say the original FarCry engine is better looking than the Crysis engine? Dude... what...? Maybe your system just can't handle the higher settings which make it look better.
          • jezsik, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1No, I'm saying the FarCry engine is excellent and more games (or sequels) should have been made. I am NOT comparing the two engines or suggesting that Crytek not build something better.
          • MWeather, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Nobody's system can handle the higher settings. That's not an exaggeration, either. They literally don't make any PC configuration that can handle it.
      • dOOBiEx213, on 05/01/2008, -1/+12On top of that...the game is pretty ***** boring. Well, at least after having played COD4.
        • Hortnon, on 05/01/2008, -1/+4...or almost any other FPS to come out in the past few years. Crysis' "gameplay" sucks.
    • losershoes, on 05/01/2008, -5/+6Yeah, they should have accounted for the keygens and reinstalls people do. It would have been more accurate (methinks?) if they counted up the number of bounced, unique ip addresses x the price of game.
    • CrushThemTorg, on 05/01/2008, -3/+22It's an odd way to measure piracy, but a great way to drum up giant numbers to make your piracy problem seem epic in scale.
      • SuperWinner, on 05/01/2008, -3/+2Its also a great way to say FU to all of us who did buy the game..
        • mourne, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3um... I see that as them saying thank you =)
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 05/01/2008, -2/+47They are using Britney Spears math.
      40 Million login attempts with bad CD-Keys means 40 million extra sales if piracy didn't exist.

      The ignore the fact that people can retry multiple times to connect.
      People may be trying multiple keys.
      People may be mis-typing the keys when they register.
      People may have hated the game and would never buy it to begin with.
      • Mysk, on 05/01/2008, -3/+14My thoughts exactly. What a bunch of BS, and it makes me lose respect for these companies.

        The only thing that stopped me from buying Crysis was their demo, and had I more experience with UT3 I wouldn't have bought it either.
      • MOJIRA, on 05/17/2008, -1/+3Why is that Spears math? Other than her being an idiot I guess.
        • mourne, on 05/01/2008, -3/+2I agree with all but "People may be mis-typing the keys when they register.". Most programs won't allow you to even enter a bad key. It needs a key that follows their formula and then it'll fail during reg. Unless this one is diff. I haven't played UT3 yet.
        • MacSuxWindozSux, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Britney Spears Math comes from a famous quote of hers where she equated every download of her songs to a stolen sale of her album.
      • Ryosen, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1Yes, that's right. Only 1 in 40 people enter their CD key in correctly. How silly of them to think otherwise.
    • Zyphron, on 05/01/2008, -0/+6This kinda stuff bugs me SO much. I own both games, and never play them because they are just not that fun. What they did, was release two not that amazing games at the same time that EVERY OTHER MAJOR 3D SHOOTER WAS BEING RELEASED.

      Within the couple months leading up to Christmas 07 there was COD4, Quake Wars, Crysis, UT3, and what was that other one... oh yeah ORANGE BOX. Now, given the fact that Orange Box (and COD4) did NOT suck, they got more of the sales. Maybe they should make better games. Maybe they should release their average games at a time when every other Triple A+ title is not coming out at the same time.

      All that being said, I am sure they did lose SOME money due to piracy, and that sucks, and I wish that those that wanted to play these games would buy them.
      • MacSuxWindozSux, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Everyone releases for Christmas. They sell more at Christmas that the rest of the year combined.
    • mxmj, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2This number is nowhere near accurate. Many if not most people who pirate games would never play them if they couldn't get them for free. Who wants to spend $50 to find out a game suck balls?
    • brundlefly76, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Yeah, what is the meaning of 40 million attempts? THe article seems to infer that means for each illigitimate attempt, there is a player with his own pirated copy of the game, which is ludicrous.

      Most importantly, how many attempts failed? Also, how many attempts were by the same person? Hell an automated brtue force script written by a single person could generate 40 million attempts - the statistic is completely unexplained.

      Aslo, how many of these attempts were legitimate users who mistyped the key?
  • th3f1nalb0ss, on 05/01/2008, -1/+43why do people digg a summarized article when they could just dig the original article?

    http://www.pcplay.hr/modules.php?r=23
    • whereiseljefe, on 05/01/2008, -0/+22Because then digg would be an effective news source, duh.
    • cnldelta, on 05/01/2008, -7/+2Maybe because summaries take a lot less time to read and basically is the important stuff minus the junk?
  • chillypacman, on 05/01/2008, -30/+141NO!

    Epic lost billions becaus UT3 SUCKED! OK!? OK!? WHen you release a new UT people expect something new, they don't think you're going to take away two gameplay modes from the previous UT and refine a current one, give it a fancy name like 'warefare' and just think people will be dumb enough not to notice.

    The reason Epic lost so many UT3 sales? Because UT sucked.

    With Crytek it probably has osmething to do with shoddy marketting mixed in with a crappy game.
    • toastgodsupreme, on 05/01/2008, -2/+14True story. Haven't liked any UT since the original. They totally lost the feel of the original. It's hard to describe, but just how the character feels when moving, etc.
      • coresnake, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3I totally agree. All of that 2k ***** ruined the entire feeling of the game, the models and everything just look like quake style and the weapons looked the best in the original imo. I wasted incredible amounts of time playing the original and yet I could barely stand 5 mins of any of the sequels. ***** Epic. Epic fail more like.
    • Baelorn, on 05/01/2008, -20/+50This is the kind of attitude that is killing PC gaming. There you go crying "Well the game sucked!". Then why the ***** are people downloading full versions? Demos, user reviews, etc etc.. PC gaming has morer sources of reviews and demos than any other platform. This excuse is ***** and we all know it.
      • Risingashes, on 05/01/2008, -6/+14Because game reviews rarely provide an actual unbiased view of a game.
        I've loved poorly reviewed games and hated well reviewed games.
        Everyone wants to try a product out before they buy it- PC games are one of the few products that this is possible.
        Ice cream vendors give out samples because they know their ice cream rocks- it seems that the gaming developers have forgotten how to make ice cream- it's a shame they can't stop people taking samples.
        • shaka999, on 05/01/2008, -2/+6Most major PC games have demos so they ARE giving out a sample. This is the point the Baelorn was making.
          • bejayel, on 05/01/2008, -2/+4And the samples give you a one time run through the only part of the game that is semi decent, then the rest sucks. Gonna be honest, every PC game i own, i pirated before i bought it. A 5 minute run down of the game is generaly not enough to make a decision to blow away $70 on a game that you still probably arent convinced about.
      • ortucis, on 05/01/2008, -8/+13People are downloading full versions because that's cheaper than paying for the ***** game.
        • homeagain1, on 05/01/2008, -3/+18Why play it, if it's so *****, then?
          • chillypacman, on 05/01/2008, -7/+6Nothing better to do.
          • Monk22, on 05/01/2008, -2/+7its free why not. there are lots of PC games i would never buy but if i see it in a torrent list, why not, ill check it out for a day or two.
          • alexforcefive, on 05/01/2008, -1/+10Because people wanted to see the flashy awesome crytek engine, but they all knew that a) the game would be ***** and b) wouldn't run on their system, so why pay for it?
          • dOOBiEx213, on 05/01/2008, -0/+10We want to see what the hype is all about it, and after playing it, we can safely conclude "The game sucked."
          • Pssdoff, on 05/01/2008, -0/+8You can rent a ***** X-Box game and return it a week later, but you can't rent a ***** PC game and return it a week later...

            I don't see any problem with downloading a PC game to try before you buy it. I have been burned before by purchasing a game I thought would be good, only to find out its broken or horrible.
      • Mysk, on 05/01/2008, -9/+8You seem pretty clueless Baelorn. Or bitter.
        • shaka999, on 05/01/2008, -4/+2Funny, I thought he was right on. Read some reviews and download the demo. if you like it BUY the game if not then move along.
      • xGeneric, on 05/01/2008, -1/+16People download full versions because you can't rent PC Games, Demos don't always tell the story, you don't always know someone who bought the game, and reviews don't always do it justice. If I hadn't have played the game first, I might have been persuaded to buy it by the fancy graphics, the knowledge of previous UT games, and reviews that say things like "feeling fresh, fast, and very fun." - Gamespot, when in fact, there really isn't anything "fresh" about it. Fancy graphics... woopie! Where the heck was that new awesome game mode they talked about? Couldn't make it in cause of time constraints? Fine... oh wait, you don't even have assault now? No thanks.

        Not to mention a game like that is built around the assumption that there's going to be a robust online and modding community. If you put down money for that game on launch day, you better be praying that other people do so as well. If the game is fun, people will(I have two Counter-Strike/HL2 Accounts for multiplayer)... if the game isn't, they won't, and you're out of luck. That is where UT3 is.

        I can see people also download Crysis. It's a tech demo. I found Far Cry much better, well, except for graphics of course. I can see lots of people downloading it just to see how it'd run on their machine. Personally, I did buy that game, but I can understand people not wanting to shell out $40-$50 for a glamorized tech demo.

        Make something that's worth my money, I'll buy it. Valve puts out quality games. Valve has quite a bit of my money. Blizzard? I've bought every Warcraft, expansion, and a WoW account. Put out a rehash of an old game with missing game mods and a blah online community? No thanks. A Fancy tech demo? Well, I did buy that, but I understand those who don't.
        • shaka999, on 05/01/2008, -7/+3Keep on justifying your unethical behavior, its ok many people have that character flaw.

          Read some reviews and play the demo then pay up or shut up. You do not have a right to try the whole game before buying.
          • KMartSheriff, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4His point on renting is 100% valid. Are you suggesting renting games is a bad idea? You're saying we should all buy 360/PS3 games, and if they suck "well looks like your ***** outta luck"?
      • piwy, on 05/01/2008, -0/+8I don't see why i should trust my 60 hard earned non disposable euros to the whim of a reviewer that may or may not be biased.
        I played CoD4 well trough before i was happy it was worth my money.
        • shaka999, on 05/01/2008, -3/+4And why should the game makers trust that you'll actually pay them a dime after you have already taken your "hit" ?
          • bejayel, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2If they make a good enough game, then they should be satisfied. Obviously, there are those that wont pay, even if they like it. But just like music, because of piracy the gaming industry is doing better than ever before.
          • piwy, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1They should make a game that's fun to play trough more than once. I'm trying to clear some time to go trough CoD4 for a third time. There are a lot of games where i'm all too happy that i finished them. Just so i can get rid of them.
      • toastgodsupreme, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2No really, all the sequels to UT sucked. I even bought UT2k3 (pre-ordered it even). Worst game purchase ever.

        Why do people pirate and demo things?

        TRY BEFORE YOU BUY.

        Wish I had pirated UT2k3, then I could've saved myself $50.
    • hinmanj, on 05/01/2008, -2/+12UT3 did really suck, you are correct there. On the other hand, with Crysis, I noticed, from before release, to months after release, it always seemed to be in the top torrents on thepiratebay. It probably did get a LOT of downloads... but yah, there wasn't much marketing and it wasn't that good. Cheaters ruined the multiplayer anyway.
      • jgtg32a, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3Great game to benchmark you system.
        • hinmanj, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4Great game to tell you your system sucks.
    • myshl0ng, on 05/01/2008, -9/+20Get ***** real. People pirate not because the game sucks, but because it`s so goddamn easy to do. I`ve bought and pirated a lot of games, but 90% of the games I`ve bought are collecting dust from the very moment I got em.
      Go to Moscow, Tallinn or St. Petersburg: if you`re lucky, you`lll find 1 or 2 people who have ever gotten a game the legit way, everyone else just pirates.
      Why? Not everyone lives in Sweden or USA, anyone can do it as the protections are absolutely useless.

      The only games I do not pirate or have pirated are the ones that have demos or betas.
      • SwordFish666, on 05/01/2008, -3/+2I live in Tallinn lol...
        Kinda true also, i have like 3-4 original games...
        Rest - Torrent ftw...
      • losershoes, on 05/01/2008, -5/+7On the whole "people pirate because it's easy"...
        Downloading > 2 GB would be a pain for those w/o broadband. That means the people who pirate the most can afford their high speed connections and/or their newsgroups.
        • JohnFlux, on 05/01/2008, -3/+5Students get free high speed broadband usually :)
          • dOOBiEx213, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Pshh. I laugh at you if you consider that "High Speed."
          • cgoff, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2I guess if I paid $20K+ per year I could get an exotic connection to the house for four years. No such thing as a free lunch.
      • Sabretou, on 05/01/2008, -1/+15I live in India and I can attest to the fact that people give you weird stares if you buy an original copy.
      • chillypacman, on 05/01/2008, -0/+7Crysis actually sold far better overseas than in the US.
      • N00F, on 05/01/2008, -2/+5I have pirated games in the past. If I liked it, I bought the original. If it sucked, well, it's collecting dust on a backup somewhere. I feel the same way about most media. I support the companies I like. I got burned with UT3 though. The graphics are great, but that's it. The game is not very good. UT2K4 is far better.
      • vafada, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1$50 a game in a third world country is simply too much. for $50 a middle class family can buy supply food for the entire family for a while month. My point is, for poor third world county, they need to adjust their prices with the market. $50 is just too much for a regular joe in other countries, so they either loss a big chuck of their monthly salary for a game or they pirate.
    • estat, on 05/01/2008, -3/+9IMO piracy is a contributing factor, but it's not the main problem. For most people (including myself), Crysis is not worth spending a few hundred dollars to upgrade their PCs. Many people have laptops and simply cannot run Crysis without buying a new rig.

      I played the demo, and while I thought it was pretty fun, I had to run it on very low settings and it still ran crappy. When I upgrade my PC in a year or so, maybe I'll look back into it. The same thing happened to me with Far Cry. I bought it for $19.99 after it had been out for a year or two.

      BTW, piracy exists for the consoles as well (except for PS3), but the market still seeing very high growth. The 360 in particular, has some of the highest software sales and attachment rates of any console ever (after two and a half years), even though it can be modded.
      • aladrin, on 05/01/2008, -1/+9Your logic doesn't hold. People aren't willing to spend hundreds of dollars to run Crysis, but they're willing to spend those same hundreds of dollars and pirate it? No. If they had the hundreds of dollars to upgrade the computer, they can afford the $60 for the game they love so much as to spend hundreds of dollars to play it.

        Console piracy is a -lot- harder than PC piracy. It usually involves hardware, and the hacks that don't involve hardware involve voiding your warranty and a lot of technical know-how, as well as an element of risk. That's why console piracy isn't at the same place as PC piracy.

        Piracy is huge in PC games, I'm not saying it's not... I -will- deny that it means 'billions of dollars' lost for Epic, though. I generally don't buy (or play) PC games any more because of their invasive copy protection. I've had too many games refuse to run with it and need a crack anyhow, and the rest just plain play better cracked as well. (No need to keep all the CDs by the computer, no loud whirring from the cd drive, etc.)

        Now, I hardly ever turn on my gaming PC. Compared to the consoles it loud, slow to boot, and the games require too much fuss. A few games each year DO get me to turn on the PC, but it's only the best of the best now. WoW (for 3 months), Guild Wars (For about 5 months over 3 years), Portal, Oblivion (which I ended up buying on the 360 and playing there anyhow)... There aren't many others.

        If PC game developers want to find their lost profits, they should look at how they are pissing off their customers instead of trying to track phantom piracy.
        • spudnic, on 05/01/2008, -1/+6Your logic doesn't hold.

          Say someone has $300 to spend, they could either buy 5 games, or upgrade their machine and pirate the games. Just because they have the money to upgrade their system it doesn't automatically follow they have the money to buy games as well.
    • Johnny1337h4x0r, on 05/01/2008, -0/+7I have a feeling that the people that say that piracy is a very small factor in the reasons behind pc games not selling well are the ones that haven't paid for a game in years. It comes down to basic psychology: should I fork over 50 bucks, wait 6+ months for the price to drop and get it for 20-30 buck, or Pirate Bay/Rapid Share (yes I know the average digg user scoffs and the "uber 14m3n355" of Rapid Share but believe it or not a ***** load of people pirate through it).
      The problem for Unreal Tournament is that it's pretty much made to be an online game, and unless you have a proper key you won't be able to play, so thus people have to buy the game, otherwise they pretty much get an extended demo. Plus lets not forget about the system requirements.
      Also, there's a fine line between "OMG DAT ***** SUCKED" and "it didn't meet the expectations)
    • urrrrr, on 05/01/2008, -3/+5UT3 is great fun - it's up to you what you like - I play lots of UT3 & BF2142 for multi-player fps killing - 40 million registration attempts indicates significant interest enough to say they've lost considerable money - justifying the piracy by saying "it sucked" for UT3 & then "poor marketing" for Crysis is pretty weak - (unless you're specifically speaking of the UT3 1 player - that was humorous although I think they meant it to be serious) - it's a multi-player fps though - I haven't picked up Crysis (I did the beta though) as I'm just waiting for the price to drop another $10 - not much to do with marketing - well maybe if there was a super hot chick on the box beside that Crysis guy I'd be more intrigued - or if I knew she was in the game & there were lots of breast physics... yeah... breast physics...
      • saisumimen, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2"40 million registration attempts indicates significant interest enough to say they've lost considerable money"

        False. Keygen programs try key after key after key... 40 million registration attempts DOES NOT equal 40 million people trying to register illegally.
        • urrrrr, on 05/01/2008, -0/+0Significant interest! 40 million registration attempts may not equal 40 million purchases but it does indicate significant interest - it's a complete mystery how many copies have actually been pirated - the headline of the article that this was dugg upon is a sensationalized attention grabber - I think I like that as much as I like eating rocks but attention is needed or eventually most of the super cool video games will all be on consoles. The point is many sales are being lost because people pirate games online and not enough research and development is being put into breast physics in games. I think that is undeniable.
      • ShinyDemon, on 05/01/2008, -0/+0A dash is a poor replacement for a period.
        • urrrrr, on 05/01/2008, -1/+0Ha ha - that's what my editor keeps telling me.
    • thebellmaster1x, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4Oh, thank God. I was going to go on a tirade about how you shouldn't pirate good games; then I realized that I kept reading UT3 as UT2003, which actually WAS a good game.
      Now I just don't care.
    • thePTS, on 05/01/2008, -0/+9You are right that UT3 ***** up because Epic ***** up, but you are wrong that UT3 was a bad game. It really was / isn't. It had a great flow and it copied the original.

      The problems were as follows:
      1) UT2003 broke the UT community apart. The UT franchise got bombed by the crappy UT2003 and UT2004 titles. UT3 suffered from that disappointment.
      2) a disturbing lack of prerelease hype from Epic. They expected it to sell by itself. Reviewers, when they got it, were like "meh.. zzz.. this is not an MMO or a console game.. do I have to review this?"
      3) Releasing it next to Bioshock, Crysis, CoD4, TF2, Portal. I mean, come on.
      4) Releasing a beta product - AGAIN. It's still beta!
      5) They should've included the monkey moves from UT2004 in the warfare gametype, and maybe some other crappy modes, so that the noobs that liked that, would be happy. Without ruining DM.

      UT3 - the actual core game - is a great game, that quite resembles the original. There is nothing wrong there. But this failed on so many levels, and in that, you're right. This had nothing to do with piracy. Mark Rein is a dumb fat ***** who just believes what he wants to believe.
    • NecroDigg, on 05/01/2008, -6/+1I LOVED UT3. I think it's an awesome game that destroys similar games like say, Halo 3.
      I never really played the previous UT's but I'm sure they were good too.

      Actually I thought the single player campaign sucked badly, but the multiplayer is very nice.
      • ender7074, on 05/01/2008, -0/+0Thats the key, you never played the other UT games before. We've had nothing out of Epic but a graphics upgrade of the same damn thing for the last several years. There is no originality. We are bored with it. Now they blame piracy on the fact that many old school UT players didnt buy the new version, myself being one of them. Its their ***** up that cost them money, not the piracy scapegoat.
    • decyx, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3As a standalone game, UT3 is rather disappointing (they took out bombing run, for pete's sake), but Epic's modding tools are among the best out there. Static meshes are so much more convenient than brushes.
    • warriorscot, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2UT3 is good but to be honest it wasn't that much better than the previous games it was worth buying, I downloaded it to try and it wasn't good enough to buy. Crysis was good and Im going to buy it at some point but not at the £35 it released at £20 is about right for a game with so weak a multiplayer.

      Best money I've spent on a game in a long time was the orange box and before that half life 2, you get the whole package good engaging single players with a multiplayer you can play for a long time and not get bored off AND great support and no paid content downloads after the fact its all included. And the prices aren't extortionate either.
  • OMNOMNOM, on 05/01/2008, -11/+17"illegal" registration cards? That is incorrect. There are no "illegal" registration codes. Using a stole code is illegal, but there are no "illegal" codes.
    • Vich, on 05/01/2008, -18/+4It's people like you that allowed the spread of the illegal hd-dvd decryption key. Despicable.
    • Rendonsmug, on 05/01/2008, -3/+2309 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    • irgeorge, on 05/01/2008, -1/+11I think you're splitting hairs...
    • WileEPeyote, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1I think we all get the idea he was trying to convey. If we were to puzzle out every detail of every comment, I don't think much would get done..for instance:

      Your Quote - "Using a stole code is illegal, but there are no "illegal" codes."
      WTF is a stole code? I don't recall that being mentioned in the article.

      Can you see how that comes off as being a twit?
  • Morphine7399, on 05/01/2008, -9/+97"If those 40 million players actually paid the full price, it would have been nearly $2 billion more in Epic’s pocket book."

    Just because someone has bothered to pirate a game does not mean they are willing to buy it. When someone sites 40 million "attempts" at connecting to their servers, it means they are blocking illegal users from playing online. Therefore these users aren't even getting the full experience out of this game, if after playing the single player the user thinks the game warrants a purchase, normally they will go out to buy it. And judging by the fact that UT is basically worthless without the multiplayer clearly the customer has a made a choice here and their product does not deserve their money.
    • losershoes, on 05/01/2008, -6/+1cancel
      • losershoes, on 05/01/2008, -4/+5Great comment Morph, but logic fails with single player games. That and the fact that demo's exist.
        • Baelorn, on 05/01/2008, -4/+4Not only demos but hundreds of reviews and user reviews too. I'm all for trying something before you buy it. I'm against stealing(that is what you are doing) full versions with that excuse.
          • Monk22, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3reviews are crap. anything in the last five years i wouldnt have rated over a 5.
    • outsid3rNo17, on 05/01/2008, -0/+18Plus, 40 million serial numbers does not mean 40 million different users.
      • spudnic, on 05/01/2008, -0/+7It wasn't even 40 million serial numbers, it was 40 million attempts to connect to servers using incorrect codes, the same codes might have tried to connect to servers hundreds of times.
        • rblancarte, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1And what if that 40 million attempts was nothing more than 100k users trying 400 times each?
          The metric is a bad one.
          Buried - inaccurate
          • spudnic, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Exactly my point... it might send serial number information every time the requests information from a server, in which every time someone requested a server list it could possibly be thousands.

            I'm not saying that *is* what happens, but the number is intentionally misleading, and the author of the article has mis-interpreted it as being 40million individuals attempting to register the game, which isn't what the guy said.

            There wont even be 40 million PCs out there capable of playing it, that's what, four times the number of Wiis there are?
    • passedoutghost, on 05/01/2008, -0/+6Generally if I pirate a game and it turns out to be good, I go out and buy it.
      • dOOBiEx213, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2OR, at least buy a legit cd key.
      • WileEPeyote, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1BS, if you do actually go out and buy after pirating the games you are an exception, not the rule. I used to pirate and many (oh hell, most) of my friends were pirates. We never bought a single game, we pirated them. Of course we knew each other and were not seperated by the Internet. It was a lot harder to get away with the standard lines people drop now to explain their illegal activity away when you are talking to people who know you.
        • passedoutghost, on 05/02/2008, -0/+0So what if I'm the exception, that doesn't give you the right to call *****. I show appreciation for the company that made the game by paying for it.
          • WileEPeyote, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1Sorry, I didn't mean to call BS on you exactly...just on that rational.
    • inajeep, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2I did too when I gamed on the PC but I am willing to bet the majority do not go out a buy a game that they pirated because they liked it.
    • diggrim, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Epic is right! Seriously, just look at consoles. UT3 sold 40 million copies on consoles...oh wait: http://vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=13325
    • Henko, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3That is *****. For evaluation, try demos or trial versions. Piracy as a method of try-before-by is a long outdated argument, especially after XBL and Playstation Store arrived. Cut your hair, get a job, buy the game.
  • lacronicus, on 05/01/2008, -2/+13http://digg.com/pc_games/Crysis_exceeds_expectatio ...
    Both EA and Crytek are pleased with how well Crysis turned out sales-wise, I sincerely doubt that they're going to hold to this for future games. Besides, you don't seriously believe they're going to wait for next-gen consoles to do Crysis 2 do you?
    • lastword2, on 05/01/2008, -3/+5Crysis is a benchmark app that looks like far cry. it uses voxels for gods sake (not that I am against voxels). it is just for people who bought an 8800
    • dsmx, on 05/01/2008, -3/+3I'm getting fed up with companies saying they've lost money because of piracy. YOU HAVE LOST NO MONEY. If someone has pirated your product it means that they wouldn't and/or couldn't of bought the legitimate product why can't they see that. If you want to reduce piracy reduce the reasons to pirate stop charging for yearly stats updates, stop charging to much for games, stop using intrusive copy protection schemes, stop region locking games.
  • Shrubber, on 05/01/2008, -7/+54I feel Crytek and Epic's pain, but not receiving money is NOT the same thing as losing money. Just because 40 million people are pirating your game (I figure I find highly suspect, btw), does not mean that those same people would have paid for the game. What's more, saying that earning less income than you expected is the same thing as losing money is like saying that being paid less money for a babysitting job than you felt you deserved is the same thing as being mugged in the street. I guess Crytek and Epic just feel like pirates are beating the crap out of them and taking their money away. But the fact is, just because people have the opportunity to get something for nothing does not mean that you are being robbed. I totally understand that game developers deserve to be paid for their hard work and innovation. But don't conflate the problem by trying to pass a lack of profit as highway robbery.
    • losershoes, on 05/01/2008, -3/+10It's called opportunity cost. Really.

      Imagine Epic and Crytech made their games console exclusive? Would they experience as much piracy?
      • LemmingJesus, on 05/01/2008, -3/+9They would just rent, Unreal 3 isn't worth a buy.
      • jezsik, on 05/01/2008, -2/+1They may or may not experience as much piracy (I'm not familiar with console games), but I know for a fact that they'll lose ONE customer.
      • theragu40, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1If Crysis had been console exclusive, I'd bet it would not have sold as many copies (over 1 million and counting) as it has on PC thus far. People don't buy Crysis for the game, they buy it as a bragging rights benchmark. "Can it run Crysis?!" The game itself is mediocre. Put it exclusively on the consoles, and it doesn't offer any bragging rights to anyone. Then all it's got left to stand on is whether the game is any good, and while it's not terrible, it's no Half-life.
      • Zyphron, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Crysis is a glorified Hardware demo and a repack of Farcry (although in my opinion not actually as engaging and enjoyable as its younger brother).

        UT3 is a repack of every other UT game made, except in many cases not as good. I bought UT3 and gave up on it after a while figuring that I would wait for the modders to "finish" the game by adding all the maps and modes that Epic did not include. I have been meaning to pick it back up and see what the modders have done with it. That type of freedom doesn't exist on console, and if it sucks initially (which it kinda did) it will continue to suck because DLC packs (which cost even MORE money) only get you so far.

        By the way, I absolutely loved the original UT (one of my favorite games of all time) and if they were to create a new incarnation of that which was actually as fun, I would be the first to sing its praises and tell everyone how wonderful it was. UT3 was not that game. I wish it was, but Epic has only themselves to blame.
    • Gizza, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5And considering that the best selling game of all time, the Sims, has sold 50million over its 8 years since release, and then after that very few games have sold over 20million. So they're kidding themselves if they think they've lost 40million sales.

      Besides, if only legit players can play online, and the game still has really poor online numbers, that would suggest that not many people who have tried to pirate have then gone and bought it, hence that's not a sale they were every going to get.

      Quite simply these are two games that most peoples computers cant run decently and that dont really bring anything new to the table besides graphics.
    • thanakar, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3They are losing money because instead of buying the game to play it, people are downloading the game and playing it. That is money lost no matter how you look at it.
    • Tserk, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Good points, and I'd add that a lot of people probably pirated Crysis just to see if it would bring their system down to its knees before buying it. It mostly likely did in most cases and no one bought it. That's not losing money to piracy, that's graphics whoring hubris.
    • datastorageguy, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Go take some intro economics classes you retard. You couldn't be more wrong.
  • jmeeker516, on 05/01/2008, -10/+15The way I look at it, it's money they never had. So technically they aren't losing anything.. except their half-mast, money-craving almost boners.
    • lacronicus, on 05/01/2008, -10/+18By that logic, your boss could simply stop paying you, because you didn't "lose anything." But you did lose something, didn't you? You lost a lot of time and effort, which, although unquantifiable, is still worth something, and the same is the case for them. They spent a lot of time and effort making this game, and by not paying what they charge, you cheat them out of it. Would you feel any better about it if your boss came up to you and said "well, we're not getting paid this month, but don't worry, you weren't going to be paid anyway, so it's all right." Yeah, I'm sure that'd go over well.
      Come on, people. Make excuses all you want, but it's ***** and you know it. Developers won't keep developing if they're not going to make a living off of it, and they're not going to make a living off of it if their customers won't pay for the work they're taking.
      • Jaydo, on 05/01/2008, -9/+3If I had made billions prior, I don't think I'd mind much if my boss were a dick.
      • LemmingJesus, on 05/01/2008, -6/+10You're an idiot, and your analogy doesn't apply. Epic is selling a product, not a service. Walmart isn't entitled to money when they don't sell all of their towels. Lots of time and effort goes into making all products, and not every single product is sold, some don't sell well at all. By your absurd logic companies are entitled to money for products not sold. Unreal 3 was crap, and Team Fortress 2 has sold many copies. Both have been pirated, but Valve is rolling in their money. Epic seems to think that a great engine is all it takes to make a great game.
        • staticneuron, on 05/01/2008, -5/+5And when you DL the full product that is stealing someones livelyhood. Did you think the games made themselves? Can't knock epics engine because it has been used in many great games. Epic did make gears of war as well. But this type of attiude only hurts PC games (go ahead and put your fingers in your ears and tell me it isn't true) But PC sales have been declining and then devs started to make the shift to consoles a while back. Even if their method of counting pirated copy is flawed I fully believe there are millions of pirated versions of the game.

          Epic has money too just like valve. It doesn't make it ok for you to steal their product. You are not special nor entitled to anything. Don't be surprised when that day comes when the PC is littere with console ports and small indies games. The PC market has been growing smaller and it is the selfish PC gamers that are to blame.
          • LemmingJesus, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1I've never bought every single game I've wanted, before the days of broadband I, like many people, would borrow the game from a friend. Would you call that stealing? Why do you call piracy stealing? You completely missed the point about Valve's money. Both games are being pirated, but only one is selling. Clearly Unreal must have been pirated more!
      • ShinyDemon, on 05/01/2008, -4/+4So if someone slaves away making a product that I didn't ask for, and then when it's done I try it out and realize I don't want it/it's a half-ass attempt, I'm a bad person?
        • Droniac, on 05/01/2008, -3/+10If someone slaves away at a product you didn't ask for, releases an extensive demo (as well as a beta test in Crysis's case) for you to try it out - and then you download the full version to "give it a try" but really just play through the whole damn thing spending over a dozen hours on it but not paying a dime. Then yes, you're a bad person.
      • Jaydo, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1I'd just like to point out that it in the case of piracy, it seems like people are treating it like stealing never existed prior to digital copyrights...

        Epic's 'losing'* money from theft; nothing ***** new, they'll still turn a massive profit.

        *If the person was never going to purchase their data in the first place they technically didn't lose anything. - If people don't go to a band's concert because they heard their songs on the radio and think the band sucks, does that mean the band lost money?
    • losershoes, on 05/01/2008, -5/+3'Nother example, but more historical

      You're Heinrich Gobel. You spend your whole life trying to invent the light bulb and you eventually do. You present your ideas to another man in excitement, but only to a greedy man. He steals your ideas, copyrights it, thus he starts mass producing on a large scale. For every light bulb that is produced, he profits from it. From your perspective, every light bulb produced COULD have been your $$, but it belongs to that dirty greedy stealing man instead. It's money "never had", but they lost the opportunity to profit from that novel idea.

      inb4 copyright, blahblahblah, thomas edison, public domain. >> The idea is opportunity cost. That's how businesses measure costs, so deal with it.
    • captainbluebear, on 05/01/2008, -2/+5No, the boss example is different. You have a contract stating that the work you put in will be payed for. It's completely different for the games industry. You aren't obliged to buy a game just because they put the work in.
      Your idea that "developers won't keep developing if they're not going to make a living off of it" is very disheartening. I want to play games that people made because they wanted people to enjoy them, not because they could make some money out of it.
      • LemmingJesus, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5They just need to stop pumping money into their engine and learn to make a game. Valve's source engine has been very cost effective for them.
      • hongkongjapie, on 05/01/2008, -2/+1How much you like your job, you do like to get the paycheck at the end of the month, don't you? I think developers in game industry are rarely 9-5ers and love their job and put all efforts in it to make a great game. That doesn't mean they could/would do it if they didn't get paid.
        • Jaydo, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1This industry is one of the largest in the world, I don't think the developers' jobs are at risk of being whisked away due to piracy.
    • urrrrr, on 05/01/2008, -0/+0This pushes the market further into the realm of consoles - that's undeniable - I like consoles but I like playing on my computer way more. PS3 games are $10 more too. They are giving those away either. Damn it.
    • NecroDigg, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Well, I like free stuff.
    • jjk7288, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2I agree. The other side of the coin is that a lot of these people that pirate Crysis were probably never going to buy the game in the first place - so do they really lose?

      And hey, if they pirate and decide they like it enough to buy for multiplayer, then Crytek wins.
  • MewTwo, on 05/01/2008, -31/+5Heh. PC gamers are *****, they always cry like babies and want super cool games. Then they steal, thinking like it's no big deal, but they kill their platform. Ha ha nobody cares about PC games.
    • LemmingJesus, on 05/01/2008, -2/+12Piracy has been around while you were still a baby. I never did pay for Doom.
      • inajeep, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1I think you can safely say before he was born and maybe even before his parents were born.
    • dOOBiEx213, on 05/01/2008, -3/+3Console gamers are funny. If you tell them they're playing high-def they'll believe you. Little do they realize that games like COD4 are running @600p ..."next-gen" my ass...
  • Sub7, on 05/01/2008, -22/+40This is the reason that GTA 4 isn't out on the PC.
    • LemmingJesus, on 05/01/2008, -4/+14Laziness.
    • aladrin, on 05/01/2008, -1/+28No, just like the past few GTA games, the PC version will come later. It has nothing to do with piracy and everything to do with getting their product out to where it sells the best: The consoles.
      • ATKuriboh, on 05/01/2008, -8/+3then how come that haven't announced it yet?

        they announced San Andreas for the PC long before the PS2 version was released
        • Monk22, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2PC versions are always behind the consoles. do you have any idea how long i waited to play final fantasy 7 becuase i didnt have a ps2 and had to wait years for the PC one to come out.
          • Asianwaste, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2You waited too long. The FF7 PC port came out years before PS2 XD
      • Asianwaste, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3I dunno, how come Bioware didn't announce Mass Effect for PC when it came out for 360... but lo and behold.
    • MacSuxWindozSux, on 05/01/2008, -3/+8I'm waiting for the PC version.
      • Evil-Dragon, on 05/01/2008, -0/+8Same.... it sucks to be a PC gamer sometimes. We seem to be the minority these days.

      • Comanche, on 05/01/2008, -2/+1Too bad it will be old news when it does come out.
    • Asianwaste, on 05/01/2008, -4/+7No it's not.
      • Comanche, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Yes it is. All the PC fanbois love to rave on about how the devs use PCs to make the game and how PC gaming is gaining ground. If this were true why wouldnt the PC version be out? Please explain why a game "developed on a pc" is not out on the pc, yet its out on 2 different consoles with 2 different types of hardware. Please enlighten.
        • Jaablaze, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2when they develop the games, they don't develop them on "PC's" in the sense that we know them. They create them on development kits provided by microsoft/sony which allows them to optimize for the OS and hardware that the consoles are using. They actually have to port the game to PC or I should say windows which has a lot more variables in terms of hardware and other software running on it. If anything I would say it's harder to develop on PC for these reasons. Hope that helped.
        • Asianwaste, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1To add to Jaablaze's statement they usually hire a 3rd party to do those ports. There is a larger market in console versions because there's a larger audience with not so diverse hardware. It goes for a far more profitable initial release to shoot for consoles first. Plus the 3rd person action/adventure genre has a far better niche in consoles than they do on PC (as PC's mouse/keyboard layout is far more suited for the FPS/RTS/RPG genres). There are about a dozen more reasons I can think of other than software piracy why GTA is now being released on consoles first.
        • Comanche, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2See you guys are smart, you understand how it works. My sarcasm didnt come though that great but I am in complete agreement. Try and explain this to fanbois to think PC gaming is THE only gaming platform when they use the argument I stated above.
    • twtmc, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4GTA IV would be a great selling game on the PC because of it's interesting online play. It's not nearly as easy to bootleg online play as it is the single player game. That's why next to nobody bootlegs Team Fortress 2.
    • smotpoker1, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2I will always play my games on the pc console games are ridiculous shams of a computer. My computer and hd monitor runs circles around all the consoles and it lets me mod to hell with consoles.It's like comparing a Dragster to a tricycle.
      • markstory, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1I bet it cost a shade more than a console would set you back as well.
      • jedikv, on 05/04/2008, -0/+1Good luck playing street fighter IV
    • WileEPeyote, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Oh man, if they are going to release it to the PC later it will probably be some shabby-ass port with a *****-ton of bugs. Not a comment on their standards, just a comment on how most of the Console to PC ports seem to turn out.
  • Eywanadi, on 05/01/2008, -3/+5040 million attempts at connecting does not equal 40 million different people. I wonder how many times each illegal copy attempted to connect to the server.
    • slexaxton, on 05/01/2008, -1/+8My thoughts exactly, if one key fails, try another, sounds like 100 people running faulty keygens. Hardly 2 Billion dollars lost. I "may" have been one of those 40 million attempts, and after playing the game for a day, I promptly recaimed the 7 GB that it took up on my hard drive. Not worth it.
      • LemmingJesus, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4Then there's people who missed one digit.
        • jgtg32a, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3Then there's people who missed one digit, multiple times.
    • tomee, on 05/01/2008, -1/+6This may also include everyone who mistyped the key from the game they actually purchased, which can easily happen with 20 random characters.
    • jgtg32a, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1I bet if they checked the server logs they would know how many unique computers connected.
      • lolinyerface, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2RIAA math doesn't require actual fact checking or accurate calculation attempts...
    • knowitman, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2Even if 1/1000 were lost sales, that's still 2 million that could go towards new developments.
    • lolinyerface, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Or how many times JoeGamer typed in the key wrong and kept hitting Enter in anger....
  • WoWii, on 05/01/2008, -22/+5Oh well, PC gaming has been dead since 2006

    • Asianwaste, on 05/01/2008, -5/+8Really Wii fan boy? How is it that last year PC gaming sales have gone up from another very successful year which happens to be 2006? Give me facts, not fanboyism!
  • sirbeta, on 05/01/2008, -4/+16I'm really at a loss at how they could possibly think they lost billions of dollars due to piracy. Just because 40 million attempts were made doesn't mean squat about the actual piracy count.

    You would have to assume that both:
    1) They were going to purchase the game to begin with. Most people will download a game and never have thought to buy it before.
    2) Every single one of those hits was an individual users, and not one trying multiple keys looking for a good key.

    Then again, companies always inflate this number with superficial means of measurement. What a joke.
    • sirbeta, on 05/01/2008, -2/+5Digg wouldn't let me edit to add: Do they actually include people who simply mistyped their CD keys in that 40 million number? I know I've mistyped keys multiple times, especially ones that mix numbers and letters.
      • Droniac, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1Even so it would be fair to say that a reasonable number of the people behind these 'failed connection attempts' would have bought the game had they not had such easy access to a pirated copy/had more incentive to do so. Many pirates proclaim your #1 point as some sort of grand excuse, but it's not actually true. Most game pirates I know (just about every one of my friends who plays PC games) readily admit that they may have bought games like Assassin's Creed or Crysis if they weren't so easy to pirate or if the legal version offered something over the illegal version. So is it reasonable to assume that Epic may have lost a few million dollars due to prevalent PC game piracy - even though UT3 was a miserably developed product? Yes, it is. That said, the fact that Epic creates their games from an anti-pirate perspective rather than a pro-consumer perspective (like most PC game developers nowadays) and that UT3 has seen practically ZERO support from Epic as well as only half of the promised features since release, kinda helped too.
  • chaos7, on 05/01/2008, -5/+4ut3 sucked. as for crysis, SP is good, but they should make the MP better. if a game has great MP i'll buy it.
  • ufee, on 05/01/2008, -6/+75They draw their piracy numbers from 40 million registration ATTEMPTS? No game in history has sold that much.

    These guys are so full of *****.
    • Shadowgamers, on 05/01/2008, -2/+10Sims franchise has sold about 70 million
      • Droniac, on 05/01/2008, -2/+5Actually over 100 million already.
        Even the Lineage (PC MMORPG) franchise has passed 40 million copies sold a long time ago.
        • Gizza, on 05/01/2008, -0/+7Thats only if you count the Sims, Sims 2 and the 15 or so expansion packs.
      • punkcat, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2whoops
      • purpl3hazze, on 05/01/2008, -0/+5Actually Super Mario Bros. sold about $40 mil... but the Sims is a franchise that includes numerous games, how can you even compare it to UT3?
      • twtmc, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4Note the word "franchise". These aren't single games, these are multiple games with expansion packs. UT3 is just 1 game.
    • hinmanj, on 05/01/2008, -1/+6Wellllll, Super Mario Bros did... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_ ...
      But that is still a horrible way to count piracy numbers, they are just trying to milk the ***** out of the statistics.
      • ufee, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1Super Mario Bros. was bundled with every NES, that's why the sales were so high.
    • staticneuron, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Unless your suggesting that 40 million is the work of a few thousand then no matter how you spin it that is a substantial los for the company.
      • maxstr, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1No, because those people who pirated would not have bought the game anyway.
    • GrantTLC, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2The way I read that sentence, they're not saying they've lost 40 million sales of the game, they're just saying that there have been 40 million ATTEMPTS to use stolen keys on their servers -- one guy downloading one copy of UT3 could have tried multiple keys multiple times, tens or even hundreds if he was really keen to get it working.
  • kansai22, on 05/01/2008, -6/+14This is why everything is going console exclusive or console then ported to PC. No excuses just stop pirating its going to hurt everyone that loves PC gaming in the end.
  • LimeParrot, on 05/01/2008, -10/+45People on digg love to justify PC game piracy... but the truth is, it IS hurting the industry. Same with pirating films. The bottomline is, if you enjoyed a game, you should feel obligated to purchase it. This provides big companies an incentive to continue producing quality games.
    (IMHO it's a totally different story with the music industry though... making good music doesn't need tens of millions of dollors in investment... file sharing is the way of the future for the music industry).
    • aladrin, on 05/01/2008, -10/+3Yeah, it is... In the same way that not winning the lottery is hurting you personally. The money isn't there in the first place! Some very small portion of the pirates would buy the game if they couldn't pirate it, but not enough to really make a difference in the industry.

      How do I know? I was there. Now that I have a decent job and money, I buy PC games. Unfortunately, there aren't very many that I consider good now, so I don't buy very many. Instead, I end up buying console games, because there are plenty of those.
      • LimeParrot, on 05/01/2008, -2/+5That's the only argument pro-piracy people have. Of course articles like this exaggerate the impact of piracy, but your argument just understates the problem. Here is an example. In some bizzaro world where PC piracy is impossible, lots of people without a console would have bought the PC version of Oblivion. But because it was so easily pirated, did not have online play (i.e. pirate version was 100% complete), I'm sure many people downloaded it who would of been potential, legit customers. This is reflected in comparing sale figures of consoles (with the assumption they're 'piracy free' -- not 100% true but acceptable assumption) verses the PC. Even though a lot more people have a PC capable of running multi-platform games, consoles sell more copies, simply because piracy is difficult on them.
        All game companies now know this. That's why there is a pattern of diversifying into the console industry. Look at the gaming giant EA; they're pushing so hard so make their ex-PC-exclusive games work on the console. Here is a real life example... Command & Conquer. RTS games have always been for the PC. Console controllers just aren't precise enough for RTS games. Yet EA is putting a lot of effort into establishing a console RTS market, particularly for its C&C franchise. With each console RTS release (BFMEII, CnC3, Kane's Wrath, RA3?) they're refining their console controls.
        This isn't a coincidence. This isn't because they like the people who have a console. This is because they're a business (first and foremost), and they have great financial analysts that tell them: PC piracy is a problem and console development is a must.
        And i'm not an elitist person. I'm not pretending to be a role model. I've pirated so many games it's not funny. But I reached a point where I realised, for example, that I really enjoyed Warcraft III (made by Blizzard), and that by purchasing it, I'd be supporting future quality releases from Blizzard (who are a great company by the way). I have nothing against using piracy to try games (i.e. 'extended demo'), and more importantly, weed out crappy games that aren't worth your money. But seriously, if you enjoyed the game, just buy it. It's the right thing.
    • PueSi, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3I agree with you, most people don't care about spending their money on beer and other stuff but when it comes to software they seem to think it should be free.
      • fokov, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2That's probably because they have never spent the time to write something really big and useful like a game engine. The same goes with music. There are guys that spend years working on a single album making sure every note is perfect, then some kid says "it only took them a little time to write it so I'm not going to pay for it" That statement is probably true with the cRAP music and all, but real songwriters have talent and attempt to perfect their art.
    • tcpip4lyfe, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2I agree but there aren't as many awesome games for PC as there used to be. I played 2 minutes of the COD4 demo, shut off my pc and went down and bought it. If you build decent games with key based activation for MP, I know I will buy them. I was considered buying Sim City Societies but after playing it for 30 minute I realized that it was a ***** game and I'm glad I didn't waste my money.
      • somedirtbag, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1I played the CoD4 demo, drooled until my pirate copy downloaded, played through the SP campaign and the epilogue, THEN went out and bought it for the MP. So I'm a bad person, big deal, in the end I still bought the game to support the developers who made A GOOD PRODUCT, and to kick ass online. Key words: product, demo, good, pirate, developers, downloaded, support, bought, person, bad. Not in that order.
    • GrantTLC, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1There are faults on both sides. I don't condone piracy: I don't torrent games. But if I torrent a film or TV episode AND I ENJOY IT I will try and buy it later on because I want to support what the makers have done and want them to continue. This is the same as if I see something on TV and decide I'd like a copy. If it stinks, I won't give them my money. Games should be no different. If you get a copy and like it, then help ensure the developers want to make more like it by buying one. If you don't, then don't. I class this in the same category as going to a mate's house to try it, and making your purchasing decision based on that experience.

      On the other hand, the games industry has made many mistakes in the way it handles its customers; aggressive anti-consumer copy protection, releasing demos AFTER the full game (or increasingly not at all), paying to have reviews unfailry slanted, the unrelenting mining of stale genres, the constant drive to get us to upgrade our hardware, releasing beta-quality games and expecting us to sit and wait for patches...the list is endless. Faced with all this you can begin to understand why some will turn to piracy as a way of avoiding many of these issues and sticking a middle-finger up at the people perpetuating them.

      Holding piracy soley to blame for poor sales is simplistic and insulting.
    • InsaneOni, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1While I do pirate games, 90% of them I never play more than a few hours, I get bored. The ones I really like, I go out and buy. Demos just aren't a good way to gauge how good a game is going to be.
      • thescorpion420, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Thats the exact same thing that I do. The last game that I played enough to actually purchase was Battlefield 2.
    • MOJIRA, on 05/17/2008, -0/+1The PC game industry and film industry need to give me a better reason to take a chance and buy a movie ticket or PC game.

      I will not spend 10$ on a movie or 60$ on a game on faith and find out that it sucks balls. I'd have more faith in these things if there weren't SO MANY ***** games and movies out there diluting the industries.

      I pirated Call of Duty 4, played a few singleplayer missions and realized it was the best freaking game ever, so I bought it. Best 50$ I've spent on a game in years...
  • Asianwaste, on 05/01/2008, -2/+42One's gotta ask why a game like The Orange Box and Sins of a Solar Empire do so well and are financial successes but games like Crysis and Unreal Tournament complain that they have lost money from piracy.
    • vpshockwave, on 05/01/2008, -0/+7I know for a fact Sins retails for $39.99

      Coincidence?
      • Asianwaste, on 05/01/2008, -0/+10Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
        Also it's no coincidence that Sins and Orange both got deserved critical acclaim. But that's got NOTHING to do with sales.
        • Sabretou, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3Crysis got a lot of acclaim and UT3 didn't really go sub-average or anything. :(
        • jjk7288, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Crysis also runs like a steaming pile of ***** on good hardware with the settings cranked up.
    • losershoes, on 05/01/2008, -3/+12Because Valve learned their lesson from the mass amounts of HL pirated. They adopted the front-end Steam so you can't easily pirate their games. The developer friendly, consumer-not Steam requires you to validate the serial code online to actually play it. This is in contrast to the many PC games that only check your serial codes during online multiplayer. Yeah.
      • aladrin, on 05/01/2008, -1/+4You really think orange box can't be pirated? Hah.
        • jgtg32a, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1I'm sure it can be, but whenever I pirate a game I know going in no online multi player, because thats where they check
          Steam checks singleplayer as well.
        • jerrycan, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2any plenty of servers to play the multiplayer CS:SOURCE, TF2, HL:WHATHAVEYOU on too.
        • solid12345, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Anything can be pirated but the more of a bitch you make it to pirate the less likely someone is going to do it.

          Why do you think mp3's are downloaded so much? File sizes are small and downloads are quick, unlike DVD movies or even worse Blu-Ray films that can take a day to download.
      • Sabretou, on 05/01/2008, -6/+1I haven't paid Valve a cent for playing any of their games. : |
        • ultraJesus, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5Now thats just rude
        • tcpip4lyfe, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2Come on man. You can download them from steam. You don't even have to get off your ass to go out to buy them.
    • lelux, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Half-life 2 can run on a ***** of machines- it is able to reach a larger audience, same with Sins of a Solar Empire. They are priced reasonably for what you get. Unreal Tournament III was not better than UT2004 so why buy it? A lot of people don't care about shiny new graphics; what they care about is gameplay.
      • Asianwaste, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3Hoverboards XD
        • GrantTLC, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1I've only played the demo, and I'll still digg you up for that - Hoverboards are fantastic!
    • ATKuriboh, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3try to play Team Fortress 2 online with your illegal copy....
      • Asianwaste, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1They'd probably use the same method they used to play CS: Source online with illegal copies: Home brew patches that eliminate need Steam.
        • coresnake, on 05/01/2008, -3/+2Yeh but take it from me its one giant pain in the arsehole. I still don't like that ram stealing STEAM ***** though.
    • reekon, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1'cause 2 are *****?
    • PueSi, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2I never pay for my games but i did bought The Orange Box, it was such a good deal, maybe if developers released cheaper games, using advertising for example. $20-$30 bucks would do it for me.
  • omababy, on 05/01/2008, -1/+17$100AU a game, I can't afford to buy many games...
  • ShinyDemon, on 05/01/2008, -6/+12UT3 is proof that gamers do actually care more about gameplay than graphics. Epic tried to update graphics and NOTHING else, and quite frankly the fact that they expected it to sell well is an insult to gamers' intelligence.

    Nobody bought Crysis because a very small percentage of people can run it decently, and everyone knew that. Every pirated it as a benchmark with absolutely no intention of playing through it; why pay $40 for a benchmarking tool?

    The only reason I even own Crysis is because it came with my eVGA 8800GT.
    • Droniac, on 05/01/2008, -0/+5Epic changed a lot about the gameplay in UT3 - if you do not think so then you have clearly never played any previous UT games. The problem is that they never FINISHED the game, didn't add half the features they promised and haven't given any proper support since release. Even the people who liked the (actually excellent) gameplay have since left in droves - and the only UT game currently popular is the original (which has seen a massive boost in players over the past few months).

      Crysis is a great game and was well worth the 35 euro it cost at release. It also sold well over a million copies - and would have sold loads more had the (***** of) pirates with gaming PCs that can handle Crysis well actually bothered to shell out just a wee bit of money for the excellent gaming experience that Crysis had to offer. I know plenty of PC gamers who pirated Crysis, but do have the 600-800 euro high-end PC to play it in high detail on. Somehow that picture just doesn't seem right - why not shell out the tiny 30-35 euro for a game that you love so that Crytek can create more of such games?
      • Gizza, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Not to mention that it felt like a console game ported to the PC. The interface is ***** horrible in UT3, and for some reason i get less FPS on the menu screens than I do in the game making the mouse lag like *****. Add on top of that that games cost $100 here in Aus. I did buy UT3, but only because Epic had the good sense to release the Unreal Pack on Steam for $60. Thats a good price for every UT game made.

        But I still wont be playing UT3, because UT2k4 is way better.
    • MrTulip, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4you can use the demo as well for benchmarking. actually the standard benchmark for crysis is a flight through the demo. 'benchmarking' is no excuse.
      as the average computer gets better, crysis sales should be relatively constant but because everybody downloaded it some time they aren't.
  • TwwIX, on 05/01/2008, -3/+29Maybe next time they'll focus on optimization instead of creating a benchmark for high end systems.
    • GrantTLC, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2"Oh boo-hoo-hoo, woe is me!. I've made a game that can only be played by a minority of GAMERS, never mind the wider PC-owning public, and I'm now upset that I'm not making money, but I'm going to take it out on the pirates because they're an easy target that everyone else is using. DAMN YOU, PIRATES!"

      Absolute schmucks.
    • fokov, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Exactly, just look at ID that basically took gaming to new levels with DOOM and Quake. They made sure the engine looked good, but was targeted (like Crysis) toward next generation hardware. The HUGE difference between the companies, is that ID made sure that the majority of people can play it now on their hardware. I'm sick of the PC gaming industry basically being marketers for hardware. I should be able to use my computer from 2-4 years ago and play the same games with people that have hardware of today. Quake was different, though, where it paid dividends to have the higher system because the movement was dependent on your frame rate. However, skill could still overcome. The game came out in 1999 and people still play it now. I still think it is a beautiful game.
  • bonjourmr, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2What, this is the first market that has declined ever? Just like the music industry, they need to adapt to a new age. Surely the genius behind gaining "40 million" registrars can come up with it.
  • z0mbie2099, on 05/01/2008, -4/+19Please learn from games like Battlefield to avoid Epic Failures & not blame piracy.

    UT3 deserves it for not releasing Linux clients, ***** you.
    • paulsmith288, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4amen. Thats why I dont game on a PC much (I dont want to run windows or buy apple) /Doom3 and quake4 were the last PC games I bought because of linux support - but both got registered as windows sales as there wasn't a linux box option.
      My ps3 and wii offer the gaming I need now.
    • shaka999, on 05/01/2008, -3/+1Yeah, releasing a linux client is a sure way for a game to go platinum....

  • elitexero, on 05/01/2008, -4/+7How is it lost sales? The only reason I have Crysis is because I had the option to get it for free, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it. You simply can't lose sales from people who wouldn't have bought the game anyway.
  • zarby, on 05/01/2008, -1/+20maybe if they didnt charge bloody 100 dollars per copy (Australian) more people would be inclined to purchase. similar example was COD4, was on steam for 44 dollars till they realised that Australian shops where charging 88+ for it. so they matched the shops.
    • synik, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1which is exactly why I'm not going to buy COD4.

      Paying $90 for a game that is half that if bought in the US? they can go get f***ed.
  • Theugly, on 05/01/2008, -1/+17"2 billion dollars", what utterly piss poor journalism. Even if 40 million people pirated this game, which is utterly phenomenal, the distributor and store take most of the profit.
    • lolinyerface, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1*Extreme Camera Zoom in* 2 BEELL-YUNN DOLLARS! *Evil Trumpet Blare* MWAHAHAHAHAHAH
  • Epik, on 05/01/2008, -6/+13The game ***** sucks, maybe that's why?
  • Georgy, on 05/01/2008, -12/+21oh wow,how digg justifies piracy in so many ways....
    somebody even said people pirate games because aren't any good and it was dugg up.
    Flawless logic right there...
    Go ahead and digg me down...

    • TotalHalibut, on 05/01/2008, -0/+5No, but he had a point. There are three kinds of pirates.

      1) People who have no intention of buying the game in the first place and nothing you can do will convince them otherwise
      2) People who are not sure if they'll like the game, don't trust demos and review, and want to try it for themselves
      3) People who don't think the game is worth the cash, but want to play it anyway

      All are equally illegal, but could not be more ethically different.
      • drachemorder, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3I immediately note that the last two of the above are people who, if piracy wasn't available, might possibly buy the game, but they wouldn't be happy about it. Those people are not going to be loyal customers anyway --- do you really want customers who feel pressured or coerced to buy your product? Ones who are highly unlikely to have a positive impression of you?

        And, I think there are probably also some pirates who really do pirate when they'd have otherwise been perfectly willing to buy the game. But that's the only group one could reasonably list as "lost revenue", and I have to think that it's relatively small.
        • fokov, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Not as small as you think. You have to understand that there is a huge market for Mod Chips. People that will pay for a 500 console, add 150 is modifications (cool things besides the chip) and if it goes bad go out and buy another one. Meanwhile they download every game. However, they typically will buy certain games so they can play online.
          Also, socialism is growing, or I'm just noticing it more. People want to be paid for doing their job, but get stuff for free from others. Those people are pure pirates.
  • Ionis, on 05/01/2008, -4/+1Then why don't they incorporate anti-piracy technology.
    I know all of the Unreal games are on Steam. I don't see what's so bad about publishing their stuff on there.
    • Droniac, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2They did, oh they definitely did. You can't even play a LAN game without signing in to the master server or resorting to altering your ini files. The reason these games aren't published exclusively on Steam is because the platform isn't big enough to generate sufficient revenue. It wouldn't have sold upwards of a million copies if it was a Steam-only release. Also, in case you hadn't noticed, all Steam games have been pirated too - just because you use Steam doesn't mean it won't get pirated: it definitely will.
      • BrandonMills, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1But they could have just included Steam on-disc like Valve does. I think other companies have a reluctance to use Steam because they feel like they're empowering the competition, but then come out and bitch about piracy. Steam works, and MS has and will be lazy on this issue because they want to make you switch to the 360.
  • chc131, on 05/01/2008, -1/+9Gee, they are losing billions?? ok whatever. I guess we can expect 50+ digit security keys, price hike and worse quality games. I don't know about Crytek but EPIC is not paying attention to quality much anymore.
  • rebotfc, on 05/01/2008, -2/+6What a stupid analogy, maybe Crytek lost revenue because they made the system requirements for a decent framerate stupidily high.
  • mookieXL, on 05/01/2008, -4/+14Hey, you want to sell more copies? It's easy, just make games people want to play.
    That means singleplayer longer than 4 hours (I'm looking at you, CoD4),
    multiplayer not lacking basic modes like cooperative(I'm looking at you, Crysis),
    and most importantly, new game instead of paid update (i'm looking at you, UT3).
    ***** you and your glorified tech demos.
    • BlackKnight6, on 05/01/2008, -4/+4COD4 sold a ***** load on the consoles with the same campaign length. This works to the argument that piracy hurt the PC sales, not the games content.
      • mookieXL, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2Or maybe it's just because we PC gamers are used to 40+ hour games. 4 hours is something i expect from freeware, not $60 AAA-title.
        PC gamers are spoiled bastards :)
        • somedirtbag, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Hell yes. All hail the gaming master race!
      • BlackKnight6, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2With your reasoning the HL2 series shouldn't have sold good at all. Very short SP and HL2DM? Oblivion and Mass Effect on consoles? Kotor on the original Xbox as well so a long game isn't something new. I am sure everyone agrees that COD4 MP is very impressive and that consoles DO have very long games.
        • Meatball01, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1Actually HL2 originally came with Counter-Strike: Source.
  • Kmap, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5"To add another perspective, the government lost out as well, because no sales tax is earned on pirated copies" WTF? Game money not spent = Beer money = More Tax
  • 4d669, on 05/01/2008, -10/+3Put ads in the games you ***** idiots. How long do we have to wait until these morons figure out what TV already did.
    MAKE IT FREE AND MAKE MONEY OUT OF ADVERTISEMENT. PC GAMERS HAVE TO WAIT ANYWAY WHEN IT LOADS, SO STICK ***** ADS IN THERE AND SHUT THE ***** UP. Seriously... It's like the industry is run by retards.
    • mookieXL, on 05/01/2008, -0/+5Nah, they'll put ads in games and ask for full price anyway.
    • insomniac8400, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5Sounds like your the moron. "Let's put ads in everything and that pays for it all!" Do you forget we pay for cable, which is full of ads? Someone people should just wait until after they hit puberty before they attempt to claim to know everything.
      • Myonosken, on 05/01/2008, -4/+1HAHA. ***** are you dumb? You pay for the service- the ads are set up by the channels to support themselves.
        Think before you insult others.
        • insomniac8400, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1You are stupid. We pay for cable, which pays for both the service and the channels. Then both the channels and the service offer up their own ads to get even more money. How dumb can you be? Have you never seen local and national ads during commercial breaks? Hell I have comcast and there is at least one comcast advertisement every other commercial break. Again, please wait until after puberty to comment.
          • Myonosken, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1What is your obsession with puberty?
          • insomniac8400, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1You are clearly a 10 year old commenting on adult things that you do not understand.
      • 4d669, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1How much do you pay for Hulu.com?
  • gigoguy, on 05/01/2008, -2/+10To sum up the various arguments that this is a colossally idiotic article and/or metric:
    -40 million attempts does not mean that you would have sold 40 million copies
    -40 million attempts also does not mean 40 million people, could have been 1 very persistent Russian piracy group
    -Crysis was a very pretty but mediocre game, excluding 90% of the PC gaming population because of hardware reqs.
    -UT3 was a nice looking but terrible game, adding nothing in particular to previous iterations
    -Gamers will spend any money they didn't spend on this game on booze, so the gov't wins in this scenario.
    -TGDaily should find some real journalists.
  • richIsBored, on 05/01/2008, -0/+11By migrating to consoles, you can wring every last cent out of your product. You can sell exclusivity rights, downloadable content, and you can even sell a game to someone twice (Wii Virtual Console, Playstation Store).

    You can't do those things on the PC because it's an open platform that anyone can develop for. We'll circumvent your OS exclusive titles. We'll make mods to extend their life. We'll code virtual machines to make them "backwards compatible".

    I don't think this is about piracy. It's about profit.

    If you truely were concerned about piracy, then take a cue from Stardock. They purposefully shipped Sins of a Solar Empire without any anti-piracy measures because they understand the open nature of the platform. I bought the game for no other reason than to support them.
    • fokov, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1I wouldn't say Mods are a bad thing to a company. Mods add value to an existing product, but they do not cost the developers (corporate) anything. However, they do not make money off them directly, except for the people that buy the game because of the mods. Quake 3 (baseq3) was a fun game, but the Mods and Maps written by the community is what made it the greatest game for me. However, even ID is now in it fighting for more and more money. Their last two games failed, and the new Quake Live or whatever is going to fail as well, from what I've heard. I'm not a beta tester.
  • Super6, on 05/01/2008, -2/+4Definitely piracy because it certainly couldn't have been the fact that Crysis had no storyline and needed crazy specs to run.
  • BluesFan, on 05/01/2008, -3/+6I highly doubt there are 40 million people who have a computer powerful ennough to play Crysis...Not at a playable frame rate anyways.

    Maybe that's why they tried a pirated copy in the first place to see if there computer can actually run the game,and since you said PC's 2 or 3 years old could run the game(which is a huge lie) then you can't blame them for pirating.

    BTW next time don't conspire with Microsoft and force people to buy Vista to get extra graphical features when XP works just fine.
    • MrTulip, on 05/01/2008, -3/+2well, they could have downloaded the demo...
  • ortucis, on 05/01/2008, -5/+1Piracy? Sure, I don't deny that, but why do THEY deny that UT3 and Crysis sucked when it came to gameplay?

    Try offering something new and actually fun than same old ***** with new graphics for a change.. you know, like The Witcher did..
    • TotalHalibut, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Let's compare an RPG to an FPS, real smart there sport. While UT3 was little more than a flashy update, Crysis had plenty of depth to it, and this was frequently hi-lighted in reviews. Your little opinion won't change that.
  • insomniac8400, on 05/01/2008, -2/+6WAH WAH WAH. Sounds just like the RIAA. Lets ignore the fact that 100% of those people using illegal keys didn't go buy the game when their illegal key didn't work with multiplayer. That tells you that no one wanted to buy the game to use it. It wasn't worth it to them. PC is a harder market. People can try before they buy. If they don't like they don't buy.(Sometimes they also don't buy because the official game comes with DRM spyware) On a console people end up buying games they don't like. The developer then gets paid, but the customer isn't happy. And who in their right mind isn't going to release a game on xbox, ps3, and pc? Ignoring any market is stupid. You deserve to make no money if you do that.
    • BlackKnight6, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1I disagree, there are alot of demos for the 360 and ps3. Just because someone downloads the game illegally and then doesn't go and purchase the game does not prove they dislike it. If you really think that many people are that honest and willing to spend their money for something they already stole you need to get off the computer and start talking to people. The world is full of dishonest people, and its even more tempting when you can steal from the comfort of your chair.

      Play the demo of the game to determine if you want it. No demo? See if a friend has it. No friends? Read some reviews from multiple sources so the effects of bias is reduced, watch gameplay videos, etc. Don't download illegal copies.

      The fact that console sales are much much larger helps support its piracy/cheap bastards not game content hurting PC sales; especially when the PC version of a multiplatform game, like cod4, is 50 bucks vs the consoles 60. The PC should sell more with a larger install base, cheaper price, and sometimes more features (mods and custom/community content).
  • terminalfire, on 05/01/2008, -2/+240 Million attempts is not 40 million lost sales. If you try a code and it doesn't work you normally do a quick search and try again.

    Sometimes i like to test the game first to see if it either runs properly on my system or is worth the money. The demos that they bring out are not comparable to the final game imo. I purchased Crysis and if a game is worth paying for i will cough up the money and get it.
  • JordanAustin,