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Crytek: PC Game Piracy Ratio Is About 20:1

shacknews.com — Crytek’s CEO Cevat Yerli is an interesting guy. He says PC gamers are the biggest pirates ever with a ratio of 20 to 1 for pirated games. He also blamed the high system requirement for Crysis on a “naming convention issue,” apparently “very high” should have been ‘ultra high”and “high” should have been “very high” and so on.

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  • ecrunner, on 06/27/2008, -4/+22Those gamers....
    • Garlik, on 06/28/2008, -0/+4What are gamers?
    • infinitus64, on 06/28/2008, -0/+4yeah those wacky customers.
    • ZenMojo, on 06/29/2008, -3/+11I think he counts me among the pirating gamers since I haven't put a cent down to buy this game.

      Granted, I've never felt the urge to play this game, but don't let that stop him.
      • ABEL3616, on 06/29/2008, -0/+5It bothers me that this comment isn't being dugg...

        I could download this game, try it out and quickly remove it from my hard drive for being the un-funnest supposedly fun thing which wasn't fun at all thing ever...I wouldn't have bought it in the first place.
      • Dustmuffins, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1Crysis did release a demo...
    • rpgmaker, on 06/29/2008, -0/+6Wow, it's hard for me to believe that number. Gamers are known for actually investing money on their gaming experience. I guess that's just limited to the hardware requirements then...
    • Dracusis, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2Curse those gamers! Can't have been anything wrong with the game, it's those bloody gamers I tell you!
  • okaar, on 06/27/2008, -43/+156damn people!!!
    lets make it 100:1
    I know we can...
  • fudged71, on 06/27/2008, -26/+12Too bad it can't run on anything!

    haha, I jest. There must be a supercomputer in a galaxy far far away.....
    • asspants, on 06/28/2008, -3/+7what are you talking about you can build a PC from scratch for less than 500 dollars that will play crysis very well.
      • fudged71, on 06/28/2008, -2/+12I heard that Tony Stark built a compatible PC in a cave out of scraps, for less than 500 dollars
      • artfiend77, on 06/28/2008, -4/+1Not only did he build said compatible PC for under 500$, but it was more advanced than his suit of armor!
    • Melodik, on 06/28/2008, -2/+1The only build I've ever seen that can play Crysis at 1600x1200, with full anti-aliasing and all in-game settings set to maximum has been a box crammed with 8 8800GTX running in SLI.

      That being said, it's also easy to make a new rig with a 3850 and an E6600 and play Crysis comfortably at 1280x1024 with most of the eye-candy on high-ish.
      • Wartz, on 06/28/2008, -1/+34850 will do it now at > 30 fps at 1900x1200
      • renegadeafk, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1I don't think you can even run 8 cards in sli...
  • Nekura20x6, on 06/27/2008, -9/+150What is never mentioned is this: "How many of those people would have bought a copy of the game if pirated copies weren't available?" I rent games and there are many that I only play because I'm not paying for them. If I had to shell out $60 for each and every game, I'd pass on all but the top tier games.
    • ultraJesus, on 06/28/2008, -7/+40Crysis had a demo if I recall correctly.
      • cscott530, on 06/28/2008, -3/+17one of the better demos, actually.
      • sylvok, on 06/28/2008, -2/+10He wasn't talking about demos, he was talking about stuff like blockbuster.
    • aladrin, on 06/28/2008, -0/+6That's exactly what I do now. I buy the must-have PC games (like Spore) and the cheap 'casual' PC games (BigFish has a deal where you can get any of their stuff for $7 each with a commitment) and everything else I play is on the consoles. I rent the console games first except for the 'top tier' stuff, which I preorder the limited editions of.

      Every so often, there's a console game that really sits well with me and I buy it after renting it. I haven't a chance at doing that with PC games (at least not legally) and so they miss out on a lot of my money that I spend on other things.
      • manitoba98xp, on 06/28/2008, -4/+5In theory, that's what demos are for. Also, if you want the lower price point, you can get many older games used, or through Steam, which are often almost as good as their newer counterparts, and certainly more graphically impressive than Bejeweled.
      • innocentsinner, on 06/29/2008, -1/+4"I buy the must-have PC games (like Spore)"

        More like "I buy the PC games where you must have a valid serial to enjoy their online content (like Spore)"

        ;)
    • bradsh, on 06/28/2008, -11/+5I think Crysis most definitely counts as top tier. Gameplay and story were fantastic
      • cknyan, on 06/28/2008, -6/+13Story was your average FPS kill the soldiers then the aliens. The gameplay was full of kill till your about to die, then stealth and wait for the recharge. Halo 1 > Crysis. Even Mario Bros. 1&3 > Crysis in replay value.
      • MasterPain, on 06/28/2008, -4/+0To short and to end with a cliff hanger like they did in a brand new game was a bad idea. They probably didn't make enough money for the sequel.
    • Coolspot420, on 06/28/2008, -9/+4Yeah, if you only bought top tier games, it wouldn't be a big deal, its when you pirate those top tier games that it hurts the industry.
    • Stormwern, on 06/28/2008, -3/+10Also, how do you know a game is top tier before you play it. Trailers are pretty but tell you nothing except what budget the game has, and reviews are rarely on the mark. Give me a high quality demo version before release and I will play it, and I will buy the game if I like it.
      • hartley, on 06/29/2008, -1/+6Game developer recognition, and brand/series recognition. It worked just fine for us back in the c64/2600/NES days, back before there was a separate magazine/website for every platform out there.

        Although movie to game conversions seemed to sell especially well due to this ignorance. Everyone out there with ET for 2600, or Back to the Future for NES knows exactly what Im talking about.
    • Kettels, on 06/28/2008, -0/+7Hey try living in Australia its around 110-120 for games, and our dollar is almost the same.
    • Lavarock, on 06/28/2008, -1/+7It's about the same for music- Nobody would have 20,000 garbage tracks they don't listen to if they weren't free.
    • dsmx, on 06/29/2008, -2/+4

      If someone is pirating your product all it means is that they do not believe your product is worth paying for, that is the fault of the developer and publisher. You want to cut piracy make it so your game is worth paying for.

      If you institute any measure such a securom all you'll succeed in doing is pissing off the people who buy the game legitimately while the pirates will not have to worry about it. Instead of punishing people who buy the game how about rewarding them?
    • culbeda, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2The only reason I have it is due to a bundle with a video card. I doubt that I would have purchased it on my own and I can't blame people for passing it over. It's pretty good, but It's just not special for people to sink $50-60 dollars on it..
    • BurgerDST, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2Good point. How many will buy the sequel? I bought my copy of Crysis for 39.99. I find it hard to believe that 20 people pirate for every one that buys it. Don't punish people who buy games by making them suffer with restrictive drm. If 20x more people are supposedly pirating anyway, why can't I play without the disk in as a reward for actually paying. Crysis is a good game that will continue to sell as people keep getting upgraded computers that can better handle it's groundbreaking graphics.
  • ElBeh, on 06/27/2008, -8/+312Photoshop CS3's Piracy to Buying ratio is probably 1:0
    • quomen, on 06/28/2008, -1/+74Undefined
    • manitoba98xp, on 06/28/2008, -1/+47Someone had to buy it, right? If only to distribute it.
      • houndeyex, on 06/28/2008, -0/+53Nope. Someone rips it off internally and away we go!
      • xxMarka, on 06/28/2008, -1/+28crack the free trial lol
    • MindStalker, on 06/28/2008, -4/+72Would they be making so many updates and versions if no one bought it? One of Photoshops biggest benefits is the fact that its pirated so often. People pirate it, then they learn it, companies are then forced to buy it for their graphic artist because thats what they know best. Do you ever hear the makers of photoshop complain about rampant piracy? Business tools love it when they get heavily pirated.
      • solid12345, on 06/28/2008, -1/+41Adobe doesn't generally care about individual users but they will go after a company with swift vengeance if caught using pirated software.
      • okaar, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2is like the OS battle...
        Photoshop is like the 90% of marketshare of course they do good money
    • EvilFerret, on 06/28/2008, -5/+39That's because it's so ***** expensive. I would be happy to pay for Photoshop if it was sold for $50.
      • trogdor282, on 06/28/2008, -1/+70I would buy a Porsche if it was $50. As it is I have to pirate them :(
      • Nyvhek, on 06/29/2008, -4/+7The interesting difference here is that once Adobe has made one copy of Photoshop, they can duplicate it as many times as they want for free. Porsche, on the other hand, has to spend much more than $50 to duplicate one of their cars.
      • Myztry, on 06/29/2008, -3/+5I would 'steal' a porsche, if like a game or a movie, if I could do so while leaving the original intact.
        Hell, I'd give my friends copies of my car too. It's not that they're stealing it :)
      • MacSuxWindozSux, on 06/29/2008, -3/+2It's a lot like photographing a painting in an art gallery, and going home to print off a copy to hang on your wall.
      • Dracusis, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2The cost of the Porsche would also include all of the manual labour that goes into creating it. Adobe have a fairly massive team working on developing Photoshop (and their other apps) year after year, and they need to pay for offices and equipment to do all of that, how are they meant to get their money back if they sell it for so little, because even if it ~was~ $50 most of you wankers would still pirate it, not that any of could probably use it properly.

        For those of us who can use it to it's full potential it's more than worth the cost, hell I make 100s of times it's cost per year freelancing as an artist and I couldn't to that without it, so I'm more than happy to pay for it. For everyone else there's much cheaper image editing programs around for about $50, but everyone seems to pirate those too. Seems to me humanity is just full of greedy and selfish wankers. Get a life, get a job, and quit complaining about ***** you can't afford because you still live in the basement of your mom's house.
    • crownedgriffin, on 06/28/2008, -3/+24Businesses foot the bill for photoshop. Photoshop is an example of piracy working for a software company. Do you think Photoshop would be an industry standard if all those people hadn't learned how to use it so well by stealing it off the internet?
      • bjornski, on 06/28/2008, -2/+3Same with Windows and Office.
      • stubear, on 06/28/2008, -3/+15Photoshop was THE tool to use long before the internet we know of was around. Quit perpetuating this ***** excuse. ANY good graphic designer can make up the cost of Photoshop with one or two small projects. If you can't you either suck or don't know how to sell your skills well.
      • bxblox, on 06/29/2008, -0/+4Any good graphic designer has also had previous access to Photoshop to get good enough to make up the cost of Photoshop with one or two small projects. Im not saying I support the notion that piracy is good for photoshop, but thats like saying race car drivers make millions and any good racecar driver should be able to afford to own the car after one or two wins. Either way piracy has increased the amount of people that know how to use photoshop and many end up working somewhere that paid for a copy.
      • kirado4, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1@stubear.. dumbass people copied stuff BEFORE the internet was around.. hmm making up the cost to buy photoshop.. with only one or two projects.. are you on crack.. do you know how expensive it is..? Where I live i'd have to do half a years worth of work to afford that over priced piece of bloatware..
      • hcjake, on 06/30/2008, -0/+0@kirado4, it takes you half a year to make $650? damn, where ever you live must suck.
    • bluezinc, on 06/29/2008, -0/+3That's because companies buy huge blocks of them, leaving individuals free to pirate it as much as they want as their dollars generally wouldn't make a huge dent either way.
    • grantmoore3d, on 06/29/2008, -1/+4That's a stupid comment. Clearly digital media professionals buy it. It was never intended for n00bs to paste their friends heads on top of a monkey touching it's own ass.
      • dshPls, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1Just about every person making money off of their output from photoshop has paid for it.
    • solidus636, on 06/29/2008, -2/+2Did you just divide by zero?!
  • monkeystick, on 06/27/2008, -18/+6You don't see claims like this coming from MMO publishers who require online authentication before you can even login to play a game. Not to mention that all character data is encrypted and saved online.

    Why don't PC game companies just keep a master server for their customers' save games and require them to login/authenticate before playing?

    I mean its 2008 and games like Crysis require hefty machines.. Its probably safe to assume that the people who buy PC games also have an internet connection.

    I dunno, its just a suggestion. I haven't thought out all of the logistics. I'd rather not see any form of copy protection but Jesus H.. stop the bitching about PC piracy and start coming up with solutions that don't punish the people who are willing to pay.
    • WhereAmI, on 06/28/2008, -3/+36"Why don't PC game companies just keep a master server for their customers' save games and require them to login/authenticate before playing?"

      Because, and I'm not speaking for everyone here, but that would piss me off.
      • B1663r, on 06/28/2008, -6/+9well, you weren't going to buy the game anyway, so who cares if you are pissed off?
      • twiztidsinz, on 06/28/2008, -1/+1Is that you, Mr. Yerli???
      • digitalpencil, on 06/28/2008, -0/+5nope, i think that surmises everyone's opinion fairly accurately.
      • WhereAmI, on 06/28/2008, -1/+1@B1663r
        Who says I wouldn't buy the game?
    • CarStan, on 06/28/2008, -4/+12Because not anyone wants to go online just to play a game? F.e., My gaming PC at home has no internet connection, for that i use my mobile laptop i eed for college
      • Disease, on 06/28/2008, -4/+3What a waste. You're missing out on all the multiplayer.
      • podobuzz, on 06/29/2008, -6/+1Multiplayer is way over rated. Give me a good single player game any day.
    • PontifexMaximus, on 06/28/2008, -3/+2Yeah what the hell man?
    • h4mx0r, on 06/28/2008, -5/+12You are wrong to assume that everyone who buys PC games has a convenient internet connection at hand. While I do have a connection, I have personally come up with various times without an internet connection for an extended period of time.

      Also, what happens if the company goes down under? What then, of your master server? What then, of the games you bought which no longer function correctly? Download a patch? Once again, you need internet for that, and theres always going to be the people who don't have access for one reason or the other.

      Of course, the authentication server thing is what keeps multiplayer games on the top of the sales list because you must buy the game in order to play it, but I really think some anti-piracy measures just go too damn far.
      • sublimemm, on 06/28/2008, -1/+3reminds me of that time when people bought DRM music from microsoft, then they turned off the auth servers...
      • sirmasterboy, on 06/28/2008, -1/+3What about Half Life 2 on Steam... Doesn't that require internet to at least authenticate your copy and keep it updated? Seems to work pretty well.
      • Melodik, on 06/28/2008, -2/+3Because Steam has an offline mode that has proven chaotic and problematic over the years. Steam itself locked out thousands of eager players on the release of Half-Life 2 because the authentication servers were overloaded.

        Don't get me wrong, I love Steam, and I love the offline function. But you picked a poor example of how the system could be seamless.
    • twiztidsinz, on 06/28/2008, -2/+20Cuz I dont want to have to log-in to my games.
      Cuz I dont want to have it call-home every day/week.
      Cuz I dont want to be treated like a criminal for something I bought.
    • scy1192, on 06/28/2008, -1/+3because then we couldn't pirate the games
    • KOSmurfy, on 06/28/2008, -1/+5As long as the content is single player, someone would just crack it. People have made WoW servers that you can play on for free, but the reason nobody bothers with them is because 90% of the fun of WoW is the multiplayer aspect, which you won't find on the free servers.

      It's not so much the server side part that makes things difficult, it's the fact that MMOs are usually grind-fests, and nobody would play a single player grindfest (except elder scrolls fans of course).
      • WhereAmI, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1Eh @ private WoW servers, any free Eve servers?
      • iticu, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1No, CCP guards everything to do with Eve code with a vengeance.
    • Lane, on 06/28/2008, -1/+2are you ***** kidding me? Perhaps it's because the cost of keeping said server, saved games, backups, and such would add up to substantially more money that the game could ever make. I have over 100 games for the pc that have accrued over the past decade and a half. The single greatest asset that PC gaming has to it's name is that when you own a game it's yours to keep for forever on end. Counter Strike was released in 2000 and it's still one of the biggest online FPS shooters today. I don't want my games to have an expiration date, no matter how long they've been out.
  • artfiend77, on 06/28/2008, -15/+197An estimated 325,000 people thought that this "CEO" is a whiny little bitch and 75% of people bough the game.

    Hey look everybody! I can pull numbers out my ass too!
    • stubear, on 06/28/2008, -11/+1You have definitive proof he isn't quoting a legitimate study? I thought so.
      • kodek, on 06/28/2008, -0/+12And do YOU have any proof that artfiend77 isn't quoting a legitimate study that came out of his ass?

        I thought so.
      • artfiend77, on 06/28/2008, -0/+7Do you have definitive proof he *is*? I thought so.
      • stubear, on 06/29/2008, -4/+1@artfiend77

        if one is going to make such a bold claim that another is lying then they need to have proof of this lie. I'll bet you're one of those asshats that complains about Fox News (likely calling it Faux News) and are simply missing the irony here.
      • Myztry, on 06/29/2008, -0/+3Lies, Damned lies and Statistics - Mark Twain.

        I love that one, for the truth it hold...
    • Ebok, on 06/29/2008, -1/+6Well if EA would go to steam then maybe he would stop whining
    • artfiend77, on 06/29/2008, -8/+2*sigh* and you must be one of those asshats that ride George Bushes dick all day, think that waterboarding really isn't torture, that wire tapping is constitutional and the RIAA and company are boons to artists and musicians everywhere. How I feel sorry for you. People like you need to stay in your trailer park and drink yourself to an early grave.
      • ender7074, on 06/30/2008, -1/+0/sigh. You must be one of those elitist liberal assholes that thinks that anyone with a dissenting opinion from yours isnt "intelligent" enough to understand your sublime point of view. Guess what, you're a worthless piece of ***** who spends all day sucking on Obama's dick. Please refrain from commenting from your mommy's basement anymore.
      • artfiend77, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1right, ***** for brains. And you decided to comment here because....?
  • Koush, on 06/28/2008, -5/+71Sure it is, 20 million+ people played Crysis..that's how it is.

    /Sarcasm.
    • TaosSW, on 06/28/2008, -8/+3I doubt the ratio is even at 1 : 1
    • MrTulip, on 06/28/2008, -3/+11that doesn't sound too far off, actually. recently i've been to a LAN party with mostly college and high school students. 25 people had crysis on their computers and only one (yours truly) had paid for it. maybe that's just germany with pc gaming still going strong yadda, yadda...but especially in this demographic, young people with little money who have also other interests like partying, drugs and culture stuff, 20:1 seems almost a conservative estimate.
      • ho0ber, on 06/28/2008, -6/+5and 0 to 1 of those people could play it.
      • MrTulip, on 06/28/2008, -1/+4@hoober: yeah, no.
        on medium crysis is pretty harmless. since the motion blur is pretty good, you don't need more than 23 frames for a fluid gaming experience.
        used 8000er geforces and stuff are dirt cheap.
        as is your comment.
    • reconflux, on 06/29/2008, -0/+6It's more like 20 million+ people TRIED to play Crysis and found out they need a new computer.
    • Dracusis, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1I think reconflux is on the money here. Oblivion for the PC sold like hot cakes, was in the best sellers list for ages, yet it had almost no copy protection. Seems to me Crytech's CEO can't admit that maybe there was something wrong with their game, no, has to be the gamers.
    • cybrguy, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1In my lan group, 3 people bought the game, about 5 played it, the rest didn't care for the game or had enough by playing the demo. The only thing this guy is accomplishing is pissing me off so I don't want to buy his next game. Its not that I am pro-piracy, its that he is blaming his problems on gamers, and I am a gamer, so I feel insulted by his blatant exaggeration.

      These people are so dumb, make a good game with good multiplayer, then have a cd-key check system for when you log onto internet servers, such as BF2. Problem solved, no annoying copy protection crap, just a cd-key check if you want to play online.

  • Doomsan, on 06/28/2008, -11/+5You should be ashamed!

    /sarc
  • s4g4n, on 06/28/2008, -6/+15 There's always someone sitting in the back of the class that ruins it for everybody.
  • PATSCRU, on 06/28/2008, -12/+151Piracy in PC gaming is a scapegoat, not an excuse...PC sales are incredibly strong right now, you just need to make a game people will want to buy. Case in point: Sins of A Solar Empire. An indie game from a small developer with NO DRM stayed on the top 10 NPD PC sales charts for months.
    • dzw120, on 06/28/2008, -2/+32Exactly. That was even with SoaSE being the #1 seeded game on The Pirate Bay for a couple weeks.
      • MrTulip, on 06/28/2008, -4/+2maybe all the downloaders got their fix and wanted to play online (i know i did).
        crysis' multiplayer is nothing i'd pay the full price for if i had played the singleplayer modus for free.
        and so it goes. everyone downloads crysis "to see if runs on my system" (even though there is a demo out), plays it all the way through and tries to justify their lazy not buying of the game on digg with phrases like "only demo for the engine", "not so good at all", "the CEO is a jerk" and whatnot.
    • LittleDas, on 06/28/2008, -11/+44If PC sales are incredibly strong right now, do you think developers are leaving for consoles because they hate making money?
      • Aeomyr, on 06/28/2008, -11/+17Yes. PC > Console.
      • Droniac, on 06/28/2008, -5/+11Ever stopped to think that maybe they like to make more money and that's why they're developing games for consoles AND PC nowadays? PC sales are strong right now and certainly on par with any of the major console platforms currently available, just not all of them put together (unless you start counting ALL game sales, not just brick & mortar, then the PC market is - obviously - way bigger).
      • yohnstoppable, on 06/28/2008, -1/+29PC sales are incredibly strong for companies that sell good games. Getting overshadowed by all time great fps's released at the same time sure as hell hurts sells as well. Crytek and Epic are just looking for scapegoats, because their games didn't perform as expected.

        I just don't see why they can ignore these other factors. I mean, if we seperate Orange Box out by game, you have 6 first person shooters with a 90+ metacritic score being released within 84 days of each other. 6 of the most critically acclaimed first person shooters of all time released in a 3 month period. Think the ones released at the end of the period will do poorly? No *****. Crysis was the last of those (and by far the lowester rated by actual gamers), and UT3, which WASN'T as highly rated, was released a week after Crysis. People already had better games to play, and didn't give a *****.

        And when you make consumers believe they can't even run your game, they won't ***** buy it. Also, UT3 was a step backwards from UT3 (game modes taken out, movement system ***** with, etc).

        All this is irrelevant, though, because the topic at hand is this stupid 20 to 1 ratio. If this idiot thinks 20 million people played crysis, then he needs to stop eating paint.
      • IndigoMoss, on 06/28/2008, -3/+16You also have to consider that a lot of the people that play console games are the same people that pay to see bad movies. You can easily make a mediocre game on the console and you'll make a good amount of money. Unless the game is good, PC gamers won't touch it with a 10-foot-poll. A lot of PC gamers still play stuff like Counter-Strike, Battlefield 2, and Quake because they are amazing games.

        Stuff like Area 52: Blacksite and other mediocre ***** like that only get purchased when it's like 3 dollars in the discount bin. Crysis while very good looking, was a piece of crap game. Story blew ass, gameplay was the standard fare, and AI was ***** retarded. The only reason it sold as many copies as it did, was so people could benchmark their system. The only reason I bought it was because of the promise of awesome mods, but so far none of those have come to fruition. I guarentee that Crysis would have sold more on the console, because console gamers buy on hype, no matter how crappy the game is.

        Note: I'm not trying to stereotype all console gamers here, but a huge part of the console market is little 12-year old, online homophobic Timmy that will buy anything that says "Mature" on it, even if it's just a mundane crapfest.
      • Lane, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2game sales statistics LACK the digital copies sold.
    • B1663r, on 06/28/2008, -10/+16You are mistaken, Sins had DRM in the form of a crappy computer AI that was trivially easy to beat. If you wanted to play online, to find real compeition, you have to use a CD key.
      • medfreak, on 06/28/2008, -3/+20Have you ever played a strategy game before?
      • B1663r, on 06/28/2008, -9/+3Yes, and other than as a tutorial, the computer AI is an utter waste of time further proving the notion that SIN's had DRM in the form of no single player game.
      • medfreak, on 06/28/2008, -3/+10My point is, good strategy games are about the multiplayer... almost always. If that is what you call DRM, then you lack the basic understanding of what DRM is.
      • B1663r, on 06/28/2008, -8/+3Yes, you are free to copy and play the tutorial game, but you are Digitally Restricted Managed from playing the real game. I know DRM when I see it. Just becuse the game doesn't use SecureROM and its ilk doesn't mean it lacks DRM.
    • sylvok, on 06/28/2008, -1/+17People are not leaving the PC gaming world, once you played one you don't go back.

      Xbox, PS3, and Wii are bringing in more gamers, but the PC isn't growing as fast (not as newbie friendly)

      Besides we at digg know once something goes mainstream like consoles are, the communities start being asshats (Xbox live anyone)
      • noots, on 06/28/2008, -1/+2i've actually moved from PC gaming back to Consoles (ps3), originally i was sick of updating my PC, but i found a game that i was good at and played competitively online, then after about 4 years basically got really bored of it all.

        PC controls are vastly superior, but i don't have anywhere near as much fun as i do on a console (it was tough losing my competitive streak). Plus they are much more accessible to friends, and becoming even more so.
      • B1663r, on 06/28/2008, -0/+3I played console games almost exclusively for the two years following the release of the xbox, but now that this gen console war is winding down, the excitement is obviously moving back to the PC, see Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3.
      • PedleZelnip, on 06/29/2008, -1/+4Actually I did move from PC to console, and it'd take a ***** of killer games that can be played on my ancient Radeon 8500 to get me to go back.

        Yes, that card is ***** for gaming. Yes, I could get a decent card for like $200. But I simply don't want to. I enjoy the simplicity of being able to buy a game, stick it into the 360 and have it work exactly just as well as anyone else playing that game. I enjoy not having to crack open my computer and install a new video card or RAM, or a new CPU just because I want to play the new hot game (which more often than not isn't anything to write home about).

        I'm not saying PC gaming is dying or any such *****, just trying to point out that consoles have their perks too.
    • whyufail, on 06/29/2008, -0/+6Basically this is just Crytek taking the Epic and Iron Lore way out and bawwwing about piracy because its the perfect scapegoat. "Oh, we didn't make a shiny looking but ultimately shallow 90s shooter that nobody wanted, it was PIIIIIIIIIRATES ;____;"
    • BurgerDST, on 06/29/2008, -0/+5No DRM is a big reason Sins of a Solar Empire is on my "to buy" list. Plus I hear it is a great game.
    • mohamedmansour, on 06/29/2008, -1/+4Look at Team Fortress 2 ... Their crowd is increasing every month, Valve is proving that if you make a good game, you will get good sales.
    • ZeroFive1, on 06/29/2008, -0/+3vALVE doesn't bitch about piracy.

      And we buy their games all the more because of it.
  • charlesray, on 06/28/2008, -8/+76"Yerli added that rampant piracy may lead to 'less and less games appearing on the PC, or less and less games pushing the boundaries of PC gaming.'"

    I don't want games pushing boundaries. I want games that fit snuggly within the boundaries so that I don't spend $300 on a video card and still get lag.
    • twiztidsinz, on 06/28/2008, -0/+24Pushing the boundaries is fine...
      Moving them a football field length is not.

      When you don't push boundaries and try to make your programs run on 100% of the machines out there you sacrifice usability in favor of availability and end up with *****.
      • Smills, on 06/28/2008, -2/+2Exactly. Pushing boundaries is fantastic in my opinion, it makes hardware developers have more pressure as well, and prices lower. The thing is, if they want to push boundaries they need to allow graphics modes for the people that either can't afford or don't want to afford good computers. Really, the low requirements for Crysis are not that bad, my 2 and a half year old computer with no upgrades can run it on medium (Athlon X2 3800+, 2gb DDR, Radeon X1800XT).

        I like the stress because my current computer can run it on very high at around 30fps (two overclocked 3870X2's, 4Gb DDR3, 4ghz Quad Extreme). It is good to have the computer stressed.
      • AzureRise, on 06/29/2008, -0/+3However Crysis was horribly optimized. The new optimized version of the engine runs smoothly on a single geforce 8600. It's what Warhead runs on.
    • MindStalker, on 06/28/2008, -0/+5Pushing graphical boundaries doesn't significantly increase sales anyways, its gameplay/storytelling boundaries that buyers are looking for. And shouldn't slow your computer much (Spore excluded).
    • erhanaltay, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2There are over 100 free to play games that span every possible genre available, and most have very low system requirements. Games like Gunz, Soldier Front, War Rock (FPS) Fly For Fun, Rappelz, Maple Story (MMORPG), Saga, Dreamlord (RTS), Kart Rider, Drift City, Project Torque (racers), Freestyle, Kick Online, Shot Online (Sports)

      I could go on but the point is piracy won't kill gaming, it will simply cause a shift away from 1 time retail purchases. We are already seeing this in various ways. As I stated above free to play games supported by micro transactions are growing rapidly, a new game is released almost every day.

      For another variant look at WoW and other pay-to play games, or at the Steam platform.
    • MrTulip, on 06/28/2008, -0/+5pc gaming always had a strong "pushing the boundaries" factor. does anyone remember strike commander? to play it you had to upgrade till kingdom come (i believe you needed a 386 which at the time cost way more than 300$).
      crysis can be played on medium on a very modest system. just see the high and ultrahigh modes as a bonus. if they released it with only medium mode available no one would be bitching.
      • OafleyJones, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1You needed a 486 for Strike commander. I know because I bought a 486DX33 just to play it.
      • MrTulip, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1mmh..it ran okay on a 386dx afair. gouraud shading ftw.
        however, it was always ***** expensive to be on the cutting edge.
    • logandurand, on 06/29/2008, -2/+1I don't get what the executives are bitching about anyway. Crysis was a well made, fun game that exceeded sales expectations and made plenty of money. As for "pushing the boundaries" graphically, the game still looked great on midrange machines as well as high-end. Admittedly, however, a large part of the gameplay was in the physics, which could outpace most processors on midrange rigs.
  • Aadain, on 06/28/2008, -11/+112Maybe if the pirated game copies didn't have all the annoying anti-copying schemes stripped out of them, making it a better experience than the retail copy, piracy would drop a bit. Every time you make the retail copy more annoying to use than a pirated copy, you inspire hundreds to download the game instead of paying for it.
    • xtekian, on 06/28/2008, -14/+9I don't think that is a very valid argument. Most of the game's sales occur in the first week, and when it can't be cracked in the first week, i.e. Bioshock, many people go out to buy it. In that sense, the protection did its duty - last long enough to get most people who would buy it to buy it. If games had easier anti-piracy software, then pirated versions of games would come out a week before release and then much fewer gamers would buy it.
      • dougmc, on 06/28/2008, -0/+8> Most of the game's sales occur in the first week
        Citation, please.

        As I see it, this is rarely the case at most, and if it's ever the case it's probably with a heavily hyped game that can't live up to the hype ... Daikatana might fall into this category.
      • MindStalker, on 06/28/2008, -0/+12There is a decent segment of the high end gaming population that buys a game, leaves it in the box, and pirates it just because the pirated version doesn't put junk on their computer. Obviously these people aren't hurting sales, but when its so bad people figure why bother buying it.
      • honesttussey, on 06/28/2008, -1/+9It is a valid arguement case in point: Crysis. I bought the freaking game LEGALLY and you know what it does when I put the DVD in my drive? It makes this terrible clicking noise and sounds like my drive is going to break. That's a funky DRM scheme causing that. I used the DVD to install the game once then immediately got the crack so I would never have to do that again. I also read posts on the Crytek forums. The DVD broke some drives. YEAH! Makes me want to go out and purchase more legal games! or pirate them and avoid this dumb *****.

      • Droniac, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2xtekian - your argument doesn't really work. It does seem to hold true for console games, where the first week-month is crucial and the most profitable period (e.g.: Halo 3, BioShock, Call of Duty 4 for consoles ; all sold a large percentage of their total copies sold in the first month). But PC game sales don't work that way, every single best-selling (and not-so-best-selling) PC game has proven that time and time again.

        Even Crysis itself disproves your statement. It sold miserably the first few weeks, but then picked up steam and gained 1 million copies sold in a matter of 3 months time (so yes, mr. Yerli is claiming Crysis was played by over 21 million gamers - fat chance). Likewise World of Warcraft gained most of it's subscribers a year after release, UT2004 sold most of it's copies a year after release, Starcraft only sold 1.5 million of it's near-10-million total units sold in the first year, Sins of a Solar Empire dominated sales charts not for a few weeks, but several months, and so on...

        Furthermore, the vast majority of games are cracked the very day of release, or before. Even Mass Effect (PC), with stricter DRM than BioShock itself, was cracked PRIOR to launch day. So how exactly would this anti-piracy ***** do anything to improve sales? Pirates aren't affected at all. Consumers are extremely negatively affected, lowering sales due to people converting to piracy out of annoyance with DRM. I know several people who have pirated BioShock and Mass Effect due to DRM and nothing else. Ordinarily they would have purchased these games, but they don't like being treated like criminals and being limited in the use of their purchased products.

        Not that Crysis actually had any genuinely annoying anti-piracy *****. Nor did it actually sell poorly (1+ million copies does not constitute as a failed game, especially if you're only targeting like 10% of the PC gaming market due to insane system specs).
      • AttackingHobo, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1@honesttusseyhonesttussey

        Same thing with my DVD drive. I thought my drive was broken. It would also completely freeze my computer for 10 minutes before it would read the disk. And my computer is good enough to play Crysis.

        I am also angry that they will not fix any remaining glitches, and will never purchase another crytech game.
    • Coolspot420, on 06/28/2008, -9/+7Haha, no. If you take out the anti-copy schemes, games just pirate them anyway.
    • Neuz89, on 06/28/2008, -0/+5all they really need is a good multiplayer system that makes people want to pay for the game and don't even worry about people pirating the single player portion because you know they will anyways. Allowing the single player portion to be pirated is really an easy/free way to get word-of-mouth advertising
      • boobsbr, on 06/30/2008, -0/+2while i agree with you that stopping piracy is unavoidable, and that great multiplayer really does sell, i would like to say i enjoy campaigns a LOT, the storytelling, the character development. if every game was like COD4, it would suck. people still like adventure games or rpgs.

        developers must understand that incredible graphics alone don't sell, just what happened with crysis. you need a solid story, you need characters with depth, you REALLY need good AI. and you need to reduce costs. games cost too much. maybe for americans or europeans it doesn't but here in brazil we pay $120 per game. that's an awful lot.
    • Evi1d33d, on 06/29/2008, -0/+6Kinda like Bioshock where tons of people had installation limit problems and a single crack fixed it.
    • whyufail, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2I honestly wish I had pirated Bioshock after I heard about the ***** token system they implemented. In fact, I fully intended to, but bought it anyway because I wanted the big daddy figure. Had I not been getting the special edition, you can bet your ass I would have pirated the hell out of that game and canceled my pre-order.
      • doubledmateo, on 06/30/2008, -1/+0Yeah, because screw all those talented developers that spent thousands of hours slaving away to bring you an original and fresh gameplay experience. They shouldn't be allowed to attempt to protect their game from being stolen. They shouldn't get paid for it because, dammit, I'm a gamer and shouldn't have the slightest inconvenience.
    • eschompthis, on 06/29/2008, -2/+1o ***** please, your gonna tell me that having annoying pirated schemes prevents people from buying a great game. Then pc gamers are assholes and deserve the less games that come out for pc. Im a gamer that occasionally downloads a game, but im not blaming it on "annoying schemes" im blaming it on being broke.
      • noerrorsfound, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2When those annoying schemes frequently stop buyers of the game from playing it, or even go as far as breaking their DVD drive, then yes, it prevents people from buying a great game.
      • Abomonog, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2Cd check are OK. But anti piracy measures that lock out your DVD access, require an internet connection to play a game with no multiplayer element, clandestinely install drivers and make hardware setting changes are considered criminal to a serious gamer. Any game with anti-piracy measure like the ones I described deserves to be pirated. The only possible exception to this are the Steam based games and only because Steam has made it worthwhile by offering ***** of free games and other content. Enough to make us forget than cpu cycle robbing steam app that runs in the background during our TF2 games.
      • doubledmateo, on 06/30/2008, -1/+0RE: Abomonog
        Nobody is forcing you to buy or play the game. If you're dissatisfied with what they've given you, return it to the store you purchased it at, and get your money back. Don't purchase the game, and don't play it. Just because you dislike the way a publisher releases their game, does NOT justify you stealing it. This is just a mentality used to get rid of any guilt for stealing a game, and hurting the developers that work so hard to bring them to you.

        Pirating games more due to anti piracy code is only going to lead to more anti piracy software. You're contributing to the problem.
    • cybrguy, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1I bought BF2, 4 copies of it, and 4 copies of special forces, and I didn't want to keep the cd/dvds in the drives of my gaming rigs, so I load up daemon tools and a mini-image. Plain and simple. I paid for it, but I dont want the hassle.

      It would be the minority who would pirate a game rather than buy it due to the annoyances of copy protection. But it does happen.

  • sardonic, on 06/28/2008, -15/+6Make console games then *****.
    • SomeImagination, on 06/28/2008, -2/+12Yeah because we all know its impossible to pirate console games
    • Tahiri, on 06/28/2008, -4/+3It's impossible to pirate PS3 games at current time.
    • doubledmateo, on 06/30/2008, -0/+0That's exactly what's starting to happen. Unless the game has a built in failsafe like online functionality, publishers will look more and more towards consoles. Sure you can still pirate games, but its a lot less prevalent.
  • dstz, on 06/28/2008, -7/+2Great news.
  • jnava121, on 06/28/2008, -1/+8lets go even further , uber-high, flux capacitor high?
  • dha07030, on 06/28/2008, -13/+6I don't want to see the argument but "I had to see what my frames will be" we all know the benchmarks and if you have the money to build the computer you could have shelled out the money.
    • aladrin, on 06/28/2008, -4/+4We all know the benchmarks of games that haven't even been released yet? Wait, how the ***** did I get left out of this?

      No, we don't all 'know the benchmarks'. With a paid-too-much-for-it rig, I can be 95% sure I can play the latest games at good quality. Crysis would probably play poorly. Even with my rig, I'm not taking the chance that I can't play it.
      • dha07030, on 06/28/2008, -4/+3Then you where not going to buy it anyway. I am calling ***** on people who say they will buy the game after they check.
  • dilbert, on 06/28/2008, -5/+74Steam. And not only in the shape of hot air.
    • sylvok, on 06/28/2008, -1/+23You can pirate Steam games, its just an extra step. Mind you a hard step.
      • Disease, on 06/28/2008, -0/+22You could, but if you want to buy a game Steam works rather well for most games.
      • Ebok, on 06/29/2008, -0/+10Im 75% more likly to buy from steam then if its not on steam. that includes singleplayer games
    • bmystry, on 06/28/2008, -9/+4I always thought Steam was the easiest thing to pirate games from...I had every Steam game for free a year ago through this little download you can do.
      • ZeroFive1, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2The point is that Steam is so convenient and easy.
    • supermanly, on 06/28/2008, -1/+7You can pirate Steam games but not as easily. My brother pirated Portal after he saw my legitimately video-card-bundled Black Box.That and you lose some of the game intangibles (for lack of a better word) that are being implemented on Steam like the Steam Community. I understand there are cracked servers which don't check for CD-keys as well.

      What developers need to do is make a compelling reason for us to buy the game rather than pirate.
      • stubear, on 06/28/2008, -6/+4"What developers need to do is make a compelling reason for us to buy the game rather than pirate."

        if the game isn't compelling why bother playing it in the first place? Just grow a pair and say "I pirate stuff because I'm a ***** cheapskate" and be done with it.
      • Katana314, on 06/29/2008, -0/+3How about offering a rental, making it cheaper instead of setting a solid $60 for every piece of *****, and making GOOD games? Something valve does, but not everyone.
      • ZeroFive1, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2Free weekends are good, and there will always be people who'd rather pirate. I don't pirate vALVE games because:

        1: It's electronic, and at times it's much more convenient to use than pirated games. Steam offers a good alternative to pirated games, and their servers are very fast.
        2: Their games are good. Cmon, isn't that reason enough to buy a game? Isn't that the whole ***** point to buying games? If you need additional reasoning, well, then you can't expect them to just give out games for free.
    • focom, on 06/28/2008, -6/+0How does steam combat piracy, exactly? Cracker downloads from steam, cracks the activation, uploads to torrent site, voila, piracy. Just the same as physical distribution.
      • fireinhole8, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1because unless you are using hamachi or a similar program, you cannot play online. steam is one of the few places i'll actually spend money. i buy all my games on steam if i really want them. makes life easier.
        i've only pirated two steam games in my life: gmod 10 before i bought it to see if it was worth the money (it was) and portal, because i was broke and was dying to play
  • Emachine, on 06/28/2008, -17/+50The way I see it, after you spend $300+ on a graphics card, it's kind of hard to convince yourself to pay for the games.
    • timsline, on 06/28/2008, -7/+22Lame excuse. Game developers aren't making any money for trhe work they did when you buy a graphics card.
      • SoulGrub, on 06/29/2008, -0/+0So *they* are the ones who should make games that don't require $300 graphics card upgrades. The most successful games don't need bleeding edge graphics anyway, examples Portal, CoD4, WoW, Diablo 2, counter strike, Warcraft 3. I admit nice graphics is attractive, but when I'm actually sitting down and gaming, performance is king.
    • KirbyMeister, on 06/28/2008, -1/+17My friend's graphics card CAME with Crysis.
      • Disease, on 06/28/2008, -2/+8I came.

        That's more like a promotion and I'm positive Crytek makes some money with the sale of the video card.
      • burnedtubes, on 06/28/2008, -5/+3I came with your friend's mom!
    • xNIBx, on 06/29/2008, -0/+4You can buy an ati 4850 for less than 200$ and that card is 100 times faster than anything the consoles have. And you dont have to buy a new card every year, pc games have graphics which can scale down. You could have bought a p4@2.4ghz and a 9700pro and play games for more than 4 years. Then after that you could have bought a c2d with a 8800gts 320mB and still play games for another 4+ years.

      Learn some basic things about pcs and then you can make solid pc configurations which are cheap and can enable you to play games for many years(even 5+ years) without paying a fortune. In fact pc gaming is cheaper than console gaming when you take into account the hidden costs of consoles(+20$ on the price of games and even Live subscriptions).
  • panacean, on 06/28/2008, -12/+5What a douche.
  • twtmc, on 06/28/2008, -4/+30If they knew how to do it right, it wouldn't be a problem. What do you think the piracy ratio on CounterStrike: Source is? Or Team Fortress 2? I am gunna be not very high.
    • Pake, on 06/28/2008, -0/+22Those are also multiplayer games and since they require internet access to play, it's nearly impossible to pirate them. Crysis, being a singleplayer game is a lot harder to limit piracy and if they tried to force a player to login to verify ownership of a game every time they want to play the singleplayer campaign, you can only imagine the outrage. Heck, just look at the outrage that happened with Bioshock limiting the number of installs and the original outrage over Steam (back when Steam was just out of beta) not allowing singleplayer without logging in. I believe it also had some outrage when HL2 was released concerning the same issues.
      • sirmasterboy, on 06/28/2008, -2/+3Actually it's easier to pirate CS:S and TF2 with cracked steam clients because you can play online in multiplayer when the steam auth servers are down which is usually like 3-5 times a week for a few hrs at a time.

        Compared to a game like COD4 (besides cracked servers) it is impossible to play without a valid serial key.
      • Spire3660, on 06/28/2008, -2/+1You are right, but as far as DRM schemes go, im ALOT more willing to trust Valve's highly invested in DRM arcitecture and support, vs some game companies fly-by-night approach to it. Steam istn going anywhere anytime soon, there is simply too much invested in to to jsut walk away. I cant say the same for these other publishers IPs.
      • Tyrghast, on 06/28/2008, -1/+2Yeah it also has nothing the fact that counter-strike and its derivative are some of the most popular tactical shooters, that Team Fortress 2 is nearly impossible to play and not have fun, and that Bioshock looked good, played good, had a great soundtrack and had one of the best told stories of any game (up there with Homeworld).
    • swraman, on 06/29/2008, -0/+0playing css on cracked servers sucks royal balls
    • Abomonog, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1There are at least a dozen pirated TF2 servers out there that are full 24/7 and one that actually shows up in the steam app.
      • cybrguy, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1I would also argue that it was a better game. Despite all the whining about piracy within the industry, the quality of the game is the biggest factor in whether a game will sell. Price and avaliablity is 2nd, Piratability is a distant 3nd, if that.
  • 88chrisb, on 06/28/2008, -22/+37Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free! You are a pirate!

    You can bury me now.
  • nihility, on 06/28/2008, -19/+17I have an idea: make better games.
    • timsline, on 06/28/2008, -9/+26Sure, like you'll only steal the bad ones?
      • grimward, on 06/29/2008, -0/+3Perhaps he only buys good ones? Food for thought?
    • solid12345, on 06/28/2008, -1/+7Yeah i'm sure more people are pirating "Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing" than Team Fortress 2 because it blows chunks.
  • ultraJesus, on 06/28/2008, -7/+15He's right you know.
  • 1Bad, on 06/28/2008, -11/+5I would pirate this game if I had any desire to play it, because I heard the game didn't live up to the hype, and I just want to see the visuals. Why would I pay for the game which would essentially be only usefull to benchmark my machines graphics capabilities. Furthermore, graphically the pre-released screen shots and videos were vastly superior to what the game offered even on Very High, in detail and in frames per second. This game was designed to make people go oooh and ahhhh, but forgot about original story and gameplay. That stupid power suit was annoying and was never going to revolutionize multiplayer.
    • Droniac, on 06/28/2008, -3/+1Ofcourse in reality Crysis was one of the best shooters of 2007, with some pretty cool gameplay and a decent story. It got good reviews, matched the hype and provided visuals on-par with the videos and screenshots (try putting in your contacts prior to playing, it might help).

      There's a reason it sold over a million copies in spite of it's enormous system requirements - and that's because it's a pretty damn good game. Far Cry may have sucked, but Crysis was a significant improvement.
      • danomagnum, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1I have to say that I didn't really enjoy Crysis very much. There were times when there was no way in hell they knew where I was, and the chopper would still find me. And I thought the guns were too ineffective, sometimes you could empty a whole clip into a bad guys torso, and he wouldn't die.
  • lmbb20, on 06/28/2008, -7/+29I think that games are too costly. Granted, they do require lots of man hours by skilled individuals but charging $50-$60 a game is outrageous. I just started my first job and don't have a lot of money so what I do is wait 3 months after a game is released and buy it used off eBay for 50% off.
    • Chiliap2, on 06/28/2008, -9/+4Its called capitalism.
      • bagelmaster, on 06/28/2008, -2/+2It's called corporate greed. Well, I guess capitalism really does just boil down to greed... Point taken.
    • Disease, on 06/28/2008, -12/+3lol poor people
    • Spartycus, on 06/28/2008, -0/+7That's the cost of early adoption... You still get to play the game and for less by waiting. And given how thngs are done in the PC gaming industry, you probably get a better experience cause most of its launch issues have been resolved...

      I try to wait a month or so before I buy a game just for this reason. Nothing makes you more angry than having blown $60 on something that doesnt work right cause its a crappy port or been rushed out the door.
    • solid12345, on 06/28/2008, -5/+2I find it amazing how many people say movies, games and movies are too expensive yet see no problem in dropping 600 dollars on rims for their lame rice burners or 100 dollar tennis shoes with a swoosh on them.
      • bagelmaster, on 06/28/2008, -0/+3I bitch about game prices, etc. and never spend more than 20 bucks on shoes and who the ***** spends 600 dollars on rims AND plays games? you're either a self-absorbed money spending douche-fag or a nerd. you can't be both
      • lmbb20, on 07/02/2008, -0/+1I buy $25 shoes in my ungodly freakish size of 14 and I'm a nerd/geek. I work for Sun Microsystems.
    • focom, on 06/28/2008, -3/+3Console games are always more expensive than PC games, but people don't seem to mind paying for them. Well maybe they do, but they somehow manage to find the money to pay anyway. WoW atm costs $20 (game) + $40 (exp) + $15/mo and yet has more subscriptions at any given moment than most games ever sell in their lifetimes. Make ***** hard to pirate and people cough up.

      Easier to pirate = more pirates. Just the way it works.
    • arcooke, on 06/28/2008, -1/+2I'm with you 100% on that.. if games were $20 a pop, I'd buy a LOT more of them, and I'm sure a lot of other people would too.

      If games were $20, I guarantee you I'd at least own these games:
      - Supreme Commander (love the multiplayer)
      - Crysis
      - Oblivion

      Granted, Supcom and Oblivion of them are already priced cheap now, but I've already played the hell out of the pirated versions.. no interest in replaying them.

      Instead, the only game I actually paid for is Half Life 2 and that's only because I love garry's mod. And I waited until HL2 dropped to $29.99 before buying it. I refuse to pay $50-60 per game.
      • MasterPain, on 06/29/2008, -0/+0I bought Supreme commander after pirating it for the great multi player. But I never did buy Oblivion even though ti is a great game.
      • ZeroFive1, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1I agree. Team Fortress and Counter Strike: Source are under $20. Hell, they're both complete games, and they kick most PC games' arses.
  • sylvok, on 06/28/2008, -10/+15Here is a scary idea, make a game that people can play. I have a 8800gtx and I could barely handle Crysis on medium/high
    • asspants, on 06/28/2008, -1/+7that's crazy because my 8600 is very playable at medium/high there's another problem with your computer that's holding you back.

      • MutatedNantuko, on 06/28/2008, -2/+3Maybe he's playing it at more than 1024x768
      • tnoy, on 06/28/2008, -0/+12Maybe he's not one of those idiots that knows you can still enjoy a game when its not played at 1920x1600 on the highest settings running at 150 FPS
      • renegadeafk, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1my $130 9600GT plays it all on high settings at 1440x900 just fine.
      • Bender1001, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1Runs fine on my 8600M GT (read: laptop GPU) at medium settings@1280x800. Anyway, that's besides the point, if a game doesn't have the gameplay to back it up then what's the incentive to dish out $60 for the game?
    • scy1192, on 06/28/2008, -1/+3play it on low, then
    • stubear, on 06/28/2008, -1/+1*****. I have a Dell XPS 2010 (which is basically a portable desktop) with a modest video card and it played Crysis smoothly on medium. I was able to push it to high for a couple areas as long as there weren't too many enemies or explosions on screen at once.
  • cknyan, on 06/28/2008, -5/+64Good riddance to this particular "pushing the limit" PC game designer. If Crysis had a better story and game-play then make-any-system-cry graphic & physics, I would fully support his bitch-fest. Optimize your game and make it playable for a wider range of PC, then people will buy your creation.

    When Orange Box came out, it was playable even on the low end. Now I have two copies of HL2 and every episode, all paid for, and I can actually play them on nearly any system built within the last 4 years.
    • solid12345, on 06/28/2008, -1/+7Good riddance? Crysis sold over a million copies, he isn't going away anytime soon.
    • BlackToothpaste, on 06/28/2008, -1/+12Exactly. Valve knows how to make a game run on just about any computer, and it clearly shows with their huge player base. PC developers should really follow the Valve format...even if it may result in months of extra delays, that's a price I'm willing to take.
    • Ahnteis, on 06/28/2008, -4/+1Instead you pirate it and play it? If it's so bad, play something else instead of pirating it.
      • doubledmateo, on 06/30/2008, -0/+0Wow, why are you getting dugg down. People are ridiculous. You are NOT entitled to steal things that don't warrant a purchase. If it's so horrible then why did you steal it? There was a demo by the way so you can't say you stole it to find out if it was any good. You can justify it any way you like, but its still a totally f'ed up way treating the developers that are making a living bringing you the games you want to play.
    • ZeroFive1, on 06/29/2008, -0/+4"Performance is king"

      In the words of a vALVE developer.

      Graphics are cool, but gameplay and storyline are much, much better.
  • zinnternet, on 06/28/2008, -4/+36I like how he just pulled those numbers out of his ass. He's obviously in denial about that fact that his game is too poorly-coded to run well on even the fastest PCs and no fun even if it did. But no, selling "only" over a million copies is all to blame on piracy. gg Crytek.
    • DigitAl56K, on 06/28/2008, -8/+3I've worked with non-gaming software and 20:1 sounds about right.
    • MrSidnet, on 06/28/2008, -1/+1apparently they looked at torrent tracker numbers and software sales. He did mention that 1pirated copy does not equal one sale, of course. Can't find the article, but it was through here somewhere: http://www.crysis-online.com/
    • stubear, on 06/28/2008, -3/+0You have definitive proof he pulled those numbers out of his ass instead of quoting a legitimate study? No? I thought so.
    • greevar, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2The average cost to develop a AAA grade video game is about 12 million dollars. They sell them for $60 a piece. If they sell 1 million copies, they make 60 million dollars in revenue. Take the cost of development and you walk away with about 48 million dollars. That enough money to fund 4 more games!
  • Abomonog, on 06/28/2008, -4/+14I'll admit DLing it. I didn't actually think my machine would run it. To my surprise it did. Crysis, (at least the pirated version) runs better than you would think on crappy hardware.
    • Disease, on 06/28/2008, -7/+1Low settings at 640x480.

      Not exactly how I like my games.
    • stubear, on 06/28/2008, -3/+2There was a demo you could have downloaded legally to test whether your system could handle the game or not. I did, my system could, and I purchased the game a week or so after downloading the demo. See how that works?
      • noerrorsfound, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2In Crysis's case and others, the full game runs better than the demo, even without patches.
      • Abomonog, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2Demo failed to run at all.

        This makes the 3rd game I've come across where the pirated version runs better than the legal one.

        The other two are Supreme Commander and Bioshock.
    • Saikou, on 06/29/2008, -3/+0You also probably downloaded a payload of crap you didn’t want along with your “free” copy of Crysis. You think hackers are giving you games out of the goodness of their hearts? Hey, I’ll send you a free game: It’s called Keylogger/CCnumberStealer/DriveCryptor/Zombie ‘puter 4. You’ll freaking love it.
      • whyufail, on 06/29/2008, -0/+4You google "free warez games" when you go looking for downloads don't you?
      • solidus636, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2The pirates who release games have to follow a list of set rules. If they get even ONE thing wrong, things get nuked because other release groups go crazy about them. The games are almost NEVER filled with viruses, and if they are, it's a mistake and it gets fixed after being nuked. Learn about the scene a little and stop googling for game downloads.
      • Abomonog, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2You obviously know nothing about the scene, Saikou.
  • myshl0ng, on 06/28/2008, -20/+1I`m gonna get buried to another dimension for this, but if Diablo 3 will sale s*it thx to the pirates (which it won`t I`m sure), I will be lolling in your people`s face and buy a PS3/360. That would prove that PC gamers are *****.
    • tobsterius, on 06/28/2008, -1/+13I think you're going to get buried for your comment not making any sense...
    • praisethelard, on 06/28/2008, -0/+3It won't because of Battle.net.
    • 1randomguyO8, on 06/28/2008, -2/+1Yes because blizzard games always sells *****..
    • Wartz, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2Diablo III will sell 6 million copies.... at least.
  • Mongoose, on 06/28/2008, -3/+7What a stupid and exaggerated thing to say. If big-name game companies learned from their mistakes instead of patronizing their customers, they'd realize that their old-school mode of distribution is to blame, not the consumers.

    http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=16 ...
    • solid12345, on 06/28/2008, -2/+1"old school distribution"

      Yeah because we know how archaic it is to go outside and buy something from the store and experience sunlight and you know, society.
      • kirado4, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1yeah .. it's old school and a waste of usefull resources.. go back to bed grandpa
      • solid12345, on 06/29/2008, -2/+1"a waste of resources"

        Not all of us make special trips to buy one item, you have to go to the grocery store to buy food, how hard is it to stop and buy a game? Hell at wal-mart you can do both.
  • milsorgen, on 06/28/2008, -1/+14Couldn't have anything to do with the incredible hype machine they built up around the game and the dramatic system requirements needed... Yeah I downloaded it, to see how it ran on my Sempron/x1800xt combo... lol ~15fps. But that's really not something that can be measured with any reasonable degree of certainty as people like me who would never ever ever have bought the game, downloaded it to see the all the fuss and then promptly uninstalled it... I do that with every game, you can't go by recommended specs if your PC is anything other than brand new and I have yet to find a store that will let your return opened software for anything other than an exact replacement. And of course there are demos, but oft times the code is far from what is found in the boxed release... FYI, I do purchase games I enjoy that started with a download, Civ4 and the Half-Life series come to mind... So yeah. Either start making games for gamers and not the video card makers or stop bitching, or how about both?
    • jugglingjon, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2I agree, just because 20 people pirated it, doesn't mean those same 20 people would have bought it if piracy weren't an option. Same goes for software like photoshop, if people couldn't pirate it and were forced to pay adobe's ridiculous prices, they would just use something else.
  • Rizmaster, on 06/28/2008, -5/+44Considering only an IDIOT would buy Crysis without seeing how it runs on their system, it's not surprising. And considering how hard it IS to run Crysis, I'm not surprised most of these people elected not to purchase it.

    Also: It's not a good game. At all really.
    • mark076h, on 06/28/2008, -2/+11i got Crysis running at decent frame rate and i though it was an awesome game
    • duckyinc, on 06/28/2008, -4/+15get the demo or check the specs?
    • synergye, on 06/28/2008, -0/+13That's what the demos are for(although I downloaded the demo to see if I even could use the bandwidth to pirate it).
      • solid12345, on 06/28/2008, -2/+7No no, they have to use the excuse

        "oh i got to check EVERY level....and play through it at least 2 or 3 times, and examine my frame rate the whole time, then I just *might* buy it"
    • TotalHalibut, on 06/28/2008, -4/+4Sure it's a good game, name a better singleplayer FPS that came out in 2007 for PC.
      • cheappop, on 06/28/2008, -0/+19Half-Life 2: Episode 2
      • ace144, on 06/29/2008, -2/+7Bioshock
      • Thekirby45, on 06/29/2008, -1/+4COD 4
      • noerrorsfound, on 06/29/2008, -0/+3Call of Duty 4 was NOT a better singleplayer FPS than Crysis. it was another linear CoD game where you go straight through with no way to choose your own method of doing things. If you want to take out an enemy, you have one way to do it. If they want you to sneak and kill him, you must do that, and if they want you to snipe him, you must do that. Crysis lets you run-and-gun, snipe, or sneak past (or just sneak close enough to kill).

        The enemies don't continually respawn in the same places (having you shoot them over and over again) until you reach a certain point, either.
      • zephalim, on 06/29/2008, -1/+2Dugg down just to support Valve.. sorry Brah. Do your homework.
      • ZeroFive1, on 06/29/2008, -1/+2CoD 4 had a great storyline with characters you could care about. Stereotypical, yes, but compelling even though.

        Yes, crysis was open world and all that, but that's not extremely revolutionary.
      • TotalHalibut, on 06/29/2008, -2/+2Episode 2 was a mini-expansion for a game that's already a few years old and was in no way a better game. Bioshock was a graphical thrill-ride in the same way as Crysis, only without any actual challenge or depth to the game.

        I should have clarified myself.
      • doubledmateo, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1RE: totalhalibut
        Bioshock had no depth? I can go with the challenge argument (although that's fixed by not using the vita chambers) but no depth? I guess it depends on your definitions, but I see the game as nothing but depth and atmosphere. There were tons of ways to fight and the game was just more compelling to play than any other shooter that year.
    • focom, on 06/28/2008, -4/+9The problem with that mentality (for devs, anyway):

      1. "Cool, (new PC game) just came out. I know piracy is bad, but I'll download it just to test the specs.
      2. "This game actually runs decently... but I'll try it out a bit more just to see if it's worth the purchase."
      3. "Whoops, I just played for 8 hours... gee, it's not really worth the hassle to go out and buy the game now. I'd maybe be getting half the game for my money at this point."
      4. "Well I'm finished, and I'm not playing multi, so no point in buying it now just in case I ever want to replay it. Hm, what other games are there?"

      and the cycle repeats..
    • X9001, on 06/29/2008, -1/+2It was okay until the aliens showed up. You think that they would have learned their lesson from Farcry...
    • barthrh, on 06/29/2008, -3/+3That's why they publish demos. DL the demo. Try it out. Your proposal to pirate the game and play it through, only to conclude that it would be worth purchasing if you had not already played it is rather humorous.

      Face it, no one pirates a game and then purchases it after trying it out. If that was your intent, you'd DL the demo. Once you have a full working copy, you're done. You steal the whole thing. The only barrier is some form of control via multiplayer restrictions.
      • zephalim, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2Face it: people DO pirate a game and then purchase it after trying it out. Not only can you find out if you like the game, but how well it will run on your machine. Crysis being more of a 'Hey look what we can do' engine, rather than a real game, is exactly the kind of software people are going to pirate to benchmark their systems.

        Buying the real game allows you to install patches easier, and play multiplayer hassle-free. Not to mention it supports the company.... if they deserve it.
      • ZeroFive1, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2I pirated starcraft, but that was AFTER I bought it, since I lost my disk.

        Does that count?
      • doubledmateo, on 07/08/2008, -0/+0RE: zephalim
        " Not to mention it supports the company.... if they deserve it."
        I have so many issues with that statement. You don't have the right to do this. I realize it's possible to do so, just as it's possible to walk into a store and steal something off the shelf, but you still don't have a right to do so. Playing the full game is not a right that you have as a potential consumer, and no amount of justification will change that. You're only deluding yourself.
  • rainbabyj, on 06/28/2008, -3/+17Make a game with good multiplayer that people would care about. Look at games like TF2 and CS:S. The buy to piracy ratio is like 200:1
    • hardD, on 06/28/2008, -2/+7thats because they are multiplayer games
    • TotalHalibut, on 06/28/2008, -2/+7That's a moot point, those games are purely multiplayer and you can't play pirate copies online without an inordinate amount of effort and even when you do, you can't play with the people you want to play with.
    • Thekirby45, on 06/29/2008, -1/+1Mulitplayer is a bitch to get on games I just buy it I mean tf2 and css are 20 bucks hell if you buy css in the stores you get half life 2 deathmatch and day of defeat source
  • starblazer13, on 06/28/2008, -3/+25You think Blizzard is worried about Diablo 3 being pirated?

    Ya, I don't think so either. Typical steam from companies that don't get it.
    • SonnyW, on 06/28/2008, -6/+2Actually I've heard a few unconfirmed rumors Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 are going to have really bad copy protection. Don't be too sure just yet.

      Mind you, piracy means absolutely nothing. Pirating games causes *absolutely* no loss in income for companies. It only starts causing trouble when people substitute buying entirely with a pirated copy. How often that happens... Nobody knows.

      Except of course for those trying to make an easy argument for whatever reason. Then 1 copy downloaded = 1 sale lost. Ca-ching!
      • Ahnteis, on 06/28/2008, -2/+5Did you even read what he has said? He said that of course 1 download != 1 lost sale. He said it himself. But no, you have to pump your own ego and reinforce your own viewpoint to justify yourself.
      • SonnyW, on 07/01/2008, -0/+1Did you even bother to read what *I* said? My statement about piracy was in no way meant as a counter to his argument. It was really an addition to what he already said, like my entire post.

        I have no clue why you took my agreement with his post, and turned it all the way around trying to make it sound like I disagreed with him while agreeing with him. And apparently I even did it in a scheme to pump my ego.

        What the hell dude.
    • gfxlonghorn, on 06/28/2008, -4/+3You clearly must be retarded?.. The reason why Blizzard isn't worried is because they have cd key checks before you can get on battle.net, and battle.net is the entire gaming experience for the Diablo series..
    • focom, on 06/28/2008, -5/+2RTFA? He specifically mentioned only singleplayer games being affected by piracy..
      • Gizza, on 06/30/2008, -0/+3In that case then, what about Bethesda. They didn't even put a CD Key on Oblivion and it sold over 3 million copies on the PC even though it was on the 360 as well. Not only that, but it was pretty much the equivalent of Crysis in terms of system requirements for it's time.

        Good games sell, simple as that.
  • kayfouroh, on 06/28/2008, -3/+29Start allowing me to return games that are ***** and I will start buying games.

    I do not want to get stuck with a 60$ game that I got bored with in 10 minutes.
    • TrevorBradley, on 06/28/2008, -1/+7I'd *pay* money to return some games I did pay for, just to make a statement about how crappy the game was.

      *cough* Frontlines Fuel of War *cough*
      • yohnstoppable, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2I feel the same way abut Conflict: Denied Ops. Bought it to play coop, online play was completely broken, uninstalled, and threw it in the garbage. What a ***** joke

        And yes, online play was indeed 100% broken. Biggest joke of a purchase ever
    • solid12345, on 06/28/2008, -7/+2Yeah and I want to return my half eaten bag of doritos to the store because they tasted like *****, if only the whole world could revolve around me.
      • kayfouroh, on 06/28/2008, -0/+8Hey noob, I bet if you check the back of the bag there is a number you can call to get a refund.
    • Ymeg, on 06/29/2008, -0/+4demos
  • Midorikatana, on 06/28/2008, -6/+1 Hmm , i don't really think you can blame pirated games for crappy sales for proof http://www.thewiieffect.com/2008/01/31/90-of-the-u ... if that statement is correct then why is it that the ds has out sold any other gaming console for the 4 years?
    • AnonSpangly, on 06/28/2008, -1/+3Your statement is a bit faulty. DS piracy is very VERY possible.

      Buy a flashcart, download roms. Put roms on flashcart (which mostly just take MicroSD cards now), play on your DS.

      Sure the initial purchase price of the flashcart is a bit high, but if you're a Terrible Human Being it means never having to pay for another DS game again.
  • DrCyclops, on 06/28/2008, -5/+10Why do they insist on treating pirates like customers? It makes no sense. Odds are that the people who pirated Crysis were never going to buy it anyway, especially given the system requirements.