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Crytek: Crysis Was The Most Pirated Project
next-gen.biz — Crysis sold 1 million copies worldwide as of February this year, but Crytek is nevertheless struck by how many illegitimate copies are circulating. Crytek engine business manager Harald Seeley said that he could not reveal specific internal figures pertaining to piracy of Crysis, but he added, "I can say the level of piracy was the. . .
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- Ninh, on 05/01/2008, -32/+9One might argue that the number of illegitimate copies is a good indicator for the success of the marketing effort. As such he should be quite happy about the "community response".
- JCinDE, on 05/01/2008, -7/+29They should be proud they made a game people want to steal? I guess that's one way of looking at it. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't also be pissed that people are stealing from them.
- AndrewJC, on 05/01/2008, -9/+6While I don't really advocate stealing of any product, I feel the need to point out that like the music industry, I imagine that most of the piracy involving Crysis is by people who wouldn't have bought the product in the first place. The only difference now is that they've played the game and they MIGHT be more likely to (a) buy it legitimately or (b) buy a future product by Crytek.
- aspec, on 05/01/2008, -10/+5Or maybe it's an indicator that they should make a game with more substance, and less engine?
- theaceoffire, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5I didn't steal the game, but I was not interested in the game play either.
There were less expensive games that were no where near as pretty, but much more fun to play.
- theaceoffire, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5I didn't steal the game, but I was not interested in the game play either.
- JCinDE, on 05/01/2008, -0/+5That argument is pretty weak in my view, especially with video games. Sure someone might not buy a CD but they'll still hear and enjoy the songs legally (ostensibly so anyway) through other mediums such as radio and television. There's really no parallel there for games. You want to play it and experience it, you have no legal option except to buy it.
- emjaymj, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Actually I think anybody who has had the chance to play the game for free will almost certainly pass on buying. It was pretty, but a polished turd is still not worth $60. I wager this is why they think Crysis was the most pirated game - Crysis was overhyped and people might have actually BOUGHT other games after trying them.
- aspec, on 05/01/2008, -10/+5Or maybe it's an indicator that they should make a game with more substance, and less engine?
- dOOBiEx213, on 05/01/2008, -10/+3Instead of being pissed, Crytek should do what they do best and go Cry.
- BoonTobias, on 05/01/2008, -2/+0make a decent port to ps3, i'll throw down my 60 bux
- AndrewJC, on 05/01/2008, -9/+6While I don't really advocate stealing of any product, I feel the need to point out that like the music industry, I imagine that most of the piracy involving Crysis is by people who wouldn't have bought the product in the first place. The only difference now is that they've played the game and they MIGHT be more likely to (a) buy it legitimately or (b) buy a future product by Crytek.
- shrewduser, on 05/01/2008, -7/+9well i know more than a few people downloaded because they couldn't be sure if it would work properly on their machine or not....
- Matt2k, on 05/01/2008, -3/+13Wasn't there a demo? I know *I* downloaded the demo, found it lacking on my older hardware, and removed it
- michaelb323, on 05/01/2008, -4/+3I grabbed it from bittorrent to see how it would run. After seeing how poor performance I was getting on my new PC I uninstalled it to save space on my HD and never followed the game after that.
- nonymous666, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5You could have saved yourself some download time by downloading the DEMO which was 10% of the full game's size.
- Murdats, on 05/01/2008, -8/+5I would argue that it was highly pirated because I know most people I know have a pirated copy because they wanted to 1. check out the graphics 2. see how well it ran on their computer.
it is a good engine, not a good game, I would bet there arent many who have played it beyond a couple of hours (and who wants to pay $100aud to check out the graphics and performance)- JCinDE, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5It is pretty taxing on a system which is why I didn't buy the game until just this week when I built my new killer core 2 extreme system. I disagree about the content of the game, though. It's very polished and fun and engaging. I'm several hours in and already have tomorrow night set aside to play more.
- nonymous666, on 05/01/2008, -1/+6That's what the DEMO was for.
- topace3000, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4One might argue that you're trying to justify stealing by saying manufacturers should be happy about you wanting their product enough to steal it, which is stupid even for digg.
- JCinDE, on 05/01/2008, -7/+29They should be proud they made a game people want to steal? I guess that's one way of looking at it. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't also be pissed that people are stealing from them.
- Llanowar, on 05/01/2008, -35/+220I think a big reason for the huge piracy rates on Crysis are its system demands. People don't feel like buying it if they doubt their system can play it well.
- PueSi, on 05/01/2008, -10/+88That's what the demo is for.
- grimward, on 05/01/2008, -18/+13errr, no, I've played plenty of games in the past where the demo put quite alot of less stress on my system than the finished product did. I don't if this is true for crysis though.
- Chirp08, on 05/01/2008, -4/+29I always find it to be hte opposite actually, the demo runs like ***** since its unfinished code, the full game runs better.
- Matt2k, on 05/01/2008, -1/+21> I've played plenty of games in the past where the demo put quite alot of less stress on my syste
Could you name a few of these demos that run better than the full product?
Because that's a new one for me.- antdude, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3That is why we need updated demos. id Software released updated demos of their games before.
- grimward, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3Funny that antdude2 mentioned ID software, because I was just going to say that the DOOM 3 demo worked on my rig, while the full game lagged like ***** hell.
- Stemnin, on 05/01/2008, -0/+6Well the crysis demo was pretty much exactly the first level of the game, plus the editor (which let you play with some cool stuff and make your own maps).
Bioshock demo totally hooked me on too, ran the same.
- blaket, on 05/01/2008, -3/+8Problem there is that a lot of times the demo doesn't have the copy protection code in it, which usually is one of the key problems in a game when it comes to it running like crap.
- d3faultnet, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1neither would a cracked version... if done properly...
- grimward, on 05/01/2008, -18/+13errr, no, I've played plenty of games in the past where the demo put quite alot of less stress on my system than the finished product did. I don't if this is true for crysis though.
- dudefather, on 05/01/2008, -6/+73'cool the game runs well on my machine, i think I'll go out and buy ah screw it I got it already'
- radarbeam, on 05/01/2008, -13/+7exatcly.
- Shorties, on 05/01/2008, -8/+4exactly
- NeilM, on 05/01/2008, -1/+8I actually DID go out and buy the game after I acquired it. It's the only game in a long time that I thought deserved my money and the fact that it was a PC exclusive had tons of leverage in that decision.... and this was after I beat the game.
- radarbeam, on 05/01/2008, -13/+7exatcly.
- sharpie05, on 05/01/2008, -8/+1Exactly how I did it. Borrowed my friend's disc then bought it to play online.
Thankfully it runs great! - Gerz1219, on 05/01/2008, -5/+16Well, I agree that the system demands are a factor here. Anyone who spends $600 on a new video card every six months is tech savvy enough to know where to download the game for free. Not all people who know how to pirate do so, but many do. And a lot of casual gamers don't pirate software simply because they don't know how. This is a game that can't be played on maximum settings without a PC from the future. The casual gamer has been completely locked out from this title, and the only people who can play it are the most likely to steal it.
- Henwood, on 05/01/2008, -1/+33Everyone who spends $600 on a video card every six months should be able to afford the game.
- Gerz1219, on 05/01/2008, -2/+17And yet here we are. I wasn't making a moral argument.
- Acglaphotis, on 05/01/2008, -0/+8They can, they just don't want to. Thats what he said on the comment.
- Firehed, on 05/01/2008, -1/+6Of course. But I'll say from experience that back when I was big into having the latest and greatest hardware, I'd have pirated a game to have another fifty bucks to put towards the next upgrade. I certainly wouldn't feel too bad about it since there's no "loss" (or so I'd tell myself) as compared to stealing a piece of hardware or something.
It's a weird relationship, but GP is right. People who are dropping that kind of cash on hardware know where to pirate things, whether they do or not. The casual gamers (who certainly wouldn't have a system with the kick for Crysis) have a much lower percent of people who know how to pirate content, and probably a lower percent of those who actually do so. - AzureRise, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4While you guys are making an interesting point you're falling into the "knowledge is crime" argument which never leads to any good.
- worldchanger, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3yeah, but they'd pirate their $600 GPU if they could find somewhere to do it, I bet.
- NeilM, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3Damn straight. GPUs shouldn't be $600. The exorbitant prices drive piracy, especially if what you're getting isn't worth the money.
- lacronicus, on 05/02/2008, -1/+3Then get a 200 dollar card instead. The 8800gt runs Crysis just fine, and costs 180. If you're really strapped for cash, it's not hard to find something within your means.
- staticneuron, on 05/01/2008, -1/+10Why is system requirements used as a defense? Even if more casuals could play it, how would that be relevant to the amount of people pirating the game? Excuses, I here nothing but lame excuses.
It is no skin off my back but while you keep on making excuses more devs will walk away or drop the PC on their low priority list.- theaceoffire, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5Let me put it this way.
A massive percentage of the PC market is filled with casual gamers who have never considered upgrading their computer. As in, they use the card already installed.
By having huge requirements, only a tiny fraction of users can even play the damn thing. - Gerz1219, on 05/01/2008, -0/+6Another person reading this likely explanation as an "excuse". I'm not excusing this behavior, but it's a reality of the PC landscape. Devs are now forewarned -- right or wrong, the hardcore PC gamer will steal your product; if you want to sell a game on the PC, make sure it runs on older machines.
- theaceoffire, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5Let me put it this way.
- NeilM, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3Did you forget that system specs barely make up for our ***** operating system known as Windows? Windows isn't designed for gaming especially when 90% of the time, casual gamers don't know how to run a clean installation of Windows, more or less USE their computers. And trust me, Windows is definitely not designed for it.
- Henwood, on 05/01/2008, -1/+33Everyone who spends $600 on a video card every six months should be able to afford the game.
- AYork, on 05/01/2008, -8/+5Exactly. For example, I have a (legit) copy of it I just got for free from a friend of mine. He got it as a gift and his computer couldn't handle it except at unplayabley (is that a word?) low resolution. He knew I had a faster machine, and he couldn't return it, so he gave it to me. I'm sure this same scenario has been played out over and over, and people are reluctant to buy a game that is likely not to work without a $600 upgrade to their computer.
As for demos, those are usually a pain in the ass to download. You can (A) Fill out an online form with your (fake) name, spamcatcher but working e-mail, fake address, etc, wait in line for a server at whatever file server they're using, and then have it crawl into your computer over the course of half the day while you keep your browser open (if you don't have a download manager) or (B) Grab the torrent, fire up your torrent program and pull down the whole thing.
Which one would you do?- warplayer, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1You make an excellent point: it is easy to pirate. It's not that I have to go out and jump through all these hoops and do something special, no. I just go on a website like any other, type in the name of the game, find the listing with the most seeds and boom! Making playable demos easy to download would be a huge step forward, as simple of an idea as it is.
- WileEPeyote, on 05/01/2008, -1/+6"As for demos, those are usually a pain in the ass to download. You can (A) Fill out an online form with your (fake) name, spamcatcher but working e-mail, fake address, etc"
You have got the ***** kidding me?
1. I download demos all the time and have rarely been asked for any information to download the demo. I have only seen this when trying to download demos of large (aka expensive) applications and they want your info for a salesman to call later.
2. Most demos are available via torrents as well
3. You make torrenting sound so easy..and quick..it is not always that easy or quick..- 007brendan, on 05/12/2008, -0/+11. Where do you download demos from, the most common source is Fileplanet, Gamespot, etc. and if you don't pay to be a member, YES they always ask for your email.
2. True, but the demo torrents don't come out the same day the demo is released. They're usually put up by the community, not the actual game company, and you can bet that as soon as someone gets the demo downloaded, the last thing they're thinking about is making a torrent.
3. I thought torrenting was... easy... quick... True, it does require extra software, but otherwise, it's point and click. As as far as speed, I regularly max out my download bandwidth, as in it's impossible to go any faster.
Ok, done, there's my troll post for the day.
- 007brendan, on 05/12/2008, -0/+11. Where do you download demos from, the most common source is Fileplanet, Gamespot, etc. and if you don't pay to be a member, YES they always ask for your email.
- 007brendan, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1So true. These days, when a demo comes out, very few companies actually make it available for download from THEIR OWN SERVERS!! They always make you go to Filefront, or GameSpot, or Fileplanet, and all those places want you to PAY for the privilege of their bandwidth, so they always stick you on some slow ass server, and yes, they ALWAYS ask for your email. What kills me is that a couple of years ago, companies would put demo cds in game stores, a way better idea! Instant gratification and a way to build hype for an upcoming game. The truth is, a lot of companies push bad games with a lot of advertising, that any average gamer, given the chance to demo it, would probably not pay the $50-60 that it costs.
Welcome to the EA era of video gaming. I'm hoping some mysterious, rogue video game developer will come and restore the republic, but until then...
- curtis87xc03, on 05/01/2008, -3/+6Not to mention there isnt a good multiplayer so there no incentive to have a copy that works online.
- NeilM, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2The multiplayer wasn't OMG GREAT, but it still influenced my decision to buy the game.
- daridave, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Yes, but that is also why the game will continue to sell once they lower the price, in a few years; it'll still look good. So in other words, it's not all bad, don't blame the high system requirements... it's NOT like you are REQUIRED to play it at the highest values, after all ...
- NeilM, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1I suppose that's why Far Cry never died? /sarcasm
- Reviler, on 05/01/2008, -4/+6Crysis was the breaking point of the uber-machine PC gaming enthusiast. My machine was very nice 4 years ago and it couldn't run Crysis for crap now. Why woudl I buy it to find that out? More so why woudl I buy $2000 worht of new hardware to actually run it?
I am not saying PC gaming is dead but they have certainly lost me to consoles that have a much higher life cycle and an increasing great library of games. Now if they would just build keyboard and mouse support into these games the only time I would touch a computer is for work.- NeilM, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4Consoles allow game developers to be lazy, thus... keyboard and mouse come at the cost of game developers not being lazy. Don't expect console game developers to throw out the auto aim and awkward aiming to begin with just to account for a mouse and don't expect game developers to let you bind every single function to a key on your keyboard. Basically, even if you can get a mouse and keyboard to work on an xbox360 or a ps3, you still pretty much ***** out of luck ... or you're insanely crippled as opposed to what the PC can offer.
- volacide, on 05/01/2008, -1/+7The system requirements aren't even that high!! BioShock's requirements are higher than Crysis'. There's a huge difference between the recommended requirements and the just plain old requirements. You guys are being stupid about this whole thing. What you really mean is that no one wants to play the game looking like *****, everyone wants that movie quality game experience but aren't willing to buy the PC to do so and also won't suck it up and play it on the settings that their hardware requires.
Crysis can be run on a freaking Radeon 9800! BioShock REQUIRES at the very minimum a Shader Model 3 card which is the Radeon X1800 in comparison to the 9800... a full 2 series after the 9800.
So no, the requirements for Crysis are completely feasible, you just have to run it at terrible settings but no one wants to suck it up and play it that way. They'd just rather bitch about the requirements for the amazing graphics settings. I can understand not wanting to play the game unless it's on high settings, hell, that's why I have a 300 dollar GPU, but don't bitch about the requirements when they're perfectly reasonable. Beautiful graphics come at a hardware processing price. Everyone who thinks the CryEngine 2 is inefficient is uninformed. The lighting system in CryEngine 2 is second to none, the global illumination is so intensive but delivers the most realistic lighting of any engine no argument. - Stevethegreat, on 05/01/2008, -7/+5I read a lot of comments dealing with the same things but I don't see people thinking a bit out of the box. The "problem" obviously is not specialized (to Crysis) it's universal. There's a little history that brought things (to) where they are now.
In the 70s games meant arcades, coin-ups was where the developers were paid by the hour, those were great times as the way to make money via videogames was pretty straight-forward. Then game consoles came along and games were rationed to separate software packages (cassettes instead of dedicated machines), that was also a good solution as it broadened the scope of the industry (instead of the alternative, of having a machine coming pre-loaded with the games and developers would not take what was due to them according to play-hours/ customer-preference). But during the late 80s early 90s home computers grew too powerful, especially for the video game industry to ignore it. That was the time that gaming was introduced to the first wave of piracy (floppies) but PCs were too damn powerful and the devs always wanted to play with the best toy out there. At the same time consoles didn't go underground, quite the opposite, they gained a new following, especially kids and teens but hardly any young adults (PCs were the "adult" console of choice back then). The trend (considering piracy on PC) was turned for a while by the introduction of the CD as the medium of the industry's choice. During that time (late 90s early 00s) PC had met a new "renaissance" introducing a dozen new genres, producing games of unparalleled complexity by the standards of the market and generating extraordinary numbers of sales, that was the time that titles like Quake, Starcraft, Half Life, The Sims, Black Isle RPGs and many great Adventure games were released, an era of unparalleled innovation in the history of gaming in general. Unfortunately it meant to end and that was done by the wide adoption of CD/DVD writers on the market, the higher Internet connectivities, and the modernization of console gaming (adoption of many of PC gaming's knacks). Game devs started to get lower and lower returns to the PC market and once again embarked back to the console market (which by the time was doing great, without -maybe- the numbers and innovation of the PC equivalent but obviously with a way to survive at most circumstances) which gladly accepted them. That era was marked by the closure of well known studios (like Black Isle) or the drift of other to the underground (ID), results of a dying market. That's why and how we came to nowadays, PC is still dying, consoles taken root but unfortunately with not many differences compared to the old 80s standard of making money (rationing the software) and pent (by necessity) to a dying medium (optical disc).
What happened is obvious, the PC market made one more step to the future but this time went too far, the industry couldn't/ cannot follow, the business model is too old and the technology too new. For the market to survive there must be a halt to both innovation (hardware/software) AND the continuing modernization of the distribution methods. The next was/is obvious and was what Steam did but -unfortunately- it had no great following by other distributors as the signs of the market were misread. We're now bound to return to the old 80s business model (have a single company creating the hardware, no customization, standardized games on the particular input method (controller), propriety costs (higher costs for the end users) and innovation of diminishing returns (as it is to be expected to a closed system/market)). In fact it's the same thing that happened to both the movie AND the music industry, the business model -just- broke down, the fortunate for games however was that they had the fallback of an older system which somehow survived (sth that music/movie industry does not have) with the obvious disadvantages of such a move (lower innovation, slowing down of game desing evolution (for example the 2020s graphics will not be that much better than the 2000s graphics than those were from the 80s equivalent, same with AI, plot etc).
The only way for the movie/music industry to survive and -as a result- the gaming industry to come back in track is for the creators of the content to embrace the new technology (the Internet) even in the expense of distributors (they may have even to be left out from the future industry). If such a thing won't happen for -say- another decade or two expect, lower quality products from all those industries and -what may seem- absurd pricing policies. Sad but true, the Internet is one of those innovations that you couldn't predict what would make to the certain segments of the economy beyond it's event horizon. People just couldn't expect that it could be so potent and so industry-changing, now they have to adapt and it is hard, you either name everyone criminal, watch whole industries sink, or release mediocre products to keep yourself afloat until you find a solution (as it already happens).- warplayer, on 05/01/2008, -4/+1I know you spent a lot of time typing that up, but I just have to bury you. Do you really think anyone will read a comment that long? Open up a blog man.
- Stevethegreat, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5Sure, we live in the era of instant gratification. You wanna say something substantial but you simply can't, so we're doomed to converse half-truths. But if that is the case then why bother at all? Why did you comment at all if your comment means nothing, adds to nothing and at best it's half-true which means that it is false and hence useless?
If I'm to be buried I demand to be so for legitimate reason your AD Disorder is not valid in my book and I won't sympathize with your illness.
BTW Blogs is the garbage bins of thoughts/ideas, nobody reads them seriously except of those who don't have sth better to do but then again they're those who would frantically surf through youtube through dozens of useless videos and useless emotions. If I'm to degrade my thoughts I can as well do so in a Digg thread, no I don't need a blog.- warplayer, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1Taking things a bit too seriously, sorry man, didn't mean any harm and didn't want to blow your day or anything.
- Stevethegreat, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1No you didn't, I find it great to take things, that nobody else does, seriously and be laid back to what other believe as serious matters (as to whom -for example- will be the next Democratic nominee).
- Stevethegreat, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5Sure, we live in the era of instant gratification. You wanna say something substantial but you simply can't, so we're doomed to converse half-truths. But if that is the case then why bother at all? Why did you comment at all if your comment means nothing, adds to nothing and at best it's half-true which means that it is false and hence useless?
- futureisours, on 05/03/2008, -0/+1ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
- warplayer, on 05/01/2008, -4/+1I know you spent a lot of time typing that up, but I just have to bury you. Do you really think anyone will read a comment that long? Open up a blog man.
- Dustmuffins, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2I pre ordered the game, pirated it until the legit version got delivered, deleted the pirated copy, then re downloaded it when the stupid DRM wouldn't let me play my legit copy.
- Dracusis, on 05/02/2008, -3/+1OFFICE LUNCH ROOM, MORNING BREAK:
Joe: Hey Bob, did you try that new Crysis game, saw some pics of it online, it looks sweet as.
Bob: Yeah, it is, but to make it run fast enough you need to edit the config file in this directory and change the ****** variable to *** and then you'll want to force DX9 mode, oh, and make sure you-
Joe: You know what, forget I asked.
OFFICE LUNCH ROOM, LUNCH BREAK:
Luke: Hey Joe, did you try that new Crysis game, I saw some-
Joe: It's *****, don't buy it.
Luke: Okey then, Orange Box it is.
- PueSi, on 05/01/2008, -10/+88That's what the demo is for.
- taintedzodiac, on 05/01/2008, -22/+162Blaming the low sales of a game that pretty much shatters the boundaries of system requirements on piracy is corporate speak for, "we need to blame this on something, and it can't be ourselves!"
- Jsmuli2, on 05/01/2008, -2/+11So true, you'll find that everywhere now-a-days, just day, in techdirt.com, there's a journalist who curses out a blogger because he knows it's competition, and instead of upping his game he just takes it out on the blogger.
It's sad, so many companies have such hubris that they can't just take a second and realize, their profits (or lack of) are directly related to how good of a product they have. - shadeOfGrey, on 05/01/2008, -5/+38Projected Sales - Actual Sales = Amount Pirated
Or maybe the game just didn't do as well as they thought it would.- fokov, on 05/01/2008, -4/+2Funny, that makes perfect sense to me :D However, I'm sure they have some code that calls home during run/install. Windows XP firewall still allows a program access to a socket before the user "blocks" the application. If you don't believe me, try connecting to a server with mIRC, it goes right through while the dialog is showing. Therefore, I'm sure they do have some catalog of minimum number of pirates, but I'm sure they will use your formula when talking to management.
- Acglaphotis, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3What happens if the actual sales are more than the projected sales?
- brianara3, on 05/01/2008, -0/+6they "adjust" the figures to make room for potential piracy.
- Shaflugi, on 05/01/2008, -0/+11Divide by zero.
- Jsmuli2, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3nice one dugg
- vagarach, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3Crysis could never do worse than they forecasted, it's a masterpiece!
- N0vak4iN, on 05/01/2008, -2/+9I agree. Though I'm sure piracy has something to do with low sales, it still seems like a cop-out to blame this on piracy alone. Lets see what happens with FarCry2 and Mass Effect...
- staticneuron, on 05/01/2008, -7/+4Wait so hold on.... a game that pushes the boundaries of the PC's is now at fault? I remember when the PC elite were foaming at the mouth to use crysis as an example as why PC's have better graphics than consoles. Turn around and prove that it is a fruitless endeavor and then they will turn to consoles gamers that are more appreciative of good work.
- staplez, on 05/01/2008, -1/+9What? By definition the "elite" are a small niche group. When you make a product for a small niche group, then turn around and wonder why only that small niche bought it is stupid. It would be like Lamborghini wondering why they aren't in the mass market. The fact that it sold a million copies is fantastic, especially when I have to wonder if a million people have machines up to that spec.
- theaceoffire, on 05/01/2008, -4/+2Course it helps that console gamers don't have to worry about "Will it run" most of the time.
- Wargalas, on 05/01/2008, -5/+3Exactly. I had the wife ok me getting the game AND a new video card (I'm running a 8800GTS 640mb now, but was going to upgrade from that) and when I read that it was going to take a LOT more horsepower to run the game with everything turned on, I spent my money elsewhere.
The video demos that were circulating around before release got me hooked, but I'm simply not spending over $1,000 to play a game.- afpunk, on 05/01/2008, -2/+6My brand new $500 PC plays Crysis without problems at 1680x1050 at medium settings, which look as good as almost any other game's high settings. If you're spending $1000 on UPGRADES then you're either getting ripped off, or you're one of those people who thinks they should have disabled higher settings until the hardware caught up.
- brianara3, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3Right... and my brand new $1300 pc can only run on those setting for 50% of the game without painful lag. I smell some BS here seeing as I get about 18k 3Dmarks and a 5.7 windows vista rating (slowed by my fakeraid hard drive).
- Wargalas, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3Actually, I don't play a game at 1680x1050, with medium settings, I want to jack it ALL the way up. When Crysis shows everything turned on, I want to play that way, and no way else.
My "$1,000 in upgrades" included a dual SLI video card setup, new MB, CPU, and RAM. But when I read about how some review sites are saying that they need a tri-SLI setup just to get 40 FPS with everything jacked up, count me out.
Perhaps you like looking at "medium" settings, but when I play a game, I want to be amazed by the graphics, sound, and gameplay. I am very peticular about my video, and "medium" doesn't cut it.
- afpunk, on 05/01/2008, -2/+6My brand new $500 PC plays Crysis without problems at 1680x1050 at medium settings, which look as good as almost any other game's high settings. If you're spending $1000 on UPGRADES then you're either getting ripped off, or you're one of those people who thinks they should have disabled higher settings until the hardware caught up.
- cheezintern, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3I would have 'pirated' it, but I already know from the demo I'd have to run it with all the pretty graphics turned down.
- AzureRise, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5You're talking like shattering the boundaries of system requirements is a bad thing. This is coming from someone who can't even run the game and I'm glad they did it. I'd rather wait a while till I have a computer that can run it rather than have companies keep making generic crap with the same graphics. There are plenty of games out there for every setup, we need something that rises above the rest to come out every once in a while.
- Shaflugi, on 05/01/2008, -2/+6Maybe people wouldn't pirate games so much if they weren't so damn expensive. Do they all REALLY need to be 50-60 dollars?
- kenok, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3If you want to play, cough up the cash for it... get a job and save. Actually you don't have to buy every game on release day!
- AzureRise, on 05/02/2008, -0/+3Even way after release, most games are still really expensive.
- xino, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2He has a point though and especially with Xbox 360 and PS3 games. Why do they need to charge $60 when the PC version of those games cost $50? It seems like greed to me in that specific case.
- kenok, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3If you want to play, cough up the cash for it... get a job and save. Actually you don't have to buy every game on release day!
- SSCrow, on 05/01/2008, -0/+51 million sales is not poor.
- topace3000, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1Or maybe the people who pirate games also tend to have the most advanced systems, hence games that require said systems to play tend to be pirated more intensely.
- sh4rkb1t3, on 05/01/2008, -4/+2Blaming the the high system requirements on the low sales of a game is pirate speak for, "we need to blame this on something, and it can't be ourselves!" Your statement is just as credible as mine is. The people who pirated the game would have pirated it, regardless of whether their machine had the muscle to run it.
- Cimlite, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3That's just wrong... I'm one of those people who actually did buy a new PC when Crysis was released.
However, assuming that people do that is (which the developers sort of did) borderline retarded. It's one of the reasons people are starting to lean more and more towards consoles in the first place. It lasts for much longer and you don't have to upgrade that often.
It's almost as stupid as the Call of Duty 4 developers whining about piracy because the 360 version sold more than the PC one. I own both a gaming-grade PC and a 360... am I supposed to buy a copy for each just to buff the statistics for the PC? That does not mean I didn't buy the game but who in their right mind would buy it for both the PC and the consoles?
... but no... of course it's piracy. It's always piracy when it's the PC: I call *****.
- Cimlite, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3That's just wrong... I'm one of those people who actually did buy a new PC when Crysis was released.
- Jsmuli2, on 05/01/2008, -2/+11So true, you'll find that everywhere now-a-days, just day, in techdirt.com, there's a journalist who curses out a blogger because he knows it's competition, and instead of upping his game he just takes it out on the blogger.
- Frost9999, on 05/01/2008, -24/+16They don't seem to make a distinction between actual piracy, where the game is copied and sold illegally, and simple copyright infringement where someone just shares copies around online for free. I would love to know actual figures for both types.
- LocalDocal, on 05/01/2008, -3/+15FreeDictionary.com - 2. The unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material: software piracy.
So yes, both are considered piracy.- FriedTurkey, on 05/01/2008, -7/+8Shhh. It makes people feel better to call it copyright infringement. Don't bother their conscience.
- darkism, on 05/01/2008, -6/+5But neither are considered stealing.
- shadeOfGrey, on 05/01/2008, -1/+11Who BUYS pirated games?
- Wartz, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5millions of people all over the world.
I know a guy who lives in Venezuela. He cant buy new games as they aren't available in any stores so he buys them from a guy who sells pirate copies on the street for a few dollars.(or whatever the equivalent is in bolivars) - Firehed, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Same people who buy pirated movies. Or pirated software. Think China here, or those shady parts of town with the other knock-off merchandise.
- brianara3, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2No kidding... learn to use torrents
- Wartz, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2some people don't have 10mbit connections.
- Wartz, on 05/01/2008, -1/+5millions of people all over the world.
- ivantalboys, on 05/01/2008, -3/+6The end result is the same, a consumer gets to play Crysis 2 without paying Crytek and money.
- LocalDocal, on 05/01/2008, -3/+15FreeDictionary.com - 2. The unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material: software piracy.
- linkdj, on 05/01/2008, -21/+9It's their own fault for putting out a game that no computer could run properly. Who's going to pay money for a game that will chug on anything but brand new hardware?
- Godmil, on 05/01/2008, -3/+9That's a bit of an exaggeration, the minimum specs aren't that high (nowhere near games like Assassins Creed and others that require dual cores). Crysis still looks fantastic on low settings.. the fact that it can scale up to levels that will future proof it for years to come isn't a bad thing.
- PueSi, on 05/01/2008, -2/+7PC games are supposed to push the boundaries, since you can upgrade (unlike a console) developers constantly try to release better looking games.
You can still play it, just don't expect to play it on high settings.
- ghostfackilr, on 05/01/2008, -22/+18Could it be that people didn't want to buy a game that there PC couldn't run?
- Matt2k, on 05/01/2008, -2/+5That makes 0% sense.... If their PC couldn't run it, then.. I think my brain just blacked out
Could it be that people didn't want to buy a game that they could get for free? - patriotsfan82, on 05/01/2008, -1/+6No, what he says makes sense. Imagine someone who has a computer that just barely meets the system requirements. Now, Im fairly sure that you can agree with me that Crysis is a game that is meant to be played at high resolution with physics all the way up and everything else. If a computer can't play the game that way, then it can't really play the full game. Why would soemone want to pay the full price and get a half-assed experience because their computer can only barely play it. The answer is that those people wouldn't. They would pirate the game because they don't want to pay for a half-assed experience.
- willywong, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2It didn't make sense. He used there instead of their.
- Matt2k, on 05/01/2008, -2/+5That makes 0% sense.... If their PC couldn't run it, then.. I think my brain just blacked out
- FireStalker, on 05/01/2008, -25/+55stop crying the game was awesome and u made a bucket load of money stop doing the metallica dance
- grimward, on 05/01/2008, -2/+14Ahahah dugg for "the metallica dance" :D
- crowbar77, on 05/01/2008, -2/+5Even more reason to buy it. If the game turns out to be "awesome" than you should at least go out and pay for it. Who knows how much money they actually made, creating the game probably cost a lot.
- BadBosco, on 05/01/2008, -3/+1dugg for crowbar
- DestroyFascism, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1oh lol
- BadBosco, on 05/01/2008, -3/+1dugg for crowbar
- fadetoone, on 05/01/2008, -2/+8Awesome? Besides it being pretty, I was bored out of my mind 20 minutes into the game. Oh, and unloading mags on a guy's face from point blank range and not killing him didn't help my opinion either.
So it must have gotten awesome after I gave up playing it.- BadBosco, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3nope
- TheCosmicFool, on 05/01/2008, -10/+33I saw Crysis as an interesting tech demo and hardware benchmark. Maybe thats why no one bought it.
Did you buy a license of benchmarking tool lately?- Godmil, on 05/01/2008, -3/+14I thought Crysis was just a glorified tech demo (not too disimilar to Doom3), but the reviews were very positive, then when I bought it I was surprised by how well it plays. Going a stealth route I though was as fun as Metal Gear. And the levels were short and punchy, with lots of variety. It is a very solid FPS.
- iofthestorm, on 05/01/2008, -0/+5In related news, the latest version of 3DMark (3DMark Vantage) now requires you to buy a license. I don't know how they figured people would pay for the basic version, but...
- herrshuster, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2Exactly. I pirated it for one basic reason. I wanted to see if I could run it (I couldn't so I deleted it) but as someone else said. "Oh I can run it, I'll go out and buy it...aw crap I have it already) I know now that my new system can run it and I might just go out and buy it
- Godmil, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1you could have saved yourself a whole lot of bandwidth if you just got the demo.
- topace3000, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3Tell that to all the game designers who spent many months of their life dedicated to making the game...
- AngeloM3, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2I'm sure the $70k+ a year helps them sleep at night knowing their game is up on torrents.
- kingv, on 05/01/2008, -11/+1Got it!
- bart5986, on 05/01/2008, -13/+21What an idiot. Crysis didn't sell that many copies because it needs a system more powerful then most people have to have a good experience. I played it from start to finish on a pirated copy because the whole time I was sitting on 10-15fps. Definitely not worth playing Multiplayer with that. (The reason I buy most games) And I'd rather play something else then play Crysis lower then the graphic settings I had it on.
- stubear, on 05/01/2008, -1/+6He's not saying Crysis didn't sell well, he's saying that the piracy figures were astronomically high compared to what they were expecting (and what is likely the norm for the industry). They were so high in fact that they are now no longer going to be doing PC exclusives so they can bring the margins back to a more realistic figure. Personally I hope they don't pull another FarCry for the XBOX. The game sucked for the consoles and was more like an Uwe Boll style video-game-to-movie approach than an honest attempt at a port from one system to another.
- Godmil, on 05/01/2008, -2/+8There have been millions of GeForce 8800's sold worldwide (it's by far the most popular card for steam users ( http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html )) Given that the graphics card industry is driven by gamers, and FPS fans tend to be more demanding, it's a safe bet to say a massive number of people are capable of running this game on high settings.
- Henwood, on 05/01/2008, -2/+4Too right.
- warriorscot, on 05/01/2008, -0/+5I bought an 8800 to play the game, but the rest of my system is still the same as it was when i had an x800, to be honest I am upgrading the rest of the system in the summer and then I will probably buy two or three games this summer, probably Crysis, supreme commander w/ expansions and something else to be decided that way I buy the games and don't pay the prices at launch which are excessive.
- kenok, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3I bought an 8800GT for the demo just to see if the card is good for its price... and it is! After a few benchmarks, i deleted the demo and never bothered to get the game in any form and never will.
- Matt2k, on 05/01/2008, -2/+16> I played it from start to finish on a pirated copy because the whole time I was sitting on 10-15fps.
From START TO FINISH. And it wasn't worth paying for, huh?- Firehed, on 05/01/2008, -3/+1The second half where the aliens showed up wasn't.
- willywong, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2The second half where the aliens show up is always crap in every game.
- vagarach, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3A $60 investment which returns a game that is one the verge of not being playable is much harder to accept than paying nothing for a game and getting something that doesn't run well enough to be enjoyable.
- Firehed, on 05/01/2008, -3/+1The second half where the aliens showed up wasn't.
- curtis87xc03, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4You need a futuristic super computer from space
- BadBosco, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2nah, alienware is too expensive
- icegoddess13, on 05/01/2008, -8/+75We only downloaded a copy to see if our computer would actually run it before we went out and spent the money to buy it. Turned out to be a good idea.
- reqage, on 05/01/2008, -2/+9Couldn't afford the game after the upgrade for the computer to run it at 20fps.
- fani, on 05/01/2008, -6/+21They had a demo for that reason.
- Planets, on 05/01/2008, -13/+7A lot of times demos are designed to run at a higher FPS than the actual game.
- Shaflugi, on 05/01/2008, -2/+11Uh, if they could magically "design" the game to run faster, don't you think they would have made the boxed copy do that?
- topace3000, on 05/01/2008, -2/+4Name one and provide proof.
- Raptor007, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2Planets, I've generally found the opposite to be true. Usually the demo executable is based on the 1.0 release or even a pre-release, and is not as well optimized as the latest patched version of the retail game.
- Planets, on 05/01/2008, -13/+7A lot of times demos are designed to run at a higher FPS than the actual game.
- FFXIfrohike, on 05/01/2008, -3/+5I did the same thing but noticed, in the process, that the game wasn't that great. So, no purchase. Word to Crytek: make a game that isn't just a tech demo with a FPS slapped on it and maybe you'll go places.
- Civil44, on 05/01/2008, -9/+2Maybe they should have had a more interesting Online mode (game centric).
- hybridcreation, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3Yeah, because Power Struggle is nothing more than team deathmatch, right?. All of that capturing alien crash sites and using the prototype factories to buy alien weapons and building nuke-launching tanks and VTOLS was just a marketing ploy to sucker people into buying a new and improved Quake 3, right?
I wonder how many people that talk ***** about Crysis have actually played it?
- hybridcreation, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3Yeah, because Power Struggle is nothing more than team deathmatch, right?. All of that capturing alien crash sites and using the prototype factories to buy alien weapons and building nuke-launching tanks and VTOLS was just a marketing ploy to sucker people into buying a new and improved Quake 3, right?
- markmcfarlane, on 05/01/2008, -6/+20Well if I were him I would be pissed off about the level of piracy. No matter what these people thought of my game I would want my due payment for them playing it. No businessman will be happy about losing out on potential earnings, ever!
- heartless_, on 05/01/2008, -8/+4Thats the whole arguement though. Never has it been proven that DOWNLOADED copies could be turned into legitimate sales.
Also, piracy is becoming an umbrella term for too many things. Piracy should only refer to those that are trying to make a profit off what they are stealing, aka the guys with 300 CD/DVD burners cranking out copies in their garage to sell on the street or those seeding multiple downloads (not seeding just because their torrent finished).
The rest of the "piracy" is just bored gamers stealing a copy of the game. We don't call the common shoplifter a pirate, so let's not call downloaders pirates. They are petty thieves and should they be caught, treated as such.- Matt2k, on 05/01/2008, -3/+7> Never has it been proven that DOWNLOADED copies could be turned into legitimate sales.
Do you really believe this? God, 100% of pirated stuff does not equal a sale, no one would ever suggest that. Could we take a wild stab and say 20%? 50%? - darkism, on 05/01/2008, -5/+3You were doing well until you tried to equate seeding for free with for-profit mass duplication.Then you went further off the mark when you compared shoplifting to piracy and implied that pirates were "thieves."
Nice try though.
- Matt2k, on 05/01/2008, -3/+7> Never has it been proven that DOWNLOADED copies could be turned into legitimate sales.
- heartless_, on 05/01/2008, -8/+4Thats the whole arguement though. Never has it been proven that DOWNLOADED copies could be turned into legitimate sales.
- rolandvvv, on 05/01/2008, -13/+20boo hoo. How many of those "pirated" copies would've been bought in the first place?
Even if you found a way to completely protect your software from pirates, I can assure you that only 1 out of 100 pirates would go and buy the game.
Also, I bought the game.- LocalDocal, on 05/01/2008, -5/+3I'm sorry to say, but that's not exactly a bad situation. If you were someone who made something specifically for profit, then which would you rather have?
Situation A - Your game can be pirated and all 100 pirates download your game.
Situation B - Your game can't be pirated and only 1 pirate buys your game
Even if one situation implies a ludicrous situation that only one percent of pirates are willing to pay for Crysis, it makes more sense that Crytek would choose the situation that makes them the most money. Regardless of the various arguments as to why people pirated Crysis, I think it's pretty obvious that even if these problems were fixed, everyone would still pirate it anyway.- Wartz, on 05/01/2008, -3/+8"Situation B - Your game can't be pirated and only 1 pirate buys your game"
You don't want B as you spent millions on a high tech copy protection system that can't be cracked.
its really like this.
A.) spend nothing, get nothing from 100 pirates
B.) spend 3 million, get $50 from 1 pirate.- LocalDocal, on 05/03/2008, -0/+0That's rather unrealistic. For starters, the vast majority of developers don't seem to get the $3 million 'high tech copy protection'. Hell, even Crysis only required a CD key. Secondly, your analogy makes it sounds worst than it actually is. According to some estimates, there are roughly ten million pirates (most likely higher), so if your copy right protection works for even just 1% of pirates, you're not just getting $50, you're getting millions.
- rolandvvv, on 05/01/2008, -0/+6They would have to waste a ton of money to make a game uncrackable. Sins of a Solar Empire got it right - they had NO piracy protection and they are still making good reviews and a ton of sales. "Protecting" your game from piracy does absolutely nothing in the end - fiscally anyway.
- LocalDocal, on 05/03/2008, -0/+0Sins of a Solar Empire sold roughly 300K so far (as far as I know, most websites list the initial 200K figure); Galactic Civilizations II may be another example you want to use; it actually sold better and its creator was very avid about it not coming with copy right protection.
To get to my point, smaller games don't have to worry about copy right protection so much. However, larger, high budget, highly marketed video games (like Crysis, for example) do. Whereas the SoSE and GCII may have only a small number of people pirated them (thus copy right protection is less beneficial financially), Crysis would have many, many more people doing it, thus their financial incentive for getting copy right protection would exceed the cost of implementing it. As we've heard from two major developers already (Crytek and Infinity Ward; both creators of extremely popular games), piracy on their games seem to reach a high percentage, so they have much greater reason for effective copy right.
- LocalDocal, on 05/03/2008, -0/+0Sins of a Solar Empire sold roughly 300K so far (as far as I know, most websites list the initial 200K figure); Galactic Civilizations II may be another example you want to use; it actually sold better and its creator was very avid about it not coming with copy right protection.
- Wartz, on 05/01/2008, -3/+8"Situation B - Your game can't be pirated and only 1 pirate buys your game"
- BadBosco, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2honestly, i only pirate games that i do not want to buy in the first place. something as simple as a CD key for multiplayer will make me go buy a good online game, which is why single player is becoming a secondary part of the game, and a thing of the past.
- LocalDocal, on 05/01/2008, -5/+3I'm sorry to say, but that's not exactly a bad situation. If you were someone who made something specifically for profit, then which would you rather have?
- pradaaddict, on 05/01/2008, -3/+5I wonder if it cut into their sales so much that it will impact the budgeting of future releases. Imagine a game developer coming out and saying "you guys pirated our game so much we cant afford to make a sequel"
- xDibblerx, on 05/01/2008, -6/+4You mean make a sequel of a game that only 1% of existing computers could play anyway? I wouldn't buy the game just because it was just a fancy version of Farcry with a couple of twists anyway. Sorry Crytek but fancy graphics don't make a good game in my eyes.
- JuanBay, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3Not so much with EA, but with smaller companies I feel like that could be a legitimate reason for not pirating them. I would hate to have the one downloaded copy that "broke the camel's back", especially for developers with the potential to make some kick-ass games (a la Psychonauts). If it could impact future development of good games by that company, don't pirate the freaking game.
If its EA on the other hand.. ehhhh, yeah.. buy it if you like it..
- Shao00, on 05/01/2008, -6/+8How many people that pirated the game would have bought it if it was impossible to pirate? I would guess not many.....
- Mr8lack, on 05/01/2008, -8/+6They could just do what valve did and make it nearly impossible to pirate it... it can't be that hard...
- linkdj, on 05/01/2008, -6/+6I've pirated Valve games before... but then again, it's all so good that I've bought everything I've ever pirated from them.
- grimward, on 05/01/2008, -1/+4ERrr, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but pretty much ALL of valves single player titles are out on torrent now, so NO, they haven't made it nearly impossible.
- BadBosco, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1yes, but theyre multiplayer is where they succeed the most (CSS, DODS, TF2, Garrysmod :D)
- grimward, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Well, that's a whole different ballpark then as you can trace accounts on a server and ban them, whereas a crack SP game doesn't need one.
- BadBosco, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1yes, but theyre multiplayer is where they succeed the most (CSS, DODS, TF2, Garrysmod :D)
- BugMeNot2, on 05/01/2008, -2/+5What makes Valve games so great is their dedication to quality. The thought of pirating Half-Life 2 never even crossed my mine before it was released. As soon as I could, I pre-ordered the game and then waited anxiously for its release. I admit that I pirated Episode One, but I bought the game afterwards.
- AzureRise, on 05/01/2008, -4/+1Impossible? The single player and multiplayer games are easily pirateable.
- grimward, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Even the multiplayer games? from what I hear VAC pretty much bans everybody that has a pirated key.
- superlolz, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2Play on private servers. I've had to download the pirated TF2 to play on Russian server with friends who didn't didn't buy Orange Box like I did.
- grimward, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Intriguing, I guess that pirates have overcome pretty much all the obstacles then... guess steam is completely cracked then..
- AzureRise, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1That's what I'm talking about. I don't see why I'm getting dugg down. I wasn't promoting piracy, I was just stating that both single and multiplayer has been fully cracked. Oh, and TF2 is legally free this weekend in case anyone is interested http://www.steampowered.com/goldrush/
- dylio, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1OMFG, I just bought it last week. Damnit >.
- superlolz, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2Play on private servers. I've had to download the pirated TF2 to play on Russian server with friends who didn't didn't buy Orange Box like I did.
- grimward, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Even the multiplayer games? from what I hear VAC pretty much bans everybody that has a pirated key.
- Thorlord, on 05/01/2008, -1/+9i have never even checked for any steam game. in my eyes $20 for a game on steam is better than a free game off of a torrent.
no patching, no CD cracking, no storing the ISO on my harddrive and have an installation folder ballooning its size on my harddrive.
plus, i can never lose the disc, since its just tied to my account. steam is my anti-pirate.
- DrDragun, on 05/01/2008, -7/+61This is where I have a bit of a double standard. I have no problem taking for free some heavily produced hip hop music tracks that some jackoffs produced in a sound studio in 2 hours and want to charge me $15 for. A groundbreaking video game with (debatably) the best graphics engine ever constructed, which took a team of dozens of developers many months to build, I would definitely look down on someone for stealing.
O wait it's published by EA? alt->Favorites->www.piratebay.org- ModernDayDarwin, on 05/01/2008, -9/+5I purchased this game for the reasons you mentioned above. I played it for roughly 4-5 hours and got tired of the fact that it looked like ***** and the story line was about as lame as anything I could imagine.
They got my money, and I'd honestly like it back.- topace3000, on 05/01/2008, -2/+7Man Crysis has such ***** graphics argh!
- Mullinsmcd, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2You're absolutely right. I cant believe that so many diggers are claiming that this is the developers whining. The have a right to be upset when their time and money is spent on a project and a large portion of possible sales were not realized (definitely not 100% of the pirated copies but definitely somewhere between 0% and 100%) I think that most of the ppl complaining are pirates themselves and they are expressing how they justify their actions.
- DarkSim905, on 05/01/2008, -2/+1That's a stupid point. Calling certain artists 'jackoffs' for time spent trying to put food on the table or feed their family is pretty stupid. At minimum wage in two hours you can make up the money. Artists make less than that, especially if they are being screwed over by the RIAA. Sure, we all have double standards but I think it's pretty piss poor that people decided to pirate this game 'just' to see if it would run on their computer. That's what the system specifications on the box are for. Furthermore, there are plenty of reviews and other gurus that will do your work FOR you to tell you if Crysis will run on a similarly configured rig.
- ModernDayDarwin, on 05/01/2008, -9/+5I purchased this game for the reasons you mentioned above. I played it for roughly 4-5 hours and got tired of the fact that it looked like ***** and the story line was about as lame as anything I could imagine.
- justice7, on 05/01/2008, -20/+17People pirated the game because it wasn't good enough to buy. Simple as that.
- waldyprzy, on 05/01/2008, -3/+6except it is one of the better FPS games to come in in recent history? yeah, simple as that. you have no idea what you're talking about. it comes down to the fact that a lot of PC users are so used to stealing music and using torrents that they don't give a damn about the fact that a lot of developers and designers worked on a game for years, and all they ask for is 50 freaking dollars. that amounts to not being an idiot with your money for a couple days and actually supporting PC developers... whom are slowly but surely dwindling in numbers because of the rampant piracy.
- stmyers, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Wrong. I have always bought PC games worth buying, and sometimes even games not worth buying. If I pirate a game, and it kicks ass, I buy it.
Now a days, if a high profile game comes out on Steam, I usually buy it. I bought Call of Duty 4, which I had already downloaded, because it was on Steam. - WindReaver, on 05/01/2008, -2/+5I regret having payed for Crysis, but I thought I got my money's worth for the Orange box. Crysis sucked as an FPS if you judge it by any metric besides "It looked pretty".
- stmyers, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Wrong. I have always bought PC games worth buying, and sometimes even games not worth buying. If I pirate a game, and it kicks ass, I buy it.
- Godmil, on 05/01/2008, -1/+4Metacritic rating of 91% ( http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/crysi ... )
Wow, your standards are higher than mine.- technobabble042, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3You know, it's always fun to look at that score, and then the user scores. 7.7 for Crysis from the users. Huh. I wonder why the divide is there?
I played it for a few minutes, it failed to hook me. Honestly, a pretty game. But it never gave me any reason to keep playing. - justice7, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1i dont think the reviewers were exactly right about this one.
- technobabble042, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3You know, it's always fun to look at that score, and then the user scores. 7.7 for Crysis from the users. Huh. I wonder why the divide is there?
- waldyprzy, on 05/01/2008, -3/+6except it is one of the better FPS games to come in in recent history? yeah, simple as that. you have no idea what you're talking about. it comes down to the fact that a lot of PC users are so used to stealing music and using torrents that they don't give a damn about the fact that a lot of developers and designers worked on a game for years, and all they ask for is 50 freaking dollars. that amounts to not being an idiot with your money for a couple days and actually supporting PC developers... whom are slowly but surely dwindling in numbers because of the rampant piracy.
- Gillos, on 05/01/2008, -15/+9COME ON! I call *****!
Most people who pirate a game wouldn't buy it if they couldn't get it for free.- markmcfarlane, on 05/01/2008, -5/+9Does that make it OK to pirate the game?
- linkdj, on 05/01/2008, -5/+5Yup.
- NCg8r, on 05/01/2008, -3/+0Not "OK" so much as "palatable enough to justify". It's so minor a "wrong" that it won't stop otherwise ethical people. It's like running a stop sign to most... It's wrong, and you could be caught and punished. But you probably won't be caught and it didn't hurt anyone (plus "I've gotten away with it like 1,000 times already... so meh...")
- sharpie05, on 05/01/2008, -4/+6Not true. I pay for things I believe are worthy of their price. People i know are the same way.
- mijelh, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Of course, but some (maybe most, maybe not, no one knows) people who pirate a game don't think it's worth what it cost, and so would not buy the game they got for free.
This is not an excuse for piracy, of course, but it means that you cannot say that certain company lost X dollars due to piracy because the assumption that all people who pirate would buy the software if they had not a free option is just false.
- mijelh, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1Of course, but some (maybe most, maybe not, no one knows) people who pirate a game don't think it's worth what it cost, and so would not buy the game they got for free.
- markmcfarlane, on 05/01/2008, -5/+9Does that make it OK to pirate the game?
- CharlesSaint, on 05/01/2008, -3/+9I think the reason for piracy is probably more because of the high-end requirements of the game. Crysis, as of late, has become a standard barometer of whether or not your PC qualifies as "high end"; I'm guessing that reason came into play in most cases of piracy here. Some people were most likely intrigued not by the gameplay itself, but by how it would run on their system without dropping 60 bucks (or however much it costs) just to test it out. Others probably fall into a similar category of wanting to get the game, but not wanting to drop 60 dollars just to find out that it runs like crap on their system.
- mongrel, on 05/01/2008, -3/+2I logged in to digg you back up - this is exactly why I "obtained" it. For all the money I sank into my system (dual core XPS 410 plus the $600 8800GTX vid card) I wasn't willing to be disappointed by anything but the highest quality setting running at an acceptable speed. Lo and behold, it didn't. I could turn everything down a notch but I wanted the game FOR the visual experience. Played it just past the sinking ship part and never ran it again.
- dukeochutney, on 05/01/2008, -7/+53'Crytek engine business manager Harald Seeley said that he could not reveal specific internal figures pertaining to piracy of Crysis,'
cuz he doesnt ***** know. buried as inaccurate. - xXShadowstormXx, on 05/01/2008, -3/+14Well, no *****. They made a game that requires some considerable horsepower, and the many of those people who have that computing power, pirated the game. How about they make a game that can run on more machines a la Iron Clad and Sins of Solar Empire?
Iron Clad made a game with no DRM protection at all, and yet it is selling like hotcakes.- greevar, on 05/01/2008, -0/+8Bravo to iron Clad for making a great game. I paid for my copy because they deserve to be paid. Low system requirements + great game play + no DRM = buy it now.
- derdrache, on 05/01/2008, -10/+6I pirated it and I didn't even play past the first level. If I won't play it for free what chance do they have of selling me a copy, even if it was for 20 bucks. I deleted it, waste of HD space.
I could run it smoothly on high with shadows turned down fyi.- Dunge, on 05/01/2008, -2/+1I guess you won't play any video game until at least 10 more years when it look like real movies?
- yetAnotherCroc, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3there are more standards then visual that determine if one like s a game. With crysis you spend the first hour or two going Whoa!!! Pretty!!! And then the next few hours going: "This is pretty boring standard stuff" then you turn it of and go do something else. Finaly after a week you realize you still have that crysis game hogging your HDD. Since you couldn't be bothered to start it up again you delete it. Now tell me why I would ever want to pay for that. (To be clear I never pirated it either. I played it on a friends computer .
- Dunge, on 05/01/2008, -2/+1I guess you won't play any video game until at least 10 more years when it look like real movies?
- protogenxl, on 05/01/2008, -5/+12People have machines that can run Crysis?
- greevar, on 05/01/2008, -3/+6No.
- Bloodburn, on 05/01/2008, -1/+0I do, quad core cpu, 6gb ram and 640mb 8800 card, I run crysis on all very high with great FPS.
I love the game actually, but I see their point. Piracy on the pc is SUPER easy, its very hard on consoles. Go where the money is...consoles :(- scarwars, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1ever heard of gta iv lately?
- scarwars, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1ever heard of gta iv lately?
- Bloodburn, on 05/01/2008, -1/+0I do, quad core cpu, 6gb ram and 640mb 8800 card, I run crysis on all very high with great FPS.
- hybridcreation, on 05/01/2008, -1/+7Yes, many. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet.
- Anteros, on 05/01/2008, -1/+4I just bought a 8800gt and a core 2 duo 2.66 ghz, both are quite cheap and not top of the range. It set the graphics settings to very high when I clicked calculate your ideal settings and it runs fine.
- greevar, on 05/01/2008, -3/+6No.
- compgeek, on 05/01/2008, -9/+5only reason crysis has been pirated so much plain and simple, the damn system requirements are too high to warrant a purchase. heck I don't know about the rest of you but I'm not paying $50+ for a game when my system is above minimum spec but well below reccommended specs meaning that I could never fully enjoy the game as it's going to chug on anything less than $5K worth of hardware. I say they should take this as a lesson maybe next time don't release a game that requires the absolute latest cutting edge card just to get playable framerates
- patriotsfan82, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4Exactly how I believe. A game like crysis is meant to be played on a high end rig. THe experience on a low end rig is simply nothing like the Crysis reviewers have played. As a result, it makes no sense to buy it and play it on the lowest settings possible.
- reconflux, on 05/01/2008, -4/+68Here is how to fix the problem.
SELL ONLY ON STEAM. UPDATE CONSTANTLY. Problem solved. This is the solution that Valve has taken to prevent the *majority* of ppl and piracy.- BrandonMills, on 05/01/2008, -0/+18They can make an instore version with Steam, just like Valve does. I get sick of developers bitching about piracy when the answer is already out there. Just because it's another companies product, they refuse to use it.
- Matt2k, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3Its harder than that. I remember reading that Valve gets a lot of hassle over their digital distribution. Publishers won't put your box on the shelves if you agree to other distribution routes, so you end up with digital distribution being a second-tier avenue after the primary distribution is over. Penny-arcade ran into a similar issue recently. EB games wouldn't agree to stock the title on their shelves, or demanded a cut of the profits, if they did digital distribution first
- WindReaver, on 05/01/2008, -0/+5Agreed. Stardock got my money more than once when I intended to download one of their games. I could get off my ass, use 1/4 tank of gas to drive to the store, and HOPE they have it in stock, or I could pirate it. When I saw I could download the game right away AND get a copy in the mail for the same price I jumped on it.
- hybridcreation, on 05/01/2008, -0/+12I buy every game possible from Steam. I'm hoping Mass Effect gets sold on it, but considering it is EA, it probably won't.
- dpcamp, on 05/01/2008, -0/+7He, speaks the truth, Steam is the only place i buy games from. Everywhere else i just torrent it.
- JoeRW, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2I copy that, over.
- darkism, on 05/01/2008, -10/+5What idiocy is that? "I'm going to pay $40+ for a game and not even get a real disc, box or manual! What a deal!"
- kenplaysviola, on 05/01/2008, -0/+12You have a valid point, but the advantage of Steam is that you don't have to worry about popping in the disc every time to play. Or if your disc gets scratched or lost, you cannot reinstall or play the game. With Steam, you can redownload the game as many times as you want and not have to worry about it taking shelf space. You also get to download the game right away rather than having to drive to the store and picking up a copy.
- iiiears, on 05/01/2008, -4/+1Yes, but if you only want to play for an hour you can spend 40 mins downloading updates.
- WindReaver, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Turn off auto-update then.
- Varz, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2Steam is also a lot cheaper, at least in Australia. Most games here cost $100 at a store but on steam we pay the American price which means most big titles only cost about $55 AUD.
- iiiears, on 05/01/2008, -4/+1Yes, but if you only want to play for an hour you can spend 40 mins downloading updates.
- FFXIfrohike, on 05/01/2008, -0/+8The days of games taking up space with plastic boxes on your shelf are coming to a close. And lol, manual?
- hybridcreation, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2I know, right? I don't think I have ever read a manual.
- hybridcreation, on 05/01/2008, -0/+10And how, exactly, do you benefit from having a disc and manual...besides a box full of ***** to take up space on your desk? Do you collect manuals? Who even actually reads manuals any more? Do you like having to download and install patches...and ***** with cracks if you hate switching out discs? Steam alleviates all of these problems.
- dpcamp, on 05/01/2008, -0/+7people buy music off itunes and don't get a disc.. what's the difference.
- kenplaysviola, on 05/01/2008, -0/+12You have a valid point, but the advantage of Steam is that you don't have to worry about popping in the disc every time to play. Or if your disc gets scratched or lost, you cannot reinstall or play the game. With Steam, you can redownload the game as many times as you want and not have to worry about it taking shelf space. You also get to download the game right away rather than having to drive to the store and picking up a copy.
- kineticarl, on 05/01/2008, -0/+9darkism, next time you post on digg, make sure you write the post on paper and send it to digg corporate, asking them to post it on the site. It's sooooo much better using something tangible.
Disc, box, manual? I want the game, plain and simple. Forget about the disk, because with Steam, wherever there's an internet connection, there's access to your game. Forget about the manual, there are these things called pdf's. And forget about the box, because I already did away with the disc and manual. Progress ftw.- hybridcreation, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3Very well put. It's all about progress.
digital media > physical media
And that goes for just about everything these days.
- hybridcreation, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3Very well put. It's all about progress.
- pilot101, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4I luv steam, i just luv the fact that i never have to worry about having cds on hand or loosing them. I actually got my hl 2 cds scratched and can't install through them nemore. I think in the future we should just go pure digital and loose all cds altogether. Well at least for pc component anyway.
- Raptor007, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1I like Direct2Drive even better than Steam. You only need to activate it once; after that, no internet connection required to play.
I basically agree with you, legal online distribution (and therefore no CD-in-tray check) is the best way to go right now.
- BrandonMills, on 05/01/2008, -0/+18They can make an instore version with Steam, just like Valve does. I get sick of developers bitching about piracy when the answer is already out there. Just because it's another companies product, they refuse to use it.
- briansearles, on 05/01/2008, -7/+8No *****! Make a game that is worth buying and you'll get my money. I bought Call of Duty 4 after I beat the single player because it was so damn good. I didn't buy Crysis because it was so damn bad - I've already purchased played and beat it in the form of Far Cry.
- graemee, on 05/01/2008, -0/+3Same w my COD4. Still waiting for Far Cry 2. IT BETTER RUN ON MY HARDWARE OR NO $$$ DICE!
- BlackKnight6, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3Even IW thinks piracy is crazy, it just doesn't hurt them as much since they went multiplatform.
"...the amount of people who pirate PC games is astounding. [sic] It blows me away at the amount of people willing to steal games (or anything) simply because it's not physical or it's on the safety of the internet to do."
http://pc.qj.net/Infinity-Ward-dev-blown-away-by-p ...
http://iamfourzerotwo.com/about/
People pirate PC games bcause its easy, no cost and safe, NOT because the games suck.
- ProjectGSX, on 05/01/2008, -5/+11I almost downloaded it, but never got around to it. The reason is simple: The game looked like it sucked. But the graphics were nice.. Worth downloading, but not worth buying.
Here is an idea: Spend more time developing the actual game than just the engine that runs it. HL2 is a great example of a game that had time put into the engine AND the game itself. And boy did it impress while not requiring ridiculous system specs.- GrantTLC, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Actually, considering HL2 took nearly six years to come out, I wonder how many people had naturally upgraded their systems by then? If it had come out after only three, I think more people would have struggled to get decent framerates.
Oh, and their engine wasn't perfect, judging by how many people had problems getting sound working smoothly. - BlackKnight6, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2If its "worth" downloading it worth buying. If you want to play it, buy it. Don't download something because you "think it might suck". Play the demo, if you didn't enjoy it, don't buy it OR download it. If you guys actually played the demo and then continued on to download the game because you wanted more or was curious, thats a lost sale because you stole it rather than doing the right thing.
- TheGrog, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3I signed in just to reply to you, ****head.
If you didn't even download it, how do you know it was *****?
I bet most people posting here have not played it. It was a fun game and the mp is also fun.
I built a pc with mostly budget parts and it runs the game on high very nicely. You are all a bunch of cheap, whiney, bastards.
- GrantTLC, on 05/01/2008, -2/+2Actually, considering HL2 took nearly six years to come out, I wonder how many people had naturally upgraded their systems by then? If it had come out after only three, I think more people would have struggled to get decent framerates.
- taintedzodiac, on 05/01/2008, -8/+1I never bought Crysis, nor did I pirate it. Never played it, period.
They do have a clue at least: put it on the consoles, and a lot more people would care. PC gaming isn't dead, and it certainly gives the user more options as far as mods and customization, but the consoles are where the sales are for everything except MMO's.- stubear, on 05/01/2008, -0/+0That might change soon. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is slated to come out later this year for both the PC and XBOX 360. It's an MMO set in Robert Howard's Conan universe (not the Ahnold universe) and it's supposed to have an interesting combat system that takes advantage of console controllers without leaving PC users out in the cold. I'd be curious to see how communication is supposed to work on the console. Are we going to have to get the message pad to use the game? Will it ship with the game as an option to people who don't have one yet? Most of the info and screenshots online now are of the PC version but from what little I've seen of the console version, it's looking like it will be a fun game to play.
- taintedzodiac, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1I wasn't aware that Conan was going multi-platform. Good info. Unfortunately, we're under attack from the bury brigade. Thou shalt not speak of PC gaming in a bad light!
- stubear, on 05/01/2008, -0/+0That might change soon. Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures is slated to come out later this year for both the PC and XBOX 360. It's an MMO set in Robert Howard's Conan universe (not the Ahnold universe) and it's supposed to have an interesting combat system that takes advantage of console controllers without leaving PC users out in the cold. I'd be curious to see how communication is supposed to work on the console. Are we going to have to get the message pad to use the game? Will it ship with the game as an option to people who don't have one yet? Most of the info and screenshots online now are of the PC version but from what little I've seen of the console version, it's looking like it will be a fun game to play.
- mst3kcrow, on 05/01/2008, -7/+9Another ***** article blaming something on piracy with no significant connection to their sales. Console games can be pirated too, the 4-5 times as many copy connection is very weak. I believe it's more so that people who use consoles just want to put a game in and have it work, which appeals to the greater populace. Also, Crytek's system reqs were really ***** high. If I can't play a game on my computer that was damn good 3 years ago, it's a no go purchase.
- whoatemytuna, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2But it's not easy to play pirated games on a console.
- mst3kcrow, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1It takes a bit more work through manipulation of firmware or installing a *mod chip but it's not that difficult. After setting it up the copying process is pretty much streamlined. Btw, nice profile pic.
*Some people obviously do not know how to solder but consider that usually mod chips makers come out with solderless ones.
- mst3kcrow, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1It takes a bit more work through manipulation of firmware or installing a *mod chip but it's not that difficult. After setting it up the copying process is pretty much streamlined. Btw, nice profile pic.
- whoatemytuna, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2But it's not easy to play pirated games on a console.
- Shogi, on 05/01/2008, -6/+1As much as I would love to pay for every PC game I want and properly support the platform, I don't have money shooting out of my ass. Not only that, but buying/maintaining a computer that can actually run new games is a serious investment all on its own for a lot of people. I really do try to go out and buy games that earn it, but sometimes I've got other things to pay for.
More specifically to Crysis, as far as I've seen, PC games with strong online multiplayer components get pirated a lot less because the game is useless without online play, and no matter how many CD keys you try, you're not likely to get that without buying the game. Just a subtle suggestion I suppose.- azurechaos, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1The multiplayer on Crysis is awesome, you can actually nuke your opponents' base. The only problem that's been an issue is people using hacks, and I'm not sure how much of a problem that still is these days.
- psibladeZX, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2I agree with Shogi, not everyone has money shooting out of their ass to keep upgrading their computers to play the latest craze... if I just spent 4 grand on a new pc, i dont feel like spending more for a game that might not even play
- cliffski, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2you have 4 grand to give to the guys who make hardware, but the guys who make the software can just go ***** themselves?
what a *****.
- cliffski, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2you have 4 grand to give to the guys who make hardware, but the guys who make the software can just go ***** themselves?
- Largent, on 05/01/2008, -4/+7Pirating in general would decline greatly if the quality of the average video game wasn't ***** trash these days. For me about half of the games I've bought in the last few years got played once, and they were terrible, because some companies don't care anymore, and GUESS WHAT? I can't get my money back! Like I'm not going to start pirating *****.
- azurechaos, on 05/01/2008, -3/+1So you're saying the quality of this game is trash? I can't really agree with you on that one.
- yetAnotherCroc, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2visual quality = great!
general gameplay quality = crap
Storyline quality = abysmal
- yetAnotherCroc, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2visual quality = great!
- psibladeZX, on 05/01/2008, -0/+0Crysis was nice looking... I had to play at lowest settings, but the game was VERY short... I beat it in under 10 hours... 10 hours for 50 bucks? eh, i dont think so... GTA san andreas is still entertaining me because I havent beat it... 50 bucks well spent (xmas gift in 2004, still played in 2008)... developers need to develop GOOD games... like GTA4, that game is HIGH quality and long with a good story
- azurechaos, on 05/01/2008, -3/+1So you're saying the quality of this game is trash? I can't really agree with you on that one.
- ahhell, on 05/01/2008, -4/+2Harald Seeley = Captain Douche
- Shadowgamers, on 05/01/2008, -8/+5They're blaming Piracy, and not the $60 + $1500~ you'd have to spend to play it, on the reason why it didn't sell so well?
Talk about scapegoats... :o - estacado, on 05/01/2008, -7/+3Crysis isn't that good of a game in the first place. But what what do I know, I didn't play the game. I would have played a pirated copy if my computer actually met the system requirements.
- dortiis, on 05/01/2008, -4/+2I literaly played this game for about 5 minutes before i got bored and uninstalled it.
THAT'S why i pirated it, i wanted to see what the fuss was about without restricting myself.
make a better game and i would consider buying it.
make a worthy multiplayer and everyone would buy it. - azurechaos, on 05/01/2008, -0/+4exactly, how in the hell could you possibly say it's not a good game if you didn't play it? that makes ***** for sense.
- hybridcreation, on 05/01/2008, -0/+5So you say it's a bad game, then admit to not having played it. I'm detecting a slight flaw in your logic.
- dortiis, on 05/01/2008, -4/+2I literaly played this game for about 5 minutes before i got bored and uninstalled it.
- atariman, on 05/01/2008, -3/+3yeah but even the pirates can't play the game. Why would anybody want to pirate a game that no machine on God's green earth can play?
- bluekross, on 05/01/2008, -1/+6They had to have been getting money from NVIDIA considering most of NVIDIA cards came with Crysis free. While at the same time, it could also be one of the causes of only selling 1,000,000 copies. I could be wrong about it coming with all manufacturers of NVIDIA cards, but I know EVGA gave a free copy with their cards, and considering that most people had to update their card (or more) for the game, they probably had a good chance of getting the game for free.
- spyd3rweb, on 05/01/2008, -2/+7I bought Crysis because I had an extra $50 to spend on useless ***** for once. I bet more people would buy games if they had extra money.
- elementfire, on 05/01/2008, -11/+2Hurrah. The PC as an exclusive gaming platform is dead.
Developers: Come on over to the dark, console side. We've got cookies!- qwikmr2, on 05/01/2008, -2/+4You my friend are a tool. Stroke your 360 or ps3 and realize you will never understand gaming.
- markmcfarlane, on 05/01/2008, -2/+5I have to say that if I were a games producer I would ditch the PC market and go console only. Piracy levels are MUCH lower, while sales are, for a successfull/good game, much higher. Yes, they aren't as powerful potentially, but it's got to be a lot eaiser to make more profit.
- mckinnej, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2This would probably be a good thing for me. I could quit gaming altogether. I could get rid of my Windows box, which I only use for games, and be content with Linux. It sure would cut back on my electricity use.
- baldgye, on 05/01/2008, -4/+3perhaps becasue Crysis is not a good game.... and the only reason people bought it was becasue they had insane systems, everyone else figured well I'll dl but I'm not paying for something i probably cant play
- psibladeZX, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1crysis was wayy too short to justify 50 bucks... now GTA4... thats definitely worth 60 bucks because it will provide hundreds of hours of entertainment
- Root94, on 05/01/2008, -11/+4***** you pirates, you can run around with your photoshop and big name titles but when someone made there game on pc first, when they put money and time in it and pushed the boundaries you had to go and ruin it by pirating it. Next time stick with big non pc exclusive titles.
- cybrguy, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2Maybe if you shout louder and curse at them more, they will stop pirating software...
- psibladeZX, on 05/01/2008, -2/+0why buy when you can get for free... shut your face
- cliffski, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2grow up you pathetic little thieving *****
- deviationer, on 05/01/2008, -5/+3boo ***** hoo crytek. maybe people would have ***** bought it if all those trailers and "in-game footage" pre-release were actually the eye candy. But no there is no way to get those visuals without quad-sli and even then you will still get ***** fps.
- CYG101, on 05/01/2008, -5/+4Piracy?? Please. I just built a computer with 3 GPUs, a 4GHz CPU and 4GB of ram for work and i decided to run Crysis on a 24" screen.... it lags, a lot.
- knight666, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1*smacks CYG101 on the head with a newspaper*
You bought a box with three ***** graphics cards... for WORK?
You're ***** fired.- repick3, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2Maybe he's an animator, architect or engineer that requires powerful graphics processing?
- whoreable, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1The size of your screen has nothing to do with "lag". Lag is from a bad connection with the server. The "lag" you are talking about is a low frame rate. The resolution that you are trying to play the game at is your problem not the size of your screen. You could run that screen at 800X600. Nub.
- knight666, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1*smacks CYG101 on the head with a newspaper*
- radixus, on 05/01/2008, -1/+11All I can say is Steam . . . But I have to agree with most people, the hype machine was consistently throwing out how insane the recommended specs were for this game. People don't want to drop 60 bucks for a game they are not 100% positive will even run on their computer. A demo is not the same as the full retail version.
We know piracy is a problem, but there are distribution methods out there that will help lower that risk . . . Steam is a perfect example, so far it's proving to be a legit distribution model. It's not the consumers fault that Crytek refuses to look at all avenues! - JoelBakan01, on 05/01/2008, -4/+2Sounds great! I'm searching TPB right now...
- Cyberqat, on 05/01/2008, -7/+11This thinking illustrates one of the biggest fallacies in this space. One promoted by the makers of "copy protection" software.
He makes the **assumption** that every pirated copy is one that otherwise would have been sold. Many other entertainment industries (Music, Film, etc) have already proves this assumption false-- that the vast majority of "pirates" either (a) buy a legitimate copy if they decide they like something or (b) are people who would never have spent the money to buy a copy in the first place.
In point of fact, one can JUST as easily claim that thew piracy, as form of advertising, has MADE them what money they have made.
Copy protection schemes, on the other hand, DO cost game companies sales as there are a significant number of people who dont want to have to deal with the inconveniences they impose. (Such as having to put in, take out, and potentially damage CD-ROM discs in order to play.) They also are easily cracked by someone in the know and thus do nothing to deter real pirates.
Until a direct casual link can be shown between a pirate copy made and a legitimate copy not sold, claiming to have lost ANY money to piracy is empty talk. If the industry really wants to save money the could start by not paying good money for "anti-piracy" schemes that only drive customers either away or into collusion with the pirates themselves.- linuxpenguin, on 05/01/2008, -1/+4I think the reason they lost money, is because most people don't care to play Crysis.
- dmsean, on 05/01/2008, -1/+3or charge less....if they sold 1 million at $80, but could have sold 5 million at $40...well....you do the math
- iiiears, on 05/01/2008, -1/+2Crytek developed a good game and felt they were hurt by piracy and will no longer PC exlusive titles. That really is bad for all of us as games ported to PC are usually not very good.
It would be interesting to see the numbers.
for instance, How many MAC addresses were seen playing pirated copies that later seen with a genuine copy? How would they measure "Casual Piracy" disks loaned to friend? With the arrival of Vista would a new computer purchase be recorded as piracy if it was previously installed on the "old" computer?
From what was said about system requirements, will this game sell a large number of copies as gamers buy better systems? Would a release of bonus maps and a contest to make more content and utilities lengthen the time gamers were interested?- amenic, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1Or how many people played it for 10 minutes and said "Oh - this isn't running as smoothly as I'd like it to, unfortunately I don't have the 300-3000$ dollars to play your 60$ game so I'll pick it up later when I upgrade my system".
It's not like people are raving about how incredible the game is and they are missing out now is it?
- amenic, on 05/05/2008, -0/+1Or how many people played it for 10 minutes and said "Oh - this isn't running as smoothly as I'd like it to, unfortunately I don't have the 300-3000$ dollars to play your 60$ game so I'll pick it up later when I upgrade my system".
- cybrguy, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1Pecedence: Sins of a Solar Empire - Stardock said screw copy protection, its just an annoyance to those who buy the game anyway. And their game sold REALLY well. Granted it was pirated some, but it proved the point that games sell on their own merrits, not on how easily it can be pirated.
- linuxpenguin, on 05/01/2008, -0/+1I heard Sins of a Solar Empire is pretty sweet - I almost bought it until I saw Orange Box.
- rolandvvv, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2well said, sir, well said.
- topace3000, on 05/01/2008, -2/+3I like how "copy protection" is a "scheme" from your point of view. How skewed and twisted can you make things to justify your own acts of theft?
"Until you show me a study that proves stealing games costs the developers money, I refuse to find any fault in any form of piracy." That's what you just said. The vast majority of pirates do NOT buy a legitimate copy, and many pirates of Crysis have the massive gaming systems that are required to run such a game... and you're saying they generally wouldn't have bought it? Your claims are all *****.- karlhite, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1Learn English.
- topace3000, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1The English in my response was perfectly acceptable, learn when to keep your mouth shut.
- karlhite, on 05/02/2008, -1/+1Learn English.
- Darkneuros, on 05/01/2008, -8/+13Too go straight to the point.. There are an immeasurable amount of greasy nerds who have the system and the money, but won't pay for ANY game if they can get away with it. And yes, they are ruining the PC platform as games companies will eventually stop producing games for the PC. And to those who say "I don't want to pay for a game that might not run on my hardware" Get the demo. Everything else is just a lame excuse to pirate, people are so pathetic these days.
- bbqsalad, on 05/01/2008, -3/+7Not sure why you are being dugg down you speak the truth. I know many people who REFUSE to buy games and simply pirate them. Wouls these people buy those same games if they couldn't pirate them? Probably some yes.
- LemmingJesus, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1I wanted to buy Kane and Lynch but there was no demo out, so I had to try it somehow. Split screen, on a PC with no LAN play. No thanks.
- NCg8r, on 05/01/2008, -5/+1Those with systems to run the game consider the pirated version to BE the demo... Then they decide whether to buy or not. Kill the crippled Demo and make a short SP game with a MP key available for purchase. It's already happening, so might as well lie back and think of England...
- RedClaw, on 05/01/2008, -2/+9You are so right on the money with this. You're being dugg down because people are trying to justify their pirating.
- psibladeZX, on 05/01/2008, -4/+1why buy when you can get for free....
- cliffski, on 05/01/2008, -0/+2because you arent a thief?
- dbsmoker, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2So that you can actually support the developer who earned the money for making a great game.
- bbqsalad, on 05/02/2008, -0/+2Because we want them to continue making games.. that arnt plastered with ads and gimmicks. please.. buy games you love.. pirate the ones you don't.
- cybrguy, on 05/01/2008, -3/+1While this does happen, games will still sell on their own merits. UT3 sucked, but they tried to blame piracy for its bad sales. Personally I would have been PISSED if I had purchased UT3 before actually having a chance to play it. I did buy crysis though, and I liked it, but I also had the crazy hardware to run it.
- JoeRW, on 05/02/2008, -0/+1Crytek really would be sitting on a massive cash cow if Crysis wasn't piratable. If EA did the Steam method they would earn twice as much at least because people will click the download link and not think about the money too much when sitting at their computer and being given the possibility of playing the game soon.
If EA had done it this way, preloading, as well as NOT put out a demo, it would've been a massive boon to the PC industry as a whole because people who have payed for crysis are more likely to pay to upgrade their machines so they get more out of the product they own.
Just dumb. Dont blame the people on the street. You are sitting on a gold mine. Now mine it properly you douches.
- bbqsalad, on 05/01/2008, -3/+7Not sure why you are being dugg down you speak the truth. I know many people who REFUSE to buy games and simply pirate them. Wouls these people buy those same games if they couldn't pirate them? Probably some yes.
- spinaltap87, on 05/01/2008, -10/+7The internet is a series of tubes.
- g1antp15to1, on 05/01/2008, -1/+1they are going to get clogged if we don't do something about it. too many internets
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