StarCraft 2 Pirated More Than 2.3M Times

[exfileme]

Despite the numerous torrent downloads, Blizzard is still racking in the big bucks with StarCraft II.

StarCraft 2 Pirated More Than 2.3M Times : Read more

 

[sliem]

Not surprising. Let's see this vs CoD Black Ops.

 

[nukem950]

I hate pirating. It gives companies the excuse of doing dumb things. I have a legal copy. I am a college student in college housing. The internet speed is terrible. I wish I could just play a LAN game with my friends(who also have a legal copy).

 

[formin]

5 years late and split it up into 3 games at 60 bucks a game
total 180 bucks
no wonder 2.3M people don't feel bad piracy

 

[darkchazz]

That's not a problem for them, I bet Bobby Kotick is rolling on a mountain of the cash they made from black ops :/

 

[accolite]

You know whats funny I torrented sc2, decided I liked it and went and bought it. Wow something good came from it? If a game has good content people will buy it.

 

[hellwig]

I hate pirates who think they deserve something for nothing. I also hate games with extremely restrictive DRM, especially since I paid for the damn game.

Can't say Blizzards efforts were very effective here either. Not if 2.3MILLION people downloaded the game off illegal torrents. 3million sales and 2.3million torrents, that means almost half the copies out there are illegal. If Blizzard really thinks requiring Battle.Net connection was a good idea, I hate to see what they'll do to Diablo III in the face of this data.

 

[Katsushiro]

Don't worry. It's all balanced out by people like me who bought it and don't play it.

 

[ezodagrom]

I would consider buying it, if it wasn't so expensive, but, I won't pirate it either, not going to play it at all.
If it was something that I would really want to play though, I would make the sacrifice to pay for it, even if it's overpriced.

 

[marquis]

The NEXT starcraft will be a MMOG , via steam with a constant interent connection ...

Go on , steal the games you love , and then someday ask aloud why no one makes them anymore!

 

[Skippy27]

Cost to make the game (all 3 episodes) is figured to be around $60-70KK (that's millions). They have sold 3kk copies at $60 each. Figure in a generous 20% markup by the time it reaches the retail space (or not if downloaded) and they have brought in about $48 per copy or about $144kk or turned a minimum $74kk profit (all bills paid) on this game thus far.

Not that I endorse pirating in any way shape or form (I am strictly against it), but they have made out like bandits on this game and I don't want to hear any whining that piracy is killing the industry or preventing it from being creative and releasing good work.

 

[waynewarrior78]

I really can not stand the argument that "Ill pirate it and then Ill pay for it if I like it!" That is horse crap. I cant go to 711, steal a coke, drink half of it, then decide to go back in and pay for it.

However, the biggest problem facing gaming is not piracy. (off topic sorry) Its the countless idiots that continue to buy the same F*#&# game twice a year. Madden, COD, MOH.....all of those games simply tell gaming makers to screw off quality and ingenuity and just rehash the same crap over and over again.


*steps off soap box*

 

[the_krasno]

Geocities, oh the nostalgia! ;_;

 

[firebee1991]

I hate it when people claim that they pirate the game and then buy it if they like it. Bullcrap, that's what demos are for.

 

[tgoods44]

"tailored, regional business model"

What a croc. I have friends in Europe and the "cheapos", lets say, wont let me play with who I want to play with.

 

[jack_attack]

[citation][nom]firebee1991[/nom]I hate it when people claim that they pirate the game and then buy it if they like it. Bullcrap, that's what demos are for.[/citation]


SC2 demo's you say?

 

[kaintfm]

I pirate games for several reasons. The main one being the number of times I've bought games that were bad, buggy, and/or incompatible with my hardware, coupled with the inability to return it once the package has been opened. For example, I bought a move controller and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 for the PS3, only to find that it doesn't work left-handed. In total, I wasted almost $150. I spent $50ish on Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion only to find my save games hopelessly corrupted, with no clues as to how to prevent older saves from corrupting again.

In most cases, I'll download a game in order to find out a) Whether it's buggy or incompatible, b) a good game or not, and c) how much DRM it's utilizing. Anything using secuROM is an automatic "Will never purchase". If it works without crashing every 5 minutes, isn't a decent, enjoyable game, and employs only modest DRM, I will go out and purchase it.

 

[firebee1991]

[citation][nom]kaintfm[/nom]I pirate games for several reasons. The main one being the number of times I've bought games that were bad, buggy, and/or incompatible with my hardware, coupled with the inability to return it once the package has been opened. For example, I bought a move controller and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 for the PS3, only to find that it doesn't work left-handed. In total, I wasted almost $150. I spent $50ish on Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion only to find my save games hopelessly corrupted, with no clues as to how to prevent older saves from corrupting again.In most cases, I'll download a game in order to find out a) Whether it's buggy or incompatible, b) a good game or not, and c) how much DRM it's utilizing. Anything using secuROM is an automatic "Will never purchase". If it works without crashing every 5 minutes, isn't a decent, enjoyable game, and employs only modest DRM, I will go out and purchase it.[/citation]

There's this thing called Google that works great for checking if the programs are going to be compatible.

 

[thechief73]

If these numbers are even remotly accurate, it is not good news for the PC gamers out there, it is just re-affirming to game makers that they need to implament even more restrictive DR and that the PC is not worth the trouble of develooping for when they can get every american childs parents/family to go out and buy console games aat $60 a pop and then make em pay $15 for the rest of the game.

I hope something in this equation changes soon for the sake of legit game BUYING PC gamers everywhere.

 

[carnage9270]

I'm obviously missing something here. Starcraft is an MMO that requires a Battle.net account to play...how can a torrent download be considered pirating? I would think it means people downloaded the game from a torrent because it was faster?

 

[jalek]

You know those bean counters actually believe that's 2.3 million lost sales, or $138 million in retail sales. Take a little greed and toss in some attorneys and then numbers just go insane.

I'll bet Blizzard's had a dozen attorneys offering to file suits against various IP addresses that include legitimate ones that they'll settle for a mere $2,000-3,000 each, so $4.6-6.9 billion, of which the lawyers only take a fraction.

Someday reality may return, but it seems the attorneys are driving the IP lunacy as they once did with malpractice suits. This is why my firewall blocks everything, including Blizzard's P2P torrent clients.

 

[TheKurrgan]

In this case I think this shows that most people who play the game realize that despite its hype, it was more or less mediocre, and not the monumental sequel every one was hoping for, and as such dont wanna pay 60 bucks for a game that is mediocre at best.. But it is worth a single play through for free however and was done well for what it is, I was simply not impressed.

 

[toastninja17]

LOL pirates. Win.

 

[ashinohara]

Best 60 bucks I ever spent. People who pirate this game are shooting themselves in the foot if they can't join battle.net. When the pirates finish the single player, they'll whine about "it wasn't worth the money". Well yah, since you're only playing half the game.

 

[ashinohara]

[citation][nom]thekurrgan[/nom]In this case I think this shows that most people who play the game realize that despite its hype, it was more or less mediocre, and not the monumental sequel every one was hoping for, and as such dont wanna pay 60 bucks for a game that is mediocre at best..[/citation]

See my previous comment.

[citation]is worth a single play through for free however and was done well for what it is, I was simply not impressed.[/citation]

For people buying it for the single player experience, no. But the game is worth it, for the whole experience. I think blizzard's done an awesome job of getting people used to single player, to try out multiplayer (and even ladder!)