3 ms·

Another reason not to make games. For the first time we have the ability to quantify the sales generated by the "free advertising" of piracy, and it doesn't amo

by nsxwolf 13y ago

Another reason not to make games. For the first time we have the ability to quantify the sales generated by the "free advertising" of piracy, and it doesn't amount to any real sales.

Jare 13y ago
I don't think that rule is meant to apply to places where 95% (?) of software is pirated. Can you even buy the game in China?
- nsxwolf 13y ago
  I'd like to see the breakdown. It only said that "much" of the pirated downloads came from China and Russia.
Grue3 13y ago
You meant to say, another reason to only make free games.
m3mnoch 13y ago
as both a professional and independent game developer, i take issue with this statement for a couple reasons. 1) this is a life-cycle thing. the game has only been released for 3 weeks and has no marketing budget (i assume since it's only sold a couple hundred copies). that means, it's still too early to tell if the piracy correctly acts as "free advertising" or not. grassroots advocacy is NOT overnight. 2) piracy has been proven over and over again NOT to lead to lost sales by objective measurements. anecdote? sure! everyone is getting completely screwed when you take in anecdote. for examples, just google "game piracy lost sales" and read things from industry news sites (techdirt, for example) to developers (notch as another example) on why that statement is a load of crap. or, alternatively, you can just check this research paper outlaying the data and methods (pdf warning!): http://www.mit.edu/~ke23793/papers/Drahchenetal_paperID16.pdf http://www.mit.edu/~ke23793/papers/Drahchenetal_paperID16.pd... basically, we, as a community should simply wait another 5 weeks (october 1st, maybe?), then ask the developer for a post mortem to see if they've only made another 350 sales or so. and when they say "whoa! we've exploded!", we can say "but i thought piracy stole all your sales." m3mnoch.

by nsxwolf 13y ago

Another reason not to make games. For the first time we have the ability to quantify the sales generated by the "free advertising" of piracy, and it doesn't amount to any real sales.

Jare 13y ago

I don't think that rule is meant to apply to places where 95% (?) of software is pirated. Can you even buy the game in China?

nsxwolf 13y ago
I'd like to see the breakdown. It only said that "much" of the pirated downloads came from China and Russia.

Grue3 13y ago

You meant to say, another reason to only make free games.

m3mnoch 13y ago

as both a professional and independent game developer, i take issue with this statement for a couple reasons. 1) this is a life-cycle thing. the game has only been released for 3 weeks and has no marketing budget (i assume since it's only sold a couple hundred copies). that means, it's still too early to tell if the piracy correctly acts as "free advertising" or not. grassroots advocacy is NOT overnight. 2) piracy has been proven over and over again NOT to lead to lost sales by objective measurements. anecdote? sure! everyone is getting completely screwed when you take in anecdote. for examples, just google "game piracy lost sales" and read things from industry news sites (techdirt, for example) to developers (notch as another example) on why that statement is a load of crap. or, alternatively, you can just check this research paper outlaying the data and methods (pdf warning!): http://www.mit.edu/~ke23793/papers/Drahchenetal_paperID16.pdf http://www.mit.edu/~ke23793/papers/Drahchenetal_paperID16.pd... basically, we, as a community should simply wait another 5 weeks (october 1st, maybe?), then ask the developer for a post mortem to see if they've only made another 350 sales or so. and when they say "whoa! we've exploded!", we can say "but i thought piracy stole all your sales." m3mnoch.