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• The Big, Scary Numbers of Piracy in 2008

  I’ve been looking at this list TorrentFreak created, the one of the top ten most pirated games of 2008 according to BitTorrent tracking. It is utterly fascinating, but not, as many people latched onto, because Spore is the number one most pirated game of the year. That’s an eye-rolling obvious thing to reveal, the same as if you were told The Dark Knight was the pirated movie of 2008 (Surprise! It is). So the most heavily marketed PC game of the year was the one the most people tried to get for free. So what? No, what’s interesting is how gigantic some of these numbers are. I’m going to go ahead and say this list is almost certainly low-balling the number of people who pirated these games, as only taking into account a certain number of well-managed trackers, as TorrentFreak did, leaves out the private trackers and people who got lucky on bad trackers. And of course, there are the people who went to their local unmarked van for a clandestine exchange using unmarked bills, but that’s neither here nor there. Let’s assume these numbers represent a conservative estimate. It was predicted by people paid to predict such things that Spore would sell about 2 million copies in September, and while EA hasn’t released the actual numbers if that turns out to be true that would mean Spore is doing okay. In this case, we’ll define “okay” as “more copies are being sold than being stolen.” After the jump, things will no longer be okay. Read More... Posted Dec 08 2008, 07:00 PM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: the sims, spore, crysis, statistics, piracy, far cry 2, joe keiser

• China Trigger

  Most of you out there are probably playing Chrono Trigger DS--or at least you should be. I have to admit that I'm a total hypocrite, though; if I do play through Chrono Trigger again, it's not going to be for a while.  Listen, when you suffer through hours upon hours of Chrono's abysmal PSX port to unlock some pretty pedestrian bonus content, you need to take a little break.  I'll be at the five year mark around springtime, so please look forward to my coverage of Chrono Trigger DS in April 2009. Believe it or not, there are versions of Chrono far worse than the PSX port, which was like playing a beloved RPG while immersed in quicksand. Our industrious friends in China actually produced their own pirate Famicom version of the game, as they've done in the past with many other games that have no business being on an 8-bit platform.  Maybe this video will show you why: Diagnosis: adorable--in a "broken toy on a thrift store shelf" sort of way. Read More... Posted Dec 02 2008, 02:45 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: chrono trigger, square-enix, piracy, bob mackey, chrono trigger ds, bootleg

• Earthbound's Secret Evil

  Earthbound may be one of the most heartwarming and beloved RPGs out there, but beneath its seemingly innocent surface beats the pitch-black heart of the devil.  Thanks to a friend who pointed me in the direction of this EDGE article, I'll think twice the next time I invite Earthbound into my apartment and/or bedroom. So why, pray tell, is Earthbound so evil? To be fair, the game's dark nature only exposes itself to those who would dare bootleg--and they probably deserve it. Essentially, Earthbound does a series of checks throughout the game to make sure you're playing on a legit cart. But if you've purchased yours on the cheap from a sleazy bootlegger, well--maybe I should let this video explain the rest. Obvious spoilers for anyone who hasn't made it to the end of Earthbound: You've gotta admit, there's no revenge better than that when it comes to video game pirates. It kind of makes me wonder why companies don't secretly "leak" copies of their games to the Internet that would do irreparable harm to the computers of would-be pirates. It could be something as simple as a hard drive wipe, or complex as the polygonal head of Ken Levine levitating around your desktop, screaming at you while exploding icons with his laser eyes. Gentlemen, you can only fight piracy with creativity. Read More... Posted Oct 02 2008, 08:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: snes, earthbound, piracy, bob mackey, drm

• Floppy Copiers Slapped with a Hefty Fine in England

  Hundreds of UK citizens have been sued by a London firm, on behalf of Topware Interactive, makers of a pinball game. One woman has already been successfully sued for £16,000 (Approx. $33,000). Last month, the music industry announced a three step sanction procedure against illegal file-sharers, in which customers would have their internet connections suspended on the second copyright infringement and cancelled on the third. I guess those of us leeches who only download but do not share are safe? But for how long... I guess I should move to Sweden before things heat up more than they have already. Over 150 file-sharers have been prosecuted in the UK. In related news, you can now be prosecuted if your stupid kid shares copyrighted material. Read More... Posted Aug 19 2008, 03:27 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: cole stryker, piracy, pinball, england