Games Crysis 2

[WPKenny]

So apparently a beta has been leaked. Anyone know the story? Careless PR person lose a disk? Pissed off ex employee?

 

[old.Tohtori]

Leaks are like masturbation in many cases.

 

[cHodAX]

Looks like an inside job but investigation has just started, either way the beta ain't complete and not all the high detail textures are final.

 

[Starman]

EDIT: Read EA’s curt response here. “Piracy continues to damage the PC packaged goods market and the PC development community.”

I have no words. Actually, I have some words- according to a thread of the Facepunch forums (which may or may not be deleted any second depending how the Facepunch server holds up), a developer build of Crysis 2 containing the full game, multiplayer and the master key for the online authentication has been leaked, and is currently freely available from all sorts of astonishingly illegal websites. This sounds like it might be a serious tragedy for Crytek. Crysis 2 was scheduled for release on the 22nd of March, so the leaked build could be dangerously close to finished. More on this as we hear it, and thanks to RPS reader James B for letting us know.

http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1058902-Crysis-2-leaked-49-days-early

 

[nath]

OMG Kenny, such a glenn!

 

[old.Tohtori]

When will they learn that piracy doesn't harm the industry in any serious manner. Crysis 2 will no doubt still sell umpty million dollars and the percentage of pirates who would actually buy the game if there was no piracy method, is a minority.

Sure there are arguments on piracy side that can be debunked easily, such as the "i wouldn't buy it anyway", "so why are you playing it?" etc etc, but that's a side issue.

People pirate games mostly because, testing interest aside, they can't afford to buy all the games, if they could they would. Some wouldn't ofcourse, but majority of players want to support game companies to get more quality games. You could ask any voting community if they would pay for games they like.

The thing that is harming the gaming industry is the ways they fight piratism(and ultimately fail); anti-piracy methods are a pisstake, prices are another piss towards the consumer and so on.

The moment the gaming industry stops punishing people for the actions of pirating, is the moment we start to see the decline of piracy as well.

It can't be beaten, never and it shouldn't be fought against. Instead, game companies/developers/etc should start rewarding people for actually going out to buy the game.

Leak out games, give them for free, but state that to unlock all of the content they need XYZ. Also proper demos with easy upgrade to full would help. This way those that are interested can test it, then decide to support the dev/game. Not going in blind and then pirate later because they feel cheated.

The players, pirates if you will, should also do their part by buying the games they DO enjoy playing. If you only pirate a game to see if it's any good, more power to you, but if you download a game and spend the next 50h+ playing it and enjoying it, no, you're a bad person. There is fault on that side too.

In short; the industry has to change their ways and not concentrate on blaming piracy and trying to hunt that white whale.

This from someone who works in the industry and doesn't pirate.

/rant, sorry, went a bit long there.

 

[ECA]

Xbox piracy is bigger than PC piracy, I guess they'll stop developing for 360?

 

[Zenith.UK]

Considering the ridiculous system requirements for Crysis when it was launched, I doubt many people have a PC *capable* of playing this leaked version.

 

[Raven]

Its cross platform so I doubt its going to much more advanced than the original Crysis tbh

 

[Helme]

The word is that it's incredibly dumbed down. Prone removed, power armour modes merged, you can only lean at lean-enabled corners, if you use your binoculars it will magically mark every single approach you can make to a mission with labels such as "stealth", "assault", "flank" etc.

 

[Damini]

Wouldn't surprise me. There seems to be a massive shift in the industry towards making computer games compatible with idiots.

 

[Aada]

Xbox piracy is bigger than PC piracy, I guess they'll stop developing for 360?

Biggest load of shit i'll read all day.

Xbox piracy is there but no way in hell is it the size of PC piracy.

 

[Raven]

Wouldn't surprise me. There seems to be a massive shift in the industry towards making computer games compatible with idiots.

Consoles

 

[Ch3tan]

Biggest load of shit i'll read all day.

Xbox piracy is there but no way in hell is it the size of PC piracy.

You are a retard.

 

[Mabs]

You are a retard.

this is news since when ?

end of the day, its a shame, and will affect sales on doubt, i suspect it may slip while they change the CD key authing cos thats been compromised which is not something they can ignore :/

 

[rynnor]

Will it make much difference? The people downloading this leaked version would be the ones who download a cracked version after release anyway?

 

[Nate]

I wonder how it works in terms of pay. Does the developer get paid on completion or once it starts making some big sales? Kinda makes me think that if they got paid when the publisher was happy with the finished product(which kind of makes sense as it's the publisher that does all the advertising and selling isn't it?) then they wouldn't care so much if it doesn't have big sales? I suppose down the line, the people who work for the company and want to keep doing so would like to have in their history they helped create a game that sold millions rather then was pirated and didn't do so well.

 

[ford prefect]

Why download an unfinished version which probably won't be able to be updated with patches and extra DLC? As Rynnor said, if they want a pirated version, someone will crack the official release within moments of it being launched anyway - if after 30+ years of having their software pirated, software manufacturers and publishing houses obviously reflect that and then some in the final retail price - I honestly don't see why they keep bitching about it.

 

[Mabs]

Will it make much difference? The people downloading this leaked version would be the ones who download a cracked version after release anyway?

scenario A:
"is it any good ? " ...yea.."ok ill buy or leech it"

scenario B:

"is it any good ?" .. nah is shit, doesnt run very well and crashes a lot.. "oh well, wont bother"


word of mouth advertising can kill things , and one game was actually "properly" REVIEWED on a leaked alpha and got a shit score, when the finished one wasnt actually nearly as bad, so yea i would put money on "how good is the leaked version" having a massive effect on the pre-order sales + launch turn over

 

[old.Tohtori]

I'll say it in a shorter version; Bullcrap.

Leaked or not, doesn't affect sales in any meaningful way.

Anyone thinking it does is in the same delusional state that piracy is some kind of supermonster, eating 50% of sales as kids use pirated stuff more then crack.

I wonder how it works in terms of pay. Does the developer get paid on completion or once it starts making some big sales? Kinda makes me think that if they got paid when the publisher was happy with the finished product(which kind of makes sense as it's the publisher that does all the advertising and selling isn't it?) then they wouldn't care so much if it doesn't have big sales? I suppose down the line, the people who work for the company and want to keep doing so would like to have in their history they helped create a game that sold millions rather then was pirated and didn't do so well.

Depends on the contract really, but a lot of the people who make games also pirate games, so it's not exactly like they're up in arms. MAkers are gamers at the core.

They get paid anyway, monthly check is what they get out of most games.

If a game sells really good, i mean really good, after the publisher has been paid, and all other payments are skinned, the extra sales might lead to bonuses for the people who made it, but in most cases there's no pay after the monthly paycheck.

Pirated or not, to the people who actually make the game, it's still another player enjoying their product.

That's not to say devs don't care about the product, ofcourse they do, as much as an actor would for a film, or a builder for a house.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Some really idiotic things posted in this thread.

 

[nath]

Some really idiotic things posted in this thread.

While I'm inclined to agree, your post is utterly pointless unless you care to explain which and why.

 

[old.Tohtori]

While I'm inclined to agree, your post is utterly pointless unless you care to explain which and why.

then again, so is yours since you're inclined to agree yet only demand explanation of agreed idiocy

 

[Raven]

While I'm inclined to agree, your post is utterly pointless unless you care to explain which and why.

Don't be silly.

 

[nath]

then again, so is yours since you're inclined to agree yet only demand explanation of agreed idiocy

Indeed, but I disagreed in silence because I didn't feel like getting involved in one of those long discussions. Wazz disagreed vocally so I was interested to see what he had to say.

 

[old.Tohtori]

We could have a long discussion about this, but let's not and say we did

At the end of the day, it comes down to this;

People who want to buy the game, will.
People who don't, wouldn't anyway.

Reasons may be ten fold different with a cherry on top, but that's what it comes down to and piracy existing or not, doesn't make that damn difference to it.

Regarding if it's leakeed, set up, gorilla with a bananaphone...well...it's publicity anyway and it costs more to put an add in paper then the "ebil pirates" take

 

[nath]

Come on, there's *bound* to people out there who would purchase the game if it weren't so readily available via piracy. There's bound to be people who think "fuck it, it's 2 months prior to release, I'll nab that" and subsequently not purchase it despite having fully intended to.

Equally, there may well be people who purchase the game after pirating it thus treating it like a demo.

The real question is: what's the net result. More sales, less sales or no change based on piracy and in this case, based on a leaked version way before the release. I suspect no one here has the information required to make anything more than a guess. After all, you either have statistics that don't tell you whether people would have purchased the game otherwise, or you have anecdotal evidence "me and my mates buy the games we pirate!!".

 

[TdC]

Yarr immapir8!

 

[Raven]

The real question is: what's the net result. More sales, less sales or no change based on piracy and in this case, based on a leaked version way before the release. I suspect no one here has the information required to make anything more than a guess. After all, you either have statistics that don't tell you whether people would have purchased the game otherwise, or you have anecdotal evidence "me and my mates buy the games we pirate!!".

I am not sure it makes a lot of difference really. I certainly don't think people who intend to buy it will not buy it because they have downloaded the beta version. They would miss out on the online aspect and also the finished product. However, if its guff then they may not buy it because they know its shit. The later being a good thing because people will have saved themselves some money.

In short, if it's any good, those that intended to buy it will most likely still buy it, those that will pirate it will still download the pirate version of the finished product.

Personally its something I will be looking out for in the xmas sale in December, the first one was very "meh" and I am struggling to get excited over the sequal.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Come on, there's *bound* to people out there who would purchase the game if it weren't so readily available via piracy. There's bound to be people who think "fuck it, it's 2 months prior to release, I'll nab that" and subsequently not purchase it despite having fully intended to.

Equally, there may well be people who purchase the game after pirating it thus treating it like a demo.

The real question is: what's the net result. More sales, less sales or no change based on piracy and in this case, based on a leaked version way before the release. I suspect no one here has the information required to make anything more than a guess. After all, you either have statistics that don't tell you whether people would have purchased the game otherwise, or you have anecdotal evidence "me and my mates buy the games we pirate!!".

Ofcourse there's those people, not denying it at all. Didn't mean to imply it atleast.

The net result, well, i think it comes down to; what is the accepted loss / greedy bastard line?

For example, if the game sells a good 10mil profit, is the piracy really an issue, or is it just "we wants all of it!"?

If it's the later(tter?), then screw 'em.