EA CEO: Piracy Can Help Us Sell More Games

[zodiacfml]

change the old and greedy executives in the music industry...they just can't accept the times had change and they can't stop it.
jeez, they're equating each download to a lost sale.

 

[dezonio2]

Oh boy, I was looking for a reason to stop buying EA games and this is finally it. Selling (and yes I buy them) incomplete games is BS I am not gonna pay for that. If the entire gaming industry goes this way I will stop playing new games completely. I do have a decent collection of games I don't mind playing over and over.

 

[zebow2002]

What a load of BS. You can easily find the second city and all other official objects for the sims 3 online. I only buy games on Steam, that's where EA should go.

 

[bin1127]

[citation][nom]twisted politiks[/nom]you know its funny, because i was getting ready to pre-order the sims 3, then i read about their "after third install you have to buy a new cd key" bullshit. so i asked ea tech service by email if this was true, and they said yes, even if im reinstalling because of a reformat on my computer, [/citation]

How can EA limit the number of installations? If I buy a game then i own the rights to use it how ever many times i want. Shouldn't they rename their business to games leasing instead? They really think they can make themselves like blockbusters. Screw EA. they should just go bankrupt and sell their assets to some non-scamming game company.

 

[Gin Fushicho]

LOL! Finally someone came up with a good idea to make pirating both legal and yet still profitable. xD

 

[Gin Fushicho]

[citation][nom]twisted politiks[/nom]you know its funny, because i was getting ready to pre-order the sims 3, then i read about their "after third install you have to buy a new cd key" bullshit. so i asked ea tech service by email if this was true, and they said yes, even if im reinstalling because of a reformat on my computer, which i do alot because im lazy and would rather do that then work on making it as fast as it used to be before hand. but anyways, so i found this out, and why the f**k am i going to pay $50 probably once a year for the sims 3, and plus another however many $ for all the expansions. this is just bullshit, if they didnt put a limit on how many times you could install the game, then i would have bought it, but instead i pirated it and got the second town from another pirate, and can get my own custom content from mod the sims 3, so take that EA, hopefully more people take this route to screw EA for being such a money hungry corp that they realize this and start helping their once loyal customers instead of draining their pockets.[/citation]

Guess what they did with Crysis wars? =D I can only install it ONCE on ONE computer. how funny is that? F'ing bull shit if you ask me , I want to pla the game I payed 40 bucks for , at least make it so you have to register to play the damn thing that way you can install it more if you have the correct registration info and are connected to the internet. EA is a bunch of Douche bags if you ask me.

 

[scook9]

No matter what EA tries, they already pissed off most of the PC gaming world, and will have to work their asses off to make good with them.

Only games from them I play are Cyrsis/Warhead and C&C. Crysis Warhead is a little better to play, but I can play original Crysis on more than one computer (gaming pc and then sometimes htpc on 52" screen - yes it has a REAL video card). And call me a simp, but for all the complaining I have heard, I have played Cyrsis through about 5 times now, I like it fine.

 

[AdamB5000]

I'll tell you how the opposite of piracy helped EA lose a little business. I legitimately purchased the BF2 pack (the original with the three extras) for $40. I went home and installed it. IT REQUIRED ONLINE REGISTRATION FOR OFFLINE PLAY. I was surprised to see that.

Unfortunately online registration was extremely frustrated. I was in an endless loop of registration pages. One referred me to the other, and back, and back, etc. After what seemed like an hour I gave up and emailed EA. Fortunately they responded quickly and after a few emails (and a couple days) the person claimed I was all taken care of and I should be able to log in. But quote honestly I was so annoyed by everything I lost interest in the game and never played the expansion stuff.

Now ANY game that says "requires online registration for offline play" (or something similar), I ignore. It's not worth the hassle.

Give me the old CD-key or even follow in 'World of Goo''s footprints and include no DRM. According to an article on this site, they made money even though they think many people pirated the game. I bought a legit copy for my bro.

 

[eyemaster]

It's about time companies start figuring out how to sell games, or anything, properly utilizing the tools that they have been fighting all along, the Internet.

 

[bounty]

Companies need to provide real demo's (a.k.a. about 10% of the story and 1 or 2 multiplayer maps.) Then 20$ to buy the game whether online, or boxed. NO CD CHECKS. Unique serial key (a.k.a. no 2 same keys playing multiplayer.)

If the company wants to have online registration of that serial, the company should also offer an online library of your serials for thier products so that you can download them. You should be able to install all over the place, but only allow 1 active serial online at a time. If that serial shows up 10 times at the same time (on 10 different computers, CPU's, IP's within the same hour) ban it.


Actually at that price point that would be more than enough protection. When games get down to 10-15$ it is pointless to pirate them and risk not being able to patch, mod or update. Some will do it, but eventually they'd start buying at that price just to avoid the hassle. The current problem with the industry is they are trying to charge 50$ for the games. (Like it's an Xbox, which is a little harder to pirate on naturally.) Now it's worth a pirates time to really work at hacking it.

 

[p05esto]

I'd buy more games if they were just cheaper. Make more $20 games and you'll have my business. Remember Serious Sam? Fanfrickingtastic game and CHEAP. I bought that one. If they were cheaper they'd sell a lot more and make up for it. $50+ is a lot to throw at a game I play for 10 hours (at most) and then get bored of.

And while I'm ranting, stop making games and game menus for F*****G complicated. I dont' have time to lean all that crap. I'm a busy guy, have like 15 minutes a week to drive a race car off road or frag some aliens in my fav FPS of the day. That's about it, the complexity pisses me off.

Oh, and GIVE me cheat codes right away to get all the good S**T. I don't have time to learn and earn, I want ALL the best cars, guns, powers etc right away from the damn start. I go looking for cheats right away so I can fully enjoy my 15 minutes a week gaming. Son of bitch that pisses me off. Monkey, crap dingle drat bitch.

 

[alienmadness]

buying single player games that require online registration or has limited installations is assinine. What happens when the company goes bust.? then you can no longer play the game you purchased. Just another way to screw customers.

 

[bill gates is your daddy]

"According to IndustryGamers, the Sims 3 was illegally downloaded around 200,000 times prior to the game’s release..."

I hate how they are always throwing these numbers around like they are real or mean something. Where are the facts behind this number?

 

[ssddx]

[citation][nom]p05esto[/nom].....$50+ is a lot to throw at a game I play for 10 hours (at most) and then get bored of.And while I'm ranting, stop making games and game menus for F*****G complicated..... I want ALL the best cars, guns, powers etc right away from the damn start. I go looking for cheats right away so I can fully enjoy my 15 minutes a week gaming....[/citation]

If you play for 15 minutes a week, and for 10 hours in total.. then you play for 40 weeks? $1.25 a week is cheap! I do agree, games are expensive, Best to only buy what you really want to play.

Yeah.. I noticed the trend of making game menus/games complicated. X3 for example, I was lost. I used to love space fighting sims on the ps2.. A little learning curve is understandable, but I would rather not have to study a book in order to play. Playing is supposed to be relaxing after all.

Cheats from day #1? bad idea. If you have access to everything/god mode from the get go the game becomes extremely boring. Instead of developing strategies/unlocking extras, all you can really do is wow yourself with the graphics and critique the storyline. The only times I sympathize is when the unlockable content requires an excessive amount of gameplay (ie beat all 3 game modes with no deaths..) to get something as silly as a new character costume.

.......as for the topic at hand

Pirating does hurt business, EA is just seeking to profit from it in any way they can. Complaining about online registration? blame pirating. Cannot get a no-cd key or download your pre-purchased game? blame pirating. By stealing from game developers the security measures & anti-trust only get worse. I do agree that installations should not be limited. I love to play my older games when i decide to upgrade my rig. 1-3 installs would have me bummed.

 

[Guest]

In the beginning of this year the British anti-piracy organization UK-FACT raided the premises of Anton Benjamin Vickerman and his wife Kelly-Anne Vickerman. The Vickermans run a company called Scopelight which is responsible for the website surfthechannel.com, a very popular destination on the web for finding movies. According to UK-FACT the site is illegal, because the site links to illegally uploaded content. While in the end a full criminal procedure was not brought against the couple, UK-FACT is still preparing a civil claim against the couple.

More details http://www.futureofcopyright.com/index.php?page=news&id=438

 

[royalcrown]

[citation][nom]andesgfdgh[/nom]This makes me laugh... EA is full of crap.Last week I lost my disc for Battlefield 2142. "No problem" I thought. I saw an advertisement from EA stating that their Download Manager can now be used to register the games you bought into a library for downloading and no-cd play. Out of ALL the games they have, the games SUPPORTED in that library are about nine. NINE games and Battlefield 2142 is not one of them!!! D:If they really cared about providing paying customers with service they should address the problem of lost media and cracked/scratched discs or just patch the game so that discs are not required. A replacement disc will cost you $13 plus shipping. A new game will cost you $20...On the other hand, I still don't like the idea of stripping the game features on disc and replacing them with online features. Imagine playing the game once the servers providing the service are taken down. In every EULA for online games that have come out recently they state something to the effect of: "In no way does (X company) have an obligation to provide online features and at any time they may be removed with or without notice."[/citation]

While I agree with scratches...why is it EA's fault that you lost your own disk ?

 

[blarneypete]

There are a lot of really good comments on this story, and I need to put in my .02 so I don't feel left out.

At least EA admits that they can't fight piracy outright. They just need to implement a model that's going to work, that's all. Good article.

 

[jkflipflop98]

Isn't this the same guy that six months ago said that piracy would be the end of mankind? And that all EA games in the future will come with securom technology. . .

 

[bpogdowz]

I highly doubt it unless there is an incentive such as a valid CD-Key to play online. Once you have a working illegal copy and you downloaded it illegally would you really go out and buy a real copy once you already have it?

 

[annymmo]

Finally a CEO gets it,
simple off line software will be pirated no matter what, period.
(This should be common sense, like a lot of more important things.)

Software where the user needs to be registered for content won't be pirated if done correctly.
And yes you are selling services, you game-makers sell game play not technical parts!
Use the possibility of modularity to increase your profits in a fair way, use it!
Finally the truth is unveiled.
The companies will play and win!

In the (maybe near) future, buying games will actually be buying a demo on a disk with a on line registration key.

 

[annymmo]

Death to DRM (= Digital Rights, actually restrictions, Management)!

Stuff like only able to install once on one computer.
Having to pay again for the same game you already bought just because you forgot to back-up or computer screwed up is unacceptable.
And all those other bullshit of DRM...

 

[that_aznpride101]

i'm interested if the CEO of EA could back up his claim with some real revenue numbers... if he's right, then it could persuade more game companies be less concerned about piracy --> less programs like SecuROM