StarCraft 2 Pirated More Than 2.3M Times

[capt_taco]

With the screw-you DRM they imposed on this game, I'm glad to see so many people saying screw you right back. They get what they deserve.

 

[eleclerc]

The game was pirated 1 time, just by the guy who did the crack to do not use battle.net to play offline!!!

 

[osxsier]

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.

Problem is most people wont do that. I torrented NBA2K11 and liked and went out and bought it myself. I think its the responsible thing to do. Especially seeing how companies are looking for any excuse to not develop for the PC.

 

[marquis]

[citation][nom]capt_taco[/nom]With the screw-you DRM they imposed on this game, I'm glad to see so many people saying screw you right back. They get what they deserve.[/citation]

Translation : i'm too poor/cheap to buy the game , so i'll just steal it and rationalize it by putting blame on their DRM system .

 

[darkavenger123]

Blizzard deserves what's coming to them. Ripping off fans with a an average game that doesn't improve much upon the original, took away the LAN and milk the cow to the max by releasing it as 3 Episodes.

Blizzard is the real pirate here trying to rob loyal fans!!!

What goes around comes around. Karma Police has just arrested Blizzard.

 

[frosty7]

The data does not take into consideration the fact that I purchased the game, then downloaded via torrent so that if for some reason BNet doesn't exist I can always load up the cracked version.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

So whats the point of all the DRM and permanent internet connection needed crap if people can copy the game anyway???? Blizzard are wank**s for doing that. I will not but the game simply because i dont want to have to be connected to the internet the whole time to play single player. Also im not a fan of RTS anyway. They actually would have sold more copies if it werent for the permanent internet connection thing. There are plenty of areas that still dont have reliable or fast internet connections that will have to use pirated copies if they wish to play the game.

 

[illfindu]

I loved the first star craft and while I think fundamentally pirating is wrong I can under stand it. I bought the game and im VERY unhappy DMR. Iv stopped playing cause it was on my laptop and I often cant play cause theres no WiFi. On top of this some thing needs to be done about returning new games I can count at least $500 in the last year if spent on games that just weren't finished , If i bought any other product and it didn't work i would get my money back. But with gaming its different sure the game might run but you can get corrupted saves , numerous lock ups and so on pirating is wrong but its partly a response to these problems at least thats how i see it.

 

[Bluescreendeath]

Props to Blizzard for sh*tty DRM and taking away LAN...not that it did them any damn good. Those who want to pirate games will always be able to find a way...adding internet-DRM only makes it harder for legit owners.

 

[dEAne]

Pirating is not surprising.

 

[eddieroolz]

I wasn't one of the people pirating it, but I didn't buy it either 😉

 

[spigias]

I really liked SC2 and i have legit copy of it,i have also downloaded the pirated version. i believe that most people out there have done the same. Those numbers can't represent anything.

 

[teodoreh]

Someone who pirates such a game, looses a huge amount of the game experience and the communication with the community. Actually Pirating such a game is like playing the demo version. Yes, you can complete the campaign, but the real deal on SC2 is Battle.net, achievements, multiplayer games, add-ons, co-op, etc. So I 100% get it, when Blizzard seem not to care about it...

 

[rantoc]

[citation][nom]skippy27[/nom]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.[/citation]

They actually have invested 100Mil on this part alone if you took sometime to do the research, however they didn't mention if its including the battle.net upgrade or not.

 

[mikewong]

I'll just wait until it's on specials

 

[therabiddeer]

[citation][nom]skippy27[/nom]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.[/citation]
1) They havent made all 3 episodes yet. The other 2 are still being made and will be sold as expansion packs (which means they wont be $60, they will likely be $40 or possibly less... though unlikely to be less). This means they made about 70 million so far (however, they couldnt guarantee that it made this many sales... what if only 500k bought it? That would be a loss of 50 million bucks for this one, and they would still need to finish out the series).

[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.. But it is worth a single play through for free however and was done well for what it is, I was simply not impressed.[/citation]
A lot of people buy it for the multiplayer experience and custom map experience. The game is and probably will continue to be worth it just for the user made custom maps (metal slug, dota, RPG's and many other high quality maps that are being made and are out)... the actual multiplayer and the singleplayer are what makes it an even better deal. If you didnt buy it, your loss.

Also, to the people saying there is no demo: There are tons of people that have trial passes (every sale came with 2 or 3 trial passes), ask a friend if you have any and they will likely give one out. Or visit a forum like teamliquid.net or any other sc fansite and ask for one. Two weeks with the full unlocked game (and you can actually play the campaign offline past those 2 weeks).

 

[frederico]

[citation][nom]formin[/nom]5 years late and split it up into 3 games at 60 bucks a gametotal 180 bucksno wonder 2.3M people don't feel bad piracy[/citation]

Oh dude please, every game is pirated to a large degree. So tired of all this fake "justification". If they released this game with LAN and no battlenet login requirements it wouldve been pirated 23 million times. End of.

 

[Gulli]

Even with 2.3 million units torrented they still made a profit on the 3 million sales, even though budgets are higher than ever. Isn't it ridiculous that they claim piracy is killing the industry while budgets are actually rising and still record profits are being made? Apparently they still can afford to spend millions of dollars on hiring Hollywood actors for voices (even if they can't even keep their accent, yes I'm looking at you, Sam Worthington, since when do American soldiers from Alaska sound like Steve Irwin?) Back to Starcraft 2: I bought it and helped Blizzard make profit, the profit may not be stellar, but it is a profit and remember that the two expansions won't need a new engine and textures and all that, so the profit margin on them will be larger. In the end Activision will make a big fat profit on expensive games like Starcraft 2 and Black Ops. And why? Because torrenting does NOT equate lost sales: most people who torrent will either buy the game later on (for multiplayer) or wouldn't have bought it anyway.

So no, don't talk to me about pirates killing the industry because that is just bullcrap.

The same goes for the film industry: first they keep telling us that they're struggling because of pirates, then they go out and make a movie (Avatar) that's twice as expensive as anything made before and make a huge profit from it.

 

[Gulli]

[citation][nom]rantoc[/nom]They actually have invested 100Mil on this part alone if you took sometime to do the research, however they didn't mention if its including the battle.net upgrade or not.[/citation]

Most of that will be salaries of expensive Hollywood voice actors and marketing, and even then they've probably rounded off upwards to make it seem bigger than it is. Anyhow, they still made a profit and the expansions will increase that profit. IMHO the industry is doing pretty good when a $100 mil game can still turn in a profit, wouldn't you agree? Especially when the game could've been made for much less if they didn't feel it would sell that much.

 

[dalta centauri]

[citation][nom]waynewarrior78[/nom]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*[/citation]
I don't know, I torrented the beta to try out the editor. I wanted to see how it improved over SC1, and because I didn't want to struggle to get a beta key I found it to be easier and faster to find a beta torrent and test out how it would play. I liked the game, so when it was released I bought it.
There are a number of people that do open a bottle of pepsi/coke/MTN Dew/Dr.Pepper/ETC, drink the whole thing without planning to buy it, and at the end of the drink they do end up paying for it in good nature. It's rare, but most stores don't care about what you do with the stuff you have as long as you pay for it. Gaming Companies are different, they like to charge you even if you buy their products, because you still illegaly downloaded it beforehand which allows them to.

 

[techguy911]

Call of duty: black ops for xbox360 has been downloaded over 6 million just goes to show that console pirating is worse than pc since most sales are console now.
Most of those downloading starcraft 2 was to get a copy minus the drm and that a lot of those people bought the game but did not want to be tied to an internet connection so they could play on a laptop or had no internet there are quite a few places in North America that has no internet, problem is blizzard did not think of them.
I have customers that live very far from city there is NO internet out there what about the millions of people that don't have access to the internet?.

 

[Gulli]

[citation][nom]frederico[/nom]Oh dude please, every game is pirated to a large degree. So tired of all this fake "justification". If they released this game with LAN and no battlenet login requirements it wouldve been pirated 23 million times. End of.[/citation]

You really don't know how torrenting works do you?

 

[rhino13]

[citation][nom]ezodagrom[/nom]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.[/citation]

My goodness! I think you are a member of a dying PC faction that doesn't belive that they are entitled to steal other people's hard work.

 

[Gulli]

[citation][nom]waynewarrior78[/nom]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*[/citation]

Show me a bottle of coke that has separate singleplayer and multiplayer components, with the multiplayer component only becoming available after you've paid for the bottle, the bottle and its content being replicated (uploaded from a hard drive) with no cost to the Coca Cola company or the store, and I'll accept your analogy.

 

[biffer]

[citation][nom]formin[/nom]5 years late and split it up into 3 games at 60 bucks a gametotal 180 bucksno wonder 2.3M people don't feel bad piracy[/citation]

Yeah, you don't like the delivery of a product, so that justifies stealing it? Brilliant...

**waits for exhaustive argument on why stealing isn't pirating**