Demigod - 18,000 Copies sold - 100,000 Pirated

[Alishe]

This is why PC Gaming isn't going to be around forever

Going to fess up and say, I did pirate it - but then found out it was a game that I didn't like I was under the impression it was an RPG - and it's way more strategy, so I only played it for 3mins.

If only you could rent PC games I think it would help save the industry, but I can't pay 40-60$ everytime I want to try a new game, so until then I'll download them and if I like them I'll go purchase them (I know everyone says that they do this, and maybe everyone does).

/discuss

[Weltall]

Rent PC games? Yeah, right....

Like 2 people per state would do that.

[Pikarya]

Pirating PSP and X360 doesn't exist right? Your logic is fail.

[Alishe]

Does it exist on the same level to the same extent?? Not even close.

[Elcura]

It's much easier to pirate and play PC games than PSP, DS etc etc.

[Weltall]

Renting games now costs like $7-8 from what I remember. Who is going to drive to the store, rent a game for $8, install 10-25GB on their HDD, and then not be able to play the game in 4-5 days?

Congrats, you either just made the game cost $59.99+8.00, or you just wasted $59.99+8.00 when you could have had it for free.

Buy and regret/love or pirate and regret/love.

[Weltall]

It's much easier to pirate and play PC games than PSP, DS etc etc.

PSP is actually easier. There is always some install issues or workarounds needed for PC games, especially in the first month.

[Pikarya]

Does it exist on the same level to the same extent?? Not even close.

lolk

It's much easier to pirate and play PC games than PSP, DS etc etc.

You obviously never have touched a handheld or console for that matter. Unless your trolling, anyone that knows what they are talking about on the matter will agree with me on that for sure.

I could torrent a PSP game, load it to my duo and begin playing in under 5 minutes.

[Alishe]

Wow really stuck on the fact I mentioned renting. That truly was not the point of my post. The fact that 5x as many people pirated the game than who bought it, is not going to give much incentive to companies to produce games. Carry on talking about how renting isn't going to work though, I already know that isn't going to happen.

[Elcura]

Pirating PC games has always been easy for me. PSP/DS are pretty easy now that I think about it more, though the work arounds for the PC games aren't usually much of an issue. Alternatively, you could wait for more than a month if it's such an issue.

On one hand, you don't need anything special done to your PC to play the games.

On the other hand, the PSP/whatever itself needs some modification before it's ready and you can play games.

[Kaisha]

Rent PC games? Yeah, right....

Like 2 people per state would do that.

Makes you wonder wtf happened to the world of PC game demos. I remember back in the days when demoes primarily came out before the actual product, and people used them as a means to gauge whether or not the game ran satisfactory on their rigs, as well as the game sucking or not.
(the latter usually saving people the effort of pirating the full game to figure it out for themselves)

And on another note, DS is stupidly easy to pirate on out of all current-generation systems (doesn't even need modding), much more-so than PC. Plain ol' drag & drop and good to go.
(unless you own an old flash card and have to keep applying hacks on a game-to-game basis to get them working)

[fantasticdan]

You obviously never have touched a handheld or console for that matter. Unless your trolling, anyone that knows what they are talking about on the matter will agree with me on that for sure.

Of coarse it's easy to pirate ds/psp/360/wii games... after you've bought additional hardware, soft-modded your shit, and/or burned some dvds. Pirating PC games requires nothing other than an internet connection, there is no real effort involved, or risk of voiding a warranty/bricking your shit.

It's also demographic. Does your average wii/ds/360 owner know jack shit about pirating/bit-torrent/modding/etc? Not really. Does the average PC gamer? Well obviously yes.

It's pretty easy to see why piracy hurts PC more than other gaming platforms.

[BRP]

I didn't like I was under the impression it was a strategy - and it's way more strategy

???

Also lol at Kotaku basically saying "PIRATES ARE KILLING PC." They even got the facts wrong in the original post.

[Xavier]

Stop breaking the law, assholes.

[Zosi]

Here's a newer article.

Demigod sales triumph over piracy - Ars Technica

Demigod had crazy initial piracy figures for a few reasons, none of them terribly hard to comprehend.

1) There was a pre-release leak. This is pretty much self-explanatory, they got a lot of publicity on torrent sites before the game release, and the torrent downloaders had a head start on legit buyers.

2) There's no demo. Not a major point since demos are rare nowadays, but they help a ton when you have a somewhat unconventional game and an indie-minded publisher. Someone who hasn't played DotA will have no idea what the game is about, and videos tend to not show off complex gameplay like Demigod/DotA has very well.

3) Since they didn't have a big-name commercial publisher, there was a lot less publicity and marketing than many games. I had never heard of the game before I saw it on the top snatched list at a torrent site I visit. I doubt I was the only one.

Add those three together and it's not hard to see why it was more pirated than bought at initial release. For what it's worth, I didn't pirate it, I have a lot of respect for what StarDock does. It seems like the game has finally gotten the popularity it deserves among game buyers, so hopefully that 18k number won't stay low for long.

[Lebzile]

And on another note, DS is stupidly easy to pirate on out of all current-generation systems (doesn't even need modding), much more-so than PC. Plain ol' drag & drop and good to go.
(unless you own an old flash card and have to keep applying hacks on a game-to-game basis to get them working)

This and I speak from experience since I've "seen" it done.

[Jefe]

You obviously never have touched a handheld or console for that matter. Unless your trolling, anyone that knows what they are talking about on the matter will agree with me on that for sure.

I could torrent a PSP game, load it to my duo and begin playing in under 5 minutes.

I'd like to think he meant the process to get them running for a regular Joe. Yeah sure, now that there's the datel tool things are easier for the PSP. However, when one had to hardmod the battery it was a fucking pain in the ass. More so if you fucked up a $40 dollar battery.

So yeah:

Bat hardmod > dumping a cracked file in x folder.

[Ikith]

Most games would have to be rewritten so they have a time limit just for the stores that rent them. A lot of games once installed don't require a CD these days.

[Alishe]

@ BRP

I said I thought it was going to be more RPG - and it was more strategy, someone I guess you read it wrong, or I am being whooshed. I basically just check IGN every now and then to see what they've given decent reviews to and then check out the genre, this one was listed as strategy/rpg. I didn't bother to read the actual review because they drag them out too long, if I do read it it's usually only the closing comments.

Anyways the pirated game is amazingly simple to use just double click the icon after it downloads and you're up and playing and even works online, but still I don't like it and have since stored it in a folder.

I can't get my pirated copy of The Witcher to play past the first battle where after he asks how you feel, it always freezes right there. If anyone else has played it and thinks it's worth buying the Enhanced Edition for 40$ I'll pick it up after class in the morning. Hurray for last final for this semester, get some free time to actually play games.

[Ramor]

stop making shitty games then.

seriously demigod is pretty and all, but if it's going to be a dota~esque game they sure left out a lot of core features that would have made it a good game:

parts where the creeps *don't* go (rapetown, if you will), more instant-cast things, certainly a demo would have helped for a game like this; especially if you've ever noticed that people buy WC3 just to play dota, you'd think the community may have been a bigger part of this game than it was

i think this game just had an exacerbated version of the pirating problem because it was kind of made by nooby producers, as someone above stated, hopefully they learn from this kind of release