90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

[Shawn Zipay]

World of Goo, an independent title retailing for just $20 and featuring no DRM, has a 90% piracy rate. This statistic comes from Ron Carmel, one of World of Goo's designers.

Carmel informs us that he's seen torrent sites with "500 seeders and 300 leechers" and has received emails from people who initially stole the game but ended up buying the full product; unsurprisingly, they make up a "very small percentage." He concludes, "We're doing ok, though. We're getting good sales through WiiWare, Steam, and our website. Not going bankrupt just yet!"

As noted, the title is just $20 through most venues, including Valve's Steam client. For a title that retails for so cheap and features no DRM, it's staggering to see such a high piracy rate on the title. 2D Boy, the development studio behind World of Goo, consists of just two people, Ron Carmel and Kyle Gabler.

World of Goo is presently sitting on a 91% score from Metacritic, so if you're inclined to pick up the title be sure and purchase it legally. More information on the game can be found at the World of Goo home.

Source

[KillerStickMan]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

that sucks, especially since it's such a great game.

[Stev0esque]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

ouch. poor guys

[bombebomb]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

No drm = stupid, and for that, dont complain.

[Obsidian Spire]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

They should contact the sites where the files are loaded and order them to remove them. Copyright infringment, then sue the uploaders and some downloaders. Just watch the Supreme Court accept the case.

[TheHeartSmasher]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

No drm = stupid, and for that, dont complain.

Not much of a point in adding 3rd Party DRM unless they use themedia, but most use SecurROM or Safedisc which hurts sales and the pirates remove the protection very quickly.

They should contact the sites where the files are loaded and order them to remove them. Copyright infringment, then sue the uploaders and some downloaders. Just watch the Supreme Court accept the case.

If the sites don't comply they need to take it to their host, and if their host does not comply they need to take it to the hosts upstream provider to cut the host off from the internet :). As I am sure everywhere it's illegal in some way.

[=98=]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

They should contact the sites where the files are loaded and order them to remove them. Copyright infringment, then sue the uploaders and some downloaders. Just watch the Supreme Court accept the case.

It'll be mainly torrent sites and if you've ever looked at TPB's letters they send to companies, you'll know why they won't work.

[Obsidian Spire]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

It'll be mainly torrent sites and if you've ever looked at TPB's letters they send to companies, you'll know why they won't work.

What is TPB an acronym of? A torrent site or the Peanut Butter?

[Shawn Zipay]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

No drm = stupid, and for that, dont complain.

Wait. So what is it? Having no DRM being stupid? Or having DRM that pushes people to want to pirate being stupid?

What is it?

[CaptainKirk]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

People that would pirate the game are going to pirate it anyway. The lack of DRM just makes real customers' lives easier.

[CaptainKirk]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

Haha! I just played the demo. This game rocks! It's obvious why it's so popular...

[imported_DANK]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

Wait. So what is it? Having no DRM being stupid? Or having DRM that pushes people to want to pirate being stupid?

What is it?

It is not that hard to figure it out.
You can't compete against free.

DRM doesn't push people to do **** and barely gets in the way, the open source advocates are the most vicious about it basically because it will not run on 'Linux'. People are lazy and will take something that is free, one click away.

I hate having to constantly look for cracks and than look for a new crack when it gets bugs fixed in the game, its a cat and mouse game of wasting time on my part.

[TheHeartSmasher]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

Hopefully one day at least people won't pirate the good games and do the right thing and purchase the game. It just doesn't make any since for people to even put time into creating cracks/isos for extremely great games like GTA4, Metal Gear Solid, COD4, WIC, etc.

Sites like TPB are on that thin line of legal/illegal as they don't host the illegal content but provide the link to the host(s) of the illegal content, so as soon as you start the download of the torrent you have just become a host of the illegal content. Which TPB does not give away users information just like many sites keep these things private like they should be.

I guess what the companies should do is find out who is hosting illegal copies of their product. I don't think it would be illegal for a publisher or publisher's legal 3rd party to download their own games off the pirate sites to find out who is illegally hosting their products and go directly after them which would yield more results then going after TPB that is not doing anything illegal in their country.

If say EA send legal notices to the person in question's ISP and their local authorities then they would have more success in stopping piracy. As the pirates would have second thoughts about downloading that "free" game. As cops love to do raids on the pirates, busting down the door and destroying all of their hardware and other items.

[Shawn Zipay]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

It is not that hard to figure it out.
You can't compete against free.

DRM doesn't push people to do **** and barely gets in the way, the open source advocates are the most vicious about it basically because it will not run on 'Linux'. People are lazy and will take something that is free, one click away.

I hate having to constantly look for cracks and than look for a new crack when it gets bugs fixed in the game, its a cat and mouse game of wasting time on my part.

That's odd considering how many people claim that they pirate simply because of harsh DRM restrictions...

Sounds to me like they got pulled in by the lack of DRM and then stuck around for the free snacks, as it were.

[=98=]

Re: 90% Piracy Rate for World of Goo

That's odd considering how many people claim that they pirate simply because of harsh DRM restrictions...

Everyone knows that is a pathetic excuse. People just don't want to spend money, it's that simple.