Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

[CptainCrunch]

From Gamasutra.com:

Data from download tracker TorrentFreak.com shows the PC version of Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops was the most pirated game of 2010, with over 4.2 million confirmed BitTorrent downloads through December 26.

Illegal downloads for the popular first person shooter, which enjoys over 20 million registered online players, outpaced those for PC runners-up Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Mafia 2, Mass Effect 2 and Starcraft 2, each of which was pirated between 3 and 4 million times.

Black Ops' first-place finish marks the continuation of a somewhat ignoble trend for the Call of Duty franchise -- TorrentFreak named Modern Warfare 2 the most pirated game of 2009 with 4.1 million confirmed downloads.

The popularity of Black Ops among illegal downloaders extended only partially to the Xbox 360 version of the game, which finished in fifth among illegal torrents on the system.

Illegal torrents for console games once again trailed significantly behind those for PC games, with Super Mario Galaxy 2 leading the console list with 1.47 million downloads.

TorrentFreak.com's complete lists of illegally torrented games for 2010 are as follows:

PC Unauthorized BitTorrent Downloads in 2010 (through December 26, 2010)
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops (4,270,000)
2. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (3,960,000)
3. Mafia 2 (3,550,000)
4. Mass Effect 2 (3,240,000)
5. Starcraft II (3,120,000)

Wii Unauthorized BitTorrent Downloads in 2010 (through December 26, 2010)
1. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (1,470,000)
2. Wii Party (1,220,000)
3. Donkey Kong Country Returns (920,000)
4. Kirbys Epic Yarn (880,000)
5. Red Steel 2 (850,000)

Xbox 360 Unauthorized BitTorrent Downloads in 2010 (through December 26, 2010)
1. Dante’s Inferno (1,280,000)
2. Alan Wake (1,140,000)
3. Red Dead Redemption (1,060,000)
4. Halo Reach (990,000)
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops (930,000)

One thing I like about this article over a lot of the others that I read shows how console games are also being pirated. Its a shame that any games are pirated at all, but I have to admit I do get tired of the same excuse for not creating content on PC because of piracy.

Also, Modern Warfare 2 was last years most pirated game. Anyone surprised by this?

Source

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

I have to wonder how many people downloaded torrents just to avoid the long waits on Steam for popular games. A lot of people I know downloaded BFBC2 and Black Ops just to stick them in their steamapps folder and run a verify integrity to fill in the Steam-specific parts. Then they used their legit keys to play the games.

It was a lot faster than EADM or Steam. Those were clogged and slow on initial release for a lot of people.

[[GCA]Tim270]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

Well that and there is no demo for most of these games. CoD hiked the price up to what £39.99 for all their new releases which is a lot of money to put down without even being able to try the game/see if your pc can run it.

But still, its not as if this puts a noticeable dent into Activision's profit.

[Stev0esque]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

Great, more ammo for the "PC sucks because you can Pirate games 'easier'!" camp.

Also, when mentioning I was a PC gamer to a PS3 gamer who was trying to get support for the voting out of michael atkinson while I was standing around in Game (the store), the first thing he said was

The stupid thing about PC is that you can go on the internet and download the game for free

Didnt say anything but that kinda pissed me off later.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

Another point to add is that people are scewing these numbers. After I posted this I was reading comments and a lot of people said they downloaded the torrent, but never ran it, making it count as a download that never happened.

So between that and what Expletive mentioned, I would think these numbers do not mean what people are trying to make them mean.

Crunch

[iQue]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

So between that and what Expletive mentioned, I would think these numbers do not mean what people are trying to make them mean.

Crunch

This, also, people are often trying to interpret these numbers as lost sales. Far from everyone who pirates something was going to buy it in the first place had a pirated copy not been available.

[Anarchy1]

Is it really a surprise? It was also the most popular and best-selling PC game. That's going to carry over to the pirating side. A lot of people probably think, "Look at all the people getting Black Ops, maybe I should try that out." And then the torrent becomes one of the most popular, and other people think, "Hmm...that must be pretty good" and they download to try it out. Kind of a comparison...when a paid app gets very popular on the Apple Store, it becomes the most downloaded app on the illegal crack websites. When it becomes the most popular on those sites, more people see it and download it.

Downloading doesn't mean you actually play it. Some people may download it and decide they don't want it or not do anything with it and it sits there. Or they may download it, install it, and decide they don't like it and delete it. Or, as Tim said, they may use it as a demo and then go out and buy it. Or what Eliminator said.

Not to mention, as far as I know (and I just checked), you still can't play multiplayer, and the efforts at getting that working are failing quickly. So these 4.1 million people are just playing SP. Good for them

[RangerXML]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

On a note, I remember people on the torrent and steam forums talking about downloading the game from torrents because of the problems downloading it. Just because a PC game was torrented, doesn't mean it was pirated. Ubisoft games with the latest DRM that prevent you from playing offline and Spore for EA were two games that I know were purchased and downloaded from torrents to avoid the DRM alot (doesn't mean they weren't also pirated), because alot of my friends did it. I personally will never purchase a Ubisoft game again.

[jimykx]

i think that one of the big problems about people downloading games is that nowadays games arent like they used to be. they used to make GOOD demos. nowadays you almost see no demos and still the ones you see last like 2 minutes

[Spik3d]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

i think that one of the big problems about people downloading games is that nowadays games arent like they used to be. they used to make GOOD demos. nowadays you almost see no demos and still the ones you see last like 2 minutes

Yep

Wish we were back at this point in gaming, where devs/publishers actually put forth an effort for demos. Now we barely even see demos any more.

[groundedzero]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

I torrent games. So what. I use them as a base to see if I like it, and if I do, I go out and buy it. If I don't I delete it right off the bat.

So sue me.








(this'll come back to bite me )

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

I found the best picture relating to DRM and piracy, thought I'd like to share.

[Anarchy1]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

hahaha

[Vreki]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

This, also, people are often trying to interpret these numbers as lost sales. Far from everyone who pirates something was going to buy it in the first place had a pirated copy not been available.

I agree, people tend to hoard free games. Back in the C64 days, it wasn't unusual to have hundreds of pirated games on special compilation tapes, while original games where pretty rare.
Compare to the video game consoles of the day, where you would usually have 4-8 cartridges.

But we are still talking millions of dollars, even if you say that lost sales are only 1/10th of the downloads.

However consoles also have lost sales due to the trade in used copies, which has been pretty much eliminated on the PC due to various form of online activation.

[groundedzero]

Re: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Named 2010's Most Pirated PC Game

And now the PS3 has been hacked, they're pretty much ****ed. So yay for video games.