And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

[Shawn Zipay]

According to TorrentFreak, the most pirated game of 2009 was Modern Warfare 2. Are you honestly surprised by this news? Just don't be surprised when the next Call of Duty title or Modern Warfare title isn't on the PC due to "piracy concerns" of the platform.

With 4.1 million unauthorized downloads of the PC version alone, the game more than doubles the achievement of last year's 'winner' Spore. Modern Warfare 2 leads both the PC and Xbox 360 lists, by a landslide.

The overall trend across all platforms is that, unlike last year, all of the games are 2009 releases. What makes Modern Warfare 2's chart-topping even more impressive is that this has been achieved after just two months of availability.

Yes, 4.1 million pirated copies of the PC version were recorded. This is compared to the 970,000 pirated copies of the game recorded for the Xbox 360 version of the title. The full breakdown of each platforms most pirated of 2009 follows. The Xbox 360 and Wii charts can be found after the jump.

PC

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (4,100,000) (Nov. 2009)
2. The Sims 3 (3,200,000) (June. 2009)
3. Prototype (2,350,000) (June. 2009)
4. Need For Speed Shift (2,100,000) (Sept. 2009)
5. Street Fighter IV (1,850,000) (July. 2009)

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Xbox 360

1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (970,000) (Nov. 2009)
2. Street Fighter IV (840,000) (July. 2009)
3. Prototype (810,000) (Feb. 2009)
4. Dirt 2 (790,000) (Sept. 2009)
5. UFC 2009 Undisputed (720,000) (Mar. 2009)

Wii

1. New Super Mario Bros. (1,150,000) (Nov. 2009)
2. Punch-Out!! (950,000) (May. 2009)
3. Wii Sports Resort (920,000) (July. 2009)
4. The House of the Dead: Overkill (860,000) (Feb. 2009)
5. Mario Power Tennis (830,000) (Mar. 2009)

[SEKCobra]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

It got pirated so often because its bad.
Good games get buyed.

[Unregistered]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

Ok. No problem. I do not wait COD MW3 on PC. Infinity Ward isn't succesfull company. It's a very vera baaaaaad game

[Ard Choille]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

I guess alot of people wanted to try MW2 Singleplayer. With it being so short and what they did to Multiplayer, it wasn't worth buying.

[Nathan D.]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

This could be solved if companies used Steam as their point of sale exclusively. To my knowledge, it is impossible to pirate a game exclusively through Steam unless you actually hack Valve's servers and retrieve the game directly from the source.

[Linux]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

lol, thats pretty epic, oh well could care less about MW series anymore any who.

[_Shorty]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

Right. Steam games have never been pirated before. Nobody could possibly buy the game and give someone the files.

Pirated games mean one thing: MORE SALES. Period. Game companies need to learn the same thing that music labels and movie producers need to learn. Downloading should be looked at as nothing more than free advertising. People try it, if it sucks, they forget it. If it's good, they're likely to buy it.

This could be solved if companies used Steam as their point of sale exclusively. To my knowledge, it is impossible to pirate a game exclusively through Steam unless you actually hack Valve's servers and retrieve the game directly from the source.

[Ev!L ErN!E]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

I guess alot of people wanted to try MW2 Singleplayer. With it being so short and what they did to Multiplayer, it wasn't worth buying.

hmmm and yet it out sold MW 1.... so some people must have thought it was worth buying.... I'm not into single player much anyways, 99% of games have shit single player content, I buy games to play them online... and yes MW2s' multiplayer has its flaws but it is alot more fun to play than the first one.

[Nathan D.]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

Right. Steam games have never been pirated before. Nobody could possibly buy the game and give someone the files.

Pirated games mean one thing: MORE SALES. Period. Game companies need to learn the same thing that music labels and movie producers need to learn. Downloading should be looked at as nothing more than free advertising. People try it, if it sucks, they forget it. If it's good, they're likely to buy it.

Let's not kid ourselves... I've never heard of anyone downloading music and because they liked it, they went and bought the CD. They download it and burn their own CD... I agree that it's free advertising but I do not believe that the majority of people that pirate actually go out and buy the software if they liked it well enough.

And if someone bought a game on Steam, copied the files and someone else tried to play it, I believe Steam requires that it authenticates one time before it will allow you to play it to verify that you do own the game. In other words, I thought it had some type of lock on it where you couldn't just simply copy the files and play the game. Could be wrong though...

[-:Nighthawk:-]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

Alright, time for quotes and verdicts...

It got pirated so often because its bad.
Good games get buyed.

Yes, that's what I do. I spend my time and bandwidth obtaining and playing bad games. It's so much more fun to play a game that isn't fun for free than it is to play one that is fun for free, so everyone pirates the bad games to play them and coughs up the money for good games.

Moron.

Ok. No problem. I do not wait COD MW3 on PC. Infinity Ward isn't succesfull company. It's a very vera baaaaaad game

Infinity Ward made more money off of MW2 in its opening weekend than any other video game of all time. Sounds like an unsuccessful company to me!

Moron.

This could be solved if companies used Steam as their point of sale exclusively. To my knowledge, it is impossible to pirate a game exclusively through Steam unless you actually hack Valve's servers and retrieve the game directly from the source.

If Steam was the exclusive point of sale, you could hypothetically stop day 0 (or earlier) releases on torrent sites, because they wouldn't have a buddy working as a box boy at the local Best Buy to snag a physical copy before the release. However, as soon as it was released, it would be a matter of a day or two before someone hacked the security out of it, bundled it up and released it on torrent sites. Additionally, having no presence at brick-and-mortar shops would hugely affect your sales, as hot releases tend to get a lot of free advertising by stores that want to attract gamers. Steam's one effectiveness is in keeping pirates from playing games online, but the single-player component is still child's play to pirate.

Perhaps not a moron, but definitely uninformed.

Right. Steam games have never been pirated before. Nobody could possibly buy the game and give someone the files.

Pirated games mean one thing: MORE SALES. Period. Game companies need to learn the same thing that music labels and movie producers need to learn. Downloading should be looked at as nothing more than free advertising. People try it, if it sucks, they forget it. If it's good, they're likely to buy it.

It is true that pirating can lead some to purchase a game, especially when the pirated version is limited in some way (for instance, no online play for MW2). However, if people are able to pirate enough of the game that they don't feel compelled to purchase it to get the rest, pirating at best is neutral, and more likely has a harmful effect on sales. MW2 is somewhere in the middle on this--probably a few people who would have bought it just pirated it instead, but the bulk majority of the pirates likely wouldn't buy it anyway and are just looking for whatever free entertainment they can get their hands on. Others probably pirated the PC version but bought the 360 version.

Overall, an intelligent point for this particular game, but it would be foolish to apply this principle to single-player-only games.

hmmm and yet it out sold MW 1.... so some people must have thought it was worth buying.... I'm not into single player much anyways, 99% of games have shit single player content, I buy games to play them online... and yes MW2s' multiplayer has its flaws but it is alot more fun to play than the first one.

As a bigger release built on an established foundation, sales and pirating were both up from the original. Really, it makes sense. Unfortunately there is no way to track how many people are still playing the pirated PC version, but with no multiplayer options beyond lan games (whether legit lan or Hamatchi lan) I'm guessing most people with the pirated version are worn out on the game, while most people who bought it are still milking enjoyment out of it. Like you said, the multiplayer is the main appeal, and pirates are cut out of that. Admittedly I personally love single-player games, but beyond that point I totally agree with you.

There you have it, analysis of people's thoughts (or lack thereof) thus far. Keep the conversation going! :)

[-:Nighthawk:-]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

Alright, time for quotes and verdicts...

It got pirated so often because its bad.
Good games get buyed.

Yes, that's what I do. I spend my time and bandwidth obtaining and playing bad games. It's so much more fun to play a game that isn't fun for free than it is to play one that is fun for free, so everyone pirates the bad games to play them and coughs up the money for good games.

Moron.

Ok. No problem. I do not wait COD MW3 on PC. Infinity Ward isn't succesfull company. It's a very vera baaaaaad game

Infinity Ward made more money off of MW2 in its opening weekend than any other video game of all time. Sounds like an unsuccessful company to me!

Moron.

This could be solved if companies used Steam as their point of sale exclusively. To my knowledge, it is impossible to pirate a game exclusively through Steam unless you actually hack Valve's servers and retrieve the game directly from the source.

If Steam was the exclusive point of sale, you could hypothetically stop day 0 (or earlier) releases on torrent sites, because they wouldn't have a buddy working as a box boy at the local Best Buy to snag a physical copy before the release. However, as soon as it was released, it would be a matter of a day or two before someone hacked the security out of it, bundled it up and released it on torrent sites. Additionally, having no presence at brick-and-mortar shops would hugely affect your sales, as hot releases tend to get a lot of free advertising by stores that want to attract gamers. Steam's one effectiveness is in keeping pirates from playing games online, but the single-player component is still child's play to pirate.

Perhaps not a moron, but definitely uninformed.

Right. Steam games have never been pirated before. Nobody could possibly buy the game and give someone the files.

Pirated games mean one thing: MORE SALES. Period. Game companies need to learn the same thing that music labels and movie producers need to learn. Downloading should be looked at as nothing more than free advertising. People try it, if it sucks, they forget it. If it's good, they're likely to buy it.

It is true that pirating can lead some to purchase a game, especially when the pirated version is limited in some way (for instance, no online play for MW2). However, if people are able to pirate enough of the game that they don't feel compelled to purchase it to get the rest, pirating at best is neutral, and more likely has a harmful effect on sales. MW2 is somewhere in the middle on this--probably a few people who would have bought it just pirated it instead, but the bulk majority of the pirates likely wouldn't buy it anyway and are just looking for whatever free entertainment they can get their hands on. Others probably pirated the PC version but bought the 360 version.

Overall, an intelligent point for this particular game, but it would be foolish to apply this principle to single-player-only games.

hmmm and yet it out sold MW 1.... so some people must have thought it was worth buying.... I'm not into single player much anyways, 99% of games have shit single player content, I buy games to play them online... and yes MW2s' multiplayer has its flaws but it is alot more fun to play than the first one.

As a bigger release built on an established foundation, sales and pirating were both up from the original. Really, it makes sense. Unfortunately there is no way to track how many people are still playing the pirated PC version, but with no multiplayer options beyond lan games (whether legit lan or Hamatchi lan) I'm guessing most people with the pirated version are worn out on the game, while most people who bought it are still milking enjoyment out of it. Like you said, the multiplayer is the main appeal, and pirates are cut out of that. Admittedly I personally love single-player games, but beyond that point I totally agree with you.

There you have it, analysis of people's thoughts (or lack thereof) thus far. Keep the conversation going! :)

[Sintra]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

Nice double post
wow people still play nfs games??

[Nathan D.]

Re: And the Most Pirated Game of 2009 Was...

Alright, time for quotes and verdicts...

If Steam was the exclusive point of sale, you could hypothetically stop day 0 (or earlier) releases on torrent sites, because they wouldn't have a buddy working as a box boy at the local Best Buy to snag a physical copy before the release. However, as soon as it was released, it would be a matter of a day or two before someone hacked the security out of it, bundled it up and released it on torrent sites. Additionally, having no presence at brick-and-mortar shops would hugely affect your sales, as hot releases tend to get a lot of free advertising by stores that want to attract gamers. Steam's one effectiveness is in keeping pirates from playing games online, but the single-player component is still child's play to pirate.

Perhaps not a moron, but definitely uninformed.

Glad that you don't think I'm a moron and that you just feel I may just simply be uninformed. When I said impossible, I suppose I wasn't being literal. I'm sure a single-player game that is exclusively sold through Steam is hackable. However, whether it be due to Valve's security methods or otherwise, Valve games seem to be much less victimized to pirating than to non-Valve games. I can't think of a Valve game that was exclusively sold via Steam right now but I think the episodic content for HL:2 is a good example. I guess one could argue though that maybe they aren't as popular as other games and therefore, not as susceptible to being pirated.

:thumbsup: