most pirated games 2009

OK to weigh in an a large widely debated subject.

May I just say, PC piracy is the easiest to do. Seriously, it's just "Install and copy these files". How hard is that? Across multiple OSes they haven't thought about combating this? Regular Disc/activation based DRM is also fully cracked before the games even hit retail so they aren't working either. Windows 7 should have been a nice time to implement something new, do you not think? Granted most would just not upgrade but still this issue kinda needs to be tackled. And I am sure that the PS3 isn't cracked like someone said. Not that I have seen. I know they dump and pre- discs, thanks to the Linux partition on the Phats, but AFAIK you cannot do anything with them. Fell free to PM me with detailed instructions if this is not true. ;)

I myself download the odd game, less so than I do anything else addmittedly, but I still do. I do mostly to test the game, if I like it I buy it. I never play online with a downloaded game either, mostly because the checks are different to SP games, but mostly due to not really liking to not support a game in that way. If I play online I want to do it in full, and not risk being kicked off a server or such half way through a game, or not being able to connect at all.

Plus with MW2 can you even play online with the cracked version? Since it runs outside of steam?

I can honestly say cost isn't really a factor. For me at least, and I don't have a lot of money, or any other than a small amount of disposable income. If I like a game I'll buy it 9/10 times. I have bought games because they are cheap, but mostly because I haven't played them, or if I have then I at least enjoyed them a little. I've never not bought a game because it's too expensive really. I've not nought most games because they were terrible. Only reason. Reviews or own opinion, whichever.

I've seen studies that proved that most people download things they were never likely to buy, at all. So they would never have played the game if they hadn't have downloaded it. I can say I have downloaded a few games I probably would NEVER have considered if they weren't available to me and then I have BOUGHT them afterwards.

TBF though some points I just don't agree with. I don't think that piracy is driving up prices, I would perhaps say the opposite. If they could eliminate piracy you seriously think they would allow you to have their games at £20 a pop? No-way on this planet! It'll drive up the price as there would be no way to get around it. It'd be pay or don't play, simple as.

I'm not saying Piracy is justified, far from it, it isn't but it can actually be good in some ways. If it was harder then those numbers would be way lower anway. Much closer to those 360 and Wii numbers.
 
Why not just order from Play.com? More expensive than the UK price but Mass Effect 2 is still only 35 Euros.

My income is too low for a credit card ( need 800€ per month to get one regardless of credit limits). I can't pay as I don't have a mastercard/visa and non UK maestro's are not accepted in abroad shops as we don't have a cv2 number on our maestro card.

Now forgive me if i'm wrong but apart from hacked servers (which i belive are full of cheaters)
Not necessarily true, I can't comment on steam games but on punkbuster protected games, cracked servers are exactly the same as normal servers except they do not check your cd key on entering.

]
you need a legit copy of any decent game to play on.
Mostly you don't, the workarounds may become complicated but there are nearly always workarounds...
 
May I just say, PC piracy is the easiest to do. Seriously, it's just "Install and copy these files". How hard is that? Across multiple OSes they haven't thought about combating this? Regular Disc/activation based DRM is also fully cracked before the games even hit retail so they aren't working either. Windows 7 should have been a nice time to implement something new, do you not think?

The reason it's easy to pirate on the PC is that its an open platform. As long as you can run unsigned code this will be the case regardless of OS. On console you generally need additional means to be able to run the unsigned code or fool the system into thinking it is using legitimate media.
 
The reason it's easy to pirate on the PC is that its an open platform. As long as you can run unsigned code this will be the case regardless of OS. On console you generally need additional means to be able to run the unsigned code or fool the system into thinking it is using legitimate media.

I think you have nailed it on the head. Only way to combat this is with an operating system that is completely locked down. Something like Googles new OS, which essentially separates it's OS files (and potentially games) with a central google server. This way viruses etc are ineffective.
 
Thing is though, not that it’s excusable, but at the very least, on the PC it is a somewhat, anonymous crime. In that you download the game, likes seemingly millions of other people do and play it. Knowone has a clue what youve done less you broadcast it.

As far as am aware, for the 360, you physically need to go into a shop and say, I'd like to steal games please....... And they make physical alterations to the hardware.

Console piracy, although I suppose in numbers may be less than the PC, but it does come across as being way more malicious.

Still numbers are numbers.
 
your list appears to be the NPD's console and portables SKU top 10 list..

whoops D:

The website i got em from didn't state it was consoles only, damn you interwebs!

i think sims sold most of it;s copies at retail and beat every single one of them....

pc exclusive too

I think it'd be interesting to see the full figures at year end, you say this but the most recent count of the Sims 3 sales was 5.9 million copies, yet in less than a month (by the end of November) MW2 had sold 4.2 million copies on the 360 alone. I wouldn't say it was madness to speculate that it had overtaken the Sims 3 in December.
 
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whoops D:

The website i got em from didn't state it was consoles only, damn you interwebs!



I think it'd be interesting to see the full figures at year end, you say this but the most recent count of the Sims 3 sales was 5.9 million copies, yet in less than a month (by the end of November) MW2 had sold 4.2 million copies on the 360 alone. I wouldn't say it was madness to speculate that it had overtaken the Sims 3 in December.

According to VGchartz MW2 has sold some 7.83 million on Xbox 360 and some 5.28 million on PS3.
 
If i thought it was important enough i would. Especially as i am pretty sure that someone, somewhere has been done for downloading, be it music, games, movies, whatever. At least once.

However its really not worth me taking the time to trawl the web to find the one case of it. Its simply not worth it just to prove a point to a nobody on the internet, so i will humbly decline and use my time elsewhere

Saying, "It must be true because I believe it must be" is a little circular.

Fair enough, you don't want to do the research to prove your point. I, however, am very familiar with court cases relating to DRM, and I can assure you there has not been a case where someone has been prosecuted just for downloading.

*removes pomposity module and returns to being a lurker*
 
Saying, "It must be true because I believe it must be" is a little circular.

Fair enough, you don't want to do the research to prove your point. I, however, am very familiar with court cases relating to DRM, and I can assure you there has not been a case where someone has been prosecuted just for downloading.

*removes pomposity module and returns to being a lurker*

Ah but as you well know, this is the internet, where we can claim we are anything, have anything and know anyone. For example, i am a court judge with over 34 years experience involving copyright law, and i can assure you there has been a case where someone has been prosecuted just for downloading.

See how easy that is :)

*Removes pointless internet arguing module and returns to being a lurker*
 
According to VGchartz MW2 has sold some 7.83 million on Xbox 360 and some 5.28 million on PS3.


FYI - sorry but this is not a reliable source. there are industry standards which are used and this simply not one of them. As I said NPD (which also has it's shortcomings but I will spare the unecessary details) for US market is the one to go by - will need to wait before december figures will be posted
 
you can check sales data on Chartrack for UK and NPD for US; however december figures are not yet published. Based on publisher's sales announcements of CoD MW2 - this would be a significant portion - around 40%-50% of copies would be pirate. (and for PC it would be worse since most of legit sales are on console and most picracy is on PC)

Also i am not sure if torrentfreaks covers all of piracy outside the west (ie China etc...). their figures aren't very clear on that, but anyway it gives an idea of how pervasive piracy has become

Has become? I think piracy was as common in the past, proportional to sales.

I'm sure some people here, like me, are old enough to have been adolescents in the early-mid 1980s, when the main gaming platforms were the Spectrum and the Commodore 64...and everyone+dog was copying each other's C90 cassettes with a couple of dozen pirated games on each one.
 
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