Game developer gives pirates a taste of their own medicine

It's not every day that a game developer can turn the tables on pirates who download or post cracked versions of games online.

 

And this developer did it by figuratively holding up a mirror to the pirates, just so they know how how piracy is affecting the industry.

 

"Initially we thought about telling them their copy is an illegal copy, but instead we didn’t want to pass up the unique opportunity of holding a mirror in front of them and showing them what piracy can do to game developers," Greenheart Games' Patrick Klug said of his game, Game Dev Tycoon.

 

Klug said he put in code in the cracked version of the game that allowed the company to track the pirated versions.

 

With the tracking, he learned that one day after the game was released, only 6.4 percent of users got the genuine version while the other 93.6 percent went for the cracked.

 

Here's the catch: the cracked version of the game contains in-game messages indicating many players are illegally getting the game that the player developed.

 

As such, the player's company "will sooner or later go bankrupt."

 

But wait, there's more: players of the cracked version will find their in-game funds dwindling, and the games they created having a high chance of being pirated.

 

This early, Greenheart said one player sought help because he/she could no longer progress as his/her profit would dwindle due to piracy.

 

"As a gamer I laughed out loud: the IRONY!!! However, as the developer, who spent over a year creating this game and hasn’t drawn a salary yet, I wanted to cry. Surely, for most of these players, the 8 dollars wouldn’t hurt them but it makes a huge difference to our future!" Klug said.

 

On the other hand, Klug noted that a day after his game was released, only 6.4 percent of users downloaded the genuine game, and 93.6 percent got the cracked version.

 

Not the first time

 

A report on IGN said this was not the first time developers tried to get a point across to pirates.

 

It cited Rocksteady's release of a cracked version of Batman: Arkham Asylum online - with the only difference being Batman's cape-glide ability would not work. — TJD, GMA News