In the past, piracy is always met with lawsuit or a threat of lawsuit. Look at what happened to Pirate Bay. Some developers are trying a different approach though.
I just came across an article relating how a game studio from Chile has dealt with the piracy of their game. The ACE Team is the developer of the game Zeno Clash which is a first person shooter game. They met piracy head-on—not with a threat, but with an appeal:
I’m one of the developers of Zeno Clash. I would appreciate you read this if you are about to download this file.
Zeno Clash is an independently funded game by a very small and sacrificed group of people. The only way in which we can continue making games like this (or a sequel) is to have good sales.
I am aware that at this moment there is still no demo of the game, but we are working on one which will be available soon.
We cannot do anything to stop piracy of the game (and honestly don’t intend to do so) but if you are downloading because you wish to try before you buy, I would ask that you purchase the game (and support the independent game development scene) if you enjoy it. We plan on updating Zeno Clash with DLC and continuing support for the game long after it’s release.
Thanks for taking the time to read this… hopefully it will make a difference.
Carlos Bordeu
ACE Team
This is a new approach. Whether this will work or not, only time can tell. The ACE Team seems understand that they can’t fight fire with fire. So, they decided to fight fire with water. Let’s see if the fire dies out; or at least is reduced to embers.
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Only few people will feel pithy and purchase the game after reading that poem.
ReplyDeletebut really a sad thing, they work hard and pirates steal the game and share it for free..
There must be another way to make money with Games,,
Yes, and I think online gaming might be the answer. Though I'm not sure of that either.
ReplyDelete