RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS THREAD!

[Crazy Tuvok]

Instead of thinking of this in any way as Syndicate reboot I consider it "Market Forces - The Videogame" which could actually be pretty cool.

 

Does'nt really do any good in playing mindgames, it's Syndicate no matter what you call it yourself. Developers intentions and all that.

 

 

Not mind games. It bears no resemblance to Syndicate, developer intentions or not.

 

With Morgan writing it it does in fact bear more resemblance to Market Forces The Videogame.

[C2B]

I just realized all this retcon complaining is about a book that has yet to be released, so I'm going to call BS on it. While I doubt you will see as much of KotOR 2 lore in TOR as the original, I'm pretty sure they aren't going to ignore it.

 

The info is from someone who has the final pre release version (He also posted screens). So, unless they are going to rewrite the whole book its true.

 

Edit: You can read the original post here:

 

http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread....931#post6602931

Edited September 29, 2011 by C2B

[HoonDing]

Gears of War 3 goes triple-platinum in first week

 

Problem, Mass Effect?

[Volourn]

"Problem, Mass Effect?"

 

Nah, not really. It still makes oodles of money. BIO - contrary to one tools think - has never been main stream enough nor big enough to get those kind of sales. That's why the 4mil+ of both DA and ME2 were HUGE deals for them. And, the 2mil+ in less than 2 months for DA2 was good times.

 

BIO will not sell 10mil copies ever nor do they need to.

 

R00fles!

 

P.S. if it's a problem for ME.. it's really a problem for games like DS3 and AP. HAHAHAS!

Edited September 30, 2011 by Volourn

[GreasyDogMeat]

More evidence of Activision being evil... they are trying to make gamers fat(ter).

[Volourn]

This makes them good not evil. I don't give a crap if the foods are 'healthy' or not. Making a mountain out of a molehole is exactly what'sw rong with modern society and its complete desire to have control of everybody else's lifes.

 

People should be able to choose what they want or not as long as it doesn't outright hurt others which this does not. Period.

[Calax]

DS3 is half off on steam.

[Malcador]

Still too pricey.

[Pidesco]

DS3 was my best purchase of the year easily.

[Malcador]

One more piracy article

[Calax]

DS3 is half off on steam.

Actually, all the games in the DS series are half off tis the weekend deal.

[greylord]

One more piracy article

 

I think the statements are messed up, but it does invite showing into how big of an idiot these guys are that are so worried about piracy...

 

Make no mistake," said SEGA this week, "if one quarter of the people that usually pirate [Football Manager] switch to purchasing Football Manager 2012, the sales of the game worldwide would more than double." That was the eye-opening statistic used to justify Football Manager 2012 requiring Steam to play. In other words, more than 80 per cent of people playing Football Manager are doing so with a pirated copy.

 

Oh, wait, that already happened. 1 person of the 4 who pirated DID buy that game! Okay, I exaggerated the numbers slightly, but I think the point is the same. A LOT of people who pirate a game probably pirate it because they actually ALREADY BOUGHT IT, but they want to be able to actually RUN the game.

 

But how many times do you get people to actually acknowledge that their copy protection prevents legitimate buyers from playing a game...almost never...and likewise no statements regarding how many who "pirate" the game are actually customers who already bought it, but are downloading it for various reasons from making a backup, to disagreeing with not having a physical product which with a pirated product they can burn to disk, to those who can't even run it with their legit version but can with the pirated version.

 

We looked at quantifying what the real losses are," says Christian Svensson of the PC Gaming Alliance and Capcom, "and it's incredibly hard to do, because you end up having to do a set of cascading assumptions that you have no real ability to validate in any meaningful away."

 

"It's impossible to know how bad piracy is," agrees Michael Pachter, Wedbush Morgan analyst, "but it's pretty bad. Ubisoft told me that their PC game sales are down 90 per cent without a corresponding lift in console sales. Some of the decline is truly due to people migrating to consoles, but my guess is that 40 to 50 per cent of PC games played are not purchased."

 

Oh HO! So here we have a moment of truth. It's all based upon assumption...so because their gut feeling makes them believe that their terrible game should have sold better...it must be that people are all pirating it.

 

What great logic...NOT!

 

Hard facts and figures are difficult to come by, then. Eurogamer asked various publishers for statistical data and input, but our enquiries were fruitless. Sony DADC cites "various sources". Other companies we spoke to mentioned research by companies like the ESA and DFC Intelligence; others monitor BitTorrent statistics; and others use data provided by game sellers. And it's not uncommon to use them all together.

 

So the truth of the matter is all those numbers on piracy is basically BS...

 

Thanks for confirming what 90% (another BS number I made up, afterall if they can, can't I do it too) already knew!

 

"[There's] no public data to suggest that DRM works," says Pachter, "but the fact that more companies are imposing it strongly suggests that they believe it works."

 

Like we didn't know that. Tell that to SecuRom and their 40% of the US pirating games...

 

 

"Piracy levels, depending on country, range between 40 per cent and 80 per cent," Reinhard Blaukovitsch from Sony DADC, the company responsible for SecuROM, told Eurogamer as part of an investigation into the true impact of PC game piracy. That means that between 40 and 80 per cent of total copies of a game being played are pirated. "The commercial value of global software piracy is growing by 14 per cent annually."

 

Oh REALLY! So the US has a 40% piracy rate? That means it shouldn't be any problem to walk over to a friends house and see them playing pirated games for me...right? Seeing that's the lowest rate there...so that's AT LEAST 40%.

 

So why can't a find a single friend who actually pirates the games (if they haven't already bought it)...it can't be that hard can it?

 

By the numbers of averages that means 40% of you guys are pirating games and making me pay more for my legal ones? Who are you...why don't you fess up...and by pirating I mean people who actually PIRATE the game, that means didn't buy the legit version and actually "pirated" aka stole according to the producers...a game.

 

One, two? Fess up...according to them 40% is the lowest, it goes from 40%-80%, surely there has to be more? No one?

 

Is this a BS number?

 

 

Where in the world do they get this BS number?

 

Let me see...what's SecuRom's business...Oh...that's right, scaring everyone so much about piracy that they'll resort to anything to stop it from happening to them...including putting on a program so intrusive (aka SecuRom) that it breaks their games so people have to resort to measures such as pirated copies just to get it to run...so the more who believe this BS number, the more will buy into and support SecuRom! No hidden agendas there!

 

 

 

Nice article...I'd post more of it, but I'd hit the quote limit and you guys would get bored with me simply commenting so much on it.

 

Thanks for sticking through this long post if you read it all.

[Gorth]

Thanks for sticking through this long post if you read it all.

*Yawn*

 

Not really sure who you are trying to insult?

 

The developers who loses money on piracy or customers who suffers DRM as a consequence of it?

[Malcador]

I think it's developers who claim statistical losses that are probably based on bunk. Would be neat if someone did a proper study on all of this, but ah well.

[Gorth]

I think it's developers who claim statistical losses that are probably based on bunk. Would be neat if someone did a proper study on all of this, but ah well.

That's a bit tricky to do due to the nature of the subject of investigation. You might convince some to come forward and share with you (pun unintended), but most probably wouldn't go further than letting friends and family know how much or how little they participate in such activities. It's a bit like trying to estimate how much the Russian mafia swindles out of the Russian state. You can make guesses and fill in the blanks (extrapolate), but it is in its very nature never going to be exact science. You can only do the second best thing and start working on models that you think will make good approximations.

[Malcador]

So, stuck with bunk loss data it is, then.

[Gorth]

So, stuck with bunk loss data it is, then.

Round up all filesharers and stick them in jail, then you can assume 0% loss

 

Alternatively stop creating products that can be distributed digitally.

 

Got better ideas?

[greylord]

So, stuck with bunk loss data it is, then.

Round up all filesharers and stick them in jail, then you can assume 0% loss

 

Alternatively stop creating products that can be distributed digitally.

 

Got better ideas?

 

Well, if I posted more items (which there are a limited number of quotes allowed, believe it or not) the meat of the articles I thought was in regards to the Witcher, which when tracked by GoG by their tracking method of piracy showed that there really wasn't a statstical change in regards to how much TW2 was pirated in regards to other games.

 

They had a caveat that most of their other games were actually older games so maybe those games were not pirated as much anyways...but if that's what they are using, that may mean TW2 from GoG actually had LESS piracy than what people suspect and that DRM probably DOES increase piracy.

 

But yes, what I found most interesting was that they basically admitted they made the numbers up and everything they did was basically their own guesses. Some are obvious WHY someone would put those guesses so high...such as SecuRom...they WANT those numbers high because scaring people is their business in order to make money.

 

The numbers really mean nothing in relation to what they are willing to present. It's like me saying 99% of people hate DRM and DRM has caused piracy to rise 175% from what it was.

 

Where'd I get those numbers...just like the game researchers when asked for hard evidence...Well...I don't actually HAVE any hard evidence or any hard research...aka...I just made those numbers up out of freaking thin air.

 

It's like SecuRom's 40%-80% in ANY nation...BS I call it. They made that number up.

 

PS: They do address your idea of better ideas...and it makes more sense then punishing the consumer. You have to offer them a better experience than what the Pirates offer.

 

Their idea is to have games via network, like facebook or MMORPGs. Sure you may be able to emulate a server/network but it won't be the same and probably not the same quality.

 

THIS is what I would have put down as my endpoint...that this is the REAL reason Diablo III is being presented as it is. It IS to combat piracy, but not how people think it is. Starcraft 2 was a HUGE failure due to piracy, the pirates had released it before the official game was released!

 

So with Diablo 3 the idea isn't to stop the pirates, but to make it so the player that plays on the blizzard servers has a better experience than what the pirated game can offer. Those who buy legit copies will be able to enjoy the actual server and network coding as intended and it will be a better time for them, rather than what is emulated via the pirated versions.

 

Hence Blizzards reasons for making much of the game being coded from server side instead of from the individuals computer.

Edited October 1, 2011 by greylord

[Malcador]

Round up all filesharers and stick them in jail, then you can assume 0% loss

 

Alternatively stop creating products that can be distributed digitally.

 

Got better ideas?

 

Stop stating that they know they've lost X amount if it's not reliable. Qualitative moaning works just as well for the purposes of pitching a DRM scheme. It is funny to see Ubisoft get burned though, AC2, Settlers and now Driver.

[Jaesun]

Don't we already have a DRM thread?

[Oner]

Afterfall Insanity trailer

[Lexx]

Man, I still remember the stuff about the *original* Afterfall. They had some pretty fancy ideas and all. Really sad to see it all being turned into this crap.

[Serrano]

More Xenonaughts info

 

I know a few of you were big fans of the X-Com games, this is worth reading up on if you're still interested in that genre.

[Walsingham]

It's pretty straightforward. After playing three ubisoft games that took me two days to set up because of 'anti-piracy' BS, and one game which simply failed to work because of 'anti-piracy' I no-longer buy ANY ubisoft games. Well done, fellahs. Way to make sales happen and protect your business.

[trulez]

From the UFO Legacy Defence: Xenonauts Preview:

I

Edited October 2, 2011 by trulez