Limiting Piracy of Cricket Games

[MattW]

I still am yet to see a copy of Ashes Cricket 09 being played over here TBH, the reason being the system requirements.

Good thing they've one upped themselves with AC13 and made it so my PC doesn't even meet the requirements.

 

[Bevab]

Cool I don't know india and have never been there, I guess ross will have to try to track how many copies of the game sell in india after release and go from there.

It's going to be interesting to see how he tackles this issue, this is something that even EA have struggled to tackle.

 

[dadarocks]

Well, piracy as a whole is quite a big issue in India. Some people don't know that they're buying pirated cds or dvds (maybe around 30% of them). Even I came to know about planetcricket.org from a retail cd I saw which said cricket 09, which actually was a patch from here.

Locally here in Trivandrum (as may be the case in many places) we've got an infamous place near the Shankumugham Beach where you get all sorts of pirated stuff. The problem why police can't interfear with things is because a mosque's situated there, and these shops are around it. But now with the Mosque committee's help they'we started cleaning things up.

Even there was a recent incident in Tamil Nadu, when a Tamil movie got released there 11 days past it's world wide release, the whole state was flooded with pirated disks and some estimates say that the movie (whose budget was around Rs 60 Crores, would loose 20-40 crores from pirated disks and torrent downloads. [Despite of the state police's efforts.]

Why I wrote all this is to make the things clear - that if due precautions are not taken (like online registration for progressing into the game, which can't be byepassed) all your efforts will leave you with negligible sales in India.

 

[BigAntStudios]

As said, I want to distribute in India but the biggest risk is that the price will mean that people could export it from India back to the West and destroy those markets. If the number of units is not great then the risk becomes too great compared to the return. Piracy protection is not really the answer as there will always be cracks made available and we have better things to do, I'd rather concentrate on writing better games.

...all that and I have already planned my trip to India to help support the game (and have a holiday too of course )

 

[Biggs]

Sounds like Digital Downloads via Steam and PS/XBOX online store will be your best bet then.

Good thing they've one upped themselves with AC13 and made it so my PC doesn't even meet the requirements.

Was that post TRUE though, or was he just blowharding? I honestly can't tell what is the deal with having such ridiculous specs for a cricket game...

...and I thought India would be third but I now expect that New Zealand and South Africa would have more retail units than India.

I'll (hopefully) be back in NZ by the time of release, so if I can help with sales by standing outside game stores in a wedgeboard yelling at passers-by to grab a copy of the game, do let me know. I'll do it for a free copy and hugs.

Okay...

You drive a hard bargain...

Just hugs.

 

[BigAntStudios]

Well, piracy as a whole is quite a big issue in India. Some people don't know that they're buying pirated cds or dvds (maybe around 30% of them). Even I came to know about planetcricket.org from a retail cd I saw which said cricket 09, which actually was a patch from here.

We have a studio in Malaysia and have had the same experience over there where quite big retailers are selling everything from fake perfume, bags, and software as if it is real - the locals knew what was what but I had little idea!

 

[MattW]

...all that and I have already planned my trip to India to help support the game (and have a holiday too of course )

Go there with a stack of cash and buy up all the illegal copies?

Was that post TRUE though, or was he just blowharding? I honestly can't tell what is the deal with having such ridiculous specs for a cricket game...

Poor optimisation because they are using the wrong tools for the job of making a console grade cricket game.

The fact it was CPU power and not my graphics card that was the issue, they clearly have a major development problem.

 

[barmyarmy]

Australia is the most profitable, followed by England, and I thought India would be third but I now expect that New Zealand and South Africa would have more retail units than India.

How can Aus be more profitable than the UK market when it's only got a third of the population?

 

[MattW]

How can Aus be more profitable than the UK market when it's only got a third of the population?

I'm surprised by this too. Especially considering the assumption of the UK as a larger market was the only thing that made releasing International Cricket 2010 during the UK summer, instead of an Australian summer 'Ashes Cricket 2011', make sense to me.

 

[Biggs]

How can Aus be more profitable than the UK market when it's only got a third of the population?

I don't have any stats to back me up, but I'd wager a bet there's about as many kids/adults playing cricket in Australia as there is in England. Having lived in Melbourne for 4 years Cricket was the default sport for everyone I knew, and they wasted time on Footy, Soccer or League in-between cricket seasons. Cricket is untouchable when it comes to support in Australia, you kinda underestimate it as a Kiwi working/living there but when you see it first hand it's impressive.

...quite big retailers are selling everything from fake perfume, bags, and software as if it is real - the locals knew what was what but I had little idea!

You see it everywhere in India as well. Stores selling fake India Cricket shirts right next to the real deal. When I was in Mumbai during the World Cup I wanted to buy a legit India shirt. I found a proper Nike version with the authentic stickers and stuff, tried it on... fit perfectly... took it up to the guy at the counter and he took it away from me to "put it in a bag" and swapped it for a fake one when he thought I wasn't looking. I'm not kidding... I just laughed, and said can I have the other one... he smiled "okay okay okay" and swapped it back. But they TRY IT, man. It's funny if it wasn't tragic.

 

[MattW]

I don't have any stats to back me up, but I'd wager a bet there's about as many kids/adults playing cricket in Australia as there is in England. Having lived in Melbourne for 4 years Cricket was the default sport for everyone I knew, and they wasted time on Footy, Soccer or League in-between cricket seasons. Cricket is untouchable when it comes to support in Australia, you kinda underestimate it as a Kiwi working/living there but when you see it first hand it's impressive.

But on the other hand, England doesn't have a summer, so there should be a good market for staying inside and playing sports video games.

 

[barmyarmy]

England has one. Scotland even had one for the first time in 8 years this July. We have Game of Thrones seasons up here. Long winters and very occasional summers.

 

[MattW]

We have Game of Thrones seasons up here

A few weeks for an hour at a time?

 

[Biggs]

Scotland even had one for the first time in 8 years this July. We have Game of Thrones seasons up here. Long winters and very occasional summers.

...and your nights are dark and full of terrors too.

 

[barmyarmy]

Hey, we're beyond the wall