Limiting Piracy of Cricket Games

[sahilnatu]

500 Rupees? Thats less than 1/3rd of the price they've put on Amazon. They just wouldn't be able to drop it that much. Also, I hardly think that should curb you from buying a pirated copy. A pirated copy would how much? - around Rs. 100? Thats more than 1/16th of the original price.

The only thing you can actually do is make something new protection software that wouldn't allow you to copy even a simple text file from the disc to any drive, let alone creating an image/duplicate disc. That should minimize piracy.

Don't know if you're aware of the game prices in India, but there are many games that do get priced in the 500-800 Rs bracket. It's quite common here. As the prices reach around 1500, it is deemed too expensive and ppl won't buy.

Moreover it isn't a question of pirating or not, even if the discs are protected & piracy curbed, you are losing on a big chunk of profit. As the production cost per disc including shipping is below 500Rs, you could at least make some profit than making none if the game is priced too high.

 

[Gone4aDuck]

Can an online pass code be used on a pirate copy?
If not then can't you just include an online activation code with the "genuine" copy of every game? Just like ubisoft do with their u-play codes. Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

 

[Chief]

... As the production cost per disc including shipping is below 500Rs...

Is that known? Or a guess?

 

[BlitzBerg]

Don't know if you're aware of the game prices in India, but there are many games that do get priced in the 500-800 Rs bracket.

What good game which was since 2011 released at a price lower than Rs.501? Even if there is any, that game was certainly not made with India as one of its prime targets for sales. A cricket game would certainly seek to make the most of out of India's new gaming culture, given the craze of the sport in the country.

Its quite simple, if the devs want to make a profit in India, they have to keep the price low and do something that prevents duplication of their discs. Even if they earn 40% less profit per box sold, they'd eventually make a bigger profit in the long run as every computer would run a legitimate copy of the game.

 

[puddleduck]

It's kind of been proven that the best way to combat piracy is actually to just make a good game...

The better the game is, the more people actually buy it. In PC terms, things like Steam are great for ensuring long term revenue. Fact is, it's rare a pirate will actually buy the game, and the depressing fact is that the Indian market is shambolic. I wouldn't even be surprised if half the people posting in the request/features/Q and A threads on here for both games actually pirate it.

Sure, it'll get pirated to hell in the sub-continent, but the reality is that in itself can lead to sales. If the game is crap and people pirate it, well all they learn is that it's crap.

Also, demos certainly help boost sales... if the game is any good How often have people tried demos, and then decided not to buy the game because the demo was ---- compared to bought the game due to it actually being good? I would say though, that making a good demo is actually pretty tough, but sports games lend themselves to demos best of all.

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To finish with one all encompassing statement. The consumer will decide whether these games succeed in the long term, so all those Indian pirates, if you want cricket games, vote with your wallet and use your brain when considering your purchase. Make your purchase through an outlet that will see the financial renumerations reach the developers, or there just won't be any more cricket games.

 

[deepuparayil]

A very good ad with in-game footage, a reasonable price point,an unique key for online play and availability at online sites like flipkart'll do the trick in India. If people are aware that game is easily available at a site like flipkart at a reasonable price, they would sure buy it.

 

[Biggs]

It's kind of been proven that the best way to combat piracy is actually to just make a good game...

QFT. But I will say that if people want producers to KEEP making cricket games, even if it's not a PERFECT cricket game, you still need to get out and support it with your wallets or we'll have another 3 years between innings, if you get what I mean. Fact is, folks do this for the money... lets not kid ourselves... but you also have passionate guys who BELIEVE in the games and the artform of making something exciting for us fans. We HAVE to support that stuff, unless it's a turd in a box...

Also, lets all remember owning a game is a PRIVILEGE not a RIGHT. Not EVERYONE gets to own a cricket game, if it's too expensive for you then planning ahead, saving your money and working for it is a vastly more rewarding experience. If you can't afford it, for whatever reason, then you don't get to have it. That's a part of life. Good with the bad.

Nothing you get for "free" in life can replace working hard to be rewarded with something.

 

[cricket_online]

Piracy would be a moot point a few years from now once internet penetration/online connectivity becomes a given everywhere. Then we wouldn't need physical media like CDs/DVDs/Blu Rays discs etc. and everything could be downloaded/activated from the PS/Xbox stores.

At the moment developers/publishers may withhold some components of the game, i.e. online gameplay or some DLC content that can only be activated via an online pass a la Madden, but it has 2 problems...

1. It would penalize folks who play offline or don't have internet connectivity. You have to remember that in subcontinent internet penetration is nowhere close to North America/UK/Aus.

2. It wouldn't matter to folks content to play limited version of the game as long as it's cheap/pirated.

Once online connectivity is universal just like mobile/cell phone use, the next gen consoles (PS4, Xbox 720) can check for authenticity of the game and lock it down if serial code (something embedded within the game) is not unique. This will tie down a copy of the game to one physical console but that's the best solution IMO.

 

[duberryboy1]

As usual the majority of these measures adversely affect people who actually buy the game. End of the day no matter what you do they will be pirates. Take a look at the witcher 2 which has no drm at all still sold well.

 

[sahilnatu]

Is that known? Or a guess?

That was a plain guess, Chief. :P
But, it could be true, right? (Again, I guess).

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And one more thing, in a 15min walk back home from my college (the busiest area in the city, right next to the local railway station), I see at least 5-6 street hawkers selling pirated game copies openly, but there is no store to get original copies. That shows how the government has been reluctant to curb piracy of games, when they are making attempts to curb piracy of movies & music.

Now it solely rests on us, the consumers, to grow up & pay for what we want!

 

[Fast bowler]

i have said this before and will say it a gain. only way to combat piracy is to make the game available in all hot markets (like ALL test playing nations) nothing will work without making the original game available.

 

[Biggs]

As usual the majority of these measures adversely affect people who actually buy the game. End of the day no matter what you do they will be pirates. Take a look at the witcher 2 which has no drm at all still sold well.

I don't agree, there's been some really unique and innovative suggestions that don't involve DRM at all (See the first page) The "Pre-Order Bonus" option that many companies use these days doesn't affect legal-purchases at all - in fact - it enhances them.

One other option might be to link the single-player "Rosters" to an online editable portal, so you update your roster via the internet (with a legal copy of the game) that is kept up to date by the fan community. Lots of rosters to chose from, that sort of thing. You can only connect to it, if you have a legal copy...

Doesn't affect playing the game offline, just means if you want updated rosters, player stats without doing it manually yourself offline, you must own a legal copy of the game.

 

[kingoffuel]

Hi Chief,

I believe Batman: Arkham Asylum had a safeguard where pirated games would disable the ability to fly/glide. So basically the user could only play to a certain point with a pirated game. So you could restrict a certain feature in the game for pirated copies.

I was thinking having legal copies of the game with come with an activation code. Here's the idea, if you allocate a different activation code to each copy of the game, the game can only be played if the correct code is inputted. Call Of Duty has a game code for each region so some maps, etc are not compatible with certain copies of the game.

The later is costly in the short-run but it should pay off in the long-term.

The final piece of advice is, have a look at Disney and Paramount DVDs. They use a feature that creates duplicates of the files from the disc. Though it doesn't prevent people from copying them, it does prevent the content from fitting on a disc. It basically turns 8GB into 70GB.

 

[Fast bowler]

let me give you a crazy idea which no one will like!!! like Ashes 09 release the game with lot of bugs and wait till pirate copies flood the market. then release a patch which only can work with the original disc !!! this should work

 

[Aravind.]

let me give you a crazy idea which no one will like!!! like Ashes 09 release the game with lot of bugs and wait till pirate copies flood the market. then release a patch which only can work with the original disc !!! this should work

That will affect sales in england and australia.