
Machinarium suffers 90% piracy rate, offers $5 amnesty sale - MikeCapone
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/08/machinarium-suffers-95-piracy-rate-offers-5-amnesty-sale.ars
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MichaelGG
" the game doesn’t bother players serial codes or online authentication, but
it’s also very easy to copy it "

Somewhat misleading. It's also very easy to copy all the super-DRMed games. In
fact, the process is identical. Load up a torrent site, search, download.

At any rate, claiming 90% piracy (regardless of truth) to run a sale is
probably a good marketing move. It's a beautiful game.

~~~
StavrosK
It _is_ a good move. I didn't pirate it, but I'll buy it to support them (plus
it's just three quid). I only wish it were on Steam...

~~~
martey
I think it is on Steam: <http://store.steampowered.com/app/40700/>

~~~
StavrosK
It is, but no sale :/

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moomba
What seems to be missing, as usual from these piracy posts is that the 90% who
pirated the game most likely wouldn't have bought it. Sure, pirating games is
a bad thing. But, it doesn't hurt to have a little perspective on it. There
was a post on HN a few months ago doing some analysis on this subject.

~~~
rick888
"What seems to be missing, as usual from these piracy posts is that the 90%
who pirated the game most likely wouldn't have bought it."

We will never know this. When I used to pirate software in my younger years, I
would buy software that I needed if I couldn't find it anywhere. I suspect
that the number of pirates that would never buy are a lot lower than you
claim.

The problem now is that piracy has muddied the waters. We will never know
either way.

~~~
crystalis
Some companies have done the unthinkable and actually run some numbers...
Eliminating 1,000 pirated copies tended to result in 1 additional sale. You
turn 10,000 copies into 1,009.

<http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=17350>

~~~
shasta
They put out new versions of their games that fix existing pirating methods
and then measure how that affects downloads and sales. How do they know what
portion of the pirates are downloading the demo and then applying the crack
rather than just downloaded a previous cracked version from somewhere else?

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almost
This game is really really good. It's got beautiful artwork, awesome music and
endearing characters. It's like everything that was good about the Lucasarts
point&clicks without the insane puzzles (the puzzles get hard, but they still
make some kind of sense).

A bought this game at the full price despite having the pirated version
available. I really want to encourage them to make more! For what it's worth,
I probably wouldn't have bought it if it had any sort of crazy DRM scheme.

There's a wallpaper sized version of the of the pirate robot image and a new
song on the official blog post here:
[http://machinarium.net/blog/2010/08/05/machinarium-pirate-
am...](http://machinarium.net/blog/2010/08/05/machinarium-pirate-amnesty/)

~~~
StavrosK
I bought the game because of your comment, but I really really want to add it
to Steam, otherwise I'll lose the files and I'll have to download it from
piratebay or something... I emailed them twice so far, I wish I had a key I
could add...

~~~
almost
I've lost the game files once so far and emailed them, they let me download
them again which was nice. I wonder if it's possible for them to let you add
it to your steam account after you've bought it through there website, I think
steam has its own payment processing things from which Valve must take a cut.

~~~
StavrosK
I think you should be able to add a game to Steam if you have a key, they do
let you do that... If I lose the files (which I will), I'll just get them off
TPB, I guess...

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theBobMcCormick
If that 90% figure is accurate, that's really fucking depressing.

That's a beautiful looking game. I sure hope they're getting enough sales to
make some decent money.

~~~
lionhearted
> If that 90% figure is accurate, that's really fucking depressing.

I think the focus needs to shift from, "This sucks," to, "This is what it is,
how can we deal with it?" Like a lot of other industries, games are going to
need to evolve.

Server-side data and good online connecting is a way. Platforms like Steam
that take the hassle out of online buying is a way. Alternative monetizing
might be a way. Tasteful sponsorship and in-game advertising? At this point,
piracy is what it is, and it's not going away. Time to start thinking about
ways to monetize those pirates.

~~~
lemming
Machinarium is actually available on Steam. I guess I'd like to think that for
a lot of people piracy is simply easier than the legal alternatives - this is
true for a lot of people outside the US for movies, for example. If I want to
watch movies at home I either have to buy them or walk 15 mins to a video
store to get a scratched DVD from a lousy selection. I'm pretty staunch about
not pirating but it tests my patience when with bittorrent I'd be watching
anything I like in far less time.

However due to being on Steam buying this game can't get much easier and
people still pirate it. I agree the focus has to change but it is still a
shame, this game is beautiful. I think the amnesty sale is a great way to draw
attention to the issue (and the game too).

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noonespecial
At the bottom there might be a choice. 100,000 copies in the wild with 90,000
of them pirated or 100 copies, all legit.

If fact, its probably a continuum. Choose your point anywhere along that line.
(Of course, you never heard about the one where only 100 sold, the developers
decided they'd failed and gave up).

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rick888
Interesting. So 90% of the people pirate the game (which has no serial number
or protection). I thought the reason people pirated apps was because of
draconian protection systems like DRM?!

~~~
jsz0
Hardcore pirates will always find a new excuse. Most of them just don't want
to pay. They can't be counted as lost sales if they never had any intent to
buy.

~~~
patio11
Hardcore pirates will always find a new excuse, but well-implemented DRM is
really helpful at encouraging mostly honest people to be as honest as they
believe themselves to be. A huge segment of the population will be every bit
as honest as you require them to be.

~~~
gamble
Within many game companies, the goal of DRM is to prevent people from pirating
the game for the first week or two. They know better than anyone it'll be
cracked eventually. But DRM definitely has an effect on sales if the pirates
have to wait a few days to get the game for free. At least some of them will
pay, if they have to.

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reynolds
Machinarium is amazing. I purchased it last December when they had a sale
going. I would've gladly paid the full price for it.

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es3754
Even if you don't wish to play the game (often), the soundtrack is pretty
awesome to have as background coding music. $5 is a steal.

~~~
jastuk
agreed; soundtrack alone is well worth the money

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ynniv
I just paid my $5 site-unseen for the game and soundtrack. Haven't played the
game yet, but the soundtrack alone is worth more than $5.

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myffical
World of Goo, another excellent indie game, also reported a 90% piracy rate
two years ago. The developers calculated that percentage from the number of
users on their high score board, which were much more than the number of
actual online sales. They were very gracious about it, deliberately choosing
not to put any DRM on their software.

Sad as it may be, putting DRM might not increase sales numbers significantly.
It just makes crackers more determined. Such was World of Goo's reasoning
against DRM.

[http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/11/acrying-shame-
wor...](http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/11/acrying-shame-world-of-goo-
piracy-rate-near-90.ars)

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tomjen3
So those who are honest pay the full price, and those who don't only have to
pay 1/4?

Yeah that is going to cut down on piracy.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
It's $5 for everyone. The piracy thing is a marketing gimmick because you
don't get written up in gadget blogs just because you have a sale.

~~~
thibaut_barrere
Is it $5 for those who already paid ?

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grhino
Again, I think it's better to simply look at it as a sale price that comes
after the product has become successful plus a little bit of guilting those
that haven't paid for it to buy it.

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beastman82
Developer, if you read this, please offer the sale on Steam! I will gladly buy
it

~~~
martey
What about <http://store.steampowered.com/app/40700/> ?

~~~
friendlyhacker
_"please offer the sale on Steam!"_

As in the sale price. It's still $19.99 on steam.

~~~
martey
When I made my comment, I believe it said "please offer the app on Steam", or
something similar.

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someone_here
I pirated this game to see if it would work on my N900 as a standalone (since
the demo did not). The game was still too slow, so i didn't purchase it.

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sterwill
My wife purchased this game last year and we had a lot of fun working through
some of the puzzles together. The art and music are great.

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RBerenguel
Just bought it, awesome game.

