The games sent to testers etc are unreleased and valuable intellectual property (IP) products.

Pre-release surely the thing to do would be to host a cloud service like On Live?
These do not give access to the files but give complete control of the game. Even then you would have to trust the host I guess, unless they could host it themselves.
As last time(Crysis 2) the files were released early via file sharing sites.

Guess Crytek/EA will have to be more careful this time.

I'll still be looking out for stray video footage before the release of Crysis 3 to help make my buying decision.

I don't think it matters. I buy good games, period. My friends do the same. Most PC gamers do it.

The "I wouldn't buy it anyways" is not just a handy excuse, it's 100% true. Piracy doesn't decrease your sales, bad games do.

There are serious unbiased studies on this (Swiss government, for instance). Do not buy into the MPAA/RIAA's bullsh*t.

I did have access to "the ugly build they didn't want anyone to see". It wasn't really much different from the final product, but didn't influence my decision to try, evaluate (and ultimately purchase, although I regret it dearly) the game.

Just use Origin or Steam, not some own made crap

I personally don't think it's morally wrong to play a pirated game if that helps you decide if you like it or not, I think it's wrong though to advertise a product and then sell something that is terrible (which sucks if you pre ordered it for example).

People won't buy the game just because you make it harder for them to pirate it, what we need to teach people is to respect the work of others and buy if you really enjoyed it, then same thing goes for music. Bandcamp is a proof of how much big labels whine about piracy yet independent artists are still making decent money by distributing the music themselves without submitting to restrictive contracts.

I cannot describe the feeling of extreme pleasure that I obtain from paying for a game that deserves it.

When I bought Serious Sam 3, I felt the most sincere joy you could ever imagine. And no amount of "freebie" piracy options will ever offset that.

Yeah. I pirated Serious Sam 3 before I bought it, as with all of the (many) games that I own. I test drive cars before I shell out my hard earned cash. Don't you?


DISCLAIMER: Please do not misconstrue this post as being an incitation from my part to engage in illegal activities: CHECK YOUR LOCAL LAWS. I AM ONLY DISCUSSING THE MORALITY, NOT THE LEGALITY.

There was a guy on inCrysis that used to get incredibly sensitive about people trying games before buying like "that's stealing you should be ashamed America is #1" hahaha. Seriously, the practices that move more money in ways I wouldn't consider ethical are all legal.
In some sites people actually encourage each other to buy the game if they liked it.

That's not completely true. Many people bought Diablo 3 cause they couldn't pirate it.
And you can't expect developers not to put in any DRM. Invenstors want their products to be safe, and they won't publish a title with no protection.



Yeah, the game is awesome. Croteam even released 10 new FREE maps in a patch for SS3 a few days ago. They also released some campaign DLC which however costs, but I will definetly buy it.

And SS3 has an awesome DRM!

It's not up to you to decide whether a game "deserves it" or not, it's not some charity or donation-based service. The devs have created a game and they're asking that you pay before you play. You either agree with that or you don't.

I wish to see demo's making a comeback. I remember the Mass Effect 3 demo which allowed you to play a solid ~30 minutes of the first mission which was GREAT, it influenced me enough to decide to buy it.

I believe demo's are the key to reducing piracy because a huge chunk of "pirates" simply want to have a quick taste of the game before spending $60-80 on it, they want to see if there is something inherently wrong or horrible that could throw them off. If the demo is great then the sales are sure to fly (see Mirror's Edge).

And this is all about singleplayer, which I couldn't be less interested in. Sure it's fun to blow-off 8-10 hours killing dumb AI and being guided through some sort of a story, but when I've spent 300+ hours in multiplayer then that is saying something.

So you are saying we must spend our money gambling to see if we will like the game or not, being ashamed (as many do with C2 [just as an example this time]) everytime we look at our game boxes and we see those little sh*ts we saved money for and brought us nothing but disgrace.

Totally logical.

Sorry but if I buy something, unless it´s food, if like it or not is subjective then I will definetly wont throw my money away blindly.

And I don´t know what could multiplayer do with anything. Besides MP is even more of something you don´t know if you will like until you play it. Anyway just because you play all your games for the MP it doesn´t mean everyone does.

As strickland said, games are a gamble.

As a consumer, it is fully my right to determine what games deserve my money. No businesses are hurt in the process: I will NOT buy a game that I cannot test first.

When games have good, complete, indefinitely accessible demos, I have no need to pirate them. Kingdoms of Amalur, Spec Ops: The Line... Notorious examples of games I would never buy but was initially interested in. Or Mass Effect 3. I wasn't interested in that one (I wouldn't even have pirated it), but it had a demo so what the hell, eh?

After a test drive, however, I bought none of them... And for this reason I'm not going to blindly throw money at things: I will evaluate them first.

Whether demos are a solution to the "piracy problem" requires you to assume several things:
- Piracy is a problem (according to unbiased, scientific studies like the one from the Swiss government, or Dutch Institution for Information Law it isn't)

- Piracy hurts sales/revenue (Again, according to the avobe, it doesn't: In fact, the conclusion to the study was that it actually INCREASED revenue, as media-enthusiasts both pirated more AND spent much more money on average. At the same time! Yes, the filthy freeloading pirate spends the most money!)

- Going through the costs and hassle of developing, hosting and distributing a free demo is better than piracy/no DRM, which sorts itself out (remember that the game will be cracked anyway).

- "Making your LEGITIMATE PAYING CUSTOMERS deal with intrusive DRM (or any DRM at all) while pirates enjoy the media freely" is a good business strategy in any universe

I like riding the currents more than I like swimming against them, and filesharing IS the norm right now and continues to grow and establish itself as the future of media distribution.

I also don't like gambles. Or bad games.

SOURCE for the Swiss study (It was actually five separate studies, I believe): http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2397173,00.asp

(Or just google "swiss government piracy study")

SOURCE for the Dutch study: http://torrentfreak.com/file-sharers-buy-more-movies-121018/

Basically, welcome to the 21st century.