First off, the fact that piracy rates of this game are so high should flatter 2D Boy. World of Goo is a great game, so the fact that so many people are pirating it should at least tell them they did a good job.

Next up. Sure, they are losing sales, but between two guys, I’d hope World of Goo netted at least SOME profit for them. Who else are they splitting it with? Valve might take a little for them using Steam, and so might the rest of their distributors. (I’m not sure how they work.) What else are they paying for? They don’t have an office, they just have two laptops and a lot of coffee consumption.

And… finally… as everyone has noted, there are many reasons why they might not necessarily have accurate numbers.

2D Boy is impressive. World of Goo is great.

They aren’t necessarily complaining (are they? I didn’t read their report), and I’m not saying they should or shouldn’t.

…I’m gonna stop talking now, cause I’m confusing myself :P

I bought two copies, I liked it so much. Well worth the $30 total.

Now, as a gamer, I loathe the more extreme forms of DRM, like the limited copies thing, but I’m not at all against DRM in itself. Games are products. Products should be protected from theft. I know, copying a game isn’t exactly the same but it still gets a ‘good’ in the hands of someone who hasn’t legally purchased it and deprived income from those who have to make a living out of it.

Of course there’ll be people who purchase some of the products they pirate, but that’s no reason to cut pirates any slack, except, perhaps if a game makes more income that way.

I mean, game piracy is the lamest piracy, period. Games are a luxury item bar none, and you’ll have to have sufficient income to be able to get the means to play computer games at all. So I don’t understand why it’s all about DRM, all the time, unless it’s to discuss the more extreme varieties.

And another thought: why are the producers always on the block because of DRM and never the pirates? Surely, if nobody pirates (a utopian idea, surely), there’ll be much less incentive to add more restrictive DRMs, especially since it costs money.

*ducks and covers*

It’s pathetic and deeply frustrating that this statistic will probably be bandied about wooden-panelled boardrooms as gospel by people who don’t know what they’re talking about.

the number of accounts is a constant in the maths they used to develop the ratio not the ratio itself, the number of copies sold is the constant in the ratio.

if the ratio was number of legit copies to accounts then the number of accounts would be relevant to the ratio.

I could be wrong.

i.e., if 10,000 games have been sold with a 90% piracy rate, then there are 90,000 pirated copies out there. If 10,000 games have been sold with an 80% piracy rate, then there are 40,000 pirated copies out there – ie, half as many.

If the total number of copies out there were the constant, then although there’d only be an 11% decrease in the number of pirated copies (80k rather than 90k) the number of copies sold would double instead (i.e., 20k sales rather than 10k sales.)

Numbers are slippery wee bastards.

What error do you get?

P.

P.

It’s a Steam problem apparently. I bought it through Steam and have attempted to play it on two machines with vastly different spec’s (both high-end). The results are the same on both. That’s why I’m considering pirating a non-Steam version so I can actually play the game I paid for.