I actually hadn't known about this until a friend in IRC mentioned it.
Tropico 3 wasn't available to him, and wasn't scheduled for a UK release until Nov. 6th. He went ahead and downloaded the game off some P2P tracker or another, and when he launched it it asked for a serial. It then also had a link to buy the serial key online, which took him to a site that offered a Tropico 3 license key for cheaper than the full game. Within a minute he had turned his pirate copy into a legit copy.
If that isn't a brilliant way of recouping the real 'lost sales' from piracy, I don't know what is.
To make a point though, what was said site? Although if this is a legitimate manouver it will certainly work up to a point - there will always be those people who refuse to pay, but I suppose this helps stem the bleeding.
Of course that whole situation would have never occured with a similtaneous worldwide release which publishers seem so allergic to these days.
Doesn't pirate Windows' offer the same thing nowadays? That's what i've heard anyway
This is a very important point. Its incredibly annoying to live in Norway trying to be legit, but seeing that a lot of what is offered on Gamersgate and Impulse is US (or even UK) only.
Way too much software is too U.S.-centric, and not just in the consumer space. i'm going through a tremendous amount of pain right now trying to demonstrate a Chinese-translated UI, even though the UI's lables are just UTF16 characters.
Isn't this rewarding the pirates though? If this is really how it works, why wouldn't everyone just download it and buy the key at a discount?
some people like actually owning the discs, manual, and box that come with a game. Others hate it.
Offering a downloadable version of the game thru P2P is by far the cheapest route for game distribution. You don't pay to put it in a store, you don't have to package it.. you don't have to pay to ship it.. it's cheap and awesome. That's usually why they offer it cheaper online through p2p than through buying a hard copy. If it's not through p2p, they will have to pay bandwidth costs as that can add up very fast, and they will usually have something to offset that cost (same price as store version.. more advertisements.. something).
Was the site in question a legit seller of the software though? This smells to me like your friend just paid some pirates for a (still) illegal copy of the game and is now at risk of credit card fraud.
Releaseing legitcopis on P2P shouds like a great idea.
Why? Bandwith. As it is, Stardock is paying for storage and bandwith you you to download their digital distribution setup. Sure stardock cant do the p2p thing but for certian independent games it may be a viable option.
What a noob, that will teach him to download only scene releases
It's a brilliant way to drive people to piracy too, on the other side of the coin...by reinforcing the notion that the retail price is unreasonable and making people who actually paid said price unhappy.
No it isn't.
As was mentioned before, the lower price of the download in conjunction with the online serial compared to the boxed version is perfectly okay coz you don't get a box, a disc, and a printed manual and the likes.
Okay, if you buy an EA sports product boxed you don't get a printed manual either, but that's just on a side note.
The version available through Impulse asks for the serial upon launch and presents the same link to buy the serial. Of course having purchased through Impulse you just paste in your serial. This game is fantastic though and definitely worth the price of admission. Vote El Presidente....or else.
I buy lots of games digitally and never get a box, a disc, or a printed manual. And I prefer it that way. And I don't mind paying full price for it. But if I pay full price for it and people who steal it don't, suddenly that means I got ripped off and people with no morals didn't.
Which would make me understandably pissed off. Why would I continue being a loyal customer if I was being punished for it?
You wouldn't. As a poster stated above, p2p is cheaper because of bandwidth reasons. Instead of the company relying on a server with limited bandwidth, the burden is given to people cost free. All you'd have to do is pay for the key.
I like the p2p model. I live in a rural area, and my internet is quite whacky. For example, when I am downloading a game or update on steam, I cap out at 150kb/s. Slow, I know. When I download something from a p2p app and it's seeded well, I can pull over 200kb/s. I know it's not much, but it's way faster than downloading from a "legit" site.I've contacted the ISP and told them about the discrepancy, but they don't really care about us country folk...
Anyway, I think it makes sense. If you want a hard copy, you pay more. If you want a digital copy straight from a company provider like Impulse or Steam, you pay a little less, but you still pay for the game in addition to bandwidth costs, and p2p pays less, but may have to put up with low seed and upload speeds.
Wow, so the whole five cents it costs them to let me download it translates to a lot more when passed on to the customer! Alright.
I'm not buyin it. It might make sense to a company with low sales to be all friendly to the thieves, but in doing so they're doing absolutely nothing for legit customers.
The side of the argument I can buy is that you're buying direct from the company, which certainly benefits them more. That's about the only positive I see to this crap.
Scuse me, I gotta mention I wasn't intending to take over the thread. I just meant to say that if I had bought Tropico 3 and found out about that later (and assuming it is only a conversion attempt for stolen copies,) it would've made me unhappy.
Still, as long as it made someone happy, s'all good. I didn't buy Tropico 3, so I'm certainly not terribly upset.
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