Electronic Arts says that it understands how an illegally downloaded copy is not, in any way, a copy that was lost as a sale to the company. Mariam Sughayer, who is working for the corporate communications department of EA, says that: “Stepping aside from the whole issue of DRM, people need to recognize that every BitTorrent download doesn’t represent a successful copy of a game, let alone a lost sale”. Understanding this, the company is getting ready to shift its approach so that it rewards the customer rather than punishing everyone for the sins of pirates.Expect Electronic Arts to emphasize the social and downloadable aspect of the game in order to fight piracy. For example, with the video game Spore, pirated copies cannot access the Sporepedia and cannot get creatures from other people in their games.
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So far, You're just DRM-festing your games like most of the industry.
Sounds like marketing BS. At least until they do something to back up what they're saying.
On the positive side of things, it's nice to know that the anti-DRM demographic is large enough for EA to acknowledge.
I played the game 3 times , went nuts to see the final product of a game i was expecting for ages and thought it would be "AWESOME" then gave it to my nephew on his birthday as a gift , to play 5 minigames no ty
The bank released a statement today. "People need to understand, when that robber came in and took all the cash, that doesn't really mean he stole our money."
When people download a copy of the game, it's usually for the reason that they want to play it but can't afford it. Either that, or they're replacing a copy of a game that they had already for which the DVD is scratched to hell. Yes, granted there are the minority of people with an off-centre moral compass, but forthe majoirity of people, if can afford it, they pay for products, and if they can't, they go without.
For EA, this recognition will give them a great win. If they push it through into their marketing strategies giving customers extra content and rewards not available to pirates then they'll likely begin to win even more people over. No Gears of War 2 for PC? Pah, it's not like people who want to copy it for Xbox will do that will they....?
There are tons of creature packs on BitTorrent too so that you don't have to connect to the sporepedia to import other people their creatures
I for one, think it's a rip that I pay $<price> and get a plastic box, a key, and a disc.
Lets see some REAL stuff. Why should I pay MORE for a 'special edition'
I downloaded The Orange Box before I went out and bought it.
I downloaded Call of Duty 4 before I went out and bought it.
Why? Because the games impressed me a lot.
I download a lot of PC games. I follow the "try it before you buy it" concept.
Everything is about money. There's little "human factor" I guess you could call it, left.
If you release **** games, you know people will download them instead of buying them. They literally are not worth the money to the consumer even if you pay your designers to and coders to make you a game and expect to make that back in product sales.
If you make a **** game that you know is ****, sell it at a lower price.
A game I see on gametrailers.com rated a 9.0+ is going to get my attention and I will expect to pay $50 for it.
A game I see rated a 4.x by a lot of people I usually won't even look at because it's probably just a lazy knock-off of another game, or a game-to-a-Marvel-movie that EA tries to get out in stores by the time the movie goes to DVD at Walmart
One word = ****.
What happened when prices were cut on the XBox360? Sales skyrocketed.
So, what happens if you cut prices on a game that you know is ****? People will probably actually appreciate the fact that you, as a company, are leveling with them and buy it. I'm not saying the amount of pirated downloads will decrease significantly, but it will be less IMHO.
So...in other words, you've gotta pray their identifying mechanism isn't FUBAR and your paid-for copy will correctly be IDed as the real McCoy?
Have they not heard of WGA?
Moron. Piracy is theft and theft is illegal. Your uneducated opinion does not change that. HOWEVER, if you are telling us all that EA doesn't consider piracy a lost sale then let's all get online and download EA games for free. Clearly, they don't mind.
It's not hard to comprehend how EA's performance has been miserable at best.
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