World of Goo has 90% piracy rate

People complaining about piracy numbers are stupid. Of course you're going to have high piracy rates, considering that it's very hard to measure and easy to fudge. You should be worrying more about "did I make back my investment" instead of thinking "someones playing my game without paying".

Considering that this is a 2D game and those have modest budgets, as well as his whole attitude towards it, I'd have to say he's still making a hefty profit.

As a footnote: Believe me, there are plenty of legal ways to play a game without paying for it. Going over to your friend's house for one, which is more socially enriching too.

I downloaded a torrent copy of it, played it, loved it, bought it. If WiiWare had demoes they'd probably have less pirated software.

Test phase 2 compressed.

Test phase 4

Speaking of piracy, why hasn't dead space been made available on steam? I don't want to order the disks. I want to download it like i did with far cry 2. Both games were published by EA. So come on!... or else...

Okay, seriously. This is the biggest non-story I've ever seen that's been twisted to suit the viewpoint of whoever wrote it.

I buy all the games that I think are good (I have about 100 games for PS2/PS3/GCN/Wii sitting in front of me right now, and a whole slew of PC/DS games that are elsewhere). So obviously, I think a lot of games are good.

World of Goo is not one of them, because I haven't played the game yet, and being an Indie game, there's not a lot of marketing. I have bigger fish to fry right now (Mirror's Edge, Little Big Planet, Rock Band 2), and my game budget is used up at the moment. But when it does come time to give the game a try, you can bet that I'll be downloading it first. If I like it, I'll buy it. If not, then I delete it. Same as any other demo I've played. And the thought of emailing the developers never even entered into my mind.

And I know that I'm not the only one who does this. Stating that a small minority emailed him to tell him that they bought the game is just crazy. I'm sure that not everyone thinks that the game is worth $15. Some do, and go on to buy the game. Others are students who have no money. I'm sure that you all remember what it was like to be a student, and I don't feel right about asking some kid to choose between 10 boxes of Kraft Dinner (that's enough food for a week right there!), and a copy of my game.

At any rate, short and sweet. This is a nonsense statistic, because there's really no data on what the people who are downloading it are doing with it. I do know that world of goo is a unique game. I think it's only reasonable that someone would want to play it before forking out $15.

Has anyone considered that piracy may increase sales?

The reality is not every download is a lost sale.
Games, for most people, are very low in their priorities list.
Why pay for a casual game when there are so many equally addicting, and free alternatives. No, I'm not talking about piracy, but browser based flash games.

Without piracy, there would be way less exposure of the product to the greater audience. The majority of people who pirate, will not purchase the game, however some may truly love it, and through their own moral compulsion, purchase the game to support the publisher.

The naysayers may criticize how its naive of me to argue that publishers must rely on the goodness of a pirate's heart, and rightly so. The harsh reality is, fun and good quality games available for free is the norm in the absence of piracy. Without the exposure of piracy, surely, these companies will have lower sales than with. The goal should be to convert pirates into customers. Copy protection like serial keys are not bad in and of itself, but DRM that installs intrusive software only alienates potential customers and destroys goodwill.

Do good business, treat your customers right, have principals and live by them, then piracy will have a positive effect.

If the product is shoddy, even if piracy can be prevented, sales will not increase. It may be easier to make the first buck on first time customers who have not had the opportunity of "previewing" without the presence of piracy. But those customers will not return to buy the next time around. This is a poor way to go about business, and a loyal base to the brand will never develop. The issue of piracy can blind game makers from legitimate shortcomings. Simply preventing people from playing your games will not increase sales, except in the scenario I mentioned above. Alienating and counterproductive DRM policies should be avoided.

I argue that having MORE people play your games will have a positive effect on sales. Good games will create a loyal following.


Piracy simply amplifies the exposure of the product. In the end, the quality of the product will ultimately determine sales. I also concede that Piracy may be a selective pressure that helps good games sell a lot better, while, in a world without piracy publishers who sell shoddy products may get away with a lot more.

Though I understand the want to "try before you buy," and sympathize with those who would have never bought it in the first place, you must understand that your sense of morality is not a universal one. In fact, it's probably not even a popular one. There are far FAR more people in the world who would rather have a product for free with no consequences than there are people who steal it "just to try it out." The astounding ease of pirating software and rather underwhelming rates of prosecution when it happens practically guarantee that people aren't as well-intentioned as you are.

Well, drm doesn't stop priacy, but people see a small game like this and download like crazy. I got this one for wii, but they rly should of put in some type of online to deter priacy, thats how it should be done, give ppl some real online game play, so if they pirate it they can't play the main part of the game

Yeah, I just dowloaded the pirate version: I dunno why, but we Europeans aren't allowed to buy it on Steam. I'm sorry, but i dont want to wait until February, and I want the game on my steam account (where i have all my games). I'd be very happy to support the developpers, but hey, sorry guys: why the f*** did u geographically restricted the distribution??

And this has nothing to do with the fact that world of goo is still NOT FOR SALE via European steam? By pirating you'll get this one two months earlier and for free. It's hard to resist since game looks soo good.

The 90% number might be a little off, a lot of people that downloaded it illegally probably haven't even played it yet. A lot of my friends just download everything they can and then never ever touch the games.

Still, I do agree that if you like a game a lot you should always buy it if you can afford it. However, as a computer developer myself, I would be more than willing to give my products away for free to those who can't afford it. You always want to make money, but really, I just want people to enjoy my stuff!

The creators should just put a donation link up in-game. P:

The other 10% are probably used game sales. Zing!

I've pirated games (especially when I'm not sure the game will run well on my machine), but when it comes to small indie developers like 2D Boy with incredible games like World of Goo, I'm happy to shell out the cash. In fact, I preordered WoG nearly a year ago, when Penny Arcade first extolled the virtues of the game.