EA calls Sims 3 leak its 'demo program'

by JC Fletcher on Jun 23rd 2009 9:31AM

"You identified our secret marketing campaign!" EA CEO John Riccitiello said of the large-scale piracy of a pre-release version of The Sims 3. "That was a very large scale – concentrated on Poland and China – demo program." How could Riccitiello be so cool about piracy? He told IndustryGamers that the incomplete leaked game served as an invitation to buy the full version, so despite the inadvertent leak, the value of the data from this "experiment" may outweigh the losses.

"A huge amount of the gameplay is an overlay for the community," he said, "where you are sampling assets created by other people. So for the pirate consumer, they don't get the second town, they don't get all the extra content, and they don't get the community. It was only concentrated on Poland and China, but I think of it as not being that different than a demo."

This kind of piracy only serves as a test for EA's ongoing move to online content. Riccitiello believes that EA is moving toward selling "services," by which he means longterm online games for which the initial purchase is either nonexistent or a small portion of the total payment for the game. "By the way, if there are any pirates you're writing for," he told IG, "please encourage them to pirate FIFA Online, NBA Street Online, Battleforge, Battlefield Heroes... if they would just pirate lots of it I'd love them. [laughs] Because what's in the middle of the game is an opportunity to buy stuff."

Source

Tags: ea, Electronic-Arts, john-riccitiello, leak, pc, sims-3

Reader Comments (46)

Wasn't the entire game torrentable a few days later?
I don't think anyone that pirated the "demo" version would buy full game

if the game was good enough I would buy it.

....

....when its 9.99 in the bargin bin.

The "demo" version is very much a fully featured sims game. If you downloaded that you would have no idea that something was missing. I had to check and re-check my wife's copy before I figured out it was the incomplete version.

You'd be surprised at just how many illegal downloads later translate into sales. Whilst there are those that won't buy goods they can pirate, others want physical copies of the things that they enjoy.

I bought the sims 3. The extra content in the game itself wasn't huge (another town built out of the same buildings in the first town, rearranged, on a different landscape), but the dlc and free dlc is pretty cool.

Piracy caused me to buy Fallout 3, too, and the creature creator unfortunately convinced me to buy spore.

Although what EA fails to mention is that the full game with all the stuff from the sims online store (at the time of release) was torrented.

I just will wait for the next expansion pack to become a "demo"

An EA suit not mad about piracy? Isn't this the same company that caused a lot of noise with their incredibly annoying DRM on Spore?

I am perplexed.

When you try one business method and it backfires on you, wouldn't you try the exact opposite to see what the result would be? From those two theories going forward you can create the best mix of both.

I laugh at this. The retail version still has speed problems...among others. Demo version my steel ass.

Your shiny metal ass, perchance?

Nice save there, EA. Clever. Not really...

Give the man a chance, I'm cool with him saying this.

Now why can't I buy it online from Mexico? You want me to pay in pounds?

What the hell does VAT stand for?

Just put it on Steam already :3

It's a trap!

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I'm glad you crashed my car.

You better NOT eat all of those vegetables.

I'll only stick the head in.

Haha, totally snorted Coke on that last one. +1

unintenional drug reference +1

Most of the community content is crap anyway. Why would people playing the "demo" want to pay $50 just to get access to dumb stuff like this rug http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=333343 ?

That's a nice fucking rug.

Because it really ties the room together?

feng shui?

Well, now I know better then to buy any of those games listed, since I'll just have to pay even more in the middle of the game. He wants me to pirate his games, who am I to argue with the man.

"So for the pirate consumer, they don't get the second town, they don't get all the extra content, and they don't get the community"

So why are all these content packs that aren't available to pirates all over the torrent sites?

There was a second town????

yeah, riverview (i think)

EA suit: OH SH- *serious'd* Yes, my pirate gamers, get your games for free, for this is totally part of our marketing plan.

Me:... Ok... *'buys' full game for $0.00* On a second thought, it's not worth the HD space. *deletes torrent task+data*

I'm glad EA is seeing the value in online distribution, but, I wish they would give on their own crappy store and just do everything through Steam. I would have already bought the Sims 3 if it was on Steam.

If the lack of Steam distribution is the only thing stopping you from picking up the game, maybe you just shouldn't pick it up to begin with.

You sir have never used EA's store.

The only reason this guy is so happy and laughing is because at the end the game was a huge success with more than 1.5 copies sold in one week, if the game would have failed we´d been reading: sims 3 leak causes huge sales failure!!!!!
"today is a sad day" EA CEO John Riccitiello said of the large-scale piracy of a pre-release version of The Sims 3.
The problem here is that when a game fails is piracy, when it succeed it´s magic.
And nobody seems to understand that piracy is NOT a main sales factor at the end of the day, don´t believe me? tell me that again when sims 3 reaches more than 5 million copies, very likely at the end of the year.

Sims will always be successful because of their target audience...

... tweens and MILFs bored at home?

Yeah, no thanks EA.

I'll continue BUYING (and yes, I know about all the "you are just licensing it" pish, but at least you get something tangeable and you do "own" that copy) from other people, you can keep your "services"

If that was the "secret marketing campaign", it worked on me at least. I wouldn't buy the game if it didn't turn out to be awesome when I downloaded it. The copy is still unpacked btw.

me too, all of my game content copied over seemlessly when I installed the retail copy. This was nice since I had about a weeks progress invested into the "demo"

This is pretty funny, actually. A lot of hardcore pirates think they're bringing down corporate America by stealing software. Whereas, in reality, they're just playing into EA's hands!

*ding ding ding*

"...for the pirate consumer, they don't get the second town, they don't get all the extra content, and they don't get the community."

yes, we do.

Called it.

Question. I know you can obtain the second town, Riverview, through means not entirely unlike piracy. I haven't been able to figure out, through outside research and speculation, what else is missing from the "demo" version of the game. Anybody know?

Poor fellow's off his rocker. Mad as a march hare.

In related news, the EU's Pirate Party has renamed itself the Demo Party..

If they did it on purpose...

...wouldn't that mean that people were playing a copy of the game that sorta *is* authorized?

Heh, kinda reminds me of those Zeno Clash devs who commented on the torrent sites. You can't stop it, so just take it as exposure; not that Sims needs any more exposure... Sims, ick.

Like most lies, you have to keep them going.

Did I read that right?

He wants us to "pirate" free-to-play games now? God, I feel so dirty now. All this time I thought I was legitimately downloading them.

"Because what's in the middle of the game is an opportunity to buy stuff."

That's basically what's there even if you buy the Sims 3, isn't it?

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EA calls Sims 3 leak its 'demo program'

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