Trials developer put its own game on torrent sites for marketing

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 7th 2009 at 4:00PM }

We all know the timeless adage: "If you can't beat them, then think of cleverer ways to entice them, then break down their spirits, showing them the error of their ways, which will ultimately lead to you beating them." Developer RedLynx employed this strategy when trying to make a foothold in the piracy-riddled PC gaming market when it released its motorbike platformer, Trials, last year. However, the method of this "release" were unconventional, to say the least: The studio actually beat PC pirates to the punch, and uploaded its own game to a number of popular torrent sites.

The version the developer distributed was missing one key feature, however: Leaderboard support. According to RedLynx CEO Tero Virtala, who spoke on the bizarre distribution model at the Develop Liverpool conference, "leaderboards are the soul of the game." He hoped that pirates would fall in love with the leaderboard-less version of the game, then purchase the full version so they could compete with their law-abiding friends.

Virtala admitted that he has no way of knowing how successful that strategy was, but we applaud the studio's unbridled chutzpah nonetheless.

Tags: bike, motorbike, piracy, redlynx, tero-virtala, torrent, trials

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Travis @ Nov 7th 2009 4:05PM

they put it there because no one would pay full price for that game.

danthaman15 @ Nov 7th 2009 5:01PM

Which explains why its selling so well. Thanks for clearing that up. It's so obvious now...the only reason games sell so well is that no one buys them! OBVIOUSLY!

pearl @ Nov 8th 2009 6:10AM

does anyone actually care about leaderboards?

The only one I've ever looked at was in Street Fighter 4 to see me compared to friends.

But I remember Bungie saying in the days of Halo 2: "leaderboards are for a very small percentage of the playing population and its becoming less and less meaningful to maintain them"

-paraphrasing a little there but that was the gist of it.

I just dont see how leaderboards are touted as such a big feature of games when developers get interviewed about "whats in the game"

Leaving out leaderboards, big whoop. I really dont think that has translated into sales. I see it being more of people saying "that was actually really fun, im going to but this to support that developer"

Crusty Magic @ Nov 7th 2009 4:06PM

"piracy-riddled PC gaming market"

Tell that to all the copies of MW2 that have been pirated on the 360 these past few days.

GreyFox @ Nov 7th 2009 4:07PM

I'm tired of people acting like it doesn't exist on consoles. Just because it's not as visible does not mean it is not there Joystiq!!

Aurailious @ Nov 7th 2009 4:14PM

And just because its on the 360 doesn't mean its still and issue on the PC.

Zing @ Nov 7th 2009 5:45PM

They said that because it is, not because it doesnt appear on consoles but im sure the number of pirated games on consoles is very low compared to the numbers of those who actually pay for them

TJ @ Nov 7th 2009 4:34PM

Surprised someone would mention the piracy of Modern Warefare 2 in this posting without mentioning the possibility of them doing the same thing RedLynx is doing.

I think that MW2 was placed up there by the devs on purpose to make people want to buy the game where they will, say, be able to play with the majority of people who purchased the game. I'm foreseeing incompatibility problems. Also, they got publicity for the "leak", didn't they? And they released it on the console where not many people would be able to use it anyways. If it was for PC they would lose many more sales.

Dreaded Fear @ Nov 7th 2009 4:34PM

It may exist on consoles, but it is no where near the levels of the PC. Also sales are declining on PC as well, so companies automatically assume correlation.

tmacairjordan87 @ Nov 7th 2009 4:39PM

Come back to me with that complaint when piracy on consoles is 1/10 the size of piracy on PC

Hakaisou @ Nov 7th 2009 4:43PM

You all are stupid. The article makes a statement about the widespread piracy on the PC, not the absence of it on the 360.

Morons

Crusty Magic @ Nov 7th 2009 4:44PM

To all of you saying that console piracy is not anywhere near the PC's.

Look at those numbers: http://isohunt.com/torrents/?ihq=modern+warfare+2

Viking @ Nov 7th 2009 4:52PM

I am just happy I chipped my PS1 back in the day. It's still hooked up to the TV, but if I get an urge to play something PSN doesn't have, I don't have to hunt down a copy for sale. So yeah, Yarrr, I'm a pirate.

But PC games I buy, gotta have my online.

RKN @ Nov 7th 2009 5:17PM

If pirating games on the consoles was as easy as the PC, then I'd like to see the piracy rates compared. Piracy has made a more significant impact on the DS and especially PSP.

Monica Dickey @ Nov 7th 2009 5:40PM

@TJ

I don't think IW did it intentionally for that reason... I haven't looked into it but I am guessing the MW2 leak is going to be fully functional online so long as the pirates wait until the release date before playing.

Since consoles don't have security keys and stuff like PC there is really no way to protect consoles from pirate games beside dummies playing early rips of games that are distinct from the retail copy, or getting caught playing final versions way before the game is supposed to be out.

Fun DMC @ Nov 7th 2009 5:58PM

Oh, yeah, Crispy. Data that shows the single most anticipated game of the year (as well as the game that's likely gonna end up selling the most units) being pirated in the DOZENS of HUNDREDS (omg huge number rite) totally proves that PC piracy and console piracy can be compared

:|

of course, I expect those numbers to get bigger after the game comes out and the NTSC copy is leaked, but still, common sense would tell you that, while this leak may make the 360 piracy community seem to have a presence comparable to the PC piracy community, the fact that it's much more difficult to pirate for the 360 would prevent the 360's piracy rate from ever reaching the PC's

Dreaded Fear @ Nov 7th 2009 6:09PM

Very specific example you've shown there. The most anticipated game of the year (in terms of sales) getting pirated... big surprise. The difference is they are getting banned, and risk losing their console by going online. If someone on PC gets caught, there is no way (legally) to ban or disable their PC.

Also no one can play the PC version and get essential files for the game, because of Steam (which is a closed system) That is why the PC version has yet to be cracked, and that is what developers, and publishers are aiming to get rid of: zero day piracy. In the end, the closed system that IW had implemented on the PC version is actually doing wonders in terms of ensuring there is no zero day piracy.

alinos @ Nov 7th 2009 7:17PM

RKN @ Nov 7th 2009 5:17PM
If pirating games on the consoles was as easy as the PC, then I'd like to see the piracy rates compared. Piracy has made a more significant impact on the DS and especially PSP.

pirating on consoles is just as easy as the PC, the only thing is that the users are either scared or dont know how. i know people with softmoded consoles and there yet to be banned, although originally they dont it so they could import games but now they pirate

Very specific example you've shown there. The most anticipated game of the year (in terms of sales) getting pirated... big surprise. The difference is they are getting banned, and risk losing their console by going online. If someone on PC gets caught, there is no way (legally) to ban or disable their PC.

Also no one can play the PC version and get essential files for the game, because of Steam (which is a closed system) That is why the PC version has yet to be cracked, and that is what developers, and publishers are aiming to get rid of: zero day piracy. In the end, the closed system that IW had implemented on the PC version is actually doing wonders in terms of ensuring there is no zero day piracy.

Yeah except that when you pirate a PC game YOU DONT USE THERE ONLINE SERVICE(unless the companys server security fails like Operation flashpoint)

the 360 guys only have a problem if they wanna play online and thats when people buy the game. though PC pirating will probably run rampart on MW2 because people will just wanna blast through SP or just throw it in IW's face the zero day protection thing wont stop anything people have gotten around it before

Dreaded Fear @ Nov 7th 2009 7:34PM

When developers and publishers start moving away from consoles because of piracy than you will have an argument. Until then, the facts, and developers/publishers have shown, that PC piracy is a much bigger problem.

Mortifiedocalot @ Nov 7th 2009 9:36PM

"Until then, the facts, and developers/publishers have shown, that PC piracy is a much bigger problem. "

Used games sales do much more damage than piracy does on consoles and PCs (not combined, mind you).

I find it funny that no one in the industry bothers to comment on this too.

That plus the whole game rentals by mail thing is also another blow, add that with piracy and used game sales and you have a lot of negative impacts on console gaming.

lenandude @ Nov 7th 2009 11:02PM

You know what console piracy ISN'T on? PS3. Blu-ray has some insane copy protection or something.

Spike (WT) @ Nov 8th 2009 1:05AM

@lenandude
*facepalm*

Sherlock Homey @ Nov 8th 2009 2:55PM

Why do people keep comparing PC Piracy to ONE game?

Nathan-DTS [He is your father] @ Nov 8th 2009 8:05AM

lenandude, it doesn't have much piracy because pirating a game with up to 50GB of data would be hard drive genocide

Kyle @ Nov 7th 2009 4:12PM

Bands do this kind of thing too, especially the bands that aren't well known

Sandmonkey @ Nov 7th 2009 4:22PM

This isn't a smart move in my book, I don't use leaderboards :/

Viking @ Nov 7th 2009 4:54PM

Congratulations, you got your free game and your conscious clean.

Avatar @ Nov 7th 2009 4:25PM

The thing that most companies don't get is that people that pirate games weren't going to pay money for it anyway, so they're not losing any money. Also, those same pirates couldn't care less about leaderboards, because there are things like Garena that exist that have all that anyway. There are whole competitions just for people with pirated versions of games.

Brit @ Nov 8th 2009 1:08PM

> The thing that most companies don't get is that people that pirate games weren't going to pay money for it anyway, so they're not losing any money.

Actually, companies know that not everyone would've bought it. But, yes, some percentage of them (more than 0%, but less than 100%) would've bought it. Given the scale of piracy that goes on, even if a single-digit percentage of pirates would've bought it, that's a lot of lost sales. I've heard a number of game companies (e.g. 2d boy, Stardock) report piracy rates of around 90%. If as little as 10% of those pirates bought instead of pirating, it would've doubled their sales.

Durden @ Nov 7th 2009 4:27PM

I love Trials HD!

Martin @ Nov 7th 2009 4:31PM

I just downloaded the demo on XBL, watched replays of the #1 performances in every single race (even locked ones) and then deleted it. The end levels seemed frustrating, so it was the right way to go for me.

uncle jesse @ Nov 9th 2009 10:58AM

You downloaded the demo, WATCHED other people's runs, decided it was frustrating and then deleted it.

You really don't get the point of demos do you?

At least play it yourself. Sheesh.

Martin @ Nov 9th 2009 11:12AM

No, I played through all of the available levels before watching the runs. Under the medium difficulty (or whatever name they gave it) is where I started to become frustrated, mainly because I'm not good at this type of game. It has nothing to do with the game itself, it's just not my cup of tea.

Now reading back through my original comment, I did come off like an ass and like I didn't even give the game a try. But I did give it a go, and I'm not really an ass.

Einhanderkiller @ Nov 7th 2009 4:32PM

I think the article say that the game has sold 150,000 copies. That's pretty impressive for an indie game.

Panic Blitz @ Nov 7th 2009 4:40PM

Good move or bad, at least they tried something new.

Phillip @ Nov 7th 2009 4:44PM

I heard that Introversion did something similar for "Darwinia". They put a version of the game up on torrent sites that, after reaching a certain point in the game, Dr. Sepulveda pops up and gives you a speech about how you shouldn't pirate games and how, if you like the game, you should purchase it and support the devs so they can make more games.

I think they even got community members to help seed the torrents.

Very clever indeed.

lhfan04 @ Nov 7th 2009 5:01PM

Well. I will take one of your torrents then. Thanks. Before I get downrated up the ass I already have the XBLA version but would like the PC version as well.

Einhanderkiller @ Nov 7th 2009 5:38PM

The PC Trials 2 and XBLA Trials HD are two different games. They're not just different versions of each other.

sony boy (6 years til sony man child!) @ Nov 7th 2009 5:02PM

they should've put like that black ink weapon from mario kart on the screen so the pirates couldn't see what they're doing.

Katana Master @ Nov 7th 2009 5:11PM

So I can get this for free?

Awesome.

Ghen @ Nov 7th 2009 5:32PM

Seriously. I searched all the sites. Where is this marketing copy? I want it! If I really like the game and want to brag to my friends I'll buy the one with leaderboards like you're telling me to do.

Ghen @ Nov 7th 2009 5:37PM

Looks like the latest release is Trials 2 second edition by skidrow. While this is probably a legit scene release, I'd rather have the marketing copy for the luls.

CH3BURASHKA @ Nov 7th 2009 5:14PM

Makes sense. Did they not have a demo, or was are demos not good at selling games? I was always under the impression that demos were a big reason for purchasing.

This reminds me of the Batman fake leak with broken glide controls.

Ghen @ Nov 7th 2009 5:38PM

Half Life 2 got a lot of sales from pirates who suddenly found the AI stopped working partway into the 2nd or 3rd level ;)

OmegaVader @ Nov 7th 2009 5:14PM

this isn't far off from how they sunk Napster (before they had it taken down altogether) -- they did mass uploads of incoming singles with static randomly edited in. Made it a pain to find what you wanted back then.

Stteevvveee @ Nov 7th 2009 5:18PM

Now we need World of Warcraft minus the subscription fee and that would include not being able to save your items or level.. woot!!111.. wait

JohnHeist @ Nov 8th 2009 6:25PM

I downloaded the trial (see what I did there?) and played it a ton with all my friends so I went ahead and bought the full version.

The Leaderboards ARE truly the soul of this game. Everybody always says that, but half the fun is seeing how your friends are doing and one-upping them.

Filthy Assistant @ Nov 8th 2009 5:14AM

They should do this for the 360 version, I don't give two craps about leaderboards but the game seemed decent. Not 15 dollars good, but ya know.

Godmil @ Nov 8th 2009 5:31AM

I always thought this was a good idea. A lot of people pirate games because it's easier than buying them... but what if the makers uploaded bogus versions of their game that didn't work at all... if they were 6+gig downloads, then I can't see people downloading too many different version before they decide that buying it would be simpler.

Arkm @ Nov 8th 2009 3:54PM

Trials HD is one of the best games I've played in recent years. It's incredibly fun, addictive and very well crafted. It reminds of the fun I had playing the early Tony Hawk games.

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