Study: Positive correlation between piracy and game review scores

by Jessica Conditt on Aug 6th 2011 2:00AM

Pirates may be dirty, pillaging fiends, but they have high standards, according to a study from Copenhagen Business School and University of Waterloo. The study tracked 173 new games on BitTorrent over a three-month release period, finding 127 of these were downloaded by 12.7 million unique peers, and that a torrent's popularity was directly correlated to its review scores. The 10 most-downloaded games comprised over 5.3 million downloads, or 42 percent of the 127 pirated games.

Fallout: New Vegas had the most downloads (962,793) and an average review score of 83.7, followed by Darksiders (656,296) with a review score of 82.7. Tron: Evolution had the lowest score of the top 10 at 59.5, yet came in fifth place (496,349). StarCraft 2 had the highest review score at 89.5 and landed in seventh place (420,138). Review scores can't trump a title's notoriety, reputation or core fanbase, but researchers found "Metacritic Scores explain 10% of the variance in the unique peers per game on BitTorrent." In other words, the only vessel that these pirates are sailing on is a statistically positive relationship.

Source: TorrentFreak

Tags: bittorrent, Darksiders, Darksiders-Wrath-of-War, Fallout-New-Vegas, pc, piracy-research, Pirates, Starcraft-2, Tron-Evolution

Reader Comments (80)

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@Yothe

sooooo...this means??? oh i got it!!! pirates are downloading GOOD games not crappy ones??? oh really!!!????????? jesus that´s amazing!!! i always thought pirates only pirated bad games.....!!!!!!!!

Correlation does not imply causation! OR something! Anyways, for me it's metacritic.com first and thepirate.org second. ;)

@The Nasty Nick
Im sorry you pirate games... Anyways I had to add this xkcd link http://xkcd.com/552/

@The Nasty Nick

Right, correlation does not imply causation, but it does mean that there is a relation. It could also very well be true that it is a direct causation, but the correlation does not imply that is the case.

@RageOverdose
Did you know that IQ is positively correlated with shoe size?

Babies are not as smart as adults.....

@serge808

Well actually, IQ is age adjusted. This is because IQ was originally the ratio of your mental age to your physical age multiplied by 100. That meant that a 1 year old that was as smart as the average 1 year old had an IQ of 100, and a 20 year old that was as smart as the average 20 year old also had an IQ of 100. Nowadays, the scoring is achieved through different means but the general principle for IQ stays the same. It is incredibly difficult to test for the IQ of an infant, but babies actually, on average, wouldn't have any lower of an IQ than the average adult. In fact, the average IQ of any age is ALWAYS 100, because the test is designed to be that way. Your IQ only compares your intelligence to others of a similar age.

You have to be shitting me. Why am I reading this.

@Acosta02 The same reason why you're leaving a comment on it.

This is why the pirate argument of "Oh, I'll buy the game if it was good" is the stupidest thing ever.

I've talked to many of these people and when you talk to them, every game they play, according to them, is a pie*e of sh*t. H-ll, they can even love the darn game and they still won't buy it.

All pirates do is make up excuses to justify their immoral practices, when in reality, THEY ARE THE PROBLEM!!

If a game is so bad, DON'T BUY IT and DON'T PLAY IT! - If you want to play it? BUY IT! Simple No?

-End PC Gamer rant-

@xiLeShadow The only reason I would pirate a game is to bypass the horrible DRM. I've had nothing but nightmares with Dragon Age Origins: The Ultimate Edition on PC bought from Steam due to beautiful DRM. So I feel no qualms of getting a clean copy via a torrent.

Otherwise, I support my precious platform in the hopes the developers will too!

@xiLeShadow Seriously. It's either 'I need to see if I like it first' or 'It's so bad I'd never buy it anyways'. It gets old. At least it's been a while since I've heard the Robin Hood bs though, with them pretending to take a high ground against evil corporations.

@xiLeShadow Way to stereotype bro. What makes you think that such a large group as pirates can be classified only one way? Pirates are not the problem. If anything, they're the solution. There's been studies done that show pirates are frequently the ones purchasing games. Try before they buy. This is why indie games have done so well in recent years. Sure, they're easy to pirate, but you pirate it and find out it's an awesome great, and support the dev. What you say in general doesn't make any sense. How can you know a game is bad without playing it?

Also, the most pirated games are also the ones that sell the most.

Anyways, I think you make PC gamers look like idiots. Go back to your consoles. I'm gonna be over here, pirating stuff, buying it later, buying up my backlog on steam sales, and supporting independent development.

@xiLeShadow

Sounds like you know some shitty pirates. The ones I know have greater respect for developers, and *will* buy games if they're perceived as a good value. I buy a ton of games.

I'm more likely to torrent a game if it has poor or mixed reviews, either to try for myself or out of sheer curiosity. And I know many who do the same.

It'd be great to somehow see the number of times a game is downloaded and find out how many of those people decided to go out and buy it as well. I'm willing to bet the numbers are higher than most people think.

@DustbinK Its easy for people to make sweeping generalizations about a group of people. I think there are some that like to pick on PC gamers for the hell of it.

@nerdydesi1 Speaking of Robin Hood ...

Take a stand against the practice and don't buy or play it, full stop. Supporting piracy, even if you bought it first, is only going to hurt you in the end with even less PC games getting released and even more restrictive DRM.

@xiLeShadow Maybe pirating would also be less if PC gamers had the option to rent games like console gamers. Likewise if console gamers couldn't rent games (ala GameFly, BlockBuster, etc.), the piracy rate for consoles would increase.

@xiLeShadow

Exactly. People always love to say that if companies would make better games, then there would be less pirates, yet games like StarCraft 2 and New Vegas are some of the most pirated games.

@xiLeShadow
My brother has this idea that if there's an easier way to attain something, do it. This apparently applies to video gaming for him as well. Thus, piracy. I think in you love something, want to support it, and it's readily available then buy it. There isn't an excuse otherwise. If you had to use the most of your money to pay for rent, then don't pirate "The Awesome Last Fantasy Saga XXI". Just save up people. Necessity before desire.

@nerdydesi1 Per renting: OnLive seems to be making strides toward that end.

@Epoque If I buy a game with horrible DRM, the least I would do is crack it, if not pirate a "clean" copy of the game.

If you look at my Steam profile, you will see I am the furthest thing from a pirate. All those games I've bought, and those don't even include the physical ones on my desk!

http://steamcommunity.com/id/nerdydesi/games?tab=all

@nerdydesi1 I never called you a pirate, I merely criticized your resorting to piracy to get around a problem. Sure, you own the game, but you're still showing studios that you are willing to pirate. That definitely overrides the fact you bought it in their eyes.

@xiLeShadow
I pirate video games simply because I can without any repercussion. I don't need to justify to myself some bullshit excuse why I do it. When I want to get the latest game I have two choices; pay 30p for a dual layer disc or pay £30 for its retail counterpart.

@gettinmoney662 Just because a game is popular and got high scores doesn't mean it's any good or deserves a perfect 10.

@gettinmoney662

That's not at all what people say, and those are two separate metrics.

There will always be pirates, but better games sell better and pirating has less of an impact on sales. Your "example" of StarCraft 2 and New Vegas says nothing to disprove that.

@Epoque I don't know what more I can do. For instance with DAO: UE, I bought the game from Steam. I play it for the first time and I have to register all the DLC in order to play them. I do that and everything was working the first time I ran the game. But everytime now when I quit and restart the game, it will keep forgetting I authenticated the DLC. I can't even load my games due to the DLC not being authenticated anymore.

Many people have had this issue looking on BioWare forums and elsewhere. Its just absolutely ridiculous and I really refuse to accept it. Short of cracking my copy or pirating a clean copy, I'm pretty much screwed here.

@nerdydesi1

Well Direct2Drive has that rental program starting up and Green Man Gaming now has trade-in credit for games.

Although after being bought by Gamefly, D2D has been sucking.
---

On the side note, I apologize to any one I offended. If you buy the game, (even if the game is bad), I thank you for supporting the developers/publishers.

and yes, I don't know any of these kind "pirates". Everyone I know who pirates never buys the darn game or they "I'll never pay for single-player only games"..

---- I just wait for reviews, go on forums, and watch videos to judge if a game is worth my money. (Although, I didn't do this for Brink and I then I felt robbed.) I really hate when publishers start chanting out those "torrent" numbers and say they won't support the PC.

I love the PC, its where I started gaming, and its the best platform ever, IMO. Don't want to hurt it.

@saturn118 Okay Mr. Pirate. I don't want to see you complain then when yet more developers decide to scale back or totally axe PC development..

If PC gaming dies for good, would you go to consoles and pirate from there?

@Epoque

Not really, since they'll never know in the first place. Also, if they own a legitimate license, I wouldn't even consider it piracy at that point. Using a cracked exe to start a game you own without being online falls under more of a modification or at worst "reverse engineering" category.

@nerdydesi1

I agree with you. You bought the game. You own a license to the game. You aren't really pirating that case.

If a game has horrible DRM, (Ubisoft DRM or bad SecuROM) I ignore the game and don't buy. I don't pirate it either.

The PC Gaming library is huge enough for me to skip a few poor DRM games.

@xiLeShadow I'd rather play a demo or rent a game to judge whether or not it's worth my money. Reviewers tend to be morons and videos don't give you the whole picture.

@xiLeShadow

And I can understand that. We all know those people are out there.

Look at it from another angle for a minute though. You've just spent your hard earned $50 on a brand new game you're excited about, for one reason or another. Later on you play it and find that it's really not that great. Most stores don't accept opened software returns. You've "supported" a developer who has let you down, and hasn't really earned the money you spent on their product. So what do you do?

I know you're thorough about reading up on reviews and waiting for critic scores and all that, but sometimes you'll still end up disappointed about a game that was supposed to be great. I know it's happened to me. I'm all for supporting software developers, but do we really need to support the crappy ones?

@Faceless Troll

That is why you take a huge collection of reviews, forum posters, and videos and come with a common conclusion.

If still in doubt, wait till the game gets cheaper. PC games (Non-Blizzard) fall in price super quickly, anyways.

Those prices are so cheap that you can own the game on PC and it would cheaper then renting the console version.

@xiLeShadow Or . . . You download the demo, and try it out for yourself. Unless you're incapable of forming your own opinions downloading the demo is sufficient for the vast majority of people.

@WiredKnight

Well I call that a mistake...not the developer's fault.

Normally when a lot of people are praising a game, then most likely it is good. I, personally, haven't felt ripped off in a recent game purchase (Going Back 2 Years).

(Other then Brink, which I bought while ignoring my own rules).

I can see it happening in smaller niche games though, so maybe that is a good reason. But I don't know...

@xiLeShadow

Good on you for having the willpower to wait. I've been waiting for Black Ops price to go down and it just will *not* drop below 40.

But you know this brings up another point. If you've waited six months to pick up a game on Steam that's dropped from 50 to 5, how much are you *really* supporting the developers? Sure you're getting it legally, and *maybe* they'll see a tiny bit of that (still not precisely sure how Steam's business model works), but we're still talking a 90% discount. The jump to 100% is not far.

@Faceless Troll

A lot of PC games don't have demos though....

@xiLeShadow

Brink is a perfect example. I'm sure a lot of people felt like total suckers after that whole thing. I don't wish poor sales on anyone, but hey that's capitalism, people vote with their wallets. It just kind of sucks being in a position where you no longer agree with the vote you cast, and you can't take it back.

@WiredKnight

$5 bucks is better then nothing.

Black Ops won't drop in price for a while. Call of Duty are like Nintendo games. They won't drop for years.

@xiLeShadow

Oh, I totally agree. I'm just wondering what kind of long-term impact it's going to have on the PC game market. I always wonder about how other developers feel about seeing their flagship product discounted so severely.

@DustbinK

Dude if you pirate a game and then 5 years later buy it on a steam sale for $4, that doesn't absolve you from being a douche bag and taking away money from developers.

@xiLeShadow If it doesn't have a demo then I won't buy it at full price. Unless you're a brand slave it's a simple solution.

@Faceless Troll

I don't buy games at full price anyways haha...

Way too expensive

@xiLeShadow

Why is this tagged PC-only?

Home consoles, handheld consoles, and mobiles are prone to pirates as well.

Maybe its the games they listed.

@xiLeShadow

"This is why the pirate argument of "Oh, I'll buy the game if it was good" is the stupidest thing ever."

I'm not defending pirates, but your logic here makes no sense. What does this news have to do with that argument? How do you know how many of the people who pirated those games did, or didn't, go ahead and purchase the game after based on this?

@xiLeShadow
I pirate once in awhile. Mostly games I'm unsure of and then usuall buy them any. Heck, I buy pretty much every great to decent game that comes out period on PC and console. You have to support the devs especially since a lot of the best games arent really in the mainstream eye.

@nerdydesi1 I think EA should be sued for how they packaged the Ultimate Edition of Dragon Age. I bought it retail and the box clearly says "Includes all 7 downlodable content packs." This is obviously not true as you have to download them yourself through EA's idiotic authentication program. Then the fine print says you have to authenticate by July 30, 2011. So if I bought the Ultimate Edition now, I would not get the DLC packs at all?!? The kicker of course is that after all this authentication crap, the game still insists I keep the disc in the drive to play it.

More popular games get pirated.

Who would have thought.

@Reapers That's not what this is saying though that is true.

Well maybe if developers would stop rushing so much crap to the shelves with no trials, and take the time to make quality games that are worth the asking price, then there would be less pirating, and no need for the ridiculous DRM BS.

In the past damn near every PC game had a trial, and there were some damn good titles all the time, but lately its like only1/20 games are even worth it.

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Study: Positive correlation between piracy and game review scores

Reader Comments (80)

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:05AM Yothe said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 11:30AM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:05AM The Nasty Nick said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:21AM KaCeX said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:43AM RageOverdose said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 8:06AM serge808 said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 1:58PM The Nasty Nick said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:08AM Acosta02 said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 3:30AM GaryOldmanRulez said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:10AM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:16AM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:19AM Epoque said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:19AM DustbinK said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:20AM WiredKnight said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:21AM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:21AM Epoque said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:22AM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:23AM gettinmoney662 said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:23AM The Only Girl said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:24AM Epoque said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:24AM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:28AM Epoque said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:30AM saturn118 said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:31AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:32AM WiredKnight said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:32AM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:32AM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:34AM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:35AM WiredKnight said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:38AM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:44AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:47AM WiredKnight said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:47AM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:51AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:53AM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:54AM WiredKnight said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:55AM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:56AM WiredKnight said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:57AM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:58AM WiredKnight said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 2:59AM FriedConsole said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 3:00AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 3:02AM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 3:21AM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Aug 6th 2011 8:29AM Jenks said

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