Dev releases pirate version of their own game, Please Fix The Road, on torrent sites

[toythatkills]

Ariel Jurkowski released the very reasonably-priced Please Fix The Road yesterday in the usual places, Steam, Itch, etc. Of note, is that they also released an "official" pirate version of the game. This isn't a demo, it's the full game as it releases. The logic being that people are gonna pirate it anyway, so why not have a bit of control over it and use it as an opportunity to maybe generate a few sales that otherwise would have never been achieved. It makes a weird kind of sense?

Pirate version will have all of the launch levels, but no updates. No strings attached. There's an extra pirate themed song at the start, altered intro sequence, a pirate face instead of the cogwheel options icon and a request in the options menu to buy the game. Cheers!

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Been following this for a while as it's pretty and riiiiight up my street so I'll just buy it anyway, but this feels like an interesting move. I know there have been devs that have released their own pirate copies before, but usually that's been with a view to punishing players. Earthbound makes the game impossible to finish if I recall, and Game Dev Tycoon does that (admittedly funny) thing where it makes piracy kill your in-game business, but I can't think of any devs just releasing what is basically the legit game.

Would be interested to hear if anyone pirates this game and goes on to buy it if they never would have otherwise.

Possibly important info for pirates, I'm not sure:

... for safety make sure the SHA256 checksum of the ZIP matches with the one below!

507d83f0d76e939e9ea1fa5d74c852ba3b793eded660338e173fd2b24926248a

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[shaneo632]

Those pirate mods are hilarious

 

[Lashley]

iirc it's been done a few times, and it makes sense

if someone pirates it, they were never going to buy it, but you could potentially convince them into a sale

 

[Rosebud]

 

[Dest]

I like this idea honestly. People are going to pirate games all the time regardless. People who were going to pirate aren't lost sales, but people who pirate can also be additional sales.

 

[vestan]

I forgot which game did this but the guy that made it posted a magnet over on reddit and a bunch of people came out of the woodwork to actually buy the game because of the gesture, lol

 

[DigitalOp]

Reverse Psychology. I think its a smart gesture esp when it comes to software.

 

[Hektor]

Lmao i watched a rando youtube clip of this earlier today cuz a friend recommended the game and i was wondering why there were pirate shantys in it

 

[sidephasing]

wasnt just shapes and beats the one that also did this?
i think the pirate version even had its own message from the dev saying he pirated when he didnt have money growing up

 

[PumpkinPieAddict]

What's sad about Game Dev Tycoon is that while they had a small news cycle of "beating the pirates" - their full game was easily pirated on day 1.

I guess it's unavoidable unless you go with stricter DRM and they got a positive news story they didn't otherwise.

 

[Crossing Eden]

What was the name of the game that literally destroys itself overtime if you pirated it?

 

[svacina]

What was the name of the game that literally destroys itself overtime if you pirated it?

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Daggerfall.

Wait, no. That was the paid version.

Spoiler

Wasn't it Gamedev Simulator?

 

[LordRuyn]

The Darkwood devs did something similar in 2017, only it was to thwart grey key resellers back then.

 

[Crossing Eden]

Daggerfall.

Wait, no. That was the paid version.

Spoiler

Wasn't it Gamedev Simulator?

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There was literally a game wherein it could detect piracy and would function as normal but the longer you played it the programming of the game would steadily break

 

[Deleted member 16908]

The guy who made McPixel did this like a decade ago. It's a pretty interesting strategy.

 

[mute]

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I appreciate this, RIP Stefan

 

[Hrodulf]

This is better than including some horseshit that ends up only hurting legitimate buyers. Or trying to make them financially and socially destitute like Nintendo.

 

[horkrux]

iirc it's been done a few times, and it makes sense

if someone pirates it, they were never going to buy it, but you could potentially convince them into a sale

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they were never going to buy it but you can convince them into a sale waaaat

 

[PJTierney]

There was literally a game wherein it could detect piracy and would function as normal but the longer you played it the programming of the game would steadily break

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Spyro the Dragon

 

[PAFenix]

I hope they'll eventually release sales figures and how pleased they are with it.

I'd just grab a Steam version as I'm too lazy to go through the "check" that he mentioned to make sure it's the 'legit' (lol) pirate copy.

And that's always been the crux of the problem. Piracy is a service issue. If something is easily accessible, that negates a good chunk of the reason to pirate. Those who want everything for free weren't ever going to buy it to begin with anyway and will move on if something is super locked down, which could deter those who just want ease of access.

 

[AshenOne]

I like this idea honestly. People are going to pirate games all the time regardless. People who were going to pirate aren't lost sales, but people who pirate can also be additional sales.

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This. 100%. A good portion of pirates are actually potentially paying consumers on whom this kind of method might work.

 

[.exe]

Yar har fiddle dee dee

Cool idea

 

[AuthenticM]

iirc it's been done a few times, and it makes sense

if someone pirates it, they were never going to buy it, but you could potentially convince them into a sale

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yep. This is good.

I had never heard of this game before today. It looks cool; I might check it out. Is it on GOG?

faux edit: yes it is.

Please Fix The Road

Please Fix The Road is a colorful, minimalistic, laid-back and casual puzzle game

www.gog.com

 

[GrrImAFridge]

There was literally a game wherein it could detect piracy and would function as normal but the longer you played it the programming of the game would steadily break

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Serious Sam 3 has the immortal scorpion, and Arkham Asylum has a non-functional cape.

I hope they'll eventually release sales figures and how pleased they are with it.

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I'd like to see the regional breakdown of the sales on Steam. Regional pricing, even among smaller publishers and, indeed, indie devs (e.g. Crafting Legends, the developer of the otherwise fantastic Death Trash) has fallen to the wayside, particularly in recent months. "VPN abuse has resulted in more people pirating the game than buying it" doesn't even begin to make sense but does make for a nice soundbite.

 

[Lashley]

they were never going to buy it but you can convince them into a sale waaaat

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Genuinely no idea what confused you in my post?

 

[Banana Aeon]

they were never going to buy it but you can convince them into a sale waaaat

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Hell, this happened to a friend twice last week. More likely than you think.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

I know there have been devs that have released their own pirate copies before, but usually that's been with a view to punishing players. Earthbound makes the game impossible to finish if I recall, and Game Dev Tycoon does that (admittedly funny) thing where it makes piracy kill your in-game business, but I can't think of any devs just releasing what is basically the legit game.

Click to shrink...

That's not what happened with Earthbound. Nintendo didn't release a pirate version of it. The game just happens to have anti-piracy protection in it if you play it on emulators and non-legit hardware.

 

[horkrux]

Genuinely no idea what confused you in my post?

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You said they can't be convinced but this convinces them, so they can be convinced after all?

 

[Paroni]

wasnt just shapes and beats the one that also did this?
i think the pirate version even had its own message from the dev saying he pirated when he didnt have money growing up

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The screen didn't actually end up working as intended in pirated versions but it's still in the game files, but it is still pretty good marketing speech for pirates. He says that he used to pirate games as a kid so he gets it, and asks the pirates to at least spread the word about the game if they can't pay money for it.

 

[Lashley]

You said they can't be convinced but this convinces them, so they can be convinced after all?

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I never said they couldn't be convinced. I said they had no intention of buying it, which is true.

A developer attempting to do something like this can change their mind.

You've never changed your intentions before or something? Been dead set on something and then later been convinced to change your mind?

 

[GundamStyle]

Pretty sure the people who get gamepass for 1 $ and make new accounts to continue it are just as bad.

 

[Paz]

My personal views on game piracy these days:

Best case: Someone buys and plays my game
OK case: Someone plays my game
Worst case: Someone never plays my game

I'm not sure I'd ever go so far as to release my own pirate version but I'm not going to focus on hindering their experience. Though I will say, respect for the folks who do that kind of thing as a marketing gimmick and make it work so well that they get huge coverage + sales, I've seen that happen more than a few times.

 

[lordy16]

I'm likely missing something major here, but it does get me thinking.

It seems like incredibly smart marketing to me, investing not in *this* game, but actually whatever game he puts out next.

Take a hit on the sales of this game, game popularity as a brand, then make a solid splash in your next game = well worth the investment of the first game effectively losing money.

I'm so obviously simplifying things, but instead of saying "this is free to play" and instead saying "screw it, go pirate my game, it's fine" is brilliant marketing and helps him make a larger brand for himself, especially if the game is actually good.

This is a pretty dumb rant, I'm sure, it just got my mind going about the business of the video game industry and what marketing strategies you can have as a developer.

 

[The Real Abed]

That's not what happened with Earthbound. Nintendo didn't release a pirate version of it. The game just happens to have anti-piracy protection in it if you play it on emulators and non-legit hardware.

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The cool thing about EarthBound is that you can just play the game normally. But the game changes behaviors and spawn rates and IIRC it will crash when you get to the final boss thus ruining the whole thing if you somehow make it to the end.

Other games don't have as much fun. Like the DKC games had boring old static copyright text screens.

 

[Rosebud]

Take a hit on the sales of this game, game popularity as a brand, then make a solid splash in your next game = well worth the investment of the first game effectively losing money.

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I don't think this will lose money, people value features and convenience of platforms like Steam a lot. People use Netflix/Spotify even if everything is on torrent.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

The cool thing about EarthBound is that you can just play the game normally. But the game changes behaviors and spawn rates and IIRC it will crash when you get to the final boss thus ruining the whole thing if you somehow make it to the end.

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Yup if I'm not mistaken it deletes all your saves with that crash!

 

[lordy16]

I don't think this will lose money, people value features and convenience of platforms like Steam a lot. People use Netflix/Spotify even if everything is on torrent.

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Oh absolutely. Just got me thinking about weighing the investment of making more people play your game at the cost of short-term profits, but the larger impact it has on hitting with your next game. All you need is one "hit" as an indie developer and you're kinda set.

 

[starpower]

iirc it's been done a few times, and it makes sense

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What other games?

 

[Kain-Nosgoth]

I don't understand how this stuff work, it says there's a link to the ZIP file in the tweet but i don't know what that means or how to access it

 

[Rosebud]

Edit:.

 

[Paroni]

What other games?

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At least the Hotline Miami developers were pretty chill with piracy, they straight up told Australians to just go for torrents since HM games can't be legally sold there. There are also several developers (like Rami Ismail and Rage Squid) who have told people to rather pirate their games than buy cheap keys from resellers like G2A.

 

[PLASTICA-MAN]

Just like Remedy released an official pirated version of Alan Wake which had an exclusive prate ey patch for Alan Wake and commeneted officially on torrent sites (piratebay) and asked, that if you liked the game and want to play without eyepatch, just support the game and buy it. It was crazy and a first back then.

 

[Starlatine]

I forgot which game did this but the guy that made it posted a magnet over on reddit and a bunch of people came out of the woodwork to actually buy the game because of the gesture, lol

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Darkwood

On other media like music people like Thom Yorke and Trent Reznor released "official" pirate copies too

 

[horkrux]

I don't think this will lose money, people value features and convenience of platforms like Steam a lot. People use Netflix/Spotify even if everything is on torrent.

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Yeah because one is streaming and the other isn't lmao
This here is just ok where do I download + however much people value extra features

 

[Bengraven]

You're literally getting more than you paid for.

 

[Lengualo]

I don't see how this helps or does anything really, torrenting is long dead these days and most people use streaming services or trusted pirating sites unless they want viruses. So, whats the point?

 

[Starlatine]

Yeah because one is streaming and the other isn't lmao

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uhhh, theres plenty of ways of streaming torrents and software like popcorntime and its clones that can do it as well

I don't see how this helps or does anything really, torrenting is long dead these days

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takes like this makes you realize era is even bigger of a bubble than most already assume

 

[Beelzebufo]

Genuinely curious how many people who pirate a game would actually buy it just because they liked it and the dev was nice about it.

 

[UltimateHigh]

My personal views on game piracy these days:

Best case: Someone buys and plays my game
OK case: Someone plays my game
Worst case: Someone never plays my game

I'm not sure I'd ever go so far as to release my own pirate version but I'm not going to focus on hindering their experience. Though I will say, respect for the folks who do that kind of thing as a marketing gimmick and make it work so well that they get huge coverage + sales, I've seen that happen more than a few times.

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100%. at worst, it generates word of mouth.

 

[Deleted member 2595]

There was literally a game wherein it could detect piracy and would function as normal but the longer you played it the programming of the game would steadily break

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I'm pretty sure the old Operation Flashpoint game worked like this. Although it wasnt breakage it was something like enemies got more and more accurate until it was unplayable or something