Video Game Company That Does Everything "Wrong" Gets It Right
from the good-work dept
tk writes in to point out that video game company Stardock did everything "wrong" according to many who try to sell video games: "they use word of mouth marketing, has no copy protection (the serial is needed for updates) with a (relatively) cheap price and they listen to what users want." Despite all of these "mistakes," however, the results suggest that such an approach worked. As tk notes, "they have managed to gain the top spot in Walmart. Best Buy, EB, and Gamestop are ordering stocks above their sell-in orders." The source of this info is the company itself on their own forums, so some may question the accuracy of it. It would be nice to get confirmation (or proof that this is incorrect). There is also an interesting follow up to this story. Since the company decided not to use copy protection, some are claiming that they want the game to be "pirated." It also apparently upset employees of a Starforce, a company who doesn't exactly have the best reputation when it comes to providing copy protection for video games. Stardock is now accusing Starforce of pointing people to cracked copies, in an effort to hurt the software provider for not using copy protection. As the company itself points out: "Our software gets pirated. We don't like it but piracy is a fact of life. The question isn't about eliminating it, it's about reducing it and trying to make sure that people who would buy your product buy it instead of steal it. Our primary weapon to fight piracy is through rewarding customers through convenient, frequent, free updates. If you make it easy for users to buy and make full use of your product or service legitimately then we believe that you'll gain more users from that convenience than you'll lose from piracy."Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Reading TFA
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Hooray!
I might just be overly optimistic but if more game publishers start making their games available over the net then we should see a drop in game prices, due to the reduced price in publishing.
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Reading this pushed me over the edge, I'm picking it up to show my support (and play what is, by all accounts, a pretty damn good game).
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I'll buy that!
attitude is a good omen for a fun game.
These guys are spot on, it's the bennies that
make people want to buy the software- well
that and a shred or morality.
As for copy protection... some people crack
for fun, others crack for profit. Copy protection
screws with an honest person's use of the product
and creates an industry for dishonest crackers.
I purchase software that I like. Even some
big ticket items like photoshop. I wanted the
books, on-line support, etc... But before dishing
out the cash I did try it out thoroughly, call it
non-consensual shareware.
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The part they didn't say.
We can lock out those people once we catch them with the next update so why pay for something that we already know can't be protected weather you say it is or not.
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Borland proved it long ago
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Use priracy protection
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Puchase
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Re: Puchase
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I bought it
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piracy != lost sales
My budget for games is very small. I can't afford to run out and buy every game that comes out. So, yes, I have copied/pirated games and played them. However, if the game kicks @ss I'll buy it; if it sucks I won't. Simple.
I think that's the message here. Cr@ppy games and obtrusive, disasterous copy protection are what equals cr@ppy sales, not piracy.
"Build it and they will come."
Remember the Sony rootkit fiasco?
P.S. - @Pierce:
The price of gas, the contribution to pollution and the time it would take (assuming you must drive) is not worth the $5 savings. If I don't have to remove my lazy butt from my chair, I'll spend the extra 5.
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Minor Editorial Quibble
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Re: Minor Editorial Quibble
Maybe they are pointing people to "illegal" serialz so they can obtain the protected updates?
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See Ya
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It just works
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Copyright protection only hurts the honest custome
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pirated games
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Re: pirated games
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It rocks - you can pay them... if you ever need a copy of the game again, you simply download it. No CD's to get scratched, etc..
See, THAT'S VALUE - and that's what people are willing to pay for.
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And how $20 for a game is cheap compared to all the *other* PC games that are selling at the same cost O_o
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